Third seed Kei Nishikori raced through his opening round match on Monday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, going on an eight-game run to advance 7-5, 6-1 over Dusan Lajovic. "He showed great fight out there," said Nishikori. "I wish I could have played a better match, but have had good training sessions these past two weeks and am feeling good physically." Both players traded routine service holds throughout most of the opening set, but Nishikori grabbed the first break of serve at 6-5 and never looked back. He stormed to a 5-0 lead in the second set and comfortably held serve to close out the match on his first attempt. Nishikori improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Lajovic to 2-0....
Nikoloz Basilashvili dented Tomas Berdych's chances of making the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Monday at the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna. The Georgian qualifier upset the second-seeded Czech 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-5 in two hours and 35 minutes. Basilashvili won 74 per cent of his first-serve points and refused to go away against Berdych, who was looking to get his season back on track after opening losses in Tokyo and Shanghai. The 31 year old also was looking to firm up his spot in the Emirates ATP Race To London. Berdych is currently in ninth place, 325 points behind eighth-placed Dominic Thiem, who's the third seed in Vienna. Now that Berdych is out, two players could pass him...
Second seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah won their fourth doubles title of 2016 on Sunday at the VTB Kremlin Cup, fighting hard to take a 7-5, 4-6, 10-5 victory over the veteran Austrian duo of Julian Knowle/Jurgen Melzer. “It’s very special to win our first indoor title. We [had] never won more than one match at an indoor tournament,” said Cabal. “We felt very supported out there. We felt they were cheering for a high-quality tennis match and that’s what they got.” Currently No. 10 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, the Colombian duo is in contention to make their first appearance at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Their win in Moscow puts them within 500 points of...
Pablo Carreno Busta overcame injury and a set deficit to celebrate his second career ATP World Tour title on Sunday at the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow. The Spaniard outlasted Italian Fabio Fognini 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 inside Olympic Stadium. Carreno Busta won nearly 70 per cent of his first-serve points and benefitted from six Fognini double faults in the one-hour and 56-minute final. He also padded his already impressive 2016 résumé. The 25 year old has captured two ATP World Tour titles this season, having won the Winston-Salem Open crown in August (d. Bautista Agut). Carreno Busta finished runner-up on clay in Estoril and Sao Paulo. The Barcelona resident also became the third Spaniard to win two ATP World Tour...
Juan Martin del Potro ended a 33-month drought in style, racing to the finish 7-5, 6-1 against Jack Sock at the If Stockholm Open on Sunday. The Argentine’s most recent tour-level crown had come against Bernard Tomic in Sydney at the start of the 2014 season. He now owns 19 tour-level titles. “I’ve been trying to fix my problems for the past two years and I didn’t expect to win a title at this moment in my career,” del Potro said. “I am so happy to get the trophy here. It’s motivation for looking forward to the future. “I don’t really mind the rankings or the numbers. I just want to play better. When I’m 100 per cent I know...