Dominic Thiem entered his semi-final at the Rio Open presented by Claro 30-5 on clay since the beginning of last season. Those losses came against Rafael Nadal (3), Novak Djokovic and David Goffin. It didn’t hurt that he was the defending champion in Rio de Janeiro, either, as well as last week’s winner in Buenos Aires. But the Austrian was shocked by eighth seed Fernando Verdasco, who delivered a blistering performance to oust the second seed 6-4, 6-0 on Friday evening. The Spaniard moves into his first ATP World Tour semi-final since 2017 Stockholm as he pursues his first final since losing to Andy Murray last year in Dubai. "I knew that if I wanted to beat a player like...
(1) Mats Moraing is the ATP Challenger Tour's breakout star in 2018 The World No. 155 won his maiden Challenger title at home in Koblenz, Germany last month after reaching the final in Bangkok as a qualifier to open his 2018 season. After the biggest win of his career over former World No. 6 Gilles Simon in Cherbourg last week, Moraing took a moment to address the reasons behind his success, and how he feels about his early form in 2018. “I have been playing without injury since last year and practising hard. I think that has been the big difference and I'm playing consistently now. It was very special for me to win in Koblenz. It was my first...
Watch highlights as Fernando Verdasco plays outstanding tennis to eliminate second seed Dominic Thiem at the Rio Open presented by Claro. Fabio Fognini, Nicolas Jarry and Diego Schwartzman round out the semi-finals. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com. Photo Credit: Rio Open.
Karen Khachanov advanced to his first ATP World Tour semi-final in eight months by defeating France’s Julien Benneteau, the 2010 runner-up, 6-4, 6-4 in 84 minutes at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille on Friday. "It was quite a solid match,” said Khachanov. “I didn’t make many first serves in the first couple of games, getting broken in my first service game, but then I got stronger." The 21-year-old Russian, who struck 16 aces past Benneteau (for 35 aces overall in three matches this week), reached the Gerry Weber Open semi-finals (l. to Federer) in June 2017. The last Russian to contest the Marseille final was Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a former No. 1 in the ATP Rankings, who beat Sebastian Grosjean of France...
Fabio Fognini discusses his quarter-final win at the Rio Open presented by Claro and looks ahead to the semi-finals, where he will play Fernando Verdasco. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
