A LOOK BACK BNP Paribas Primrose (Bordeaux, France): For the 11th time, the ATP Challenger Tour descended on the French city of Bordeaux. And the prestigious €106,000 event would celebrate its first American champion on Sunday. Reilly Opelka rallied from a set down to defeat home hope Gregoire Barrere 6–7(5), 6–4, 7–5 in two hours and 20 minutes, firing 22 aces and saving five of six break points faced. "I served great, served a lot of aces from the first match and competed really hard," said Opelka. "I love it here. Even off the court I've been hanging out in the city a lot and enjoying my time. The architecture is incredible." The title marked Opelka's first clay-court crown at...
Alexander Zverev could have hardly envisioned a better European clay-court swing so far. With three weeks remaining, the 21-year-old has won two titles, reached three finals and compiled a 16-2 record on the red dirt. Earlier this week in Rome, the German had strung together winning streaks of 13 matches and 23 sets. On Sunday, he competed in his fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final and took a set off Rafael Nadal on clay for the first time in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series before falling 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. But of all the results Zverev could celebrate, he said his second consecutive run to the Internazionali BNL d'Italia final in Rome is the “most satisfying”. “Even when I was...
Just two months ago, Alexander Zverev was 36th in the ATP Race To London. Following an 8-4 start to 2018, failing to reach a final in his first four events, the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals qualifier was not even the top-ranked German in the Race (Peter Gojowczyk, 28th). But Zverev, who reached three out of the next four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 finals, including Sunday’s championship match at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, has soared into the Race lead with 3,135 points. Last year, the final qualifier for the year-end championship was Jack Sock, who finished the Race with 2,765 points. So the Monte-Carlo resident has put himself in a strong position to make a return trip to London, even...
Moldovan Radu Albot arrived in Lyon for the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon having lost his past six matches at all levels. Not only that, but the World No. 97 had dropped 12 of his past 14 matches overall. Yet the 28-year-old bounced back, defeating Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4 on Sunday to set up a second-round clash against Miami champion John Isner, whom he beat at the New York Open earlier this year. In fact, this will be the pair’s third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting of the season, as the American returned the favour against the Chisnau native the following week, ousting Albot at the Delray Beach Open in three sets. It was not easy for Albot to set...