Andrey Rublev was one point away from seeing opportunity turn to disappointment. Serving at 4-5 in the third set of his semi-final at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, the 20-year-old faced match point against Guido Pella, who was seeking his third ATP World Tour final. But after hitting a booming ace, the #NextGenATP Russian found his best tennis to escape the game and eventually the match, using an impressive 26 winners to swing past the Argentine 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(2) after a two-hour, 26-minute classic. "It feels amazing. I have no words to describe this match," Rublev said. "I think it was such an amazing match for both of us. We made amazing rallies, such unreal rallies. I'm really happy...
In 2017, Dominic Thiem reached five semi-finals, all of them on clay. But less than a week into the 2018 season, the World No. 5 has already reached a hard-court semi-final. The top-seeded Thiem halted the run of #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha 7-5, 6-4 to advance to his first outdoor hard-court semi-final since February 2016 in Acapulco, where he won the ATP World Tour 500 title (d. Tomic). Thiem also advanced to the semi-finals of the indoor Moselle Open in Metz in September 2016. Thiem hit big all match and took time away from the 6'4” Tsitsipas, who reached his second ATP World Tour quarter-final by beating French veteran Richard Gasquet...
They changed sports and surfaces, switching from a football pitch to a tennis court. But on Wednesday at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, the outcome was the same when Dominic Thiem and Aljaz Bedene faced off in the second round in Doha. As Thiem's football team did during the off-season, the Austrian outplayed the Slovenian, advancing to the quarter-finals of his first tournament of the 2018 season, 7-5, 6-4. Thiem had plenty of opportunities in the early-evening match, earning 15 break points, including 10 in the second set, against Bedene, who now plays for Slovenia after switching from Great Britain last month. But Thiem converted only three of those break-point opportunities. Still, he was pleased to improve to 2-0 in their...
The wins – some of the biggest of Andrey Rublev's career – arrived in a flurry. At the US Open, the Russian beat then-No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin, who'd finish at No. 7 in the year-end ATP Rankings, en route to becoming the youngest US Open quarter-finalist since Andy Roddick in 2001. A month later, at the China Open in Beijing, Rublev fought back from a set down to beat both year-end No. 8 Jack Sock and Top 10 stalwart Tomas Berdych. Four big wins you could easily call “career-building” for the #NextGenATP Russian. But the 20-year-old doesn't view them in such a linear, stepping-stone way. To Rublev, the matches were simply good wins on good days, no...
It’s been quite the ride for Stefanos Tsitsipas, who rose from No. 210 to No. 91 in the ATP Rankings, reached an ATP World Tour 250 semi-final and recorded a Top 10 victory over the past 12 months. Having narrowly missed out on a qualification spot at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals, the #NextGenATP Greek has set his heart on starting strong in the 2018 ATP World Tour season. “I would like to win enough points to be in the Top 3 in the Race to Milan for the Next Gen ATP Finals by March,” said Tsitsipas. “I also expect to make at least the third round of the Australian Open and hopefully win an ATP World Tour 250...
