Milos Raonic will look to reach the Roland Garros quarter-finals for the second time on Sunday when he faces Pablo Carreno Busta. Raonic leads 3-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, but the pair has never met on clay. “He's playing quite well and has improved over the past 16 months or so,” said fifth seed Raonic, looking ahead to his fourth-round opponent. “He's very solid and he's disciplined. He shows up, and he's there, and he doesn't exit the match. You really have to beat him, take it to him. It's going to be about trying to get control and trying to hold on to it throughout the match.” When asked about his chances against Raonic, Carreno Busta said,...
Sixth seed Dominic Thiem ended Steve Johnson’s brave run at Roland Garros with a 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-3 victory over the American in the third round on Friday. It has been an emotional week in Paris for Johnson, whose father recently passed away. The American wept on court after his four-set battle with Borna Coric in the second round, and was embraced by Thiem as the Austrian ended his run on Court 1. [ALSO LIKE] Last year’s semi-finalist, Thiem earned his second win over Johnson in two hours and three minutes. The right-hander hit 45 winners and converted four of his 15 break points to record his 32nd match win of the season. "I think it was a good match today,...
Nine-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal fired a warning to his rivals on Friday when he stepped up his bid for ‘La Decima’ with a flawless performance in his 100th best-of-five-sets clay-court match (98-2). The Spanish superstar overwhelmed Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-0, 6-1, 6-0 for a place in the fourth round. "I think I played great," said Nadal. "I think at the beginning of the match, I thought my opponent was not playing bad, but I was able to produce winners, to play with no mistakes, to play very long. I hit with a very high intensity on all the shots. It was a great match for me. I won, with that score, against a player who had already beaten...
Former Top 10 player Kevin Anderson looked like he's well on his way to returning to his career-high Emirates ATP Ranking on Thursday at Roland Garros. The South African dropped the first set against Nick Kyrgios but sprinted to the finish to advance to the third round 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2. It's only the second time Anderson has reached the third round of a Grand Slam since his breakthrough Grand Slam performance at the 2015 US Open, when he beat Andy Murray to advance to his first quarter-final. The next month, Anderson reached No. 10 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. “I knew I was going to have to play very focused and overcome some challenges, which definitely was the case...
#NextGenATP stars Hyeon Chung and Karen Khachanov scored big wins on Thursday at Roland Garros to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in their young careers. Chung broke Denis Istomin seven times in scoring a convincing 6-1, 7-5, 6-1 win. The 21-year-old Korean only lost seven points on his first serve and was extremely efficient with his volleys, winning 12 of 13 trips to the net. He fired a backhand winner to wrap up the match after one hour and 51 minutes. Chung improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head Series over Istomin 2-1, including a win this April in Barcelona. “I’m trying to focus all the time and enjoy myself on the court,” said Chung....