Two days after a three-set loss to Karen Khachanov in the Open 13 Provence final, Lucas Pouille successfully returned to action at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday. The Dubai resident, who reached the semi-finals in 2017 (l. to Murray), defeated former Top 10 player Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-4 to reach the second round. Pouille played the crucial points expertly throughout the 79-minute clash, breaking serve on each of his three break point opportunities, while saving eight of the nine chances his Latvian opponent managed to create. "I have won many matches over the past three weeks, so I'm arriving here with a lot of confidence," said Pouille. "I think that helped me in the tough moments today....
The ATP has announced the 2017 ATP Challenger Tournaments of the Year, with players voting two of their favourite Challenger Tour stops in Germany (Braunschweig and Heilbronn) and one in Canada (Vancouver) from the 155 tournaments in 41 countries staged last year. The Challenger Tournament of the Year awards recognise excellence in standards set across the global Challenger Tour. Braunschweig’s 24-year-old Sparkassen OPEN has won the award every year since 2014 and has long been a player favourite. The NECKARCUP, staged in Heilbronn, Germany, for the last four years, and Vancouver’s Odlum Brown VanOpen, relaunched in 2017, have also been rewarded with the player vote after ambitious improvements each year. ATP Challenger Tour Committee Co-Chairs, Alison Lee, ATP International Executive...
Watch highlights as Grigor Dimitrov is stunned by Malek Jaziri at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com. Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships photo.
Top seed Rafael Nadal is back at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC on a mission to remain within striking distance of reclaiming No. 1 in the ATP Rankings from Roger Federer. But an all-too-familiar foe, compatriot Feliciano Lopez, presents a dangerous first obstacle for last year’s runner-up on Tuesday. In the opening-round battle between the two left-handed Spaniards, 36-year-old Lopez will bid to record his third straight FedEx ATP Head2Head victory over his more decorated opponent. While Nadal leads the pair’s ledger 9-4, it is Lopez who landed wins in their past two hard-court encounters in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events – the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (2015) and the Rolex Shanghai Masters (2014). [ALSO...
