Juan Martin del Potro’s comeback continues to gather steam with the Argentine steadying to close out Bosnian Damir Dzumhur to reach the Delray Beach Open quarter-finals on Thursday night. The 2011 champion, in just his second match of the season, put paid to his 24-year-old opponent’s fightback to land a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 victory. “It was a really tough match for me,” del Potro said. “He was really fast from the baseline and I couldn’t find the place to make winners with my forehand. “I got my chances at the end of the match and I took it. I think I played my best game in the third set. “He was trying to put the ball all the time to...
Jamie Murray recorded the 300th match win of his doubles career by partnering Bruno Soares to a 6-3, 5-7, 11-9 quarter-final win at the Rio Open presented by Claro over Andres Molteni and Diego Schwartzman. Murray and Soares nearly squandered a 9/5 lead in the Match Tie-break, but recovered to prevail on their fifth match point. The top seeds now go on to face either third seeds Pablo Carreno Busta and Pablo Cuevas, who advanced 6-4, 7-5 over qualifiers Facundo Bagnis and Gastao Elias. Fourth seeds and defending Rio champions Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah continued their win streak with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak. The Colombian Power took the title last week at...
Fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta weathered a stern test on Thursday from Victor Estrella Burgos to reach the quarter-finals of the Rio Open presented by Claro with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win. Carreno Busta comfortably cruised through the opening set but Estrella Burgos, who received a Lucky Loser spot into the main draw after Gerald Melzer withdrew due to illness, grabbed the lone break in the second set at 5-4 to send the match into a decider. But the Spaniard was not to be denied, breaking Estrella Burgos twice and dropping just five points on serve to wrap up the contest in one hour and 42 minutes. He improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record over the Dominican Republican player to...
The top two seeds Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga pleased the French crowd on Thursday evening at the Open 13 Marseille as they both advanced to the quarter-finals with straight-sets wins. Monfils needed just 57 minutes to dismiss qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-1, 6-4. The right-hander dropped just eight points on serve as he set a quarter-final clash with countryman Richard Gasquet. The pair have met 12 times, with Monfils leading their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 7-5. The 30-year-old Monfils is returning to action this week for the first time since his fourth-round showing at the Australian Open (l. to Nadal). The Frenchman, who qualified for the ATP Finals for the first time last year, is looking to go one better...
Fourth seed Sam Querrey moved forward with his title defence on Thursday at the Delray Beach Open, scoring a convincing 6-2, 6-3 win over fellow American and doubles partner Jared Donaldson to reach the quarter-finals. “I was just swinging freely through everything and did a good job of committing to it,” said Querrey. “Even if I’m missing, I’m trying to keep doing it if it’s the right play. That’s what I’ve been working on a lot the past couple of days.” Querrey fired 13 aces and didn’t drop serve, breaking his opponent three times to wrap up victory in exactly one hour. He improved his FedEx ATP Head2Head record over Donaldson to 2-0. The American pair will take the court...
