Three of the ATP World Tour’s biggest stars needed to dig deep Wednesday to reach the third round of Roland Garros. Second seed Alexander Zverev, who has won three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles but never reached a Grand Slam quarter-final, looked to be headed for more heartbreak at the majors when he trailed Serbian Dusan Lajovic two sets to one. But the leader of the ATP Race To London powered home, winning 12 of the last 15 games of the match to win 2-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. It was his 18th win from his past 20 matches. Read Report “In the fourth and fifth sets, I really felt good out there even though I was a little...
Dominic Thiem will take a two sets to one lead to sleep on Wednesday night as his second-round match at Roland Garros with #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas was suspended because of darkness 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Thiem is trying to reach his third consecutive semi-final at Roland Garros and is a favourite to challenge 10-time champion Rafael Nadal in Paris. The Austrian, though, has been pushed by the 19-year-old Tsitsipas, who beat Thiem last month in straight sets at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. [ALSO LIKE] Thiem raced through the opening set but Tsitsipas rebounded well, breaking three times to even the match. Thiem, however, powered his way past the Greek to take the third set. The winner of Thiem-Tsitsipas will...
Nicolas Mahut clinched his 300th doubles match win on Wednesday at Roland Garros, saving two match points alongside Pierre-Hugues Herbert to defeat Robert Lindstedt and Marcin Matkowski 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(6). The home favourites secured victory after two hours and five minutes, winning four consecutive points from 4/6 down in the final-set tie-break to secure the win. Mahut and Herbert dropped only eight points behind their first serves and fired seven aces to reach the second round at their home Grand Slam. Mahut, who turned professional in 2000, owns 23 doubles wins from 40 matches on the Parisian clay and is aiming to win his first Roland Garros title on his 18th attempt. The 36-year-old's best result came in 2013 when...
Grigor Dimitrov might not have had the clay-court season he had envisioned before Roland Garros – the Bulgarian reached just one semi-final, at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. But the fourth seed has fought his way through the early rounds in Paris. Dimitrov withstood an aggressive effort from American Jared Donaldson on Wednesday, coming back from two sets to one down to beat the 21-year-old 6-7(2), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 in four hours and 20 minutes. The Bulgarian served from behind in the fifth set, but kept his focus as Donaldson struggled with cramps and took his chances while returning. “It's great to win a match in five sets. I think it stays with you, you keep it, and especially on...
Kei Nishikori once again proved his quality in deciding sets, coming from two sets to one down to beat France’s Benoit Paire 6-3, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 at Roland Garros on Wednesday. Ranked No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Performance Zone for his all-time leading deciding set win percentage (75.9), Nishikori battled past the Frenchman in just under three hours on Court Philippe Chatrier. The Japanese star now owns a 17-6 record in deciding fifth sets after his second win over French opposition in as many rounds. The World No. 21 also moves to 5-2 against home players at the clay-court Grand Slam championship. Nishikori defeated wild card Maxime Janvier in three sets in his opening match. "It was a...
