Nick Kyrgios is through to the quarter-finals of the China Open in Beijing after finishing strongly to defeat Mischa Zverev 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday. “I knew it was going to be tough,” said Kyrgios, who struck 11 aces and converted all four of his break point opportunities in the 82-minute win. “He plays a very old-school type of tennis, likes to come forward a lot. “I got broken early in the first. Then I kind of knew I had to loosen up and find my rhythm a little bit. I started serving much better, started just relaxing. I knew I was going to feel pretty comfortable at some stage out there. Obviously just really happy to get through.” Watch...
Ryan Harrison recorded his best match win in 13 months on Wednesday to book a spot in the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 quarter-finals. The American withstood 23 aces from the racquet of Kevin Anderson, the recent US Open finalist, to win 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(2) in just over two hours. The third set didn't feature any breaks of serve, before Harrison won the first five points of the tie-break. It was his biggest victory since overcoming then-World No. 6 Milos Raonic in August 2016 in the US Open second round. Anderson had been looking to add 45 points to his Emirates ATP Race To London tally to move within 10 points of Sam Querrey, who sits at No. 10...
Alexander Zverev inched closer to clinching his debut appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals in London on Tuesday. The second seed started his China Open with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory against 22-year-old Kyle Edmund of Great Britain in a match that finished after midnight local time. The 20-year-old Zverev broke in the third and ninth games of the first set. [ALSO LIKE] Edmund raised his level in the second set and had a set point on his racquet at 5-4 after breaking Zverev. But the German broke back and sprinted through the tie-break, winning the final four points for the straight-sets win. Zverev improves to 2-0 against Edmund in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The 6'6” German is in third...
Steve Johnson recorded the biggest match win of his career on Tuesday at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017, when the 27-year-old American knocked out second seed Dominic Thiem in the Tokyo first round. Johnson was made to work hard throughout the pair’s third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting, but ultimately triumphed 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in two hours and 19 minutes. It was his first victory over a Top 10 player in the Emirates ATP Rankings since August 2016, when Johnson beat No. 10-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. Thiem, who is attempting to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the second successive year, is currently No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Race To...
Rafael Nadal returned to tour-level action with a dramatic victory on Tuesday, saving two match points to oust Frenchman Lucas Pouille 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 at the China Open in Beijing. The top-seeded Spaniard was down 4/6 in the second-set tie-break, but won four consecutive points to even the match at one set-all. In the decider, Nadal earned his lone break of the match in the 11th game and served out the first-round contest a game later to 15. “[It] was a very tough first round, as I say the other day. He played well, I think. Very aggressive. He's serving well. For me was little bit difficult at the beginning. Then I started to play better. But still, I didn't...
