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Cuevas Wins Battle Of The Pablos

Cuevas Wins Battle Of The Pablos

  • Posted: Oct 26, 2015

In the pair’s first meeting on the ATP World Tour, Pablo Cuevas upended Pablo Carreno Busta 6-2, 6-3 in just over an hour in the first round of the Valencia Open on Monday. The Uruguayan broke the Spaniard three times on nine break opportunities while not facing a break point. Cuevas will now face No. 3 seed Bernard Tomic in the second round.

In the other first-round encounter of the day, Vasek Pospisil kicked off his Valencia title bid with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Santiago Giraldo on Monday. The Canadian, who needed three sets to defeat Giraldo in the pair’s three previous FedEx Head2Head meetings (3-0), secured the win in just 71 minutes to notch his fourth win over the Colombian.

Pospisil’s straight-sets victory was made possible by some strong serving. The Vernon, BC native struck nine aces, won 25 of 26 first-serve points and did not face a break point en route to the second round. Next up is the winner of the match opposing Aljaz Bedene and Jeremy Chardy. Top seed David Ferrer could loom in the quarter-finals.

Bellucci/Fleming Take Out Top Doubles Seeds

No. 1 seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram had their Spanish sojourn cut short by Thomaz Bellucci and Colin Fleming 3-6, 6-4, 10-4 in the first round on Monday.

Despite taking the first set and winning more points than their unseeded opponents (66-59), Klaasen/Ram were eliminated after 86 minutes. The South African/American dropped the lone break point faced on their serve, while Bellucci/Fleming saved eight of 10 break chances.

Swiss Indoors Basel 

Down a set to Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea at the Swiss Indoors Basel on Monday, Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares weren’t about to go down without a fight. Instead, the Austrian-Brazilian team charged back to score a convincing 4-6, 6-1, 10-8 win in 62 minutes.

Coming off a quarter-final showing in Vienna, Peya/Soares converted four of seven break-point opportunities and won 71 per cent (25 of 35) of their first-serve points on the afternoon. The duo is aiming for its first title since winning Munich in May (d. Mischa Zverev/Alexander Zverev).

Also advancing in Basel was the Colombian combo of Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah, 6-3, 6-4 winners over Switzerland’s Adrien Bosel/Marco Chiudinelli.    

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Matkowski/Zimonjic London-Bound

Matkowski/Zimonjic London-Bound

  • Posted: Oct 26, 2015

As of Monday, just one spot remains open in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race to London, Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic having booked a trip to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Matkowski/Zimonjic became the seventh team to qualify for the Nov. 15-22 event when Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea fell in the first round at the Swiss Indoors Basel. Despite the loss, Bopanna/Mergea are still in contention for the final doubles spot.

“We both started the year with different partners,” Zimonjic observed. “Indian Wells was our first tournament. It wasn’t an easy draw, but we managed to get to the semis. From then on, we’ve played pretty solid. We’ve had some good success. I think it’s an achievement to qualify for the [Barclays] ATP World Tour Finals after only starting in March.”

Zimonjic, 39, is a two-time Barclays ATP World Tour Finals titlist, having won the event with Canadian Daniel Nestor in 2008 and 2010. The Serbian was also runner-up with Leander Paes in 2005. He is still seeking his first title of 2015, but with Matkowski posted quarter-final showings at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, in addition to reaching finals in Madrid, London and Cincinnati.

“It’s always amazing to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals,” said Zimonjic. “This is the eighth time for me, with five different partners. It’s great for Marcin, too. It’s going to be his first time with somebody other than his longtime partner Mariusz Fyrstenberg. It’s really something that I look forward to every year. It’s a pleasure for the players to play there. I just hope that before the end of the year, we’ll get one trophy. It would be perfect to win the tournament in London.”

Matkowski/Fyrstenberg reached the title match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in 2011, falling to Max Mirnyi/Daniel Nestor 7-5, 6-3.

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Rojer/Tecau Eyeing Year-End Top Spot

Rojer/Tecau Eyeing Year-End Top Spot

  • Posted: Oct 26, 2015

They won their first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon and now Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau are looking to crown their career-best season by finishing the year as the World No. 1 pairing in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings.

Rojer and Tecau start the week just 245 points behind Bob and Mike Bryan, who aren’t playing at the moment while Bob is at home awaiting the birth of his third child with wife, Michelle. The Dutch-Romanian duo are the top seeds at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where 500 ranking points are awarded to the winning team.

