Steve Johnson was within two points of a disappointing defeat on Tuesday night. A year after winning the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Clay Court Championship in Houston, the American was on the verge of falling in the opening round. But the 28-year-old overcame a 5/4 deficit in a second-set tie-break to defeat 2017 Houston semi-finalist Ernesto Escobedo 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 in two hours, 25 minutes as day turned to night. "He's definitely a good frontrunner. He hits the ball very hard. He kind of takes the racquet out of your hands," Johnson said. "Later stages of that tie-break in the second, I just needed to take it to him, make sure, win or lose, I did it on my...
Top seed and 2012 finalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas lost just two of his first-service points (20/22) to beat Moroccan wild card Amine Ahouda 6-1, 6-2 in 68 minutes on Tuesday at the Grand Prix Hassan II. Ramos-Vinolas, who has a 1-5 record in ATP World Tour finals, is 112-95 lifetime in clay-court matches according to the FedEx ATP Reliability Index (166-186 overall). "I'm happy with my match today," said Ramos-Vinolas. "I haven't a played a tournament for a month and it feels great to be back. I'm looking forward to the clay court swing and playing a lot of tournaments." He will next play Russian qualifier Alexey Vatutin, who recorded his first tour-level match win in beating Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany...
Nick Kyrgios explains why he decided to make his debut at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship this year and why he is excited to get started. Photo Credit: Aaron M. Sprecher/ROCC.
