Novak Djokovic survived a serious scare from Fernando Verdasco at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Friday, fighting off five match points to rally past the Spaniard 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-3 and reach his first ATP World Tour final of 2017. The Serbian was down 2/6 in the second-set tie-break but erased the four match points – and another at 6/7 – to even the match. Verdasco held to open the third set but Djokovic broke two times in the decider. “It was quite a thrilling experience for me to be able to go five match points down... I'm obviously very pleased because you need these kind of matches, these kind of confidence boosters, for whatever is coming up after that,” Djokovic...
Rafael Nadal knows better than most that tennis is a game of fine margins. Although he suffered a three-set loss to Milos Raonic in the Brisbane International quarter-finals Friday night, it could easily have been a straight-sets result in the Spaniard’s favour. After winning the first set 6-4, Nadal had two break chances in the fifth game of the second to go up a set and a break. But he was unable to convert either opportunity, or one additional chance in the third set, as Raonic powered home to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win, helped by 23 aces. Nadal, who suffered just his second loss in eight career FedEx ATP head2Head meetings with Raonic, had been chasing his 70th tour-level...
Novak Djokovic talks about saving five match points during his semi-final match against Fernando Verdasco at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha. Video courtesy of UCOM.
Defending champion Milos Raonic remains on course to reach the final of the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp for the third straight year. While the Canadian says that he wants to come forward more in 2017, it was his serve and big forehand that earned him a comeback win over Rafael Nadal on Friday night. World No. 3 Raonic recorded only his second victory over Nadal in eight meetings with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win in two hours and 21 minutes. The Canadian will now face seventh seed and 2013 finalist Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals on Saturday. “I played very well [and] I did a lot of very good things,” said Raonic. “I obviously served well… I started creating...