Rafael Nadal remains on course to lift a record 31st ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown and second Cincinnati title on Friday by reaching the Western & Southern Open quarter-finals. The top seed and 2013 champion knocked out his Spanish compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6(1), 6-2 in one hour and 38 minutes mid-afternoon at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. He will now rest and prepare to meet Australian Nick Kyrgios later today. Nadal leads 2-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, ahead of their first hard-court meeting. [GROUP POLL]67[/GROUP POLL] "I'm very happy to be in the quarter-finals," said Nadal. "It was a tough match this afternoon against Albert, and now [it will be] another very, very difficult match against Kyrgios....
Nick Kyrgios hung tough on Friday as he began a double shift at the Western & Southern Open. The Australian advanced to his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final (also Indian Wells and Miami) of the year by finding a way past Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in a 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3 victory over one hour and 56 minutes. The pair began today with Karlovic leading 4-3 in the first set, following rain on Thursday. View FedEx ATP Head2Head matchups for the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open and vote for who you think will win! Nadal vs. Kyrgios | Thiem vs. Ferrer [GROUP POLL]67[/GROUP POLL] "It was tough, obviously," said Kyrgios. "Coming back today, I had a very...
Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares battled hard to reach their second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final of the season (also Indian Wells) on Friday at the Western & Southern Open. The third seeds knocked out last year’s finalist Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 7-6(6), 6-4 in one hour and 38 minutes. Murray and Soares saved three set points from 3/6 in the first set tie-break, then broke at 4-4 in the second set prior to convert their third match point opportunity. Murray and Soares, with a 3-1 record in ATP World Tour finals this year (6-3 overall), have yet to win a Masters 1000 crown as a team. They will next meet second seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo,...
View FedEx ATP Head2Head matchups for Day 6 of the Western & Southern Open and vote for who you think will win! Nadal vs. Ramos-Vinolas | Isner vs. Donaldson | Dimitrov vs. Sugita View Friday Schedule • It took Rafael Nadal a record 160 weeks to rise from No. 2 to No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on August 18, 2008. Nine years later, Nadal is back at the same event on the same day of the week that he became the top men’s tennis player in the world. Nadal defeated Nicolas Lapentti in the Western & Southern Open quarter-finals on Friday, August 1, 2008 to guarantee that he would pass Roger Federer in the rankings later that month....
A maiden ATP World Tour title, first Grand Slam match win, career-high Emirates ATP Ranking and now a first Masters 1000 quarter-final. If you ask Yuichi Sugita if he's playing the best tennis of his career, the answer is a resounding 'yes'. Japanese tennis has been on the rise over the past decade, thanks in large part to Kei Nishikori's Top 5 breakthrough and statement as one of the game's most formidable threats. The nation has also experienced a surge of Top 100 stalwarts, including Yoshihito Nishioka, Taro Daniel, Go Soeda and Tatsuma Ito, but none of Nishikori's countrymen have experienced the success that 28-year-old Sugita is enjoying in 2017. "Many players are having their good results after 28 or...
