Juan Martin del Potro has undoubtedly been one of the hottest players on the ATP World Tour, breaking back into the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings in January for the first time since 4 August 2014. So it was no surprise to see Del Potro cruise to a 6-2, 6-4 victory against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy at the Delray Beach Open on Tuesday evening. It could be the beginning of another big run in Florida for the 29-year-old, who has advanced to at least the semi-finals in each of his three previous appearances in Delray Beach. Del Potro claimed the title on his debut in 2011 (d. Tipsarevic). The World No. 10, who has now triumphed in the opening round...
Could a Gael Monfils match possibly end quietly? It looked that way as Horacio Zeballos led 5-2 in the third set of their first-round encounter at the Rio Open presented by Claro on Tuesday evening. The Frenchman even faced match point as the left-hander served for the match at 5-3. But Monfils would find his entertaining best to win the final five games of the match to clinch a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 victory against the Argentine. "It was a tough match for me," Monfils said. "I never stopped believing and definitely had a huge help with the crowd. The crowd was amazing tonight." The recent Qatar ExxonMobil Open champion, who also advanced to the semi-finals at the Argentina Open last...
Two-time champion Gilles Simon safely navigated his way through two tie-break sets to beat rising German star Maximilian Marterer 7-6(3), 7-6(4) in the first round of the Open 13 Provence on Tuesday. The Frenchman, who most recently won the event in 2015 (d. Monfils), won 73 per cent of points on his first serve, but was made to save two set points at 4-5 in the second set before securing the victory. Simon moves into a second-round meeting with Rolex Paris Masters runner-up Filip Krajinovic. Krajinovic marked his return to France with a hard-fought 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Joao Sousa. The one-hour, 57-minute match featured six breaks of serve with the Serbian converting on all three of his opportunities....
When Milos Raonic arrived in Delray Beach last year, the Canadian was No. 4 in the ATP Rankings. But injury struggles kept the right-hander off the court for chunks of time throughout 2017. The World No. 32 will hope that beating Taro Daniel 6-1, 7-5 on Tuesday afternoon at the Delray Beach Open for his first victory of the season will be a sign of good things to come. It is his second tour-level win in six months, as Raonic pursues a ninth ATP World Tour title. "It's a good thing I was able to win today and it gives me a lot of things that I believe I can do better tomorrow," Raonic said. "So just got to keep...
The results say he's fully back. Juan Martin del Potro has returned to the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings. It's only mid-February, and he's already reached an ATP World Tour final this year (ASB Classic, l. to Bautista Agut). But does Del Potro feel as if he's back, as good as he was before his often-discussed four wrist surgeries – three on the left and one on the right? To Del Potro, it's less a question about rankings than about one very important thing: his health. “I'm happy to still play tennis after all my problems and I never expected to get to the Top 10 after all my surgeries,” he said on Tuesday, ahead of his Delray Beach...
