Paul Kepler knows better than most the balancing act of awarding wild cards into one of the most sought after spots in an ATP Challenger Tour draw. This week, the Aptos Challenger event celebrates its 30th anniversary and Kepler has been at the helm as tournament director for 27 of those. With an honour roll of past champions including Marcos Baghdatis (2014), Steve Johnson (2012), Andy Murray (2005), Daniel Nestor (1995) and Patrick Rafter (1993), it is easy to see why this event has developed such an enviable reputation. As luck would have it, even a former No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings has been known to request a last-minute place in the draw. “We’ve had a number of...
Roberto Bautista Agut found a way to win on Thursday in a gutsy comeback against Gael Monfils for a place in the Coupe Rogers quarter-finals. The Spanish No. 12 seed played second fiddle to his French opponent, a winner of their three previous meetings, for the first hour, but then clawed his way back into contention – and saved one match point at 5-6 in the deciding set – to triumph 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(1) in three hours. “I’m happy, as I knew I would have to play a lot of rallies,” said Bautista Agut. “I’m going to try and recover and enjoy the win today before preparing for tomorrow’s match.” Bautista Agut, into his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000...
Diego Schwartzman completed a remarkable turnaround on Wednesday at the Coupe Rogers to reach his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final of the season. Schwartzman lost the first eight games of the pair’s second meeting to beat his former training partner in South America, #NextGenATP American Jared Donaldson, 0-6, 7-5, 7-5 in two hours and eight minutes. Donaldson won their Aegon International first-round match 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-5 in June. The 24-year-old Schwartzman, now 24-19 on the season, will next face Dutchman Robin Haase, who saved eight of 10 break points against seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov to advance 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-1 in two hours and nine minutes. Read 2016 Flashback: The Last Time... With Schwartzman Haase also hit 13 aces and...
View FedEx ATP Head2Head for Thursday of the Coupe Rogers & vote for who you think will win! Federer vs. Ferrer | Nadal vs. Shapovalov | Zverev vs. Kyrgios [GROUP POLL]59[/GROUP POLL] View Thursday Schedule • There is a little of everything in the Coupe Rogers third round on Thursday: four #NextGenATP players, four men who’ve saved match points this week, and only six of the tournament’s 16 seeds. All of the above is Alexander Zverev, who meets Nick Kyrgios on Court Central in a showdown of the Emirates ATP Race to Milan leader and the top #NextGenATP player from the 2016 season. • Zverev and Kyrgios, who played doubles together at 2016 Roland Garros, go back to the ITF Juniors Circuit. An 18-year-old Kyrgios...
Roberto Bautista Agut reflects on his third-round victory from match-point down against Gael Monfils at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal on Thursday. Watch live matches at tennistv.com.
