After 15 months away from the ATP World Tour due to injury, Thanasi Kokkinakis is wasting no time making headlines at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. Competing in his first tournament back, Kokkinakis and fellow Australian Jordan Thompson advanced to the doubles final on Saturday. The wild card pairing delighted the home crowd by winning nine of the final 10 games in a convincing 6-3, 6-1 win over fourth seeds Daniel Nestor/Edouard Roger-Vasselin. “We weren’t originally going to play together in this tournament, but a couple of injuries happened and we ended up teaming together,” said Kokkinakis. “Obviously it worked out.” Kokkinakis underwent shoulder surgery in December 2015, then tore a pectoral muscle leading into the US Open and...
Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are starting 2017 right where they left off in 2016. On Saturday, the two will play for the Qatar ExxonMobil Open title, the first singles crown to be decided during the young 2017 ATP World Tour season. “It's a great test tomorrow. To start the year, it's great to play against one of the best in the world,” Murray said. “We know each other's games better than we know anyone else's.” Murray advanced to the title match by beating third seed Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-4 on Friday evening. The Scot extended two streaks with the one-hour and 41-minute victory. Murray pushed his overall winning streak to 28. He also beat Berdych for the seventh consecutive...
Roberto Bautista Agut fought back from deficits in the second and deciding sets to beat 2008 champion Mikhail Youzhny on Friday for a place in the Aircel Chennai Open semi-finals. Second seed Bautista Agut, who is bidding to capture his fifth ATP World Tour title this week, triumphed 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 over seventh seed Youzhny in just over two hours. Bautista Agut recovered from a set and 1-4 deficit, then a 1-3 deficit in the deciding set. He also saved two break points when he served for the match at 5-4, and will next play fifth seed Benoit Paire for a place in his second Chennai final (also 2013). Youzhny, who came into the ATP World Tour 250 tournament on...
Novak Djokovic survived a serious scare from Fernando Verdasco at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Friday, fighting off five match points to rally past the Spaniard 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-3 and reach his first ATP World Tour final of 2017. The Serbian was down 2/6 in the second-set tie-break but erased the four match points – and another at 6/7 – to even the match. Verdasco held to open the third set but Djokovic broke two times in the decider. “It was quite a thrilling experience for me to be able to go five match points down... I'm obviously very pleased because you need these kind of matches, these kind of confidence boosters, for whatever is coming up after that,” Djokovic...
Defending champion Milos Raonic remains on course to reach the final of the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp for the third straight year. While the Canadian says that he wants to come forward more in 2017, it was his serve and big forehand that earned him a comeback win over Rafael Nadal on Friday night. World No. 3 Raonic recorded only his second victory over Nadal in eight meetings with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win in two hours and 21 minutes. The Canadian will now face seventh seed and 2013 finalist Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals on Saturday. “I played very well [and] I did a lot of very good things,” said Raonic. “I obviously served well… I started creating...