My hands were on my knees as I stood bent over behind the baseline. After retaining my title in Houston last month, I was choking back tears. I looked to the sky and pumped my fist as I walked to the net to embrace my opponent, Tennys Sandgren, a first-time finalist who I knew wanted to win his first trophy badly. When I put my head down on his chest, Tennys said something I will never forget. “I know our Dads are watching in the crowd.” Aaron M. Sprecher/US Clay I was doing my best to hold it together. But when Tennys, who lost his father a number of years ago, said that, I let it all out. One year...
As it stands, just one man in the past two clay-court seasons can successfully claim Rafael Nadal is beatable on clay. And on Friday, that man – Austrian fifth seed Dominic Thiem – will earn another shot at a repeat when he meets the World No. 1 in the quarter-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open. View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following matches & vote for who you think will win! Nadal vs Thiem | Zverev vs Isner | Edmund vs Shapovalov | Anderson vs Lajovic [GROUP POLL]137[/GROUP POLL] Nadal has not conceded a set on clay since falling to Thiem in the Rome quarter-finals in 2017 and on Thursday, broke John McEnroe’s 34-year record for most consecutive sets won...
Sixth seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah needed only 58 minutes to move into the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals on Thursday, beating Fabio Fognini and Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-3. The Colombian duo will next meet top seeds and defending champions Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo. [ALSO LIKE] Five-time champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, who turned 40 last month, dismissed Damir Dzumhur/Franko Skugor 6-4, 6-3. The Bryans will next face fifth seeds Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares in the quarter-finals. The Bryans will be co-No. 1s in the ATP Doubles Rankings if they win the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and Kubot/Melo do not reach the final. The Bryans would become the oldest doubles No. 1s in history. They will be...
It is shaping up to be a majestic month of May in Portugal. On Sunday, the European nation was abuzz as Joao Sousa emerged as his country's first winner on home soil on the ATP World Tour. Now, the focus has shifted from Estoril to the northern city of Braga and capital of Lisbon, as the ATP Challenger Tour takes centre stage with a new two-week swing. Without pause, the fireworks are flying at the Braga Open. In what is set to be a blockbuster quarter-final clash, teens Alex de Minaur and Felix Auger-Aliassime will square off on Friday. Fans in Braga will have quite the treat with two of the brightest young talents in pro tennis kicking off the...
Beaten earth. Another name for red clay is terre battue, but beaten earth sums up the toughness of this natural surface perfectly. Granules of ground red brick and tile grab the felt of a wildly-spinning ball when it pounds into terra firma. It creates different angles, different spins, and different strategies at the elite level of the game. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of the current Top 10 right-handed players identifies that they overwhelmingly prefer to serve more out wide in the Ad court against right-handed opponents on clay than hard. [ALSO LIKE] First serves are all about power and direction, but the terre battue enhances two more elements for this specific shot – spin and height. For...
