Third seed Grigor Dimitrov rallied from a set and a break down to reach the Chengdu Open semi-finals on Friday, battling past Diego Schwartzman 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in just over two hours. Since the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where he joined forces with coach, Dani Vallverdu, Dimitrov has gone 11-4 on the ATP World Tour, enjoying a resurgence in form that has seen him reach the semi-finals in Cincinnati (l. to Cilic) and the fourth round of the US Open (l. to Murray). [ALSO LIKE] Dimitrov, who clinched his 200th tour-level win on Wednesday, will now look to reach his third ATP World Tour final of the season, but it was not without a fight that he got by Schwartzman....
Russian #NextGen star Karen Khachanov is through to his first ATP World Tour semi-final after taking down his second seeded opponent at the Chengdu Open on Friday. The 20-year-old Muscovite defeated fourth seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4. In the first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting between the pair, it was the young Russian who outshone the Spaniard on serve, sending down 10 aces and conceding just six points on his first serve. He did not face a break point throughout. Lopez, a winner in Gstaad this season, was attempting to reach his fifth ATP World Tour semi-final of the season. He was broken once in each set and it was enough for the player 15 years his junior to close it...
Chengdu Open top seeds Rajeev Ram and Raven Klaasen hit with fans at a clinic hosted by the ATP World Tour 250 tournament. Video courtesy: Chengdu Open
Dominic Thiem ended a memorable run by one of China's top-ranked players at the Chengdu Open on Thursday. The top seed dismissed Di Wu 6-4, 6-4 in 67 minutes to move into the quarter-finals. Wu was going for more personal history at his home tournament. The Chinese No. 2 celebrated his first ATP World Tour or Grand Slam main draw match win during his 14th try on Tuesday (d. Kravchuk). Against Thiem, Wu was trying to earn his first Top 10 victory. But the Austrian won almost 80 per cent of his first-serve points and broke Wu four times to reach his 13th ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season. Wu fell to 0-10 against Top 10 foes. “He was...
Kevin Anderson fended off two match points to spring the upset on #NextGen star Nick Kyrgios at the Chengdu Open on Thursday. In a battle of big servers, the South African surged back to book a quarter-final showdown with Viktor Troicki, 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-2. Anderson finished with 24 aces to the second-seeded Australian’s 21 and dropped just eight points on his first serve in the one-hour, 34-minute second-round affair. Anderson trailed a set and was staring down defeat when he dropped consecutive points to fall behind 4/6 in the second-set tie-break. But he then reeled off four straight points to level the match. Anderson served out the contest to book his fifth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season. He...