Murray Claims 40th Career Title In Beijing 2016
Murray Claims 40th Career Title In Beijing 2016
Oct092016
An executive summary of what every fan should know about the coming week on the ATP World Tour
Shanghai Rolex Masters (Shanghai): The eighth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the season features a star-studded field, including 17 of the Top 20 in the Emirates ATP Race To London. This is the eighth year of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament at the Qizhong Tennis Center, which was the site of the Tennis Masters Cup from 2005-08. World No. 1 and three-time champion (2012-13, 2015) Novak Djokovic and 2010-11 titleholder Andy Murray are the former champions. There are five finalists in the field: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2015), Gilles Simon (2014), Juan Martin del Potro (2013), David Ferrer (2011) and Rafael Nadal (2009). Murray was also runner-up in 2012.
Emirates ATP Race To London: There are valuable Emirates ATP Race To London points at stake and players will add to their total for each round reached. Players with a bye and a loss in their opening match (2R) will receive 10 points. Here is the rest of the breakdown: first round (10), second round (45), third round (90), quarter-finals (180), semi-finals (360), finalist (600), winner (1000). Seventeen of the Top 20 players are the draw. The three missing are Kei Nishikori, Dominic Thiem and Roger Federer. Here is the updated Top 20 Emirates ATP Race To London going into finals in Beijing and Tokyo on Sunday:
|
Position |
Player |
Points |
|
1 |
Novak Djokovic |
10,240 |
|
2 |
Andy Murray |
8,685 |
|
3 |
Stan Wawrinka |
4,970 |
|
4 |
Milos Raonic |
4,600 |
|
5 |
Kei Nishikori |
4,360 |
|
6 |
Gael Monfils |
3,535 |
|
7 |
Rafael Nadal |
3,290 |
|
8 |
Dominic Thiem |
3,205 |
|
9 |
Tomas Berdych |
2,870 |
|
10 |
Marin Cilic |
2,580 |
|
11 |
David Goffin |
2,465 |
|
12 |
Nick Kyrgios |
2,415 |
| 13 | Roger Federer | 2,130 |
|
14 |
Lucas Pouille |
2,016 |
|
15 |
Grigor Dimitrov |
1,900 |
|
16 |
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga |
1,890 |
|
17 |
Roberto Bautista Agut |
1,740 |
|
18 |
Pablo Cuevas |
1,680 |
|
19 |
David Ferrer |
1,630 |
|
20 |
Alexander Zverev |
1,565 |
2016 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Finals: The Big Four have accounted for six of the seven ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles this season, with Djokovic leading the way with four crowns and Murray and Nadal with one. Here is a look at this year’s finals:
| Masters 1000 | Final | Score |
| Indian Wells | Novak Djokovic d. Milos Raonic | 6-2, 6-0 |
| Miami | Novak Djokovic d. Kei Nishikori | 6-3, 6-3 |
| Monte-Carlo | Rafael Nadal d. Gael Monfils | 7-5, 5-7, 6-0 |
| Madrid | Novak Djokovic d. Andy Murray | 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 |
| Rome | Andy Murray d. Novak Djokovic | 6-3, 6-3 |
| Toronto | Novak Djokovic d. Kei Nishikori | 6-3, 7-5 |
| Cincinnati | Marin Cilic d. Andy Murray | 6-4, 7-5 |
2016 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Wins Leaders: Here is a look at this year’s ATP World Tour Masters 1000 match wins leaders:
| Player | W-L |
| Novak Djokovic | 26-2 |
| Milos Raonic | 20-7 |
| Kei Nishikori | 19-6 |
| Andy Murray | 18-5 |
| Gael Monfils | 18-6 |
Big Four Dominance: The Big Four of Djokovic, Federer, Murray and Nadal have won 54 of the past 59 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, which dates back to Nadal’s triumph at Monte-Carlo in 2010. The only other players to emerge with an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title are Robin Soderling (2010 Paris), David Ferrer (2011 Paris), Stan Wawrinka (2014 Monte-Carlo), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2014 Toronto) and Marin Cilic (2016 Cincinnati). Here is a breakdown of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles won during that time: Djokovic (25), Nadal (13), Federer (eight) and Murray (eight).
World No. 1/Top Seed: World No. 1 and three-time champion Djokovic is making his seventh Shanghai appearance in eight years (except ’11), and he comes in with a 24-3 career record. The reigning champion is the top seed in Shanghai for the fourth straight year. He’s won 18 of his past 19 matches in Shanghai with his only loss coming to Federer in the semi-finals in 2014. Djokovic has compiled a 56-6 match record (38-3 on hard) this season. He’s also won an ATP World Tour-best seven titles, including crowns at the Australian Open and Roland Garros and at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Toronto. Monday will mark the 220th week overall he has been ranked No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, which is fifth most since 23 August 1973. Djokovic has held No. 1 every week since 7 July 2014, a streak of 119 consecutive weeks. He is trying to finish No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the third straight year and fifth time in six years (except ’13).
