Tommy Robredo celebrated his 35th birthday with an opening win and an on-court cake presentation on Monday at the Millennium Estoril Open. The Spaniard won 84 per cent of his first-serve points to get past Russian Evgeny Donskoy, the only man to beat Roger Federer this season, 6-3, 6-2. Robredo will next face top seed and countryman Pablo Carreno Busta. South African Kevin Anderson won his third clay-court match of the season, beating Italian qualifier Salvatore Caruso 6-2, 6-3 in 74 minutes. Two home hopefuls also advanced on day one in Estoril. Gastao Elias outlasted Tunisia's Malek Jaziri 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and 16 minutes. Portuguese wild card Frederico Ferreira Silva advanced past Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 6-2, 6-2...
Tommy Haas began his Munich swan song with his 21st victory in the Germany city, beating Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Monday at the BMW Open by FWU. The 39-year-old Haas, who's playing in the Munich tournament for the 12th and final time, didn't face a break point in the final two sets and dropped only one point on serve (20/21) in the decider. “I'm very excited to be back here after many years, on my last run in Munich,” said Haas, who last played in Munich in 2014. “It was a tough start for me. I think Sergiy played extremely well in the beginning, mixing it up and really letting me guess most of the time what's...
Lucas Pouille didn’t put a foot wrong on Sunday at the Gazprom Hungarian Open in Budapest, storming through the final with a 6-3, 6-1 win over qualifier Aljaz Bedene. The victory gives Pouille his second ATP World Tour title, with the Frenchman’s maiden trophy coming last year on home soil in Metz. Pouille improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Bedene to 2-0, including a victory this February in Marseille en route to the final (l. Tsonga). He has been in fine form on this clay this season and also reached the semi-finals last week at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. "I feel very happy with the way I started the clay season. To win here gives me a lot of confidence...
One week after securing a record 10th title at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Rafael Nadal etched his name in the history books once again, lifting a 10th trophy at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. Nadal's historic conclusion to the month of April extended to home soil, defeating Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-1. "I'm very satisfied. It's been an emotional day for me. Playing in front of my crowd and my club and winning a 10th title here is something that's impossible to even dream of. It's very special and unique,” said Nadal. “I played my best match of the tournament this afternoon against probably the toughest opponent in the tournament, so I'm very happy." Nadal has relinquished just one set in...
Brian Baker celebrated his 32nd birthday in style, claiming the doubles title at the inaugural Gazprom Hungarian Open alongside Nikola Mektic. Baker and Mektic prevailed 7-6(2), 6-4 over Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in Budapest, needing one hour and 27 minutes to secure their second team title on the ATP World Tour. Also the champions at the Memphis Open in February, they improved to 2-0 in tour-level finals together. The fourth seeds were ruthless on serve, dropping just 17 of 65 points in the final encounter. They took the first set in a tie-break and broke immediately at love to open the second, before eventually emerging victorious on their second match point. "I couldn't have asked for a better...
