An injury scare interrupted Nick Kyrgios' 2018 debut, but the Aussie didn't take the easy way out on Wednesday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. The third seed recovered from a set down and overcame pain in his left knee to oust his veteran countryman Matt Ebden 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-2 in his first match of the 2018 ATP World Tour season. “I was a bit rusty in my first match of the year. I played a great doubles match yesterday with my great mate Matt Reid and that gave me that bit of confidence,” Kyrgios said. “I was just happy to get through today.” It took Kyrgios about a set and a half to find his world-class level. The...
Fifth seed Robin Haase manoeuvred his way through a testing season opener to beat Blaz Kavcic 7-6(6), 7-5 at the Tata Open Maharashtra on Tuesday. Kavcic put up a fight against the World No. 42 breaking the Dutchman's serve three times in the match, but it was Haase who had the answers in the important moments at the conclusion of both sets. Haase will face Chile’s Nicolas Jarry in the second-round. Laslo Djere took two hours and 25 minutes to book his place in the second round after a titanic 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 battle with Marius Copil. The Serbian won 16 of 18 points on his first serve in the final set to help set a meeting with seventh seed...
Pablo Carreno Busta finished 2017 on a high, playing two matches in the Nitto ATP Finals as an alternate. And the Spaniard appeared he would begin the new ATP World Tour campaign strongly as well Tuesday. He twice served for his season-opening match against Borna Coric at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in the third set, before holding three match points in the eventual tie-break. But Coric had the courage to step into the court in the big moments and seize the victory from second seed Carreno Busta, surviving the two-hour 41-minute battle 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(8). How did he manage to find his way past the No. 10 player in the ATP Rankings? “To be honest I don’t know,” Coric said....
Lleyton Hewitt made a surprise return to the ATP World Tour at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp on Tuesday. Teaming up with compatriot Jordan Thompson in doubles, his first tour-level event since 2016 Wimbledon, the Australian pairing lost a tight first-round encounter as Grigor Dimitrov and Ryan Harrison emerged victorious 6-3, 1-6, 10-5. Dimitrov and Harrison were clinical down the stretch, managing to win five of eight points on return in the Match Tie-break. The Bulgarian-American duo will next meet another Australian team, as Nick Kyrgios and Matt Reid rallied from a set down to defeat fourth seeds Marcus Daniell and Dominic Inglot 4-6, 6-1, 10-7. No decider was needed for Leonardo Mayer and Horacio Zeballos who took just...
Brit Kyle Edmund started his 2018 season with a come-from-behind victory at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp on Tuesday. The 22-year-old Edmund came from a set down against #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov to advance 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-4. Edmund had trailed Shapovalov in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 1-2 but the Brit saved five of six break points to prevail in two hours and 30 minutes. Edmund struggled serving in the opener, landing fewer than 50 per cent of his first serves. But he upped his level in the second and third sets, and served out the first-round match with his fifth ace. "[In the] first match of the year, you don't really know what to expect, so it's good...
