A trio of former Huoston titlists took to the red dirt on Thursday, and all three advanced to the quarter-finals. Top seed and 2013 champion John Isner claimed his eighth match in a row, winning 93 per cent of his first-serve points (28/30) to beat Switzerland's Henri Laaksonen 6-4, 6-2 in only 65 minutes at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. Isner, No. 9 in the ATP Rankings, is fresh off his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the Miami Open presented by Itau. The 32-year-old will next face countryman and defending champion Steve Johnson, who saved six of seven break points to beat #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4. [ALSO LIKE] The sixth-seeded Johnson...
The ATP World Tour players saw the same devastating photos from Hurricane Harvey in Houston, and they all asked the same question: “How can we help?” Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Frances Tiafoe, John Isner, Kevin Anderson and Sam Querrey compete at tournaments around the world, and they all call somewhere else “home” when they're not traveling. Yet they still thought of Houston as Hurricane Harvey dumped about 30 inches of rain and displaced almost 30,000 people in the southeastern Texas city last August. “From the start, 'It was how can we help? How can we make a difference? How do we help get Houston back on its feet?'” said Bronwyn Greer, Tournament Director at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S....
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan began their bid for a seventh Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship title in style on Wednesday, beating Taro Daniel and Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-1. The Miami Open presented by Itaú champions took just 46 minutes to win their sixth consecutive match on tour, winning 81 percent of points behind their first serves and breaking their Japanese opponents on five occasions. The top seeds are looking to reach their fourth consecutive final on tour, having reached finals in Acapulco and Indian Wells before winning their 115th title as a team in Miami. There was mixed success for the twins’ fellow seeded teams in Texas, as Dustin Brown and Frances Tiafoe upset second...
Nick Kyrgios has overcome a slow start in his first clay-court singles outing of the season to see off the threat of home hopeful Bjorn Fratangelo in the second round of the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship on Wednesday night. In his River Oaks debut, the 22-year-old Australian rebounded for a 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-2 victory over Fratangelo, the No.108 in the ATP Rankings. The American had registered a win over Kyrgios’s countryman Jordon Thompson in the opening round on Monday. That same day, Kyrgios had opened his Houston doubles campaign, partnering good friend and countryman Matt Reid in a loss to Ivo Karlovic and Daniel Nestor. [ALSO LIKE] After his fourth ATP World Tour-level title and...
