Alexander Zverev inched closer to clinching his debut appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals in London on Tuesday. The second seed started his China Open with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory against 22-year-old Kyle Edmund of Great Britain in a match that finished after midnight local time. The 20-year-old Zverev broke in the third and ninth games of the first set. [ALSO LIKE] Edmund raised his level in the second set and had a set point on his racquet at 5-4 after breaking Zverev. But the German broke back and sprinted through the tie-break, winning the final four points for the straight-sets win. Zverev improves to 2-0 against Edmund in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The 6'6” German is in third...
Rafael Nadal returned to tour-level action with a dramatic victory on Tuesday, saving two match points to oust Frenchman Lucas Pouille 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 at the China Open in Beijing. The top-seeded Spaniard was down 4/6 in the second-set tie-break, but won four consecutive points to even the match at one set-all. In the decider, Nadal earned his lone break of the match in the 11th game and served out the first-round contest a game later to 15. “[It] was a very tough first round, as I say the other day. He played well, I think. Very aggressive. He's serving well. For me was little bit difficult at the beginning. Then I started to play better. But still, I didn't...
Juan Martin del Potro looks ahead to his second-round match-up against Grigor Dimitrov at the China Open in Beijing. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
Grigor Dimitrov opened his campaign on Tuesday at the China Open with a battling 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur, the recent St. Petersburg Open titlist, in one hour and 54 minutes. Dimitrov, who is currently No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, added 35 points with the first-round win as he continued his bid to qualify for the first time to the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November this year. Dimitrov will next look to overcome Argentinean wild card Juan Martin del Potro, who is making his tournament debut. Del Potro knocked out Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 7-6(4), 6-4 in their first meeting since 2011...
For Steve Darcis, the future is now. The Belgian isn't dwelling on a mid-season slump, during which he won just two of nine matches from Roland Garros through Wimbledon. He's also not thinking about what could have been due to lost time. On Monday, Darcis cruised past Emirates ATP Rankings No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of the China Open, continuing his reversal of fortune. Last week, Darcis defeated Ze Zhang before falling to World No. 4 Zverev, 6-4, 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in a tightly contested second-round match at the Shenzhen Open.That performance followed his Davis Cup heroics, where he pushed Nick Kyrgios to five sets before winning the decisive rubber against Jordan Thompson to lead...
