Forget the stacked bottom half of the BNP Paribas Open singles draw for a second. How about the loaded doubles draw in Indian Wells? In addition to former champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan and top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, the draw features a plethora of ATP World Tour singles stars. On the top half, three-time defending singles champion Novak Djokovic is pairing with countryman Viktor Troicki. They'll face Indian Rohan Bopanna and Brasil Open singles champion Pablo Cuevas in the first round. In the same quarter, World No. 6 Rafael Nadal is partnering with Aussie Bernard Tomic. Nadal/Tomic will meet Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain and Joao Sousa of Portugal in their opener. On the bottom half,...
It often takes players a minimum of several tournaments to regain their form when coming back from an injury, but Simone Bolelli is proving to be an exception to that rule. The 31-year-old Italian is competing at this week’s $50,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Santiago, Chile, his second foray into singles since last year at Roland Garros. He defeated seventh seed and fellow Italian Alessandro Gianessi in the opening round for his first singles win in 11 months, then went on to beat fourth seed Taro Daniel of Japan in the quarter-finals on Thursday. Bolelli dealt with left knee issues throughout the first half of 2016 before undergoing an operation in June. After months of intense physical therapy, he...
What do you do after you’ve just beaten Roger Federer? If you’re Evgeny Donskoy, you go play a Challenger. The 26-year-old Russian caused arguably the biggest upset of the year at last week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, shocking the 18-time Grand Slam champion in a third-set tie-break in their second-round match. Donskoy said the match brought a whirlwind of publicity, but it’s now back to business as usual for him. “It was the most attention I’ve ever had,” said Donskoy. “Many friends were sending me messages and a lot of tennis players and fans were coming up to me in Dubai. But as the weeks go on, it’s natural for the attention to go away a bit.” This week,...
One year after his semi-final run at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Zhuhai, China, Yuki Bhambri of India is enjoying success here once again. It wasn’t an ideal 12 months in between for him, though. An elbow injury sidelined Bhambri for six months and when he returned in September, he went 0-5 in main draw Challenger matches for the remainder of 2016. But it seems that the former Top 100 player in the Emirates ATP Rankings is finally over his injury woes in 2017. He qualified for the Aircel Chennai Open in January and won his opening match in the main draw, then reached the final round of qualifying at the Australian Open. This week in Zhuhai, Bhambri has...
Karen Khachanov claimed his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 victory on Thursday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden as he defeated Tommy Robredo 6-1, 7-5 in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open. The #NextGenATP star is making his debut in Indian Wells and introduced himself to the Stadium 1 crowd in style, firing 12 aces and rallying from 3-5 down in the second set, saving a set point before prevailing in 73 minutes. “It feels great. It's my first time here in Indian Wells. I've heard a lot about this tournament and I'm really happy that I could get through to the second round. Today I had to be ready from the first point, concentrate 100 per...
