Tennis News

Nadal Withdraws From Toronto

Second seed Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers due to a left foot injury, the tournament announced Tuesday.

“I have had this issue for a couple of months, as people know,” Nadal said. “Of course, it is not a happy situation after all the success that I had here in Canada, not being able to play this year after missing a year. It’s a tough one, but that’s how it is today. I need to go back and try to find a way to be better again. At the end of the day, for me the most important thing is to enjoy playing tennis. Today, with this pain, I am not able to enjoy it, and I really don’t believe that I have the chance to fight for the things that I really need to fight for.”

Nadal’s left foot injury forced him to miss Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics. The legendary lefty returned last week at the Citi Open in Washington, where he battled through his opening match against Jack Sock in a final-set tie-break before losing against South African Lloyd Harris in three sets in the third round.

“I really wanted to play here a lot, but now is the moment to make a decision,” Nadal said. “This is unfortunately the decision that I have taken, and probably in the next couple of days we are going to know more.”

Fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez will replace Nadal in the draw as a lucky loser. The 39-year-old will play Harris in the second round.

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Medvedev Survives Scare In Toronto

Top seed Daniil Medvedev made a winning return at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers on Tuesday, the tournament in which the Russian enjoyed a breakthrough run to his first ATP Masters 1000 final in 2019.

The World No. 2 was made to work hard, overcoming Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a rain-disrupted clash in Toronto to kick start his North American hard-court swing.

“[The rain delay] helped a lot,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “I don’t know if the conditions changed with the humidity, but I was not playing well before the rain. I had my opportunities. I was missing second-serve returns, missing balls. I knew I had to play better if I was to win.

“When back on the court, from the first game I felt much better. I only felt better and better during the match, he did not have one break point [after the rain]. I turned around the match completely. It is a tough draw, even without Rafael Nadal. It does open up the draw [though] for sure.”

Medvedev is looking to capture his 12th tour-level title this week in a country where he has fond memories. In 2019, the 25-year-old broke new ground at Canada’s Masters 1000 event. He cruised through to the final in Montreal, not dropping a set before falling to Nadal.

It was a run that helped propel Medvedev to his maiden Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati one week later and his first Grand Slam final at the US Open the following month.

Medvedev, who has since won two more Masters 1000 titles and captured the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals crown, served well throughout against Bublik. The Russian caused the World No. 39 problems with his flat backhand to improve to 4-0 in their ATP Head2Head Series.

It is the third time Medvedev has defeated Bublik this season, having downed the 24-year-old at Roland Garros and the Tokyo Olympics in straight sets. The top seed will next face either #NextGenATP Italian Jannik Sinner or James Duckworth in the third round.

Medvedev, who guided Russia to the ATP Cup title in February before reaching the Australian Open final, has won trophies on hard in Marseille and grass in Mallorca this season.

Bublik made a fast start in Toronto as he looked to move the Russian around. After Medvedev fended off three break points from 0/40 in the fifth game, he was unable to do so again moments later, misfiring on serve to fall 4-5 behind. Bublik, who brought his usual variety and entertainment to court, held serve to move ahead.

After rain temporally halted play with Medvedev leading 2-1 in the second set, the 25-year-old returned to court just under an hour later in a determined mood. He won three of the first four games on resumption as he stepped inside the baseline to close out points quickly. Having drawn level, Medvedev then dropped just three points on serve in the third set to seal his win in two hours.

Bublik, who leads the ace count on tour this year, has enjoyed a strong season. The 24-year-old advanced to finals in Antalya and Singapore, while also reaching the quarter-finals at two Masters 1000 events in Miami and Madrid.

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Khachanov Battles Past Norrie In Toronto

Karen Khachanov maintained his high level on Tuesday when he defeated in-form Briton Cameron Norrie 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the second round of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.

The previous meeting between Khachanov and Norrie was a much different story, with the Brit winning 6-1 6-1 in Lyon earlier this year.

Norrie recently won his first ATP Tour title at the Mifel Open in Los Cabos, and this defeat is only his second loss in the first round in the 18 tournaments that he has played in 2021.

Khachanov took firm control of the match immediately, racing to a double-break lead in the opening set. Norrie’s level rose towards the end of the set, putting pressure on Khachanov, but he was ultimately unable to prevent Khachanov from taking a one-set advantage.

The second set was a tense affair, with neither player able to break serve until the final game, with Norrie taking it 7-5 on his fourth break point of the set.

In the deciding set it was the World No. 28 Khachanov who held his nerve, moving on to the second round where he will play fellow Russian Aslan Karatsev. Both Khachanov and Karatsev won medals in Tokyo, with Karatsev taking silver in mixed doubles.

