Competing this week as the top seeds at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, legendary doubles pairing Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan revealed their first memorable moment on the ATP World Tour, first concert and their unusual pet they had growing up. First moment I realised I loved tennis Mike: Probably the first tournament we went to Indian Wells when we were seven years old. We saw Andre Agassi play and he was just hitting the heck out of the ball. He had long hair and the flashy clothes. We went to the Nike store and bought those pink tights, but had the skinniest legs ever so they were still loose on us! We...
American Steve Johnson advanced to his third career ATP World Tour final on Saturday after beating his red-hot compatriot Jack Sock 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. US Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston. The 27-year-old Johnson came back from a break down in the third set to gain his second career win against Sock, who became the first 20-match winner on the ATP World Tour in 2017 on Friday. “Any time you can play on a Sunday in a tournament, it's a good week,” Johnson said. “It's my first final on U.S. soil... It's fun to get a chance to try to win something on home soil.” Johnson will try to win his second career ATP...
Yoshihito Nishioka had never started a season better. The 21-year-old Japanese had reached the quarter-finals in Acapulco and the fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the first time he had made the round of 16 at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. In the desert, the left-hander had beaten then-No. 21 Ivo Karlovic and then-No. 14 Tomas Berdych for his biggest career win. But in Miami, Nishioka had to retire from his second-round match against Jack Sock, and the news would get only worse: Nishioka had torn his ACL in his left knee and would require season-ending surgery. “I had never injured my legs so I didn't know what was going on with my knee....
Exactly one year ago, Borna Coric made a statement on the clay of Marrakech in reaching his second ATP World Tour final. Coric finished runner-up to Federico Delbonis on that day, but the #NextGenATP Croatian will have another shot at the Grand Prix Hassan II title when he faces Philipp Kohlschreiber on Sunday. In a battle of former recipients of the ATP Star of Tomorrow Award, presented by Emirates, Coric (2014 winner) downed Jiri Vesely (2013) 6-4, 6-4 in Saturday's first semi-final. The 20 year old needed one hour and 22 minutes to prevail, firing six aces and saving both break points faced. "It was a very good match for me," said Coric. "My best on the clay season so...
Ernesto Escobedo has been quietly rising up the Emirates ATP Rankings for the past year, but the #NextGenATP American made has made plenty of noise this week at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. The 20 year old reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final in Houston with a hard-hitting game and impressive mental toughness in tight moments. Escobedo prevailed on Friday in a three-hour, three tie-break marathon quarter-final against second seed John Isner. The American remained calm as Isner fought off six match points with big serving. Escobedo finally converted on his seventh with an ace. Escobedo was ranked outside of the Top 300 just 12 months ago, but is projected to move well inside...