Benoit Paire won the match of the day at the Moselle Open on Friday, saving one match point to knock out 2014 champion and top-seeded Belgian David Goffin. The Frenchman dented Goffin’s hopes of making up ground in the Emirates ATP Race To London with a 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-6(7) victory over two hours and 25 minutes in Metz. Paire recovered from a 2-4 deficit in the first set, prior to being broken by Goffin at 5-5 in the second set. Goffin took a 4-2 lead in the decider, then fought back from 3/5 down in the tie-break only to squander a match point at 6/5. It was Paire’s third win in four meetings over Goffin. Paire, who is 0-4 in...
Roberto Bautista Agut reached the St. Petersburg Open semi-finals for the third successive year on Friday by sweeping past seventh seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-1, 6-2 in 72 minutes. “The score looks easy, but the match wasn’t,” said Bautista Agut. “Viktor is always tough to beat, a very good fighter and serves well.” The top-seeded Spaniard raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set, then recovered from a 0-2 deficit in the second set en route to extending his perfect FedEx ATP Head2Head record to 4-0 against Troicki, who is now 20-22 on the year. Bautista Agut, who has already won two ATP World Tour hard-court titles this year at the Aircel Chennai Open in January (d. Medvedev)...
David Goffin opened his quest for his second Moselle Open title on Thursday. The second-seeded Belgian, who captured the 2014 trophy (d. Sousa), knocked out Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 for a place in the quarter-finals against Benoit Paire, who recorded the 150th match win of his career. Earlier in the day, Paire had cruised past Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-1, 6-2 in 55 minutes. Goffin’s hopes of winning a third ATP World Tour title, and boost his chances of rising up the Emirates ATP Race To London (currently No. 13) for one of the six remaining places at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London, were helped when Romania’s Marius Copil knocked out...
Third seed Fabio Fognini ended Russian involvement on Thursday at the St. Petersburg Open when the Italian knocked out 2004 champion Mikhail Youzhny, competing at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament for the 16th year (34-14 match record). Fognini, the 2012 runner-up, came close to breaking at 4-4 in the second set, but Youzhny regrouped before falling 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in almost two hours. Fognini now faces Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, who advanced to the quarter-finals for the second time (also 2012) when his German opponent Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew due to illness before their match. Kohlschreiber must wait another week in his bid to win at least 30 matches (29-17 in 2017) for the 11th straight year. Top seed Roberto Bautista...
Qualifier Liam Broady and Damir Dzumhur both booked their places in the St. Petersburg Open quarter-finals on Wednesday. British qualifier Broady saved a break point at 4-4 in the second set, before winning eight straight games to overcome Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, the Antalya Open runner-up, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 to advance to an ATP World Tour quarter-final for the first time. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Dzumhur, last month’s Winston-Salem Open finalist, had his serve broken three times, but managed to get the better of Marcos Baghdatis 6-4, 7-6(4) in one hour and 38 minutes. Dzumhur, currently at a career-high World No. 55 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is 24-7 at all levels since 19 June. Earlier in the day, two #NextGenATP players,...
