Fifth seed Robin Haase manoeuvred his way through a testing season opener to beat Blaz Kavcic 7-6(6), 7-5 at the Tata Open Maharashtra on Tuesday. Kavcic put up a fight against the World No. 42 breaking the Dutchman's serve three times in the match, but it was Haase who had the answers in the important moments at the conclusion of both sets. Haase will face Chile’s Nicolas Jarry in the second-round. Laslo Djere took two hours and 25 minutes to book his place in the second round after a titanic 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 battle with Marius Copil. The Serbian won 16 of 18 points on his first serve in the final set to help set a meeting with seventh seed...
It’s been quite the ride for Stefanos Tsitsipas, who rose from No. 210 to No. 91 in the ATP Rankings, reached an ATP World Tour 250 semi-final and recorded a Top 10 victory over the past 12 months. Having narrowly missed out on a qualification spot at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals, the #NextGenATP Greek has set his heart on starting strong in the 2018 ATP World Tour season. “I would like to win enough points to be in the Top 3 in the Race to Milan for the Next Gen ATP Finals by March,” said Tsitsipas. “I also expect to make at least the third round of the Australian Open and hopefully win an ATP World Tour 250...
Pablo Carreno Busta finished 2017 on a high, playing two matches in the Nitto ATP Finals as an alternate. And the Spaniard appeared he would begin the new ATP World Tour campaign strongly as well Tuesday. He twice served for his season-opening match against Borna Coric at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in the third set, before holding three match points in the eventual tie-break. But Coric had the courage to step into the court in the big moments and seize the victory from second seed Carreno Busta, surviving the two-hour 41-minute battle 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(8). How did he manage to find his way past the No. 10 player in the ATP Rankings? “To be honest I don’t know,” Coric said....
The stars of the ATP World Tour work hard in the offseason to prepare for the new campaign, and they shared their experiences at the end of 2017 with the fans through social media.
