Nishikori Previews Gasquet Match In Madrid 2016
Nishikori Previews Gasquet Match In Madrid 2016
May042016
World No. 1 wins second-round clash
Novak Djokovic defeated #NextGen player Borna Coric 6-2, 6-4 at the Mutua Madrid Open on Wednesday to score his first win in the Spanish capital since 2012. Djokovic fell to Grigor Dimitrov in his opening match in 2013, and did not take part in the past two editions of the event. This week, he is bidding to become the first man to win 29 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events. The Serb is currently tied with Rafael Nadal with 28 titles.
Djokovic was pushed by the 19-year-old Coric in the pair’s first meeting, but controlled the run of play from the baseline. The World No. 1 only dropped five points on serve in the first set and closed out the win in 78 minutes with the lone service break of the second set.
The 2011 Madrid champion improved to 17-6 at the event and will next face Roberto Bautista Agut, who edged fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in two hours and 27 minutes. Djokovic is undefeated against Bautista Agut in three FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.
Novak Djokovic returned from a surprise defeat in Monte Carlo to progress at the Madrid Open but fourth seed Stan Wawrinka lost to old foe Nick Kyrgios.
Top seed Djokovic, 28, eased into round three by beating Croatian Borna Coric 6-2 6-4 in an hour and 18 minutes.
The 20-year-old Kyrgios saw off his Swiss rival 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (6-2).
Last year, he was given a suspended 28-day ban and $25,000 (£17,250) fine after making lewd remarks about Wawrinka’s girlfriend during a match.
World number one Djokovic, beaten by 55th-ranked Jiri Vesely last month, won 85% of points on his first serve against the 19-year-old Coric, who is nicknamed ‘Mini Djokovic’ because of his playing style.
The Serb plays 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut on Thursday, while British second seed Andy Murray faces Frenchman Gilles Simon from 11:00 BST.
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Stan Wawrinka and Nick Kyrgios square off on day four
Eighth seed Tomas Berdych, the 2012 runner-up, swept past qualifier Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-3 in 69 minutes on Wednesday for a place in the Mutua Madrid Open third round. Having recorded his 20th match win at the tournament (20-11), Berdych goes onto face ninth seed David Ferrer or qualifier Denis Kudla.
Later, Roberto Bautista Agut, the No. 15 seed, battled hard to beat fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez for the first time, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in two hours and 57 minutes. Lopez had previously beaten Bautista Agut at the 2014 Rogers Cup in Toronto and this year’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
Fourth seed Victoria Azarenka has joined the list of Madrid Open withdrawals with a back injury.
The 26-year-old had been scheduled to play Louisa Chirico of the United States in round three on Wednesday, but pulled out during the warm-ups.
Belarusian Azarenka said she will have medical tests before deciding whether to play in Rome before the French Open, which starts on 22 May.
Her departure means the top five seeds are out of the Spanish tournament.
Agnieszka Radwanska, Angelique Kerber and Garbine Muguruza exited in previous rounds while fifth seed Petra Kvitova lost 6-3 6-4 to Australia’s Daria Gavrilova on Wednesday.
Azarenka, who had recently won titles at Indian Wells and Miami, said she “tweaked” her back during her opening Madrid match against Laura Robson and that the pain persisted during her second round victory over Alize Cornet.
She follows world number world 13 Lucie Safarova – who had to withdraw earlier in the week with food poisoning – and British number one Johanna Konta who retired in the first round with a respiratory illness.
The men’s event also lost Roger Federer – the world number three another player out with a back injury.
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ATPWorldTour.com previews Wednesday’s action at the Mutua Madrid Open
Twelve second-round matches will be played at the Mutua Madrid Open on Wednesday, highlighted by the return of World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. The 2011 Madrid champion has not appeared at Caja Mágica since falling to Grigor Dimitrov in his opening match three years ago. Djokovic will be competing for the second time since 3 April, having lost to Jiri Vesely at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in his only clay-court match of the season. The top seed meets Next Generation star Borna Coric for the first time not before 4 pm on Manolo Santana.
Coric is one of six players challenging Top 10 opponents on Wednesday. All six underdogs are on losing streaks against the Top 10, with the 19-year-old Coric falling in eight straight matches. Albert Ramos-Vinolas is 1-18 going into his meeting with No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, while Denis Istomin is 1-30 entering his matchup with No. 8 Tomas Berdych. Fabio Fognini’s past three Top 10 wins were against Rafael Nadal, but his opponent on Wednesday is No. 6 Kei Nishikori. Qualifier Denis Kudla goes for the biggest win of his career against No. 9 David Ferrer.
