Third seed Gilles Muller struck eight aces and lost five of his first service points to defeat wild card Pedro Sousa 6-3, 6-2 in 67 minutes on Thursday at the Millennium Estoril Open. The win puts the 33-year-old Luxembourg native into his third ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season. “You want to win no matter what court it is, so it’s been frustrating to not win many matches on clay the past few years,” said Muller. “But I did things differently this year and went to Monaco 10 days before my tournaments. I had a couple of good matches in Monte-Carlo and now here, so it’s been working well. He will next face Taro Daniel, who dismissed qualifier Bjorn...
#NextGenATP Korean Hyeon Chung recorded the biggest win of his career on Thursday when he knocked out World No. 16 Gael Monfils in a rain-interrupted encounter at the BMW Open by FWU. Chung, currently No. 78 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, followed on from last week’s run to the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Monfils, who had been attempting to record his 400th match win. Play was suspended due to rain with Chung leading 6-2, 3-3, leading to a 90-minute delay. “I’m so happy as it’s the biggest win of my career," Chung told ATPWorldTour.com. "It was a tough match against Gael and I tried to stay calm all the time. The rain delay...
Third seed Diego Schwartzman is still in contention to defend his crown at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open, advancing to the quarter-finals on Thursday with a convincing 6-1, 6-3 win over Jordan Thompson. The Argentine didn’t drop serve and broke Thompson four times to reach the last eight in one hour and 21 minutes. Schwartzman has been impressive on the clay so far this season, reaching the quarter-finals at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. “I always like to be in Istanbul. It’s my third time here and I always play really well,” said Schwartzman. “I don’t know why, but I always have a lot of confidence on this Centre Court.” Watch Live On TennisTV Watch Full Match Replays Awaiting him...
Second seed Roberto Bautista Agut escaped from the brink of defeat on Wednesday at the BMW Open by FWU, rallying from 3-5 in the deciding set to reach the quarter-finals over Marius Copil 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-5. The Romanian Copil captured the lone break of serve in the opening set at 2-2, but Bautista Agut came back from an early break down in the second set and dominated the tie-break to force a decider. Copil served for the match at 5-3 in the final set and came within two points of winning, but the Spaniard fought back to win the final four games and prevail in two hours and 28 minutes. He improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Copil to 2-0...
Top seed Pablo Carreno Busta earned his first win against countryman Tommy Robredo, moving into the Millennium Estoril Open quarter-finals with a 7-6(5), 7-5 victory on Wednesday. The 25-year-old Carreno Busta hadn't won a set and was 0-3 against the 35-year-old Robredo during their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. But all three of their past match-ups took place in 2014, and Carreno Busta has leaped in the Emirates ATP Rankings since their most recent contest, a quarter-final at Umag in 2014. At the time, Carreno Busta was ranked No. 57 and hadn't reached an ATP World Tour final. Nearly three years later, though, the 6'2” Spaniard is ranked No. 21, has reached five finals and won two ATP World Tour titles...
