World No. 8 Dominic Thiem will play Gilles Simon on Saturday for the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon title and the 200th match win of his career (199-117). Thiem, who has won their past five matches, leads Simon 6-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Top-seeded Austrian Thiem will contest his 16th ATP World Tour final (9-6) after he defeated Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in one hour and 58 minutes. Earlier in the day, Thiem needed 50 minutes to win the third set of his quarter-final against Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez for a 6-7(4), 7-6(0), 6-4 victory in just under three hours. The pair had returned on Friday at one-set apiece, after darkness suspended the match. Thiem, 27, improved...
If you are unfamiliar with Hubert Hurkacz, you’ll know the #NextGenATP Pole well soon. The 21-year-old defeated Argentine Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the final round of Roland Garros qualifying on Thursday in one hour, 55 minutes to move into his first Grand Slam main draw. Hurkacz seeks his first ATP World Tour win, but he has enjoyed plenty of success on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2018, helping him to the No. 13 spot in the ATP Race To Milan. He made the final, semi-finals and quarter-finals at three consecutive Challenger events in China. The only Polish man in the men’s singles draw, Hurkacz owns a 2-9 tour-level record, and will look to make a splash on the...
Fabio Fognini celebrated his 31st birthday with a quarter-final victory on Thursday at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. The second-seeded Italian recovered from a 2-5 deficit in the first set en route to beating American Tennys Sandgren 7-6(3), 7-6(5) in just under two hours. This year’s Argentina Open champion (d. Jarry) led 3-0 in the second set and had the first of his four match-point opportunities at 6-5, Ad-Out, on Sandgren’s serve. Fognini will next attempt to beat Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk, who defeated seventh seed Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3. Two-time defending champion Stan Wawrinka suffered only his second loss in Geneva in four appearances. Hungarian Marton Fucsovics upset the Swiss right-hander 6-4, 6-0 in 71 minutes....
Cameron Norrie showed few signs of nerves on Thursday at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon when he recorded the first Top 10 win of his career. The Briton, who will break into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings on Monday, saved all four break points he faced to defeat World No. 10 John Isner, the second seed this week, 7-6(1), 6-4 in 85 minutes. Isner, who lost his serve once in the first game of the second set, struck 10 aces. The 33-year-old American captured his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown at the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. A. Zverev) on 1 April. Norrie, 22, will next play France's Gilles Simon in his first ATP World...
One year ago, #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud fell short in the second round of qualifying at Roland Garros. But this week, Ruud is only one step away from playing in the main draw at Roland Garros for the first time. The 19-year-old beat Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 6-2, 6-4 to reach the third and final round of qualifying. Earlier this year, Ruud qualified and picked up his maiden Grand Slam win at the Australian Open before falling to Argentina's Diego Schwartzman in the second round. “It’s been two good matches, four good sets, I haven’t dropped one yet. It was a big test today, especially the last one,” Ruud told RolandGarros.com. “I felt it was almost over when I had...
