It was home cooking for Stan Wawrinka on Saturday at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open, as the local favourite successfully defended his crown in the Swiss metropolis. The top seed ousted Mischa Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and 20 minutes to lift the trophy. Wawrinka, who was born in nearby Lausanne, improved to 9-1 in Geneva, having also prevailed last year (d. Cilic). Zverev denied 13 of 18 break points faced, but Wawrinka was clutch in the big moments. It was the 16th tour-level title for the World No. 3 and first since winning the US Open last year. He takes home €85,945 in prize money and 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points. "The level was great today,...
Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau came up clutch with their backs against the wall on Saturday at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open, rallying for their 14th team title. The Dutch-Romanian duo overcame a set deficit and survived a championship point at 6-5 in the second set tie-break, edging Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 2-6, 7-6(9), 10-6. "It was a really tough match," said Rojer. "Robert and Sebas were playing well the whole week. They played better today for the majority of the match and this time we got a little lucky after going down match point. We're very happy with the win and it gives us a lot of confidence going into the French Open." Tecau provided the...
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga celebrated a hat trick of ATP World Tour titles this season on Saturday, prevailing past Czech Tomas Berdych 7-6(2), 7-5 in the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon final. The title is Tsonga's first clay-court crown and his 15th overall title. The Frenchman improved to 3-0 in title matches this season, having also won back-to-back indoor crowns at Rotterdam and Marseille in February. “I am very happy. First title on clay court. It is now added to my CV and I can move on. I am going to enjoy this title today and tomorrow. It has been a great week overall,” Tsonga said. Never before has Tsonga won more than three titles in a season, although he looks poised to...
Stan Wawrinka will attempt to retain his Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open title on Saturday when he faces German qualifier Mischa Zverev in the final. The Swiss star, who is tied 1-1 lifetime against Zverev in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, is aiming to lift the 16th tour-level trophy of his career. Wawrinka improved to a 19-8 record on the season when he defeated Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 7-6(4) in one hour and 39 minutes on Friday. He is 6-5 in clay-court finals and his last crown came in September 2016 at the US Open (d. Djokovic). "The crowd has been great this week," said Wawrinka. "They are very loud and support me a lot when I need most. I’m...
Third seed Tomas Berdych will play for his first ATP World Tour title of the season after earning revenge against Canadian Milos Raonic 7-6(5), 7-6(2) on Friday during the semi-finals of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon. Berdych had lost to Raonic in straight sets eight days ago at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, and Raonic led their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 5-2. But the 31-year-old Berdych delivered nine aces to eke out a tight win and reach his first ATP World Tour final since last October, when he beat Richard Gasquet to win the Shenzhen Open. “Best match here definitely. I'm improving match by match, which is good and that's very important. I'm happy with the way the week...
