Aussie Jordan Thompson shocked World No. 1 Andy Murray on Tuesday, knocking out the five-time champion 7-6(4), 6-2 at the Aegon Championships in London for the biggest win of his career. The 23-year-old lucky loser had never won a tour-level grass-court match before, falling in his previous four matches. He wasn't even in the main draw when Tuesday started, having lost his second qualifying match to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. But Thompson benefitted from Brit Aljaz Bedene's withdrawal and seized the opportunity on centre court. “I played really well. Served great. Got a lot of free points. Gave myself every opportunity in the rallies and didn't make too many errors. Yeah, it was a good day at the office,” Thompson said....
Roger Federer added another milestone to his historic career on Tuesday, celebrating his 1,100th match win to start his Gerry Weber Open campaign in Halle. The eight-time champion breezed past lucky loser Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-3, 6-1 in 52 minutes to move into the second round at the ATP World Tour 500 event. “It [the milestone] was mentioned in Stuttgart but I had forgotten about it. I appreciate these numbers way more today than ever before. I think I can embrace them more. It’s a big number and I’m very happy to have a chance to hopefully add some more wins to that number,” Federer said. MOST WINS OF ALL TIME 1 Jimmy Connors 1256 2 Roger Federer 1100...
On a day of upsets, #NextGenATP Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis pulled off the biggest win of his career on Tuesday, stunning World No. 6 and 2016 finalist Milos Raonic 7-6(5), 7-6(8) in the first round of the Aegon Championships in London. The win is Kokkinakis' first Top 10 victory and should accelerate him down the comeback trail. The 21 year old has dealt with a barrage of injuries during the past two seasons. Last year, he played only one tour-level match after enduring shoulder surgery on 29 December 2015 and battling a pectoralis strain. This season, after winning the Brisbane doubles title with countryman Jordan Thompson to start the year, Kokkinakis had to miss more than four months because of an...
Third seed Kei Nishikori had to work for his first grass-court win of the year, saving nine of 10 break points against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco to advance 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle. Nishikori, who reached the semi-finals in 2014-15, overcame 14 aces and broke the Spanish veteran three times in the two-hour and 24-minute victory. "I think it is a challenge for me to play on grass because I haven’t played the best results yet," said Nishikori. "I am trying to find how I can play on this surface. But I think I’m improving every year. And it was my first match, so I didn’t expect to play perfect anyway. It was a...
Alexander Zverev and Mischa Zverev won an all-German doubles battle on Monday at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, dismissing wild cards Florian Mayer and Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 6-1. The Zverev brothers rolled in the opener, winning 80 per cent of their service points and saving the lone break point they faced. They will meet Brian Baker of the U.S. and Alexander Peya of Austria in the quarter-finals. Baker/Peya knocked off fourth seeds and Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell champions Florin Mergea of Romania and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-8. [ALSO LIKE] Top Seeds Advance In London At the Aegon Championships in London, top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers escaped a tight opener against Americans John Isner and...