Top seed Milos Raonic marked his Delray Beach Open debut in emphatic style with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Tim Smyczek on Tuesday. The World No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, back in action after a quarter-final showing at the Australian Open, needed just 24 minutes to clinch the opening set against the American qualifier. Smyczek reached the quarter-finals at Delray Beach in 2016, but his challenge looked to be fading when Raonic saved four break points at the start of set two. The Canadian struck 10 aces and won 90 per cent of points off first serves. He secured the decisive break in the ninth game to book a second-round encounter with #NextGenATP player Borna Coric. The Croatian...
It started out with so much promise. A Twitter post. More than 200 retweets and 700-plus favourites. Catchy nicknames with hashtags to boot: #KevJuan, #AnderDelpo, #DelPAnderson. But, in the end, the powerful combination of Juan Martin del Potro and Kevin Anderson met some unfortunate luck when they tried to make their doubles team debut last October at the If Stockholm Open. Anderson, who dealt with injuries all last season, had to retire from their first-round match after 10 games because of an adductor strain. “Unfortunately that was right when my hip was getting sore and we couldn't finish the match. Nothing really took off. I think we maybe needed to play a few more matches to gain any traction,” Anderson...
Forgive Nikoloz Basilashvili if he looks a little haggard on Monday night when he plays Tommy Haas at the Delray Beach Open. It has been quite the past few weeks for the Georgian 24-year-old. Earlier this month, he ran off three consecutive wins to reach the semi-finals of the Garanti Koza Sofia Open in Bulgaria. In the second round, he improved to 2-1 against Top 10 players by upsetting World No. 8 Dominic Thiem. Basilashvili reached the semi-finals by knocking out five-time ATP World Tour titlist Martin Klizan. The next week brought Basilashvili even closer to his first career ATP World Tour title. At the Memphis Open, he strung together four more wins, including a second-round upset of No. 20...
To hear Tommy Haas say it, the actual tennis – the winning of matches, the hoisting of trophies – is secondary during his latest and final comeback, which continues this week at the Delray Beach Open. The 38 year old, who's coming back after his ninth surgery last April, remains more focused on saying farewell to the places he loves the most and having his oldest daughter watch it all. “I want to finish on my own terms. That's really what it's all about,” Haas told ATP World Tour Uncovered. “I'd like to go back to some of these events that I've had a great time playing at and just say goodbye in my own way and see if I...
In a battle of the 19-year-olds, American #NextGenATP member Taylor Fritz saved the lone break point he faced in a 6-4, 6-4 win against Japan's Akira Santillan at the Delray Beach Open Monday night. Fritz claimed his second tour-level win of the year and next meets the winner of countryman Donald Young and second seed Ivo Karlovic. On playing Santillan, Fritz said, "We go way back, we're both born in '97. So we played juniors together. We've played together, practised together. We're good friends… I definitely went in knowing I'm more experienced, just I've played more on tour. I was thinking about that before the match, maybe that could make a difference but I was just focused on playing tennis...