On Estadio 3, Next Generation No. 1 Nick Kyrgios faces fourth-ranked Stan Wawrinka for the fourth time in 11 months. After Wawrinka defeated Kyrgios at London/Queen’s Club, their last two encounters have ended with back injuries. Kyrgios advanced at the Rogers Cup when Wawrinka retired, then Wawrinka reached the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final when Kyrgios conceded. Roberto Bautista Agut and Feliciano Lopez, two of eight Spaniards in the second round, meet for the first time since a three-hour and 16-minute marathon won by Lopez at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
Canadian hits 17 aces in three-set battle
Milos Raonic pushed through against an aggressive Alexandr Dolgopolov to make the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Tuesday. The Canadian hit 17 aces and erased all four break points to win 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-2 in two hours. In the final set, Raonic earned two of his three breaks against the Ukrainian.
The No. 11 seed now leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-1. Raonic is trying to surpass his quarter-final showing last year in Madrid. He’ll face No. 7 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who beat Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 in the second round.
Nicolas Almagro couldn’t keep his clay-court winning streak alive. Sunday’s Millennium Estoril Open champion lost to #NextGen star Borna Coric 6-2, 6-2 in first-round action. Coric lost only six points on his serve the entire match (34/40). The 19 year old will face World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the second round for the first time.
Twelve years after walking away from the sport, Peralta is producing the best results of his career
At an age when many of his peers have either retired or are winding down their tennis careers, Julio Peralta is at the peak of his.
Under the watchful eye of coach Dan Grossman, who he credits as an integral part of his newfound success, the 34-year-old from Chile has transformed himself into a doubles specialist over the past 12 months and currently sits at a career-high Emirates ATP Doubles Ranking of No. 65. In addition to winning his first ATP World Tour doubles title this February in Sao Paulo with Horacio Zeballos, he has also won three ATP Challenger Tour doubles title this year with three different partners. At last week’s $50,000 event in Tallahassee, Florida, he successfully defended his title with Dennis Novikov.
“Doubles is completely different. I know I can play good tennis, but it involves different strategy,” said Peralta during last month’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Sarasota, Florida. “I’m still learning a lot and feeling great right now.”
Not even Peralta himself could have anticipated the path his tennis career would take. He turned pro in 1999 and won his first and only ATP Challenger Tour singles title in 2003 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Just as his career was making inroads, injuries forced him off the tour at just 23 years old in 2004.
“I thought I had a decent level to do well in singles,” he admitted. “My injuries prevented me from playing three months a year for the first four years on tour. That was very tough for me, so I decided to step aside.”
Peralta went back to school and began taking civil engineering classes in Chile, but stopped to dabble in money tournaments and on the pro tour in 2007 and 2008. He then moved to the U.S. to finish his degree in business and economics at USC Upstate, while also serving as an assistant coach. After graduating, he took a job with a startup business selling organic paint for baby rooms.
Despite being years removed from being a full-time pro, Peralta never lost his game. In 2011, he decided on a whim to enter the prestigious ATP Challenger Tour tournament in Braunschweig, Germany, where he defeated David Goffin on his way to qualifying and reaching the second round.
“My fiancée said that she’s never seen me play a big event. We were in Europe and Braunschweig was only 90 minutes away,” said Peralta. “I was totally out of the circuit at the time, but could still beat some good players.”
Peralta moved away from baby rooms and back to the tennis court shortly after, coaching junior players at an academy in California for nearly two years. After signing Grossman on as his coach, he decided to give pro tennis another try as a doubles specialist in September 2014 and immediately began having success, winning four Futures doubles titles in his first three months back. In April 2015, he won his first ATP Challenger Tour doubles title in Tallahassee with Novikov and went on to win three more that year.
Perhaps most importantly, Peralta has remained injury-free apart from the minor aches and pains that simply come with the job. As he continues to achieve new milestones like his Davis Cup debut in March, and looks forward to new ones that will include playing all the remaining Grand Slams this year, he has no plans to hang up his racquets again anytime soon.
“At this point, it’s all about the level of my game more than my age,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you play if you really love the game?”