#NextGenATP Aussie Alex de Minaur and his mentor, former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, gave it a good go at the Millennium Estoril Open this week, but their intriguing run has come to an end. Britain's Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie ousted De Minaur and Hewitt, who came out of retirement to play doubles, 6-4, 7-6(4), in one hour, 25 minutes. De Minaur and Hewitt battled from a 1-4 deficit in the second set to 4-4 and saved two match points while serving down 4-5, but were unable to complete the comeback, as the Brits advanced to the semi-finals. There was a significant upset in Estoril, as Jonathan Eysseric and Joe Salisbury defeated top seeds John Peers and Jean-Julien Rojer...
Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri caused a major upset on Thursday at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open. The World No. 78 knocked out top-seeded Croatian and defending champion Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-2 for the second Top 10 win of his career (2-11) and a place in the quarter-finals. “I’m really happy to win. It's a very important match in my career,” said Jaziri. "I’ve worked really hard to get this win over a Top 5 player. It wasn’t an easy match as I needed to be focused every point, so to keep my error count down. I feel as if I am improving my tennis and fitness every week.” Newly-wed Cilic, who beat Milos Raonic in the 2017 Istanbul final, took...
Second seed Roberto Bautista Agut is one match win away from reaching the BMW Open by FWU semi-finals for the third time (2015, 2017), after the Spaniard beat #NextGenATP Norwegian wild card Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday. Bautista Agut, who is currently No. 14 in the ATP Rankings, lost just four of his first-serve points (31/35) and converted two of his 10 break-point opportunities for victory in 77 minutes. The World No. 14 will next meet three-time former champion Philipp Kohlschreiber, who, earlier in the day, joined fellow German Maximilian Marterer in the quarter-finals. Kohlschreiber improved to 31-10 at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament — where he picked up titles in 2007 (d. Youzhny), 2012 (d. Cilic) and...
Dominic Inglot and Robert Lindstedt secured their place in the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open quarter-finals on Wednesday when they knocked out Roman Jebavy and Florin Mergea 7-6(4), 6-1 in 71 minutes. The pair has won one ATP World Tour title together at the 2015 Winston-Salem Open (d. Butorac-Lipsky). The British-Swedish team will next challenge fourth seeds Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski, champions at the Open Sud de France (d. McLachlan/Nys) in February. At the Millennium Estoril Open, top seeds John Peers and Jean-Julien Rojer joined forces to knock out Argentines Guillermo Duran and Andres Molteni 6-2, 7-6(2) in 75 minutes. They will now meet Jonathan Eysseric and Joe Salisbury, who scraped past Sander Arends and Adil Shamasdin 6-3, 3-6,...
Top seed Alexander Zverev recovered from a set down to defeat countryman Yannick Hanfmann 6-7(12), 6-4, 6-2 at the BMW Open by FWU on Wednesday. "I am always happy to get a win like that," reflected Zverev. "Obviously [Hanfmann] played one of the best matches of his life today, so I wish him all the best and I hope he is going to continue playing like this in the next few weeks." The defending champion appeared to be in danger of an early upset after Hanfmann converted his seventh set point in a marathon first-set tie-break, but Zverev put the disappointment of failing to convert two set points of his own behind him to secure victory. The 21-year-old German improves...
