Viktor Troicki secured just his third win in nine matches since the 2017 Rolex Shanghai Masters to beat former Top 10 player Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3 at the Diema Xtra Sofia Open on Tuesday. The 31-year-old started strong with an early break of serve before closing out the opener to love with confidence. The second set saw dominant serving from both men, with none of the 12 games reaching deuce before Gulbis dominated the tie-break to force a decider. Troicki continued his dominant serving in the third set, and after breaking the Latvian in the fourth game, served out the match to love five games later to end Gulbis’ challenge. Troicki did not face a single break point in...
Thomaz Bellucci attempted to beat Victor Estrella Burgos at the Ecuador Open in each of its first three editions (2015 SF, 2016 F, 2017 SF), but the Brazilian failed each time. Estrella Burgos would go on to win the Quito trophy all three years. But after winning the first set against the Dominican on Monday evening and losing just three points through his first four service games in the second set, would the fourth time be the charm for Bellucci? Not so fast. The three-time defending champion Estrella Burgos battled back to beat the Brazilian for the fourth time in Quito in four years 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour, 55 minutes to deny Bellucci his 200th tour-level victory. It...
Andrey Rublev had a tremendous 2017 season, soaring from No. 156 to No. 39 in the ATP Rankings, claiming his maiden title in Umag and finishing runner-up at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. And after the 20-year-old Russian advanced to the Qatar ExxonMobil Open final to open his 2018 ATP World Tour season, he still has not slowed. Rublev defeated 34-year-old Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 6-4 in 75 minutes to move into the second round at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier on Monday. In the pair’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head encounter, Rublev won all but six of his first-serve points (29/35) and broke three times to claim victory. He can possibly face fellow #NextGenATP contender Stefanos...
In 2017, Lukas Lacko did not win a main draw tour-level match after the Australian Open until the Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open in Newport in July. This year, the Slovakian wasted no time, upsetting eighth seed Evgeny Donskoy 6-4, 6-4 at the Diema Xtra Sofia Open on Monday. Lacko extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against the Russian to 2-0, with their previous meeting coming at the 2014 Shenzhen Open. The Slovakian broke twice in the match, and did not face break point himself to advance to the second round, where he will face either Moldovan Radu Albot or qualifier Jozef Kovalik. In the only other main draw match of the day, seventh seed Joao Sousa withstood...
FRANCE 3, NETHERLANDS 1 Venue: Halle Olympique, Albertville, FRA (hard- indoor) Adrian Mannarino banished the disappointment of his loss on Friday to beat Robin Haase in a five-set marathon 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5, 6-7(2), 7-5 and book France’s spot in the quarter-finals of Davis Cup World Group play, in which the defending champion will play Italy. "Having my teammates cheer for me meant I could fight point after point," Mannarino told DavisCup.com. "I had to give it my all. I'm so happy to have this moment." Mannarino arrived late to the tie — he was in Malta on Thursday — after both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Lucas Pouille were forced to the sidelines with injury. But Mannarino found his footing and earned his first Davis Cup triumph in dramatic...
