Tennis News

Donald Young proved to be too good for fourth seed Kevin Anderson on Thursday in a 6-2, 7-6(6) win at the Swiss Indoors Basel. It was his third best win of the season, following on from victories over No. 6-ranked Tomas Berdych at the Rogers Cup in Montreal and No. 11-ranked Gilles Simon in the US Open first round.

Young now faces fellow American Jack Sock, who withstood 14 aces from compatriot and sixth seed John Isner‘s racquet in a 7-6(5), 6-3 win. The last time two Americans reached the Basel quarter-finals was 1994 when Patrick McEnroe reached the final (l. to Ferreira) and Jared Palmer reached the semi-finals (l. to Forget).

“Those matches are never fun, playing one of your best friends on the tour,” said Sock on facing Isner. “It never sits to well after the match. It’s part of the game. Somebody’s got to win. He’s done it to me a few times. Fortunately, today I was able to get through.”

No. 5 seed Richard Gasquet kept his hopes alive for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Thursday with a 7-6(1), 6-4 victory over Dominic Thiem.

Now into the quarter-finals, where he’ll face Ivo Karlovic, Gasquet must win titles at Basel and the ATP Masters 1000 event in Paris (Nov. 2-8) to qualify. A loss at any point would mean that David Ferrer and Kei Nishikori would secure the two remaining spots in the eight-man field.

This first career FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting between these one-handed backhanders saw Gasquet and Thiem test each other early, Thiem registering a break to open the match. But Thiem, at 22 the youngest player in Top 20, couldn’t hold the lead and the Frenchman would claim the set in a one-sided tie-breaker. It was Thiem’s serve that let him down the most in the opening stanza, as the Austrian would land just 48 per cent of his first offerings.

The 29-year-old Gasquet would carry that momentum into the second set, consolidating an early break to jump out to a 2-0 advantage. He would never look back.

With 11 days remaining in the Emirates ATP Race to London, two spots are still up for grabs at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be played at London’s O2 Nov. 15-22. The top eight players in the race will compete at the year-end championships. Six players have qualified so far: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych. Ferrer and Nishikori are next in line to qualify. Only Gasquet is capable of passing either player.

Seventh seed Marin Cilic set up a meeting against third seed Rafael Nadal following a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Teymuraz Gabashvili in 75 minutes. Nadal leads Cilic 2-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with their last meeting coming in May 2011 and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

Doubles Seeds Advance in Basel

No. 2 seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau defeated Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez 7-5, 7-6(5), while Dominic Inglot and Robert Lindstedt took down Colombia’s Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 4-6, 6-3, 10-5. 

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