Fifth seed David Ferrer saved a match point and fought for more than two hours and 20 minutes on Tuesday to advance at the European Open. The Spaniard beat 25-year-old Italian Stefano Travaglia 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) to move into the second round in Antwerp. Ferrer was down 30/40 while serving at 4-5 in the third set but won three consecutive points to hold. The 35-year-old Ferrer, a titlist in Bastad earlier this year, will next face German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe or Belgian Steve Darcis. #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe bolstered his chances of reaching the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals next month in Milan by beating German Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-4. Tiafoe won 47 per cent (28/60) of his return points in...
Players from the Balkans ruled Tuesday at the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina continued the best stretch of his career with a 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 win against Italian Thomas Fabbiano. The Sarajevo native went 18-3 from 31 July to 29 September, a stretch that included a number of milestones for the 25-year-old right-hander. Dzumhur reached his first ATP World Tour final at the Winston-Salem Open. He won his maiden title at the St. Petersburg Open. And in late September, he gained his second Top 10 win of the season, knocking off then-World No. 4 Alexander Zverev in the Shenzhen Open quarter-finals. Dzumhur, No. 38 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will next meet Indian qualifier...
Three seeds — No. 6 Fabio Fognini, No. 7 Yuichi Sugita and No. 8 Fernando Verdasco — all got off to winning starts on Tuesday at the Intrum Stockholm Open. Italian Fognini, who picked up the Gstaad crown (d. Hanfmann) in July, opened his bid for a sixth ATP World Tour title by beating Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 7-5, 6-1 in 73 minutes. He now faces Swedish wild card Elias Ymer, who knocked out Argentine Leonardo Mayer, this year’s Hamburg titlist (d. F. Mayer), 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in two hours and eight minutes. [ALSO LIKE] Japan's Sugita lived to fight another day, withstanding 15 aces in a dramatic 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan over one hour...
Fourth seed Jerzy Janowicz led four qualifiers through to the main draw at the Intrum Stockholm Open on Monday, defeating seventh seed Jurgen Zopp, 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-4. The Pole failed to convert on a match point while up 6-5 in the second set, and then three more up 5-3 in the decider. But after a one-hour, 46-minute tilt, he was able to get past the Estonian. Janowicz will compete in his first tour-level main draw since advancing to the third round of Wimbledon in July. His last ATP World Tour victory came in Stuttgart this June. The 26 year old will play Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the first round. The top seed competing on Centre Court Tuesday as the main...
Ivo Karlovic saved three match points in a two-hour, 13-minute battle to eliminate Guido Pella, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(10) in the first round of the European Open in Antwerp, Belgium. The 38 year old saved two break points in the second set at 3-3 to avoid going down a set and a break against the Argentine, before holding off Pella’s three match points in the third-set tie-break. Each opportunity was on Karlovic’s serve, and the Croatian capitalised on his third opportunity to advance to the second round. In other action, Sergiy Stakhovsky temporarily halted Jared Donaldson’s efforts in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan with a 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over the American. The Ukrainian saved the only break point he faced,...
