It is set to be an action packed Saturday in Marrakech, after rain forced organisers at the Grand Prix Hassan II to cancel all matches on Friday. All four singles quarter-final matches and both doubles semi-finals will now be played on Saturday, with winners returning later in the day to compete in the last four of the singles and the doubles championship match. The quarter-final draw is headlined by Kyle Edmund, who will meet Tunisia's Malek Jaziri on Court Central at 11am. Edmund reached his third quarter-final of 2018 in Marrakech on Thursday, after a 6-2, 6-4 win over Radu Albot. The Australian Open semi-finalist needed just 74 minutes to secure his ninth win of the season, winning 83 per...
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan began their bid for a seventh Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship title in style on Wednesday, beating Taro Daniel and Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-1. The Miami Open presented by Itaú champions took just 46 minutes to win their sixth consecutive match on tour, winning 81 percent of points behind their first serves and breaking their Japanese opponents on five occasions. The top seeds are looking to reach their fourth consecutive final on tour, having reached finals in Acapulco and Indian Wells before winning their 115th title as a team in Miami. There was mixed success for the twins’ fellow seeded teams in Texas, as Dustin Brown and Frances Tiafoe upset second...
Nick Kyrgios has overcome a slow start in his first clay-court singles outing of the season to see off the threat of home hopeful Bjorn Fratangelo in the second round of the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship on Wednesday night. In his River Oaks debut, the 22-year-old Australian rebounded for a 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-2 victory over Fratangelo, the No.108 in the ATP Rankings. The American had registered a win over Kyrgios’s countryman Jordon Thompson in the opening round on Monday. That same day, Kyrgios had opened his Houston doubles campaign, partnering good friend and countryman Matt Reid in a loss to Ivo Karlovic and Daniel Nestor. [ALSO LIKE] After his fourth ATP World Tour-level title and...
Gilles Simon emerged victorious in a battle of 2018 ATP World Tour titlists at the Grand Prix Hassan II on Wednesday. The Tata Open Maharashtra champion overcame surprise Ecuador Open winner Roberto Carballes Baena 7-5, 6-1 in one hour and 49 minutes to book his place in the quarter-finals. The French veteran won 66 per cent of points behind his first serve and will next meet 2014 champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez or fourth seed Richard Gasquet. Morocco’s Lamine Ouahab produced a huge shock to open the day on Court Central, coming from a set down to defeat World No. 34 Philipp Kohlschreiber 2-6, 6-0, 7-6(3). Ouahab, competing in his first main draw match on the ATP World Tour in two years,...
Steve Johnson was within two points of a disappointing defeat on Tuesday night. A year after winning the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Clay Court Championship in Houston, the American was on the verge of falling in the opening round. But the 28-year-old overcame a 5/4 deficit in a second-set tie-break to defeat 2017 Houston semi-finalist Ernesto Escobedo 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 in two hours, 25 minutes as day turned to night. "He's definitely a good frontrunner. He hits the ball very hard. He kind of takes the racquet out of your hands," Johnson said. "Later stages of that tie-break in the second, I just needed to take it to him, make sure, win or lose, I did it on my...
