The season is only three months old, but there's already a plethora of storylines to track. Here are the top five stories of 2018 so far… Federer Off To Another Strong Start If Roger Federer’s start to 2017 was one of the stories of the year, he certainly hasn’t let up in the first quarter of the new season. The Swiss superstar continues to evolve as a player, under the guidance of his long-time coach Severin Luthi and former World No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic. Competing in his 21st year on the ATP World Tour, Federer is off to a 17-2 start, including his 20th Grand Slam championship at the Australian Open and his 97th tour-level title at the ABN Amro...
John Isner has had an adventurous couple of weeks to say the least. Arriving at Crandon Park, the 32-year-old American had won two tour-level matches all year (2-6). And in his opener at the Miami Open presented by Itau against Jiri Vesely, he lost the second set and appeared he could possibly suffer another early exit. Yet, after his second win against a Top 5 opponent in this tournament alone (now 10 in his career) on Sunday, Isner leaves Key Biscayne as the oldest first-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion in history. “I never thought I would be in this moment considering how I was playing coming into this event,” Isner said. In fact, at two of his previous...
It was a tremendous stretch for Juan Martin del Potro — the Argentine won his first ATP World Tour 500-level title since 2013 Basel in Acapulco before claiming his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy at Indian Wells. Four more victories in Miami brought his winning streak to 15 matches and a personal-best start to the season of 21-3, leading the ATP World Tour in wins. With two more triumphs, the ‘Tower of Tandil’ could have become the eighth player to win the ‘Sunshine Double’ by lifting the trophy in both Indian Wells and Miami. So while Del Potro was disappointed that he lost in straight sets against American John Isner in Friday’s semi-finals at the Miami Open presented...
Pete Sampras held a slender lead in the ATP Rankings, such that as the world’s best players hit U.S. soil in March 1998, more than 10 players with a decent run in the California and Florida sunshine, could, theoretically, have risen to No. 1. Marcelo Rios, the exquisitely talented Chilean, whose popularity in his homeland was second only to footballer Marcelo Salas, was one such player at No. 7 on the professional tennis ladder. Rios, on 2,777 points, sat 939 points behind World No. 1 Pete Sampras, who, for much of the past five years, had been the sport’s leader. In the space of 20 extraordinary days, as many years ago, the pony-tailed Rios harnessed not only his natural talent,...
Yoshihito Nishioka has made coming back from a major knee injury look simple this week at the Miami Open presented by Itau. He scouted his #NextGenATP opponent by watching YouTube videos. He adapted his gamestyle and played aggressively against Aussie Alex de Minaur. Then, during only his fifth match of the past 12 months, he routed the Sydney International finalist to set a second-round contest with 10th seed Tomas Berdych. But don't let the soft-spoken left-hander's easy success deceive you: Nishioka's rehab from a torn ACL in his left knee was as arduous as you'd expect. After surgery in early April 2017, Nishioka couldn't run for three months. He couldn't play tennis for nine months. Every day, he trudged to...