Third seed Milos Raonic got his American hard-court campaign off to a flying start at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., winning his opening match 7-6(2), 7-6(6) over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. “There are a lot of things I need to be happy with,” said Raonic. “I lost a bit of sharpness and discipline in the second set, but I’m glad I was able to get through and keep going in this tournament. It’s good to be back, especially with that memory of having won here [in 2014].” Both men traded holds throughout the first set, but the Canadian raced through the tie-break to take the early advantage. Raonic saved a set point on his serve at 4-5 in the second...
Six seeds – Pablo Cuevas, Paolo Lorenzi, Gilles Simon, Jan-Lennard Struff, Jiri Vesely and Horacio Zeballos – were all beaten on a dramatic Wednesday at the Generali Open. Austrian wild card and World No. 157 Sebastian Ofner kept his nerve in a rain-interrupted 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(3) victory over top seed Pablo Cuevas – making his tournament debut – in two hours. The second-round match was suspended due to rain with Ofner serving at 2-5, 15/30 in the second set. "I'm happy that I stayed focused during the tie-break [and] I played well," said #NextGenATP's Ofner. "For sure, the experience in Wimbledon helped me today. It's a great feeling to be in the quarters and of course it's very special to...
Fernando Verdasco is through to the second round of the Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel but not without an almighty scare. The Spanish No. 6 seed saved two match points to deny NextGenATP player Ernesto Escobedo 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-2 on Tuesday. Escobedo, No. 83 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, channelled his Mexican heritage and had the Los Cabos crowd in his favour as he surged to a 7-6(6), 5-3 lead. The 33-year-old Verdasco then managed to recover from 15/40 - two match points for Escobedo - and reeled off 10 of the last 12 games for victory in two hours and 22 minutes. It was the second time this season the pair had clashed. Verdasco also won their prior showdown...
Three-time champion Juan Martin del Potro’s Citi Open winning streak is up to 15 matches with the Argentine taking down Lukas Lacko on Tuesday night. The No. 13 seed downed the Slovak 7-5, 6-2 as he advanced to the third round. The 28 year old will carry a 5-1 FedEx ATP Head2Head record into a third-round clash with No. 2 seed and 2015 champion Kei Nishikori. The Japanese star narrowly held off Donald Young 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5). Lacko’s best chance of snapping del Potro's winning run came as he broke serve twice to level at 4-4 in the opening set. After he lost a tight opener in 53 minutes, however, the No. 119 in the Emirates ATP Rankings scantly troubled the...
In his first outing as top seed at an ATP World Tour 500 event, Dominic Thiem is comfortably through to the third round of the Citi Open on a soaked Tuesday. A rain-delayed start in the US capital failed to dampen the Austrian’s debut as he powered past Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 6-3. The 23 year old dropped just one point on his first serve and never faced a break point against the Swiss. It marked his first match since he fell to Tomas Berdych in five sets in the fourth round at Wimbledon. Eighth seed Jack Sock advanced to the last 16 for the third straight year after he eked out a narrow 7-6(2), 7-6(6) victory over Romanian Marius Copil....
