During the past two years, in what has quickly become the breakout stretch of his young career, Alexander Zverev has had success on every surface. He has won indoor hard-court titles – St. Petersburg Open and Open Sud de France in Montpellier – and clay-court crowns – ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Rome and the BMW Open by FWU in Munich. He has twice reached the grass-court final at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle. But Zverev had never won a title or even reached the final of an outdoor hard-court tournament. That changed on Saturday. The 20-year-old German needed only 64 minutes to prevail past World No. 9 Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-4 in the Citi Open semi-finals in...
It has been an arduous comeback at times for Kevin Anderson, who has dealt with a myriad of injuries during the past two years since cracking the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings in October 2015. But the South African took another big stride in returning to that elite group on Saturday. Anderson hit 12 aces and saved all five break points to overcome home favourite Jack Sock 6-3, 6-4 in the Citi Open semi-finals in Washington, D.C. “It feels great. It's great to get another match win today. It was definitely a tough match. I felt I did quite a few things well today, couple things I thought I could have done a little bit better. But most...
Pablo Cuevas and Guillermo Duran earned their first team title in dramatic fashion at the Generali Open, surviving a thrilling Match Tie-break for the Kitzbühel crown. Fourth seeds Cuevas and Duran saved one match point to defeat Hans Podlipnik-Castillo and Andrei Vasilevski 6-4, 4-6, 12-10 in one hour and 26 minutes. It was the third victory in a Match Tie-break for the Uruguayan-Argentine duo this week. "We’ve known each other for a long time but we never had the chance to play together," said Cuevas. "It’s a pleasure to play with a friend and it feels even better if you end the tournament in this way. We are very happy." Podlipnik-Castillo and Vasilevski did well to handle the pressure of...
It was home cooking for Philipp Kohlschreiber at the Generali Open, as the local resident captured his second Kitzbühel crown on Saturday. In what was the final clay-court match of the year on the ATP World Tour, Kohlschreiber dismissed Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 22 minutes to take his eighth tour-level title. It was an emotional victory for the 33 year old, who was forced to retire from his Hamburg semi-final just one week ago with a leg injury. But Kohlschreiber would bounce back strong in Kitzbühel, fighting back from a set down to defeat Dusan Lajovic in the quarters and ousting Gstaad champion Fabio Fognini in the semis before downing Sousa on Saturday. The local resident,...
#NextGenATP Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis continued his remarkable run this week by reaching his first ATP World Tour singles final on Friday at Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel presentado por Cinemex, rallying to defeat top seed Tomas Berdych in Los Cabos 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. "I showed some glimpses of good tennis this year, so to do that consistently this week in Los Cabos means a lot," said Kokkinakis. "I've had great support from the fans here all week. I love it here and I'll definitely be coming back a few more times." The 21 year old was sidelined from singles competition for 18 months with a laundry list of injuries, but returned to singles action this past May. In just his...
