On Wednesday, they will face off in the second round of the Kunal Patel San Francisco Open. But on Tuesday evening, Americans Christopher Eubanks and Michael Mmoh tossed aside their racquets for a night of basketball across the bay. Eubanks and Mmoh attended the blockbuster basketball game between the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder at Oracle Arena. A second encounter on the tennis court awaits them, following Mmoh's three-set victory at the Challenger in Charlottesville last year, but the two friends put aside their budding rivalry to watch the NBA's elite players do battle. Behind a dominant performance by superstar Russell Westbrook, the Thunder pulled the upset by a score of 125-105. "It was awesome," said Eubanks. "It's...
The numbers defy anyone's logic. In Quito, Victor Estrella Burgos has been unbeatable, literally. The 37-year-old has won all 16 of his matches at the Ecuador Open. That run includes three ATP World Tour titles – the only three of his career and every edition of the Ecuador Open (2015, 2016, 2017) – and his first-round victory on Monday, his fourth win against Thomaz Bellucci in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, all of which have come in Quito. Read More: King of Quito Estrella Burgos Survives Opener But outside of the Ecuadorian capital, Estrella Burgos has struggled to play up to his “King of Quito” label. The Dominican Republic native is 29-59 (.330) in ATP World Tour and Grand Slam...
Croatian Ivo Karlovic will turn 39 later this month, but the big right-hander still remains one of the very best servers on the ATP World Tour. The 6'11” Karlovic used his best weapon to much success again on Wednesday, not facing a break point during his 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(4) win against American Ernesto Escobedo at the Ecuador Open. The seventh-seeded Karlovic struck 24 aces and won 95 per cent (53/56) of his first-serve points to move into the second round in Quito. Karlovic will next meet #NextGenATP Frenchman Corentin Moutet. [ALSO LIKE] “It was a really difficult match as you can see, with the result. With the altitude it is always difficult because the ball bounces higher... so there is...
You can draw a straight line between rising up the ATP rankings and improving your second-serve return. The first serve is always an asset for players because of the raw power, but win percentages surrounding second serves can easily flip into the liability column, especially against a good returner. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of the best returners from the 2017 season shows that the second-serve return can evolve into a bigger weapon than the second serve itself. [ALSO LIKE] For example, Grigor Dimitrov won 48.2 per cent (1033/2142) of his second-serve return points in 2016 from 65 matches. Everything under 50 per cent sits in the liability column, and this was not an obvious strength of the...
Mirza Basic stunned No. 4 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-5, 7-6(5) at the Diema Xtra Sofia Open to reach his second quarter-final of the season on Wednesday. The No. 129, who reached the last eight at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open (l. Pella), broke serve in the 12th game of the first set to take a one-set lead and secured a crucial mini-break at 5/5 in the second set tie-break to upset the German after one hour and 41 minutes. Kohlschreiber, who has captured one tour-level title in each of the past four seasons, remains winless in 2018 while Basic awaits the winner of Thursday’s second-round match between Maximilian Marterer and No. 7 seed Joao Sousa. Germany’s Marterer continued his strong start...
