Fabio Fognini held off a late challenge from Philipp Kohlschreiber to advance to the final of the VTB Kremlin Cup 6-1, 7-6(2). The Italian is into his second ATP World Tour hard-court final, having lost in St. Petersburg to Martin Klizan four years ago. All four of Fognini’s tour-level titles have come on clay. “It’s always difficult after you win a set 6-1 to keep playing at such a high level,” Fognini said. “Against him it’s always difficult because he’s really good in every part of the game. I’m very happy and hopefully I can win the title tomorrow.” Fognini will face Pablo Carreno Busta, who won 80 per cent of first-serve points in taking out Stephane Robert 6-3, 7-6(2)....
Juan Martin del Potro will play in his first ATP World Tour final since January 2014 at the If Stockholm Open on Sunday. The Argentine delivered more powerful serving and laser-like forehands to advance past second seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday in Sweden. The 6'6” right-hander last played in an ATP World Tour final almost three years ago in Sydney. He was the top seed Down Under and beat home favourite Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-1 in the final. The Tandil native will go for a similar result on Sunday when he faces American Jack Sock, who outlasted #NextGen star Alexander Zverev 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6-4. Win or lose in the final, del Potro has already enjoyed another successful week...
Top seed David Goffin, who is currently No. 10 in the Emirates ATP Race To London and in contention for one of the three remaining spots at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, overcame a challenge from qualifier Marius Copil to prevail 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the European Open on Friday. Copil fought hard until the end, saving five match points before Goffin served out the match. "He served some bombs," Goffin said. "I really needed to find my footwork and my returns. I tried to make him go for some wrong shots, go for winners from tough positions." Goffin will play Diego Schwartzman, who beat fourth seed Pablo Cuevas, a winner of two ATP World Tour titles...
Jurgen Melzer joined Radek Stepanek as only the second active player to record 300 singles and doubles career match wins on Thursday at the VTB Kremlin Cup.
The Austrian partnered Julian Knowle to a 6-1, 5-7, 11-9 victory over Mikhail Kukushkin and Stephane Robert in Moscow. They will next face top seeds Pablo Carreno Busta and Marcel Granollers or wild cards Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev in the semi-finals.
The 35-year-old Melzer has compiled a 347-331 record, including five titles as a singles player, and is now 300-242 lifetime, with 13 trophies, as a doubles competitor.
Fabio Fognini got the better of Albert Ramos-Vinolas for the second time in as many weeks. The Italian extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head lead to 8-0 lifetime against the second seed with a 6-2, 6-2 victory on Friday for a place in the VTB Kremlin Cup semi-finals. Fognini, who also beat his Spanish opponent at last week’s Shanghai Rolex Masters, recorded his 25th match win of the year in 76 minutes. He will now challenge third seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, who beat Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-2 in 76 minutes. A duo of promising Russian teens enjoyed breakthrough runs in Moscow, but were felled by experienced opponents in the final eight. Daniil Medvedev took the second set 6-0 against veteran Stephane Robert,...