No. 2 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas survived 10 aces from home favourite Evgeny Donskoy to win 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4 in the second round of the VTB Kremlin Cup on Wednesday. Donskoy saved two match points to force a second-set tie-break, which he won to extend the match, but the Russian succumbed after a three-hour battle. Ramos-Vinolas will face Fabio Fognini in the quarter-finals. The Italian broke serve five times in downing countryman Paolo Lorenzi 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 in two hours and 13 minutes. Fognini holds a commanding 7-0 lead in his FedEx ATP Hea2Head rivalry with Ramos-Vinolas and has never dropped a set against the left-hander on hard court. #NextGen star Karen Khachanov put up a good show for his home...
Power tennis was on display at the If Stockholm Open on Wednesday, as Juan Martin del Potro downed No. 7 seed John Isner 6-4, 7-6(6) in first-round action. The Argentine wild card scored his first win in three trips to Stockholm. “I’ve been here twice in the past and did not win a match. Hopefully this is a good sign for me to go far this week,” del Potro said. “I’m very happy to have a chance to come back here and to be able to show my best tennis. “Isner has a difficult game to play against. In the second set, I was lucky in the tie-break to take the chance to win the match.” Isner came into the...
He's played only two ATP World Tour matches but 18-year-old Mikael Ymer has already swept a former Top 10 player. The Swedish wild card dismissed Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-1 on Tuesday, needing only 70 minutes to eliminate the left-hander from the If Stockholm Open. Ymer impressed the Swedish crowd with poise of a more experienced, higher-ranked player, not what they might have expected from the World No. 549 who made his ATP World Tour debut a year ago in Stockholm (l. to A. Zverev). The right-hander saved all three break points faced and broke Verdasco for the fifth time to clinch the match, his first ATP World Tour victory. Ymer will have a tall task in round two. He...
Italian Paolo Lorenzi swept his countryman and lucky loser Federico Gaio 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday to move into the second round at the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow. The seventh-seeded Lorenzi will next face another Italian in Fabio Fognini, who improved to 2-0 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Ricardas Berankis by winning 6-1, 6-2 in 58 minutes. Fognini leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Lorenzi 2-1, but Lorenzi won the last time they played, on clay at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters earlier this season. Sixth seed Pablo Carreno Busta prevailed against Austrian qualifier Jurgen Melzer 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2) after two hours and 16 minutes. The Spaniard won 70 per cent of his first-serve points. [ALSO LIKE] In...
#NextGen Kyle Edmund squeaked by Ukrainian Illya Marchenko 7-6(7), 7-6(5) during his European Open debut on Tuesday in Antwerp. The 21-year-old Brit won 67 per cent of his service points and benefitted from 13 Marchenko double faults. Edmund, who's playing at a career-high No. 43 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will next play second seed David Ferrer, who received a first-round bye. [ALSO LIKE] Argentine Diego Schwartzman survived a tight contest as well, beating seventh seed Nicolas Mahut 7-6(2), 7-5. Schwartzman converted all four of his break points and will play #NextGen star Taylor Fritz or Belgian wild card Joris De Loore in the second round. Romanian qualifier Marius Copil recorded only his fourth tour-level match win of the season...