It was better late than never for Stan Wawrinka at the Swiss Indoors Basel on Thursday. The top seed unsuccessfully served for the match at 5-3 in the second set before winning 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 6-4 against Donald Young to advance to the quarter-finals. The 2011 semi-finalist is a win away from his best showing in Basel, and will next face Mischa Zverev. Wawrinka enjoyed a strong serving day and was cruising toward his third win over Young in four FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings when the American left-hander scored his lone break of the match in a must-win game. Young had taken at least a set off Wawrinka in all of their past tour-level meetings, but the Swiss refocused in the...
Top seed Andy Murray continued his quest for World No. 1 on Thursday at the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna, weathering a marathon match against Gilles Simon to move into the quarter-finals, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. “It was a very long match, but I expected it to be very hard because it’s just that way against Gilles. You play a lot of long points. You feel like the harder you hit the ball, the harder it comes back,” said Murray. “You just have to try to use some variety, some slice and drop shots, and find that balance to get him out of his rhythm.” Murray started out slowly by dropping his first two service games and trailing 5-2. Although...
Norbert Gombos was already eliminated in last week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Brest, France, before main draw action even began. But with the help of a withdrawal, the Slovakian made an improbable run from Lucky Loser to tournament champion. When #NextGen star Quentin Halys was unable to take the court, the 26-year-old Gombos took his place in the draw and found his top form. He defeated fellow Slovakian and second seed Lukas Lacko in a third-set tie-break in the quarter-finals, then prevailed over Yannik Reuter of Belgium in the championship match to win the biggest Challenger title of his career. “I was disappointed I couldn’t make it into the main draw there after a good run in Asia, but...
Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram have become the sixth team to qualify for the 2016 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. There are now two doubles spots left up for grabs at the season finale, to be held at The O2 in London from 13-20 November. The South African-American tandem qualified for the first time as a result of Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau beating Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi in the Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-finals on Thursday. Rojer and Tecau, who captured the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and year-end No. 1 last year, are currently No. 9 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London - one spot adrift from Huey and Mirnyi. Buy Your Tickets Klaasen and Ram...