Big forehands make for great highlights and aces for quick games, but variety might be the key to success on the ATP World Tour, and Roger Federer showed plenty of it on Tuesday night during his 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-1 win against Alexander Zverev at the Nitto ATP Finals. Federer moved the 6'6” Zverev around the court with drop shots and slices. But the six-time champion was also happy to flatten out his groundstrokes against the 20-year-old right-hander, who had beaten Federer during their only prior hard-court matchup. “I think I was able to stay the course and use my slice quite effectively, then try with variation to go into his forehand,” Federer said. Now, after a 2-0 start in London,...
The first doubles team to advance to the semi-finals of the Nitto ATP Finals is not the pair many would have expected. Eighth-seeded Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus, who lost five of six matches to close their regular season, defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, 6-7(4), 6-4, 10/5, to guarantee a berth in the final four at The 02, clinching first place in Group Eltingh/Haarhuis. Once top-seeded Henri Kontinen and John Peers — who this year's Roland Garros champions beat on Sunday — took down Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in the first match of the day Tuesday, Harrison and Venus simply needed a win against Herbert and Mahut. And that's what they got, eliminating Rojer and Tecau from semi-final...
All match long on Tuesday at the Nitto ATP Finals, Jack Sock had been content to slice his backhand to Marin Cilic in hopes of seeing a better option – a chance to crush his world-class forehand. But with the match on the line, the eighth seed ditched the plan and was bold – swinging through his two-handed backhand with power. His reward: his first win at the Nitto ATP Finals. The 25-year-old American beat fifth seed Marin Cilic 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(4) to move to 1-1 in Group Boris Becker and improve his hopes of reaching this weekend's semi-final round. “I think if I do the right things and I play the right tennis, I can give myself a chance...
Defending champions Henri Kontinen and John Peers needed 12 match points to earn their first round-robin victory in Group Eltingh/Haarhuis on Tuesday at the Nitto ATP Finals, held at The O2 in London. The second-seeded Finnish-Australian team overcame 2015 titlist and third seeds Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Romania’s Horia Tecau 7-6(3), 7-6(6) in a tense one-hour and 45-minute encounter. The teams had previously met on three occasions this year (Dubai, ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Montreal and the US Open). Later in the day, Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, eliminating Rojer and Tecau from semi-final contention. At 5-4 in the second set, Peers looked calm in serving for the match and got...
David Goffin claimed the biggest victory of his career on Monday night, upsetting World No. 1 Rafael Nadal 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-4 to start his 2017 Nitto ATP Finals. The seventh seed overcame seeing four match points come and go in the second set, as Nadal saved them all on his racquet – 4-5, 30/40 and three consecutively from 0/40, 5-6 down. The Belgian pressured the Spaniard's serve, but the World No. 1 played aggressively each time, including at 15/40, 5-6, when he smacked a 93 mph crosscourt backhand winner. In the third set, however, Goffin's persistence paid off. Serving for the match, he hit an ace down the T, his 14th ace of the match. “It's the best win of...
