Opelka Talks Saving Match Points, Buying Couches In Cincy
Opelka Talks Saving Match Points, Buying Couches In Cincy
Aug162016
Olympic finalist Juan Martin del Potro has been handed a wildcard into the US Open main draw while Britain’s Laura Robson will enter in qualifying.
Del Potro lost to Andy Murray in Rio having knocked out world number one Novak Djokovic en route to the final.
The Argentine is ranked 141st in the world, with Wimbledon this year his first appearance in the main draw at a major since Melbourne two years ago.
World number 283 Robson, 22, reached the fourth round in New York in 2012.
The US Open begins on 29 August and runs until 11 September.
Del Potro, who won the competition in 2009, saw his career interrupted by a wrist injury that resulted in him missing large parts of 2010, 2014 and 2015.
But the 27-year-old knocked fourth seed Stan Wawrinka out in the second round of this year’s Wimbledon and also beat Rafael Nadal in the Olympic semi-final.
Robson has also faced lengthy spells away from the court following wrist surgery, but won her first title since returning from injury last week at a USTA Pro Circuit event in Pennsylvania.
She has not progressed further than the first round a a major since making the third round in New York in 2013.
Dimitrov also advances to second round
Nick Kyrgios needed only 67 minutes to get past Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-2, 7-5 and move into the second round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Monday evening.
The Aussie was locked in from the start of Monday’s final match on center court. Kyrgios, the 14th seed at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, hit 29 winners, including 16 aces, and broke Pouille three times in the first-round contest. At 5-all in the second set, the 21 year old ripped a backhand pass to break Pouille. He celebrated with a “Let’s go!” shout. Kyrgios finished the match with his 16th ace.
The top-ranked #NextGen player will next face another #NextGen member in Croatian Borna Coric.
Reilly Opelka keeps checking off the milestones this month.
Two weeks ago, the 18-year-old American used a wild card to grab his first ATP World Tour singles win at the BB&T Atlanta Open. On Monday, the Florida resident grabbed his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 victory at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Opelka, who also received a wild card in Cincinnati, saved two match points and hit 18 aces to prevail past Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(9). The 6’11” Opelka, No. 364 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, took advantage of his only break point of the second set and broke Chardy at 6-5. Neither player lost his serve in the third set, and Chardy had match points at 6/5 and 8/7 in the tie-break. But Opelka erased them both and earned a mini-break at 9/9 to serve for the match.
The right-hander will face another Frenchman in the second round, seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who’s trying to reach the third round in Cincinnati and achieve best result at the Masters 1000 tournament.
Grigor Dimitrov saved both break points and won almost 80 per cent of his first-serve points to beat Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-3. The Bulgarian will next face 16th seed Feliciano Lopez or German qualifier Mischa Zverev.
DOUBLES
Canadian Milos Raonic earned his second doubles win of the season when he and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic came back to beat the French team of Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6, 7-5, 10-3. Raonic/Zimonjic will next face eighth seeds Rajeev Ram and Raven Klaasen.
Pablo Cuevas, who beat Sam Querrey in singles on Monday, made it two-for-two when he and Marcel Granollers advanced to the second round with a 6-2, 6-4 win against Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Alexander Peya of Austria. Cuevas/Granollers will next meet third seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.
Czech excited about new partnership with Croatian champion
Tomas Berdych had been looking for a coach like Goran Ivanisevic. Berdych wanted to find someone who had played and won big titles, but also someone who knew how to get a message across to a top player on the ATP World Tour.
In Ivanisevic, a former World No. 2 who recently had success coaching Marin Cilic, Berdych says he’s found “the guy”.
“I think that was the person I was waiting for,” he said on Monday before the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
The ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Ohio will be the first time Ivanisevic and Berdych have teamed up at a tournament. The Czech veteran announced their partnership a week ago.
The 30 year old had been playing without a coach since mid-May, when he split with Daniel Vallverdu. Ivanisevic and fellow Croatian Cilic stopped working together on 21 July after being a team for almost three years.
During their time together, Cilic won his first Grand Slam championship at the 2014 US Open. The 6’6” right-hander also reached a career high No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.
Berdych wants Ivanisevic, the 2001 Wimbledon champion, to have a similar effect on him, especially with winning big titles. In recent years, the 6’5” right-hander has been one of the most consistent players on tour, finishing the past six seasons inside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings.
But Berdych has admittedly struggled in the biggest matches. He’s won 12 ATP World Tour titles but only one Masters 1000 crown (2005 BNP Paribas Masters). He enters Cincinnati with a 30-14 record this season, but he’s only 2-7 against the Top 10, according to the FedEx ATP Performance Zone.
The 30 year old remains confident his best tennis lies ahead.
“These days I think 30 is not an old age for tennis players. If you look around, I think it’s still a pretty good time,” Berdych said. “That’s why I’m just trying to look for all the possible help and just trying to improve myself as best as I can.”
Ivanisevic knows about late-career breakthroughs. The 6’4” left-hander had won 21 tour-level titles before making his way to SW19 in June 2001. As a wild card entry, the Split native won seven consecutive matches to capture his first Grand Slam championship at the age of 29.
“He’s the guy who found a way to break through,” Berdych said. “So let’s see if it’s going to be the right thing, the right addition.”