If Pablo Cuevas is to lift his fourth successive Brasil Open crown, he'll have to work for it. Cuevas became the first player to advance to the semi-finals in Sao Paulo with a 6-2, 6-7(13), 7-6(5) win over Leonardo Mayer on Friday. The tournament's third seed needed five match points before downing the Argentine in two hours and 55 minutes. The total points won summarised the close contest: 111 for Mayer, 112 for Cuevas. After the match, the 32-year-old Uruguayan admitted he was proud of his 15-match winning streak at the Brasil Open and happy to have support from the fans in attendance." "It was a very tough, long match," Cuevas said. "I had a lot of chances in that...
If Pablo Cuevas is to lift his fourth successive Brasil Open crown, he'll have to work for it. Cuevas became the first player to advance to the semi-finals in Sao Paolo with a 6-2, 6-7(13), 7-6(5) win over Leonardo Mayer on Friday. The tournament's third seed needed five match points before downing the Argentine in two hours and 55 minutes. The total points won summarised the close contest: 111 for Mayer, 112 for Cuevas. After the match, the 32-year-old Uruguayan admitted he was proud of his 15-match winning streak at the Brasil Open and happy to have support from the fans in attendance. "It was a very tough, long match," Cuevas said. "I had a lot of chances in that...
Lucas Pouille reached his third final in four ATP World Tour tournaments with victory on a wet Friday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The in-form Frenchman, who is now 11-2 since an Australian Open first-round exit (l. to Bemelmans) in January, hit 16 aces to knock out seventh-seeded Serbian Filip Krajinovic 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(4) in two hours and 19 minutes. The 24-year-old Pouille now has an opportunity to break into the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings (at No. 10) for the first time. He is currently two spots off his career-high of No. 13 in the ATP Rankings (8 May 2017). Last month, he captured the Open Sud de France title (d. Gasquet) and five days ago...
Second seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau are within one victory of retaining the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title after they defeated third seeds Ivan Dodig and Rajeev Ram 7-5, 6-3 in a rain-interrupted one hour and 46 minutes on Friday. The Dutch-Romanian team has a 16-4 record in finals, including a 5-1 mark in ATP World Tour 500 title matches, and will next face Leander Paes and Jamie Cerretani in Saturday's final. The Indian/American wild card duo defeated Damir Dzumhur and Filip Krajinovic to advance to the final. Paes is just one match win away from 750 victories. Did You Know? If Paes wins the Dubai title this week, he will own 55 tour-level trophies with 15 different partners....
Kevin Anderson and Hyeon Chung looked destined for a tie-break. Chung, one of the best returners in tennis, had broken Anderson to get back on serve and even the second set at 4-4. But Anderson stayed focused. The fifth seed pumped himself up with a “Come on,” and on break point, he grabbed control right back from Chung, smashing a forehand up the line for the break. A game later, Anderson served out the match to reach his third semi-final of the season 7-6(5), 6-4. [ALSO LIKE] “I felt the first set was really touch and go. I had to save quite a few break points. I felt I played some of my best tennis down on those break points....
