For nearly a decade, the South American nation of Chile has been waiting for a superstar to follow in the footsteps of legends Marcelo Rios and Fernando Gonzalez. That is, someone to carry the mantle in the country with a strong tennis-rich culture. Enter Nicolas Jarry. The Santiago native became the first Chilean to reach an ATP World Tour final since former World No. 5 Gonzalez lifted the trophy on home soil in Vina del Mar in 2009. Jarry defeated Horacio Zeballos 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday to advance to the title match at the Brasil Open, where he awaits Italy's Fabio Fognini. Jarry has been the comeback kid all week in Sao Paulo, rallying from a set down in...
Roberto Bautista Agut arrived in Dubai on a three-match tour-level losing streak, his first of that length since 2016. But after a tremendous week of tennis in which he dropped just one set, the Spaniard leaves with his second title of the season. Bautista Agut, the third seed, defeated second seed Lucas Pouille 6-3, 6-4 to triumph at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Saturday evening and deny the Frenchman his first appearance in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings, which the 24-year-old would have earned with a victory. "I played very good, very aggressively," Bautista Agut said. "I didn't give him all the court, all the control of the game. I played very good tennis tonight." The...
Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau lifted their 17th tour-level doubles title as a team on Saturday, beating wild cards Jamie Cerretani and Leander Paes 6-2, 7-6(2) to retain their Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships trophy. "With each match we got better," reflected Tecau. "We had tough quarter-finals and semi-finals matches. We are happy to get the win today because it was a tricky match." The defending champions backed up their 2017 title run (d. Bopanna/Matkowski) by breaking their opponents on three occasions and winning 75 per cent of their service points in the 87-minute clash. The Dutch-Romanian team ended Cerretani and Paes’ seven-match unbeaten streak as a pair at all levels. The title marks Rojer’s 26th tour-level doubles title, while...
Juan Martin del Potro notched his 10th win of the season to reach his second ATP World Tour final of 2018 at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC, defeating second seed Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-2. The World No. 9 produced an impressive performance throughout the one-hour, 31-minute clash, breaking the German on three occasions to move one win away from his first ATP 500 title since the 2013 Swiss Indoors (d. Federer) and 21st ATP World Tour crown. In his past three matches, Del Potro has beaten four-time Acapulco champion David Ferrer, World No. 6 Dominic Thiem and now World No. 5 Zverev. "It is amazing for me," Del Potro said. "I have been playing good tennis this week,...
It took Kevin Anderson more than two years to capture his fourth ATP World title. But after defeating 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier Jared Donaldson 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC on Friday evening, the 2014 Acapulco finalist is now just one victory away from winning his second trophy in a row. "It just feels great to win tonight's match," Anderson said. "When you're out there, you're not really thinking about finals and what happened before. In the heat of the battle, I thought it was a really tough match." After triumphing at the New York Open two weeks ago in his most recent event, Anderson will get a crack at his fifth trophy...
