Karen Khachanov advanced to his first ATP World Tour semi-final in eight months by defeating France’s Julien Benneteau, the 2010 runner-up, 6-4, 6-4 in 84 minutes at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille on Friday. "It was quite a solid match,” said Khachanov. “I didn’t make many first serves in the first couple of games, getting broken in my first service game, but then I got stronger." The 21-year-old Russian, who struck 16 aces past Benneteau (for 35 aces overall in three matches this week), reached the Gerry Weber Open semi-finals (l. to Federer) in June 2017. The last Russian to contest the Marseille final was Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a former No. 1 in the ATP Rankings, who beat Sebastian Grosjean of France...
Two-time champion Gilles Simon safely navigated his way through two tie-break sets to beat rising German star Maximilian Marterer 7-6(3), 7-6(4) in the first round of the Open 13 Provence on Tuesday. The Frenchman, who most recently won the event in 2015 (d. Monfils), won 73 per cent of points on his first serve, but was made to save two set points at 4-5 in the second set before securing the victory. Simon moves into a second-round meeting with Rolex Paris Masters runner-up Filip Krajinovic. Krajinovic marked his return to France with a hard-fought 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Joao Sousa. The one-hour, 57-minute match featured six breaks of serve with the Serbian converting on all three of his opportunities....
The stars of the ATP World Tour work hard in the offseason to prepare for the new campaign, and they shared their experiences at the end of 2017 with the fans through social media.
Learn more about the 21-year-old Russian, Karen Khachanov, who is the second seed at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. Watch the Next Gen ATP Finals LIVE on Amazon Prime Video: www.primevideo.com/ATP.
