John Isner coolly steps to the baseline like he has thousands of times before. He bounces the ball between the legs of his 6’10” frame, and then again off the court three times with his racquet, and four times with his hand. Just as he lifts his left arm to toss the ball into the air, slightly in front of him, his racquet-wielding right arm begins its own upward motion simultaneously. The 32-year-old eventually launches toward the sky and at the last moment, Isner turns his wrist so the stringbed meets the ball, producing a devastating result. Isner sends the ball flying as if he is wielding Thor’s hammer. The result is a blazing 138 mile-per-hour ace down the 'T'...
#NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz had never made an ATP World Tour semi-final on clay before this week. In fact, he had only played three clay-court matches combined on the ATP World Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour prior to his Houston debut. But judging by his play Friday, you wouldn’t know it. The 20-year-old battled back from a 4-2 deficit in the deciding set to oust 2015 winner Jack Sock 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship and move into the semi-finals. "I felt like it could really go either way. I just had to get back in it," Fritz said. "I just stayed with it and was able to come up [good]...
Ivo Karlovic said he was happy after his opening-round win for various reasons, including earning his first victory as a 39-year-old. Three days later, he has done a lot more than that. The Croatian beat fourth seed Nick Kyrgios 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 Friday at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship to become the oldest player to advance to an ATP World Tour semi-final since Jimmy Connors at 1993 San Francisco. The right-hander was already the oldest quarter-finalist at Houston in the Open Era. "It's definitely a huge win. I lost against him every match up until now," said Karlovic, the 2007 Houston titlist. "I'm really happy that I won today." Kyrgios had previously owned a 4-0...
This time, Taylor Fritz feels as if it can last. Two years ago, Fritz, then 18, became “The Next Big Thing” on the ATP World Tour. He reached the Memphis Open final, becoming the youngest American to make a tour-level title match since 17-year-old Michael Chang won 1989 Wembley. Months after, Fritz made the quarter-finals of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in Acapulco, an ATP World Tour 500 event. “The Next Big Thing” seemed like he was here to stay. But he couldn't produce it week after week, and his ATP Ranking, which had risen to No. 53 in August 2016, fell to No. 135 last June. This year, Fritz is on the rise again, but he's confident...
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan will turn 40 on 29 April. But the six-time Houston champions are showing no signs of slowing down. The Americans advanced to the semi-finals of the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship on Thursday, beating another team of brothers in Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski 4-6, 6-3, 10-6. The Bryans raised their level after dropping the first set. They didn't face a break point in the second set, and in the Match Tie-break, they won all three second-serve return points. The Bryans will next meet Max Mirnyi/Philipp Oswald, who squeezed past Scott Lipsky/Tennys Sandgren 6-7(4), 7-6(1), 11-9. [ALSO LIKE] It will mark the 55th time the Bryans have faced Mirnyi, who turned...