Top seed Andy Murray of Great Britain advanced to the final eight of the China Open after dismissing Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 6-2, 6-1 on Wednesday evening. The 2014 semifinalist (l. to Djokovic) won 81 per cent of first-serve points and broke his opponent seven times during the 76-minute encounter. By reaching his 11th quarter-final of the season, Murray improves to a 57-9 match record — the most wins on the ATP World Tour this season. Along the way, he picked up four titles: Rome (d. Djokovic), London/Queen’s Club (d. Raonic), the Rio Olympics (d. del Potro), and his second Wimbledon crown (d. Raonic). He next faces countryman Kyle Edmund, who dismissed Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in their...
David Goffin moved into the quarter-finals of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 on Wednesday after beating Jiri Vesely 6-3, 7-5. Goffin earned his 40th tour-level win of the year and moved into his eighth quarter-final of 2016. Instead of facing top seed and home favourite Kei Nishikori in the final eight, the Belgian will instead meet Portugal’s Joao Sousa, who had gone winless in his past 21 meetings with Top-10 players. The Japanese star was up 3-0 against Sousa, but suffered an acute injury to his gluteus muscle and retired from his second-round match while leading 4-3. “It was hugely disappointing to have to retire from my match, especially since I was playing much better than during my...
#NextGen star Alexander Zverev extended his win streak to seven matches on Wednesday at the China Open by storming into the quarter-finals over Jack Sock, 6-4, 6-2. "I thought I served very well, played very aggressively and returned pretty good," said Zverev. "I had to take away his very good forehand from the baseline and being a break up each set gave me a little bit of confidence." Next up for Zverev is fifth seed David Ferrer, who defeated Fabio Fognini earlier in the day, 6-3, 6-4. Ferrer leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 1-0, but that win came over two years ago in Hamburg and Zverev is a much improved player since then. “He beat me quite easily when...
Pablo Carreno Busta and Rafael Nadal reached the China Open semi-finals as they defeated local wild cards Mao-Xin Gong and Ze Zhang 7-5, 6-3 on Wednesday in Beijing. Carreno Busta is looking to reach his second ATP World Tour doubles final in as many weeks after finishing runner-up in Chengdu on Sunday (w/ Fyrstenberg). The 25 year old also made the US Open final last month (w/ Garcia-Lopez). Nadal, meanwhile, is chasing his second doubles triumph of the season after winning the gold medal with Marc Lopez at the Rio Olympics. Top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan survived a marathon opening round over Roberto Bautista Agut and David Ferrer, 6-1, 3-6, 16-14. They saved two match points at 10/11...
Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Gilles Simon dealt a tough loss to Barclays ATP World Tour Finals hopefuls Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin, saving two match points en route to a 1-6, 6-4, 13/11 win in the first round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 on Wednesday. Qureshi/Simon saved match points down 9/8 and 11/10 in the Match Tie-break, then won the final three points to upset the recent Shenzhen Open finalists. While Marach/Martin, who are 10th in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, failed to make up ground on No. 8 Henri Kontinen and John Peers, Kontinen and Peers were in turn unable to increase their 605-point lead. The Finnish/Australian duo was beaten by 6-7(5), 6-3, 14-12 by...