Novak Dominates in China: Djokovic comes into Shanghai having won 38 of his past 39 matches in China. He’s won six titles in Beijing, 2009-10 and 2012-15. Djokovic captured the Shanghai crown in 2012-13 and 2015. His 28-match winning streak in China ended in 2014 when he lost to Federer in the semi-finals in Shanghai. Overall, Djokovic has won 10 career titles in China (six in Beijing, four in Shanghai, including the 2008 Tennis Masters Cup). He has never lost at the China Open in Beijing (29-0) and is 24-3 at the Shanghai Rolex Masters (since 2009). He also went 4-4 at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai in 2007-08, winning the title in 2008. Djokovic has never lost in a final in China (10-0).
Del Potro Returns: The leading candidate for ATP Comeback Player of the Year, Juan Martin del Potro, makes his return to Shanghai for the first time since reaching the final in 2013 (l. to Djokovic in three sets). The 28-year-old Argentine has compiled a 23-13 match record this season and climbed to No. 64 in the Emirates ATP Rankings after reaching the quarter-finals at the US Open (l. to eventual champion Wawrinka). He is No. 66 as of 3 Oct. Prior to that, he earned a silver medal at the Rio Olympics (d. No. 1 Djokovic in 1R, No. 5 Nadal in SF, l. to Murray in four sets). He also helped his country to the Davis Cup final by beating No. 2 Murray in a five-set marathon in the semi-finals last month. The former World No. 4 was ranked as low as No. 1,045 on 8 Feb.
Top 10 Doubles Teams: Seven of the Top 10 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings are in the draw, led by top seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, who are the No. 2 team behind Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. Here are the Top 10 ranked teams entered in Shanghai:
2) Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares
3) Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan
5) Feliciano Lopez/Marc Lopez
6) Raven Klaasen/Rajeev Ram
7) Treat Huey/Max Mirnyi
8) Henri Kontinen/John Peers
10) Oliver Marach/Fabrice Martin
ICYMI
Andy Murray joined the “40 Titles Club” in Beijing. Read
#NextGen star Nick Kyrgios won the biggest title of his career. Read
London is calling Milos Raonic. Read
Spaniards captured the China Open doubles crown. Read
The Tokyo Open doubles champions’ journey began with a text message. Read
Fabio Fognini advanced to the second round in Shanghai, where he’ll face the World No. 1. Read
Who’s your favourite ATP World Tour player? Voting has begun
Birthdays
16 October – Raven Klaasen (34)
16 October – Philipp Kohlschreiber (33)
16 October – Michael Venus (29)
Fabio Fognini extended his dominant FedEx ATP Head2Head over Albert Ramos-Vinolas to 7-0 with a 7-5, 6-3 win on Sunday at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
Fognini’s reward? A second round date with top seed and three-time champion Novak Djokovic, who owns a 7-0 mark of his own against the Italian. Fognini prevailed over Ramos-Vinolas in one hour and 33 minutes, converting six of 13 break chances.
The 29 year old joins Kevin Anderson, Janko Tipsarevic and Di Wu as first-round winners on Day One of the penultimate ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the year. Anderson will face sixth seed Gael Monfils after routing China’s Zhe Li 6-1, 6-3, while Tipsarevic continued his comeback campaign with a 6-2, 6-4 win over fellow 32-year-old Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Tipsarevic, who is battling back from foot surgery and a knee injury, has soared from outside the Top 600 of the Emirates ATP Rankings to his current position of World No. 173. He most recently reached the semi-finals at the Shenzhen Open, his first appearance in the final four of an ATP World Tour event in nearly four years.
Di Wu, meanwhile, scored one of the biggest upsets of the year on the ATP World Tour in edging 16th seed Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(2). It was the Chinese wild card’s first win in six main draw appearances in Shanghai. The World No. 184 became the first Chinese to win an ATP Challenger Tour title earlier this year in Maui, U.S.A. (d. Edmund). He awaits either Gilles Simon or Pablo Carreno Busta next.
#NextGen Stars Edmund, Fritz Qualify
Kyle Edmund and Taylor Fritz will make their debut appearances at the Shanghai Rolex Masters after advancing through qualifying on Sunday. 18-year-old Fritz, the youngest player in the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, opens against 36-year-old Stephane Robert, the second-oldest member of the Top 100. Edmund, a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 winner over Dusan Lajovic, will face Federico Delbonis.
Also qualifying for the main draw were Mikhail Youzhny, Mischa Zverev, Vasek Pospisil, Yuichi Sugita and Lukas Rosol.
Tsonga/Zimonjic Win Doubles Opener
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nenad Zimonjic won the lone doubles match on Sunday, defeating Americans Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-4. They advance to face fifth seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram. Tsonga lifted the doubles trophy with Julien Benneteau in 2009, while Zimonjic finished runner-up with Michael Llodra in 2011.
Andy Murray secured his fifth singles title of 2016 – and 40th of his career – by beating Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 7-6 (7-2) in the China Open final.