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Johanna Konta and Harriet Dart win in Canadian Open first round

Britain’s Johanna Konta and Harriet Dart are both through to the second round of the Canadian Open.

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Nishikori Battles Through In Toronto, Brooksby Falls

Japan’s Kei Nishikori backed up his run to last week’s Washington semi-finals by moving past Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 on Tuesday to reach the second round of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Toronto.

The World No. 55, who advanced to the final in Toronto in 2016, struck the ball with great depth and accuracy, raising his level in the decider to advance in two hours and 10 minutes. The 31-year-old will next face seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz.

“I am happy to go through,” Nishikori said. “He played really well in the second set, it was really tough. I knew it was not going to be easy [for him] to play at that level throughout the second and third set, so I waited for him to drop his level a little bit. I just tried to stay focused.

“I am feeling pretty good. I think I am playing my best tennis of the year in the past couple of tournaments. I am happy with my result last week and I also did well at the Olympics.”

Nishikori defeated Brit Cameron Norrie in Washington en route to his first semi-final appearance since Barcelona in 2019. The 12-time tour-level titlist played with renewed confidence against Kecmanovic to level their ATP Head2Head Series at 1-1.

After a tight start in the first set, Nishikori gained control in the fifth game as he took the only break point of the set to move 3-2 ahead. The 31-year-old stepped inside the baseline to dictate with his forehand as he moved Kecmanovic around the court to lead.

The Serbian responded well at the beginning of the second set as he played aggressively to force Nishikori into errors to lead 2-0. However, Nishikori replied immediately, levelling at 2-2 before the set moved to a tie-break. Kecmanovic then held his nerve from 5/5 in the tie-break, forcing a decider when Nishikori hit a backhand into the net. It was one-way traffic in the third set though, as Nishikori raced 4-0 ahead. He won the last eight points, serving it out to claim his victory.

Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili also advanced on Tuesday in Toronto as he overcame #NextGenATP American Jenson Brooksby 2-6, 6-0, 6-4, denying the 20-year-old a victory on his ATP Masters 1000 debut.

Basilashvili, who has won titles in Doha and Munich this year, broke Brooksby six times to advance in one hour and 52 minutes and improve to 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head Series.

Brooksby has been in red-hot form recently. The wild card advanced to the Newport final in July on his ATP Tour debut and reached the Washington semi-finals last week. As a result, Brooksby has risen from outside the Top 200 of the FedEx ATP Rankings to a career-high No. 99 in the past four months.

However, Basilashvili ensured the 20-year-old would not enjoy another dream run this week as he improved on return throughout the match. The 29-year-old won just 18 per cent (2/11) of points on Brooksby’s first serve in the opening set, but improved to 58 per cent (7/12) in the second set. Basilashvili found the decisive break in the ninth game of the third set and will next face 12th seed Alex de Minaur.

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Deep Court Daniil: Inside Medvedev's Return

Try standing seven-plus metres behind the baseline to return serve. You may as well be halfway to the moon. Not only does Daniil Medvedev thrive from this ultra-deep return location, but he has also broken serve more times on hard courts in 2021 than any other player.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Medvedev’s prowess on hard courts reveals the Russian broke serve 75 times from 20 matches up to the Olympics, just edging compatriot Andrey Rublev, who at that point had broken 74 times from 24 matches.

Medvedev also leads the Tour with total points won on hard courts this season at 54.7 per cent (1637/2992). Rublev is once again in second place, winning 54.6 per cent (1791/3279) of hard-court points. It is now hard-court season in the U.S. and Medvedev is poised once again to be a pivotal player chasing ATP Masters 1000 and Grand Slam glory.

The investigation into why Medvedev thrives from such an impossibly deep return location reveals his extreme court position successfully morphs a traditional return into a pseudo-groundstroke. Traditional tennis mantra dictates that we are on defence against the power of a first serve and should therefore employ more of a blocking strategy. The thinking is to lower the speed of the first-serve return to ensure greater control and get more returns in. It’s always been just fine to swing away against a slower second serve.

Medvedev throws traditional tennis wisdom out the window. In fact, his average first-serve return speed (110 km/h) at the ATP Cup was exactly the same as his opponents’ second-serve return speed. That’s just laughing in the face of what has been accepted for generations. Medvedev’s extreme return location and vastly superior first-serve return speed are rewriting what’s possible returning serve on a hard court.

