Donald Young didn’t have a break point chance against John Isner on Friday at the Memphis Open, but still managed to record his first win over the second seed to reach the semi-finals, 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(6). “He’s beaten me every time we’ve played, so I wanted to finally get one of these wins. I’m glad I stayed calm and played through some tightness to come out on top,” said Young in his on-court interview. “It always come down to a couple of points here and there with John, but luckily I was able to win those points today.” There were no break points for either Young or Isner in the first or third sets, while Isner recorded the lone break...
Top seed Kei Nishikori is rounding into impressive form at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires, sprinting into the last four on Friday with a 6-1, 6-4 win over sixth seed Joao Sousa. Nishikori wasted little time jumping to a 4-0 lead, dominating the lengthy baseline rallies in capturing the opening set. Sousa settled into the match and hung tough with the top seed throughout the second set, but the World No. 5 in the Emirates ATP Rankings secured the critical break up 5-4 to wrap up the contest in 72 minutes. Nishikori evens his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Sousa to 1-1, with the Portuguese player prevailing via retirement last October in Tokyo. Since dropping his opening set this week...
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga held his nerve on Friday to book a place in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament semi-finals where he will meet Tomas Berdych. The Czech leads Tsonga 8-3 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, including a 7-5, 6-3 win at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open last month. "Tomas is very consistent, with a full game: very consistent and covers the court well,” said Tsonga, ahead of their clash on Saturday. “The best strategy is to play well!” Berdych admitted, "My own game will be extremely important tomorrow, as I will try to dictate from the very beginning. I need to be focused from the first point.” Sixth seed Tsonga, who finished runner-up to Robin Soderling in the 2011 Rotterdam...
Fourth seed Steve Johnson showed impressive resilience in reaching the quarter-finals in Memphis, rallying from a set down on Thursday to defeat qualifier and fellow American Tim Smyczek, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. “I didn’t play my best tennis at the beginning, but I figured it out at the end,” said Johnson. “You can’t always play your A-game and he was doing everything that he needed to do, so I just had to go to Plan B.” Smyczek appeared primed for the upset in the opening set, saving all four break points against him and breaking Johnson twice to grab the early lead. But the fourth seed shifted the momentum down 3-4 in the second set, winning nine of the final 11...
Alexandr Dolgopolov provided the first major upset at the Argentina Open, putting in a solid performance on Thursday to move into the quarter-finals over second seed Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 7-6(4). A lone break of serve was all the Ukranian needed to capture the opening set. Both players traded routine service holds throughout the second set, but Dolgopolov rallied from 1/4 down in the tie-break to win the final six points and prevail in one hour and 18 minutes. Dolgopolov improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record over Cuevas to 2-0, with his previous win over the Uruguayan coming three years ago in Buenos Aires. Next up for him is Gerald Melzer, a 7-6(4), 6-3 winner over local qualifier Guido Andreozzi. The...