World number two Murray was seriously tested by his Bulgarian opponent but the Scot ended a near-faultless week in Beijing with the main prize.
The British top seed did not drop a set during the tournament.
Earlier, British number one Johanna Konta was beaten 6-4 6-2 by Agnieszka Radwanska in the women’s final.
“It’s been the most consistent year of my career, getting to the latter stages of most of the events I have played,” Murray told Sky Sports after the match on Sunday.
“It was a great week for me. Today’s match was a very high-level match. Grigor fought right to the end and made it extremely tough to finish it in two sets.
“It’s been an excellent week and I’m very happy with the way that I have played the last couple of matches. I will look forward to Shanghai now.”
Relive finals day at the China Open
World number 20 Dimitrov made it through to the final after his semi-final opponent, Milos Raonic, was forced to withdraw with an ankle injury.
It looked a formality for the Briton who broke his opponent’s serve in the opening game and saved a break point at 3-2 before serving out the set.
Dimitrov rallied in the second set, breaking as Murray served for the match at 5-4.
In the tie-break, Murray gained the mini-break with the first point and although Dimitrov hit back, the Scot won six of the next seven points to earn his maiden China Open title.
Murray has targeted overtaking Novak Djokovic as the world’s top-ranked player and, with the Serb missing the China Open through injury, the Scot has narrowed the gap.
While Murray has triumphed at Wimbledon and the Olympics this year, Djokovic’s form has dipped since beating his rival to the French Open title.
Djokovic was beaten in the early rounds at Wimbledon and Rio 2016, and although he reached the US Open final last month, he lost to Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka.
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller
By winning the China Open, Murray pocketed a fifth title of the year and 500 precious ranking points, which takes his total to 9,345, but he still trails Novak Djokovic in the No 1 spot on 14,040.
Murray now heads to Shanghai – where he will be reunited with Djokovic – who knows he still has work to do to finish as number one for the fifth time in six years.
Djokovic still has a healthy lead but Murray is within striking distance, should there be too many slips. And the world number two is even better placed to make a run at the top spot in the first three months of 2017, where Djokovic has titles to defend at the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami.
Canadian to make second appearance at The O2
Milos Raonic will make his second appearance at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after becoming the fourth player to qualify for the prestigious season-ending tournament, to be held from 13-20 November at The O2 in London.
The Canadian’s spot in London was confirmed following Saturday’s results in Beijing and Tokyo and the release of the Shanghai Rolex Masters draw.
In 2014, Raonic became the first Canadian and the first player born in the 1990s to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals singles competition.
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“I have had my best ever season so far this year and it is a great reward to be one of the first few players to qualify for London,” said Raonic. “I love playing indoors and I look forward to finishing 2016 hopefully on a high note.”
The 25 year old started his season winning his eighth ATP World Tour title at the Brisbane International, avenging defeat to Roger Federer from the year before. It paved the way for a maiden run to the Australian Open semi-finals, where he defeated former champion Stan Wawrinka en route, before falling to Andy Murray. Three times he finished runner-up in 2016 – at the BNP Paribas Open (l. to Djokovic) and at the Aegon Championships (l. to Murray) before again falling to Murray in his first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon.
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The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals has welcomed more than 1.8 million fans to The O2 arena over the past seven years, establishing itself as the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world since moving to London in 2009. A record 102 million broadcast viewers also tuned in across the eight days of competition in 2015. The ATP announced last year that the event would remain at The O2 through to 2018. Tickets can be purchased at: www.BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals.com.
British number one Johanna Konta was overpowered 6-4 6-2 by world number three Agnieszka Radwanska in the final of the China Open.
Konta, 25, was chasing the biggest title of her career but unravelled against the Polish number three seed after a battling first-set display.
The 11th seed, who has made the world top 10, fought back from 4-2 but could not make it 5-5 after missing a volley.
“I’m very pleased with this week, it was pretty spectacular,” said Konta.
“I’m really enjoying my journey and looking forward to matches like this against players like Agnieszka,” she added.
Konta became the first British woman for 32 years to make the world top 10 after reaching the final. The last British woman to achieve that before her was Jo Durie in 1984.
Relive finals day at the China Open
After dropping her serve twice in each set, Konta tried to even the scoreline in the second, pushing Radwanska to two break points in the sixth game.
However, Radwanska shot a forehand down the line to save her service game.
Konta held the next with a forehand drop shot, only for her opponent to then serve for the title, firing her only ace of the match.
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller
Konta was well beaten in the end by the world number three, but will officially be a top-10 player on Monday morning and now has a very good chance of qualifying for the season-ending championships in Singapore.
Konta has moved into the eighth and final qualifying position, but has only a 10-point advantage over ninth-placed Slovak Dominika Cibulkova.
There are two qualifying weeks remaining, with Konta now heading to Hong Kong, where she has drawn fellow Britain Naomi Broady in the first round.
BBC Sport takes a look at Johanna Konta’s remarkable rise into the top 10 of the WTA rankings following her run to the China Open final, where she lost to Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska.