Marin Cilic turned in a scintillating serving display in securing his place in the final of the Aegon Championships on Saturday. Cilic edged Gilles Muller 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, firing 20 aces and claiming a ruthless 91 per cent (43 of 47) of points on his first serve. He has dropped just 10 first-serve points through four matches this week. The World No. 7 has found a second home on the lawns of The Queen's Club, advancing to his third final. He joins current and former World No. 1s Andy Murray (5), Andy Roddick (4) and Lleyton Hewitt (4) as the only players to reach the title match on three or more occasions since 2000. The champion in 2012 and runner-up...
German Alexander Zverev will play in his fourth final of the season on Sunday after coming back to beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle. Zverev has already won three titles this season – beating Gasquet indoors in Montpellier; dismissing Guido Pella on clay in Munich; and knocking off then-World No. 2 Novak Djokovic in the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final in Rome. [ALSO LIKE] On Sunday, the #NextGenATP star will face top seed Roger Federer for the third time and in a rematch of their Halle semi-final last year. Zverev took that contest in three sets but their FedEx ATP Head2Head series is tied at 1-1 because Federer had...
There's no place quite like Halle for Roger Federer. The Swiss star will play in an 11th Gerry Weber Open final on Sunday after having to battle past #NextGenATP Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-6(5) in the semi-finals on Saturday. “I thought it was extremely close, especially that second set... I'm still just very happy how I was able to close it out in the 'breaker,” Federer said. Federer will go for his ninth title in the German city, which would mark the first time he has won a tournament as many times. The 35-year-old Swiss first reached the Halle final in 2003, beating German Nicolas Kiefer for the crown. [ALSO LIKE] But Federer hasn't played for the trophy at the ATP...
Sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov recorded his 15th match win at The Queen’s Club, where he captured the 2014 title, by beating the impressive #NextGenATP Russian Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in one hour and 46 minutes on Friday. The Bulgarian is through to his third semi-final at the Aegon Championships (also 2012, 2014). "It wasn't easy to play the game that I wanted today, so I played a little bit more slice and simplified my game. I just had to count on certain weapons and play well at the right moments," said Dimitrov. "It's been awhile since I've felt that good on the court, so I'm going to try to use that momentum and focus entirely on my side." Dimitrov...
Fourth seed Alexander Zverev held off an inspired challenge from seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut on Friday in Halle, delighting the home crowd by reaching the semi-finals of the Gerry Weber Open with a 6-7(6), 7-6(1), 6-1 win. "I started being more aggressive and tried to go for shots more if you rally with him on the baseline especially on grass because the shots are so flat it’s very difficult.," said Zverev. "I just wanted to be more aggressive, try more things. "It felt like I was better than him the whole second set. I had more chances than him on his serve. And I looked at the stats: I only lost three points on my serve in total in...
