Jo-Wilfried Tsonga held his nerve on Friday to book a place in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament semi-finals where he will meet Tomas Berdych. The Czech leads Tsonga 8-3 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, including a 7-5, 6-3 win at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open last month. "Tomas is very consistent, with a full game: very consistent and covers the court well,” said Tsonga, ahead of their clash on Saturday. “The best strategy is to play well!” Berdych admitted, "My own game will be extremely important tomorrow, as I will try to dictate from the very beginning. I need to be focused from the first point.” Sixth seed Tsonga, who finished runner-up to Robin Soderling in the 2011 Rotterdam...
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga looks ahead to competing against Tomas Berdych in the semi-finals of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament on Saturday following victory over Marin Cilic. Watch live Rotterdam matches at TennisTV.com.
Rising American star Stefan Kozlov gave a nod to Hot Shot king Dustin Brown after striking two impressive Hot Shots of his own in the same point at this week’s $75,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Tempe, Arizona. Facing Roberto Quiroz of Ecuador in the second-round, the #NextGenATP star hit a reflex shot between his legs at 1-1 in the second set. If that wasn’t enough, he responded to an overhead from Quiroz by leaping up and hitting an overhead winner of his own from the baseline, raising his arms in triumph. "I don't normally practise that," joked Kozlov. "It just caught me in no-mans-land. I didn't know whether to hit a forehand or a backhand. It was just instinct...
Fourth seed Steve Johnson showed impressive resilience in reaching the quarter-finals in Memphis, rallying from a set down on Thursday to defeat qualifier and fellow American Tim Smyczek, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. “I didn’t play my best tennis at the beginning, but I figured it out at the end,” said Johnson. “You can’t always play your A-game and he was doing everything that he needed to do, so I just had to go to Plan B.” Smyczek appeared primed for the upset in the opening set, saving all four break points against him and breaking Johnson twice to grab the early lead. But the fourth seed shifted the momentum down 3-4 in the second set, winning nine of the final 11...
Alexandr Dolgopolov provided the first major upset at the Argentina Open, putting in a solid performance on Thursday to move into the quarter-finals over second seed Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 7-6(4). A lone break of serve was all the Ukranian needed to capture the opening set. Both players traded routine service holds throughout the second set, but Dolgopolov rallied from 1/4 down in the tie-break to win the final six points and prevail in one hour and 18 minutes. Dolgopolov improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record over Cuevas to 2-0, with his previous win over the Uruguayan coming three years ago in Buenos Aires. Next up for him is Gerald Melzer, a 7-6(4), 6-3 winner over local qualifier Guido Andreozzi. The...
