Rafael Nadal is this week practising in Mallorca to prepare for the final stage of the season, which will include attempts to secure the year-end No. 1 spot in the Emirates ATP Rankings and his first Nitto ATP Finals title. Before he heads off to Asia, where he will play in Beijing (beginning 2 October) and Shanghai, the 16-time Grand Slam champion talked to the Spanish newspaper EL ESPAÑOL. Nadal has achieved almost everything he could over what has been a successful decade, so how does the Spaniard remain so humble and grounded? Nadal, of course, has a clear answer. “It’s related to your background, the place where you come from, the people who surround you and the education you...
Fifth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov continued his return to form Tuesday, dropping just six points on serve en route to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over qualifier Lloyd Harris at the Shenzhen Open. Dolgopolov, who is nearing the Top 50 of the Emirates ATP Rankings once again after falling to No. 89 in May — his lowest ranking since 2010 — did not face a break point in dispatching his South African opponent in 63 minutes. The Ukrainian dropped just one point in his first three service games to sprint to a 4-1 lead and would never look back. Dolgopolov hit 11 aces to help secure the victory and a matchup with compatriot Sergiy Stakhovsky, who defeated Nicolas Kicker in straight sets. Henri...
Sixth-seeded Briton Kyle Edmund struck nine aces and lost just two of his first-service points to beat Australian Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-2 in 62 minutes on Tuesday at the Chengdu Open. Tomic has played just once (US Open) since a Wimbledon first-round exit on 4 July. Edmund will now challenge #NextGenATP American Jared Donaldson in the second round. Serbian Dusan Lajovic set up a second-round encounter against second seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas after he beat another Spaniard, qualifier Adrian Menendez-Maceiras, 6-3, 7-6(3) in 75 minutes. Elsewhere, Yen-Hsun Lu, a winner of a record 29 ATP Challenger Tour titles, defeated Swede Mikael Ymer 6-2, 6-3 and now plays fourth seed and this season’s Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag champion Andrey Rublev of...
Three #NextGenATP players, Karen Khachanov, Jared Donaldson and Taylor Fritz, all visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. The trio, who are competing at the Chengdu Open, saw giant baby and red pandas during their morning trip and were definitely smitten by the cuddly animals, especially Donaldson, who came prepared with a variety of panda trivia. “Did you know that China owns the rights to every panda in the world, except two? Those two are in Mexico,” said Donaldson. “My mum would be very happy that I got this opportunity to go out and see the pandas.” Fritz said, “We got to see all kinds of pandas and it’s really cool to see what Chengdu is famous for....
