Roger Federer is taking a wild card into next week’s ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, where he will have the chance to reclaim the No. 1 ATP Ranking for the first time in more than five years. Federer, who last held the top spot on 4 October 2012, moved to within 155 points of Rafael Nadal after claiming his 20th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and could dethrone Nadal as World No. 1 if he reaches the semi-finals in Rotterdam. Federer has previously played the ATP World Tour 500 tournament eight times, taking the title in 2005 and 2012. [ALSO LIKE] Federer, 36, first rose to No. 1 14 years ago on 2 February 2004 and...
It didn't take long for Rafael Nadal to congratulate Roger Federer on his Grand Slam triumph in Melbourne, even if fans aren't hearing about it until now. "I immediately sent him a text message (after the Australian Open final)," Nadal said on Monday at the formal opening of the Mapfre Clinic of Tennis Medicine in Madrid, where the current ATP World Tour No.1 fielded questions with the hashtag #AskRafaNadal during a Twitter Q&A session. "I usually congratulate people I know in private rather than publicly. I've had a very good relationship with Federer for years now. I was happy for him; I congratulated him and I told him I'm always happy when he does well." Federer's victory at the Australian...
Belgium’s David Goffin booked his place in his first quarter-final of the 2018 ATP World Tour season at the Open Sud de France after beating Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-2 on Wednesday. The match was dominated by the returner in the early stages, with seven breaks of serve in the opening set, before Goffin finally took advantage with timely first serves proving crucial to secure the first set. From there, Goffin grew in confidence with a much improved serving performance and continued his assault on the Tata Open Maharashtra champion’s serve with two more service breaks before closing the match out with two aces and an unreturned serve to seal his spot in the last eight. The World No. 7 awaits...
Stan Wawrinka took time out on Wednesday to stop at the Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the centre of Sofia. The Neo-Byzantine style cathedral is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world, holding 10,000 people and is one of the capital’s primary tourist attractions. Top seeded Wawrinka starts his DIEMA XTRA Sofia Open campaign on Thursday night against qualifier Martin Klizan, in what will be his first match since his second-round Australian Open loss to Tennys Sandgren. “I feel much better since Australia,” said Wawrinka. “The first day I came home I started practising really hard, especially fitness wise, trying to get my knee better.” The three-time Grand Slam champion emphasised the need for more match play...
Ivo Karlovic admits it: For a tennis player, he's old. But, as Karlovic continues to show during the 2018 ATP World Tour season, the Croatian is also still very good. Just last month, the 38-year-old achieved yet another marker for the history books. The 6'11” Karlovic struck 53 aces to beat Japan's Yuichi Sugita 7-6(3), 6-7(3), 7-5, 4-6, 12-10 in four hours and 33 minutes. With the win, Karlovic became the oldest player to compete in the Australian Open third round since Australian Ken Rosewall, aged 44, in 1978, when the draw was 64 players. Karlovic also became the oldest player in the Australian Open third round since the advent of a 128-player draw in 1982. [ALSO LIKE] Then again,...
