Nick Kyrgios kept up his blistering pace during the ATP World Tour's Asian swing on Tuesday in Shanghai. The #NextGen star prevailed against American Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-4 in 54 minutes to move into the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters, the season's eighth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. Kyrgios, who won his first ATP 500 level tournament on Sunday in Tokyo (d. Goffin), blasted 14 aces and didn't face a break point against Querrey. The Aussie is playing with a career-high ranking of No. 14 and could make a run for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals yet this season. The top eight qualify for the year-end championships, to be held 13-20 Nov. at The O2 in...
There are so many firsts for you here, but more importantly for me, this is the first time in your career that you’ve had four straight-sets win. What does that say about your focus this week? Finally, I’m not having to squeak matches out like I have been. Like I said in Cary, I still wasn’t fully there mentally. I really buckled down this week after seeing my friend Darian King win the title in Tiburon, thinking I really could have won that. That got me locked in here and I was very business-like this week. This was a really good mental week for me. I dug in deep and took it to all my opponents. What does reaching the...
A trio of Next Generation stars showed they're ready compete now on Monday at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, the season's penultimate ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. Nineteen-year-old Alexander Zverev, 21-year-old Kyle Edmund and 18-year-old Taylor Fritz all enjoyed winning debuts during Day Two at the Qizhong Tennis Center. Zverev broke John Isner four times to dismiss the American 6-4, 6-2 in 69 minutes. The young German beat the 31 year old at his own game during their first meeting. Zverev almost doubled Isner's ace tally – nine to five – and won a higher percentage of first-serve points than the 6'10” Isner – 77 to 71. At 4-4 in the first set, Isner was serving when Zverev pushed him...
A LOOK BACK Stockton ATP Challenger (Stockton, California): In a battle of American #NextGen stars, third seed Frances Tiafoe picked up his second ATP Challenger Tour title of 2016 by defeating Noah Rubin, 6-4, 6-2. This was the fifth all-#NextGen final of the year, four of which involved Tiafoe. The Maryland native will make his debut in the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday, joining World No. 71 Taylor Fritz as the second 18-year-old American. At 18 years and eight months, No. 100 Tiafoe overtakes his countryman as the leader for the ATP Star of Tomorrow Award presented by Emirates. The youngest player in the year-end Top 100 will receive the special honour during the Barclays ATP...
Some players discuss an injury layoff as a blessing in disguise, a chance to spend time at home with friends and family while working to become stronger than ever. #NextGen star Noah Rubin doesn’t quite have those same views. “It was a pain,” he laughed. “I hurt my ankle training in Florida, flew to Florida for the grass-court season thinking it would be okay and then it wasn’t. Two-and-a-half months later, I played a Challenger and couldn’t really move, so I had to take another few weeks off. I’ve played a couple of tournaments now, so this is basically my start back and trying to get my [Emirates] ATP Ranking up to where it was.” After a largely frustrating summer,...