In his first outing as top seed at an ATP World Tour 500 event, Dominic Thiem is comfortably through to the third round of the Citi Open on a soaked Tuesday. A rain-delayed start in the US capital failed to dampen the Austrian’s debut as he powered past Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 6-3. The 23 year old dropped just one point on his first serve and never faced a break point against the Swiss. It marked his first match since he fell to Tomas Berdych in five sets in the fourth round at Wimbledon. Eighth seed Jack Sock advanced to the last 16 for the third straight year after he eked out a narrow 7-6(2), 7-6(6) victory over Romanian Marius Copil....
First coach and most important lesson he taught me My first coach was my dad, and I think the lesson he definitely instilled in me was hard work. We worked very hard and he said in order to chase your dreams, you definitely have to put in the effort and that's something that's really stuck with me throughout my career. First pinch-me moment on the ATP World Tour Playing a practice set with Federer in Miami. I had been on the tour for a little bit, and I had seen some of the top guys... I remember I won the practice set, too. I know in hindsight it's just practice stuff but that was a pretty surreal feeling... That was...
At the end of another hot and humid day in Washington, DC, Gael Monfils surely wanted nothing more than to head to his hotel room and relax in air conditioning. But every time he turned to hop into his tournament-provided vehicle on Monday evening, he kept being stopped. “Monfils, Monfils!” fans shouted. So the popular and affable Frenchman halted, gazed at who had said his name and kindly followed their instructions, smiling for back-to-back selfies with grinning fans. Monfils could easily have begged off, politely declining the requests and waving goodbye. Surely the fans would have understood. The guy wants to go home after a day of work, who could blame him? But, just as he goes above and beyond...
Dominic Thiem boasts wins over Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic already this year. Now the 23 year old enters new territory at this week’s Citi Open as top seed at an ATP World Tour 500 event for the first time. The Austrian boasts a 38-16 start to the season and will look to further improve on that mark when he makes his Washington debut against Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen. In a stacked field, it will be a matter of who has made the transition from Wimbledon’s grass best in a bid to dethrone defending champion Gael Monfils. “It’s always a little bit tricky for me on the US hard courts because they’re a little bit fast so there are some...
Defending champion Gael Monfils reflects on his favourite moments in Washington, DC and hopes to defend his title at the Citi Open this week. Watch live matches at tennistv.com.
