Top-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka continued his bid for a 17th tour-level title on Friday, ousting familiar foe Viktor Troicki, the No. 6 seed, 6-1, 7-6(3) at the Diema Xtra Sofia Open. "I think my level is getting better," Wawrinka said. "I'm serving and moving better and it's a great win for me." The Swiss extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against the Serbian to 9-0, with their most recent match coming in the third round of the 2017 Australian Open. Wawrinka, who is still on the mend after two left knee surgeries last summer, is into the 57th tour-level semi-final of his career (28-28). After getting pushed to three sets in his opening-round match, Wawrinka appeared in control of his...
Thursday was a dangerous day to be a seeded player at the Ecuador Open. Four seeds, including the only champion the tournament has ever had, all fell in a wild day of tennis in Quito. Three-time champion Victor Estrella Burgos was the first to fall. The Dominican had been 16-0 in Quito, by far his favourite place to play. But Estrella Burgos, who came back to beat Thomaz Bellucci on Monday, fell for the first time in the Ecuadorian capital, dropping his second-round match to Austrian Gerald Melzer 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Melzer saved three of four break points to improve to 2-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. [ALSO LIKE] “I want to congratulate my opponent, he played a good...
French tennis fans had a field day of good homegrown tennis on Thursday at the Open Sud de France, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga led the way in Montpellier. The third seed never broke countryman Nicolas Mahut, but Tsonga still prevailed past the serve-and-volleying Mahut 7-6(3), 6-7(3), 7-6(4). Tsonga saved three break points, and Mahut saved four in the second-round match that lasted two hours and 24 minutes. Tsonga has made the semi-finals both times he’s played Montpellier, 2010 and 2017, and in the quarter-finals, he'll meet #NextGenATP Russian Andrey Rublev. [ALSO LIKE] Three other Frenchmen also advanced, including second seed Lucas Pouille, who dropped only one point on his first serve (22/23) to breeze past #NextGenATP Spaniard Carlos Taberner 6-1, 6-2....
If Stan Wawrinka was looking for a confidence booster, he definitely got one on Thursday. The Swiss, still on the road to recovery, overcame a shaky start to outlast Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 at the Diema Xtra Sofia Open. Klizan pressed the action early and claimed the first set in 37 minutes, but Wawrinka settled down and battled back, managing to break Klizan in the fourth game of the second set. His confidence restored, Wawrinka broke again at 5-2 to close out the set. "I expected a tough match; he's already played a few matches here," Wawrinka said of Klizan, who qualified for the event. "I just tried to focus on my game, find the right shots and be...
Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller got the better of Italian Andreas Seppi for the fourth successive time on Thursday for a place in the Diema Xtra Sofia Open quarter-finals. In a tense seventh FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting, third seed Muller struck 23 aces to edge past Seppi 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(2) in two hours and 34 minutes. "To play Andy is never easy; he's a great competitor," said Muller. "In a close match like that, you have be lucky, and luck was a little bit on my side at the end. Overall, I'm happy with my performance." When asked about his comeback from a set down, Muller added, "You just have to hang in there. I had a few chances to come back...
