Spaniard Fernando Verdasco earned his first ATP World Tour victory in Sopot, Poland against Argentine Mariano Puerta in 2002. And nearly 16 years later, the dynamic left-hander celebrates history, lacing an inside-in forehand winner to defeat Italian Paolo Lorenzi 7-5, 6-4 at the Mutua Madrid Open, becoming the 45th player in ATP World Tour history to claim 500 match wins. "It's an unbelievable victory," Verdasco told Tennis TV after the match. "Getting the 500th victory of my career is an unbelievable number that I never even thought about. I'm super-emotional and super-happy." The one-hour, 24-minute minute victory on Tuesday makes Verdasco the sixth Spaniard to join the elite club, and he is also the ninth active player to achieve the...
If his efforts since the start of 2018 had not shown enough, Canadian Milos Raonic loudly and clearly announced his return to form on Tuesday evening. The 27-year-old earned his first Top 10 win since Brisbane in 2017 (d. Nadal) with an impressive 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 triumph against reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov at the Mutua Madrid Open. "I played well. Created a lot of opportunities, made the most of a few of them," Raonic said. "Overall a very positive level and a positive performance for me." Raonic struggled throughout 2017 with various injuries. But the World No. 24, who made the semi-finals at Indian Wells and the quarter-finals at Miami earlier this year, earned his second Top...
Borna Coric competed with great confidence on Tuesday to beat ninth-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 6-4, 6-2 at the Mutua Madrid Open in one hour and 22 minutes. The Croatian won five straight games from 3-4 in the first set en route to his second straight win over the World No. 11, who he also beat in the first week of 2018 at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. Coric, who broke Carreno Busta’s serve on three occasions, was serving at 5-2, 15/15 in the second set when heavy rain began to fall at the Caja Magica at 4:19 p.m. local time, which left courtside spectators on Court Manolo Santana scurrying back to seats higher up under the roof. After a 40-minute...
Pablo Cuevas and Marcel Granollers were solid on serve on Monday to get the better of Juan Martin del Potro and Dominic Thiem 6-3, 7-6(8) in 87 minutes at the Mutua Madrid Open. Cuevas and Granollers won the first three games of the match, then, towards the end of a competitive second set, won the first four points of the tie-break. Del Potro and Thiem recovered to lead 5/4 and, having saved one match point at 5/6, could not convert one set point of their own at 7/6 as del Potro returned a backhand long. Cuevas sealed victory with an unreturned served for a place in the second round against top seeds and defending champions Lukas Kubot and Marcelo Melo....
Two-time former champion Novak Djokovic went after the second serve of Kei Nishikori on Monday to win 7-5, 6-4 in the standout first-round match of the Mutua Madrid Open. Djokovic took a big step in the right direction by hitting 26 winners in long baseline rallies to improve to 12-2 lifetime against 2014 finalist Nishikori, who had reached the Madrid quarter-final (or better) in each of the past five years. The 10th seed will next play on Wednesday in an encounter with Sydney International champion Daniil Medvedev of Russia or Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund. In an error strewn first set that saw Djokovic broken to love at 2-2, the Serbian played with great aggression and, after an accumulation of pressure,...
