Who said Americans can’t or won’t play on clay? With 12 Americans in the singles main draw this week at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, more Americans than ever are playing a loaded clay-court schedule. And not only are U.S. players showing up on the dirt, but they're winning. Steve Johnson is through to the Houston final after defeating fellow American Jack Sock, while #NextGenATP American Ernesto Escobedo reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final. In doubles, another #NextGenATP player in Frances Tiafoe reached his first ATP World Tour final with German Dustin Brown. “I feel like Americans can play on clay. There’s a stereoype that we can’t, but I think it can be...
Competing this week as the top seeds at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, legendary doubles pairing Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan revealed their first memorable moment on the ATP World Tour, first concert and their unusual pet they had growing up. First moment I realised I loved tennis Mike: Probably the first tournament we went to Indian Wells when we were seven years old. We saw Andre Agassi play and he was just hitting the heck out of the ball. He had long hair and the flashy clothes. We went to the Nike store and bought those pink tights, but had the skinniest legs ever so they were still loose on us! We...
Ernesto Escobedo has been quietly rising up the Emirates ATP Rankings for the past year, but the #NextGenATP American made has made plenty of noise this week at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. The 20 year old reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final in Houston with a hard-hitting game and impressive mental toughness in tight moments. Escobedo prevailed on Friday in a three-hour, three tie-break marathon quarter-final against second seed John Isner. The American remained calm as Isner fought off six match points with big serving. Escobedo finally converted on his seventh with an ace. Escobedo was ranked outside of the Top 300 just 12 months ago, but is projected to move well inside...
Rafael Nadal will have two championship themes on his mind when the clay swing heats up in Monte-Carlo, beginning on Sunday: the opportunity to win three tournaments for a record 10th time in his career, and the chance to catch Roger Federer and take over the No. 1 spot in the Emirates ATP Race To London. Nadal, who's climbed to No. 2 in the Race with final runs in Australia and Miami, can't catch Federer at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, the season's first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay court tournament. But another crown in the Principality – and the 1,000 Race points that come with it – would go a long way towards pushing the Spaniard ahead of the Swiss. The...
Ahead of his first match as the top seed at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship, the 2015 Houston champion reveals his first memorable moment on the ATP World Tour and the first time he flew business class. First moment I realised I loved tennis Pretty much as soon as I started playing at eight years old. My parents said I was obsessed with it right from the beginning. First tournament I played I was nine years old. I grew up in Lincoln (Nebraska), but was playing in Kansas City at a place called The Plaza. I was pretty horrible [smiles], but thought I’d try it just to see how I could do. First coach and...