Kei Nishikori, a two-time champion in Tokyo, will face an experienced opponent in the first round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016. The 2012 and 2014 winner will take on Nicolas Almagro, a Spaniard who reached No. 9 in the Emirates ATP Rankings in 2011 and beat Nishikori 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-3 in the Tokyo quarter-finals in 2013. A deep run in Tokyo will help the Japanese star's qualification bid for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, but first he will need to work his way through a difficult section of the draw. David Goffin and Kevin Anderson are possible quarter-final opponents, while a meeting with Marin Cilic, who topped Nishikori in the 2014 US Open final, could occur...
It's all about the fans in Chengdu! Nick Kyrgios, Diego Schwartzman and more stars spend time meeting local tennis-lovers and signing autographs at the inaugural Chengdu Open. Video and Photo: Chengdu Open
Tomas Berdych began to close the gap on Rafael Nadal in the Emirates ATP Race To London on Friday as he defeated Jiri Vesely 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-2 in the Shenzhen Open quarter-finals. The Czech is now 490 points behind eighth-placed Nadal in the year-to-date standings, with the Top 8 at the end of the regular season qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Berdych will look to make up yet more ground on the Spaniard when he faces Thomaz Bellucci in the semi-finals of this ATP World Tour 250 tournament. Berdych has a 3-1 record over Bellucci in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. [ALSO LIKE] The last match Berdych played against the No. 52-ranked Vesely was an epic in...
Third seed Grigor Dimitrov rallied from a set and a break down to reach the Chengdu Open semi-finals on Friday, battling past Diego Schwartzman 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in just over two hours. Since the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where he joined forces with coach, Dani Vallverdu, Dimitrov has gone 11-4 on the ATP World Tour, enjoying a resurgence in form that has seen him reach the semi-finals in Cincinnati (l. to Cilic) and the fourth round of the US Open (l. to Murray). [ALSO LIKE] Dimitrov, who clinched his 200th tour-level win on Wednesday, will now look to reach his third ATP World Tour final of the season, but it was not without a fight that he got by Schwartzman....