Second seeds Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray reached the semi-finals of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships on Thursday by beating Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner 6-3, 6-4 in 67 minutes. As a result, Murray and Soares have moved to within 10 points in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London of No. 4-ranked Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan (4,355) as teams battle to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November. Murray and Soares, the only seeds left in the field with a 3-2 in finals record this year (7-4 overall as a team), will next challenge Dominic Inglot and Daniel Nestor in the Tokyo semi-finals. Japanese wild cards Ben...
Henri Kontinen and John Peers booked their spot in the semi-finals of the China Open in Beijing with a 7-5, 7-6(6) victory over Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas on Thursday. The Finnish-Australian duo are already assured of their place at the year-end Nitto ATP Finals in London, where they are defending champions. This week, they are chasing their third tour-level title of the year, to add to victories at the Australian Open – their first Grand Slam title – and Washington. Peers and Kontinen are also into their eighth ATP World Tour semi-final of the season. They will next face Mischa Zverev and Paolo Lorenzi, who squeaked by wild cards Juan Martin del Potro and Leonardo Mayer, 6-4, 7-6(5). The...
World No. 1 Rafael Nadal is through to the quarter-finals of the China Open after defeating Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday in Beijing. The Spaniard is bidding to win his second China Open title, following victory on his debut in 2005 (d. Coria). He also finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic in the 2013 and 2015 finals. Nadal is also looking to boost his lead over Roger Federer in the battle to finish year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Thursday’s win hands him another 45 points, which extends his lead over his Swiss rival to 1,950 points in the year-to-date standings. Federer returns to action at next week’s Shanghai Rolex Masters, where 1,000 points are awarded to the winner....
David Goffin moved into contention for a spot at next month’s Nitto ATP Finals on Thursday at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017. The Belgian was made to fight and draw on his big-match experience in a thrilling 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(1) victory over two hours and 20 minutes. It extended his winning streak to six matches, taking in last week’s run to his third ATP World Tour title at the Shenzhen Open (d. Dolgopolov). Australian qualifier Ebden was solid on serve to win the first five games of the pair’s third tour-level meeting, before Goffin broke for a 2-1 lead in the second set. Last year’s finalist opened up a 5-3 lead before World No. 103 Ebden battled to...
Before mid-August, Grigor Dimitrov had lost all five of his FedEx ATP Head2Head match-ups with Juan Martin del Potro. The Bulgarian had never been able to solve the game of the big-hitting Argentine. How things have changed. Dimitrov won his second consecutive match against del Potro on Wednesday at the China Open, coming through in a tight second-round affair 7-6(6), 7-5 to move into the quarter-finals in Beijing and boost his chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals. “Very pleased that I was able to finish in straight sets. DelPo is an absolutely unbelievable competitor... Every time we play it's absolutely stunning. He's a great guy. I love practising with him. I love competing against him,” Dimitrov said. [ALSO...
