Top seed and 2012 finalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas lost just two of his first-service points (20/22) to beat Moroccan wild card Amine Ahouda 6-1, 6-2 in 68 minutes on Tuesday at the Grand Prix Hassan II. Ramos-Vinolas, who has a 1-5 record in ATP World Tour finals, is 112-95 lifetime in clay-court matches according to the FedEx ATP Reliability Index (166-186 overall). "I'm happy with my match today," said Ramos-Vinolas. "I haven't a played a tournament for a month and it feels great to be back. I'm looking forward to the clay court swing and playing a lot of tournaments." He will next play Russian qualifier Alexey Vatutin, who recorded his first tour-level match win in beating Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany...
Fernando Verdasco entered his match on Monday evening at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. Clay Court Championship with a fine pedigree — both overall and on clay. The left-hander was just two tour-level wins away from No. 500 in his career, and he arrived in Houston with 213 victories on clay. His opponent, American Denis Kudla, had played just nine tour-level clay-court matches, winning only two. But that proved inconsequential as day turned to night on Centre Court, as the World No. 122 defeated 2014 Houston champion Verdasco, the World No. 36, 6-4, 7-6(4) to claim his best victory of the season by ATP Ranking. "I thought it was a great performance by me on the clay. I honestly did...
A decade ago, Gilles Simon won the title in Casablanca to begin the best year of his career, eventually finishing the season at No. 7 in the ATP Rankings and advancing to the semi-finals of the Nitto ATP Finals, where he beat Roger Federer in round-robin play. Now, the Casablanca tournament is in Marrakech. And Simon got off to a good start there on Monday, saving a match point before upsetting French compatriot Benoit Paire, the sixth seed, 6-2, 6-7(1), 7-6(5) at the Grand Prix Hassan II. The 33-year-old, who won the Tata Open Maharashtra to open the season, saved match point while serving at 4-5 in the decider and then overcame a 5/1 deficit in the final-set tie-break to...
CROATIA 3, KAZAKHSTAN 1 Venue: Varazdin Arena, Varazdin, CRO (clay - indoor) Croatia reached the Davis Cup World Group semi-finals for the second time in three years after World No. 3 Marin Cilic cruised past Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. Cilic hit 31 winners to ease past Kukushkin, who scored the visiting nation’s only point on Friday, after two hours and one minute. Since losing to Juan Martin del Potro in the 2016 final, the Croatian No.1 has won all six matches he has played in the team event. [ALSO LIKE] The Australian Open finalist improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Kukushkin to 3-1. Croatia has now won six consecutive ties on clay, with its last loss on...
SPAIN 3, GERMANY 2 Venue: Plaza de Toros de Valencia, Valencia, ESP (clay- outdoor) World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer both scored wins on Sunday to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Germany, and book Spain’s place in the Davis Cup World Group semi-finals. To begin play on Sunday, Nadal forced a decisive fifth rubber by impressively defeating Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 in a battle between two players inside the Top 5 of the ATP Rankings. The Spaniard levelled the Davis Cup quarter-final tie against Germany at 2-2 after two hours and 16 minutes, breaking the 20-year-old on six occasions en route to his second three-set win in three days. Speaking on court after the crucial win, Nadal...
