FRANCE 2, BELGIUM 1 Lille, France (Indoor Hard) For a while, it appeared that Belgium was ready to shock the fans inside Stade Pierre Mauroy, as Joris De Loore and Ruben Bemelmans served for a two sets to one lead in Saturday's doubles rubber in Lille, France. But Richard Gasquet and Pierre-Hugues Herbert battled the whole way in front of their home crowd to defeat the Belgians 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 and move France within one match of capturing its 10th Davis Cup title. Belgium, which is in its second Davis Cup Final in three years and third overall, now must win both reverse singles rubbers to triumph in the tie and claim their first victory at the event. Yannick...
FRANCE 1, BELGIUM 1 Lille, France (Hard Indoor) France needed its top-ranked player to come through in the Davis Cup final on Friday, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga certainly did just that. With his country trailing Belgium 0-1, Tsonga upended ATP World Tour veteran Steve Darcis 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 in Lille, France to end the first day of play at Stade Pierre Mauroy. Tsonga, who made a late push in the Emirates ATP Race To London by winning the European Open and reaching the final at the Erste Bank Open 500, beat Darcis in their first meeting in 15 years, which came on the ITF Pro Circuit. It was an important victory for France, which would have faced a daunting 0-2 deficit...
Grigor Dimitrov finished the best season of his career with the biggest title of his life. The Bulgarian won his fifth consecutive match at the Nitto ATP Finals on Sunday, beating David Goffin 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 to win the season-ending championships during his debut. It's the fourth title of Dimitrov's 2017 – a career-high – and the eighth of his career. The right-hander was already going to climb to a career-high No. 3 in the year-end Emirates ATP Rankings. But now he'll do so emphatically and with a heap of momentum heading into his 2018 season. “This makes me even more locked in, more excited about my work, and for what's to come,” Dimitrov said. “It's a great platform for...
They may not be finishing the season with the year-end No. 1 Emirates ATP Doubles Team Ranking, but Henri Kontinen and John Peers aren’t leaving the Nitto ATP Finals without hardware. After producing a serving masterclass, Kontinen and Peers defeated top-seeded Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, 6-4, 6-2, in 70 minutes to retain their title at the season finale. A year after capturing the trophy in London in their team debut, Kontinen and Peers won four straight matches after dropping their round-robin opener against eighth-seeded Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus to clinch the triumph at The O2 without losing a set in the semi-finals or final. They are the first pair to win back-to-back titles at the season finale since...
Grigor Dimitrov might be playing the best tennis of his career. The Bulgarian remained unbeaten at the Nitto ATP Finals on Saturday night, converting his fourth match point to advance past American Jack Sock 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 at The O2. Dimitrov improved to 4-0 in London this week to reach the Nitto ATP Finals title match, his fifth final of the season and the biggest of his career. Waiting for him will be seventh seed David Goffin, who upset six-time former champion Roger Federer 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 earlier on Saturday. Dimitrov leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 4-1, including a 6-0, 6-2 rout on Wednesday during Group Pete Sampras play. “I think his confidence is going to be up there....
