No. 6 seed Nick Kyrgios put his best foot forward in a 7-5, 6-2 win over American Ryan Harrison at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 on Tuesday. Harrison was coming into the match with confidence, having qualified for an ATP World Tour main draw for the eighth time this year. However, he had few answers for Kyrgios’s pace and succumbed in 80 minutes. The Aussie enjoyed a stellar day on serve, firing 14 aces, landing 73 per cent of first serves and not facing a break point. Kyrgios’s comfort level on his delivery was such that he often followed up a first-serve miss with another flat bomb. The #NextGen star routinely topped 200km/h on his second serve and...
Thiago Monteiro has arguably established himself as the most improved player of the year, but he isn’t done creating new memories in 2016. The 22 year old from Brazil is looking for his ATP Challenger Tour on home soil at the $40,000 ATP Challenger Tour in Campinas. Monteiro is the second seed and will play his opening match against fellow Brazilian Andre Ghem on Wednesday. “I like to perform at home,” said Santos. “The energy of the people and their support is very good for me and I really do feel it in the tough matches.” Watch Free Challenger Live Streaming After starting the year ranked No. 463 n the Emirates ATP Rankings, Monteiro is now inside the Top 100...
Before July, you had two career Challenger quarter-finals. Now you have three Challenger titles. What does this mean about the progression you’ve made? I’m very stoked. Me and [coach and brother] Chris, we go pretty hard on court and in the gym. I’ve been doing two-a-days and it’s now showing on court. I’m much stronger, much fitter, much faster. I’m now trying to believe in my game and it’s working, so I’m going to stick to it and hopefully keep progressing. I always talk about knowing who you are, knowing what you can and can’t do on a tennis court. How has getting a better understanding of who you are as a tennis player impacted your game? I think it’s...
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