“Because we had such a great Grand Slam year, we put ourselves in a situation to be close to No. 1,” said Tecau. “Now that we won our first Grand Slam, we’re looking for the next goal and the next motivation. This is a big one.

“We’re in this position because we managed to win Wimbledon. We’re looking forward to the next few weeks. We have three more events this year and there are a lot of points in play; we have a shot.”

It would be quite the feat by Rojer and Tecau. Since 2003, only two teams have interrupted the Bryans’ reign atop the team rankings – Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor in 2004 and Nestor again with Nenad Zimonjic in 2008.

But with the Bryans going win-less in the Grand Slams this season, other teams have taken their opportunities. None more so that Rojer and Tecau, who can count victory in Rotterdam and semi-finals at the Australian Open and Roland Garros among their achievements in 2015.

“[Finishing No. 1] would be another great accomplishment,” added Rojer. “We know that the Bryans have had a stranglehold on the No. 1 ranking for a lot of years now and they’ve been the best team out there.

“So it would be definitely something to remember and it’s quickly turned into a goal of ours.”

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is likely to play a pivotal role in determining the year-end standings. However, between them, Rojer and Tecau have registered just two wins in 18 matches at The O2 and on their team debut last year, lost all three matches.

But both believe this year could be more successful. Having qualified earlier than normal, Rojer and Tecau are hoping that a less hectic run-in, without chasing points at every turn, will benefit them.

“Personally I haven’t played my best tennis there,” said Rojer. “It’s always been bittersweet because you’re happy to have made it there, it means you’ve done something well throughout the year. But you want to showcase your best tennis in that moment as well. It’s going to be a great event again.

“We’re going to prepare a little bit differently than we have in the past. Luckily we qualified earlier so we don’t have the pressure going into the event. I think that will pay dividends in the end. The last few years we’ve had to play every week to make it, so we haven’t had the freedom of controlling practices and schedule as we would like. It’s a really nice accomplishment and it’s one of the goals we had at the beginning of the year. That we can tick that one off also feels really nice.”

Tecau added, “In previous years it was always a fight till the end to get to London. Now we managed to qualify fairly early. Going into these last few weeks of the year, our main goal is to do well and win in London. We’re going to try and schedule our practice and tournament weeks to peak in London. This year, just like we did with the slams, we want to put the emphasis on London and give our best tennis there.”

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Cilic Overcomes Bautista Agut In Moscow 2015 Final

Cilic Overcomes Bautista Agut In Moscow 2015 Final

  • Posted: Oct 26, 2015

Watch highlights of the 2015 Kremlin Cup by Bank of Moscow final, which saw Marin Cilic beat Roberto Bautista Agut.

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Basel 2015 Monday Highlights

Basel 2015 Monday Highlights

  • Posted: Oct 26, 2015

Watch highlights as Rafael Nadal survives. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.

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Nadal Fights Past Rosol In Basel

Nadal Fights Past Rosol In Basel

  • Posted: Oct 26, 2015

Rafael Nadal rallied to defeat old foe Lukas Rosol in the first round.

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Monroe/Sock Capture Stockholm Title

Monroe/Sock Capture Stockholm Title

  • Posted: Oct 26, 2015

The No. 2-seeded American duo of Nicholas Monroe and Jack Sock stormed to the If Stockholm Open title on Sunday with a 7-5, 6-2 win over the Croatian/New Zealander combo of Mate Pavic and Michael Venus.

Monroe/Sock, playing their second ATP World Tour event, earned 250 ATP Emirates Rankings points, and will split €29,680 in prize money.

“It always helps when you can have a partner like Jack on your side,” said Monroe.

“He can carry me a little bit to get over the hump.”

Will the compatriots team up again in the future?

“When we can,” explained Sock. “I play with Vasek [Pospisil] a lot of the year. Next year I’m not going to play as much doubles, I don’t think. I pick some pretty specific tournaments. If Vasek isn’t available that week, [Nicholas] is usually the first guy I call.”

Pavic/Venus, playing their third ATP World Tour final as a team, fell to 15-10 lifetime. They won the Nice title earlier this year (d. Rojer/Tecau), and finished as runners-up in Bogota (l. to Roger-Vasselin/Stepanek).

Sock was appearing in his 10th ATP World Tour doubles final (6-4), highlighted by the 2013 Wimbledon title (w/Pospisil). Monroe is 3-4 in ATP World Tour doubles finals, with all three titles coming in Sweden.

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