Andy Murray turned the battle for No. 1 blazing hot on Sunday with his 6-3, 7-6(6) Erste Bank Open 500 title victory against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Vienna. The Scot now trails World No. 1 Novak Djokovic by just 415 points in the Emirates ATP Race To London heading into the final week of the ATP World Tour regular season. With 1,000 points up for grabs at the BNP Paribas Masters this week, Murray could surpass the Serbian if he wins the Paris title and Djokovic does not reach the final. But Djokovic controls his fate. If he reaches the final, he'll remain No. 1. Reaching No. 1 would be a historic achievement for Murray, who, on Monday, will have spent...
Fourth seeds Marcel Granollers and Jack Sock streaked to the Swiss Indoors Basel title on Sunday, lifting the trophy in their first tournament as a team. "We knew well going into the week that if we played well, we could be a dangerous team," said Sock. "We're both crafty and like playing from the baseline, but are also comfortable at the net. We served well and he returned very well. He usually carries me on the return games. We just had fun out there and kept it light and loose." The Spanish-American duo prevailed 6-3, 6-4 over Robert Lindstedt and Michael Venus in exactly one hour at the St. Jakobshalle, saving three of four break points faced. They claimed an...
Robert Lindstedt and Michael Venus dented Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau’s London hopes on Saturday at the Swiss Indoors Basel. The Swede/Kiwi pairing saved seven of nine break points to come back and defeat Rojer/Tecau 1-6, 6-3, 10-8 in the semi-finals. In Sunday's final, Lindstedt/Venus will face fourth seeds Marcel Granollers and Jack Sock, who beat second seeds Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 6-4 in 60 minutes. Granollers/Sock saved all five break points faced. Rojer/Tecau are the defending champions at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, but they're in danger of missing the cut this season. Rojer/Tecau are currently No. 9 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, 295 points behind No. 8 Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi....
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga mounted a stunning comeback on Saturday at the Erste Bank Open 500, clawing from a set and a break deficit against Ivo Karlovic to reach his second Vienna final. Tsonga set a final clash against top seed Andy Murray after saving one match point to prevail in a 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(6) thriller. Karlovic held four break points to take a double break lead in the second set and led by a mini-break twice in the deciding tie-break, but Tsonga would flip the script in reaching his 23rd ATP World Tour final. The sixth seed is set to square off against Murray in the title match between two former Vienna champions, after David Ferrer was forced to withdraw ahead...
Kei Nishikori earned a career-best 56th win of the season at the Swiss Indoors Basel on Saturday, but had to fight back from the brink against veteran Gilles Muller. Muller held two match points in the second set before Nishikori rallied to win their semi-final match 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-3. "Gilles is a great server and I wasn't making many returns today," Nishikori said. "I made a lot of unforced errors to lose the first set." Muller, who has reached six ATP World Tour semi-finals this year by serving big and blanketing the net, uncharacteristically chose to stay back against Nishikori to start the match. He quickly went down 1-3 but his left-handed groundstrokes began to find their mark against the...