#NextGenATP Denis Shapovalov arrived at the Mutua Madrid Open without a clay-court match win on the ATP World Tour. Yet, five days after taking the court at the Caja Mágica for the first time, the Canadian defeated British No. 1 Kyle Edmund 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals in Madrid, his second appearance in the final four of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event (also 2017 Montreal). "I'm happy again to be in the semi-finals," Shapovalov said. "I never knew when my next time being in a semis would be. I'm more than thrilled to be there. Hopefully I can go even further." One year ago this week, Shapovalov was the fifth-ranked Canadian, sitting at No. 186...
Dominic Thiem ended Rafael Nadal's 21-match and 50-sets winning streaks on clay — in addition to his latest six-week reign at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings — on Friday at the Mutua Madrid Open. As a result of Nadal’s quarter-final exit, Roger Federer will return to the summit of men’s professional tennis on Monday for the 309th week of his career. Three weeks on from a humbling loss to Nadal at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, Thiem played with greater discipline and capitalised on a number of errors from the five-time Madrid champion to triumph 7-5, 6-3 for a place in Saturday’s semi-finals. “I had to play an extraordinary match, and that's what I did," said Thiem. "It takes a...
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan have accomplished countless feats throughout their careers. They have won a record 38 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles and lifted 116 tour-level trophies together. But at the Mutua Madrid Open on Friday, the brothers continued their pursuit of even more history. The second seeds battled through a tough quarter-final to oust No. 5 seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-7, advancing to the semi-finals in Madrid for the ninth time. But furthermore, they kept alive their hopes of becoming the oldest No. 1-ranked players in the ATP Doubles Rankings on Monday. If the 40-year-old Americans go on to win their third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title of the year, Bryan/Bryan will...
Kevin Anderson broke new ground on Friday when the determined South African booked a spot in his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final. The sixth seed earned his 20th match win of the year (20-6) with a 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3 victory over Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic, to break an 0-10 mark in Masters 1000 quarter-finals. In striking 15 aces, Anderson has now hit 45 aces in three matches at the Caja Magica. “I must be honest, I think I did a good job then because I didn't really think of it too much [of my 0-10 record in Masters 1000 quarter-finals]," said Anderson. "I had lots of reason to think about it. Indian Wells and Miami, not that long...
Alexander Zverev showed no signs of fatigue on Thursday in a business-like performance to reach the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals for the second consecutive year. Second seed Zverev out-hit and overpowered Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-4, 6-1 in 70 minutes. [ALSO LIKE] The German, who has now won nine of his past 10 matches, arrived in the Spanish capital on the back of lifting his seventh ATP World Tour title at the BMW Open by FWU (d. Kohlschreiber). He completed his opening win at the Caja Magica against Russian qualifier Evgeny Donskoy at 12:15 a.m. local time on Thursday. Zverev set up a Friday encounter against seventh-seeded American John Isner, who hit 32 aces to beat Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay...