The following Hawk-Eye graphic compares Medvedev’s return hit points to Matteo Berrettini’s in the ATP Cup final on hard court in Melbourne in January. All of Medvedev’s returns were from four to seven metres behind the baseline, while Berrettini was a metre inside the baseline to around two metres behind.

Medvedev’s Return Contact Points

Berrettini’s Return Contact Points

^{Graphics courtesy Hawk-Eye Innovations/ATP Media}
Consider the following returns speeds from the ATP Cup on hard courts at Melbourne Park:

2021 ATP Cup – Average First-Serve Return Speed

2021 ATP Cup – Average Second-Serve Return Speed

In order to fully connect the dots on what Medvedev is really achieving, the average rally speed needs to be factored in as well.

2021 ATP Cup – Average Groundstroke Speed

Medvedev’s average second-serve return speed slightly edges his average groundstroke speed (117 km/h to 116 km/h). The real benefit of standing extremely deep to return serve compared to the more traditional location up closer to the baseline was found in the speed he can hit first-serve returns.

• Average First-Serve Return Speed Difference = 23 km/h (110 km/h – 87 km/h)
• Average Second-Serve Return Speed Difference = 7 km/h (117 km/h – 110 km/h)
• Average Groundstroke Speed Difference = 4 km/h (116 km/h – 112 km/h)

Essentially, Medvedev does not want to “return” serve in the traditional sense against a first serve. He wants to back up as far as he can to let the first serve slow down and then swing as hard as he can with a lot of runway to land the ball. What he gives up in court position he gains in raw speed.

Medvedev’s success begs the question: When facing a first serve, why hit a traditional forehand blocking return when you can rope a regular forehand groundstroke instead?

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Opelka Rises To Kyrgios Challenge In Toronto

Two of the best serves in the business were on show in Toronto on Monday night and it was Reilly Opelka who delivered in a three-set defeat of Nick Kyrgios. In the first ATP Head2Head meeting between the pair, the American prevailed 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 to reach the second round of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.

The 23-year-old fired 22 aces to Kyrgios’ 16 and clocked 18 forehand winners on his way past the World No. 80. He dropped only six points on his first serve and faced only two break points.

“Yeah it’s as expected – he’s got one of the best serves in the world, his skillset is off the charts,” Opelka said of Kyrgios. “When you’re not on tour for a while it’s hard to be as sharp. It takes time. I know his best tennis of the season will probably come around at the US open but yeah he’s still a nightmare.”

Opelka has only won back-to-back matches twice this year from 14 events – on his run to a maiden ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in Rome and when he reached the third round at Roland Garros. He could string together consecutive match wins on hard courts for the first time in 2021 should he find a way past 14^th seed Grigor Dimitrov next, with the reward a potential showdown with second seed Rafael Nadal in the third round.

Opelka only conceded six points on serve in the opening set but four of those came in the seventh game when he was broken. Kyrgios had twice reached the last 16 in Montreal, but had won only one match previously in Toronto.

He looked on track when he carried the advantage to a one-set lead after 30 minutes and came within two points of victory as neither player could be separated on serve deep in the second set. With both on song throughout the tie-break, Opelka started to read his opponent’s serve better.

There was a point of contention when Kyrgios believed the American’s foot had touched the net during play. The ensuing argument with the chair umpire was to little avail as he surrendered the set on a double fault.

“Yeah that 5-4 point I guessed right and clocked the forehand and made it a difficult situation for him and then 6-4 he was a little frustrated,” Opelka said. “A guy like that, he returns so well, I thought he was going to make me serve for it but I got lucky, he was a little flustered.”

It was all square at the 82-minute mark and despite missing three break points in the opening game of the deciding set, Opelka pounced on his next opportunity to edge ahead 2-1. Two match points against the Kyrgios serve went begging, but there was no mistake at the third time of asking as Opelka served it out at the two-hour mark.

In the earlier night match, American Tommy Paul denied home favourite Vasek Pospisil 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3. Having taken the first set, the Canadian overcame a bout of cramps and stood toe-to-toe in the deciding set until he was broken in the eighth game.

Paul let two match points slip but kept his composure to serve out his first match win since Roland Garros on the back of 23 winners. He will meet 10^th seed Roberto Bautista Agut.

Meanwhile, a trio of Russian Tokyo Olympic medallists made winning starts in doubles on Monday. Men’s singles silver medallist Karen Khachanov and mixed doubles gold medallist Andrey Rublev opened their Toronto doubles campaign with a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory over Canadian wild cards Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alexis Galarneau.

The Russians won 88 per cent of first-serve points and saved all seven break points faced. Aslan Karatsev teamed up with Serbian Dusan Lajovic to join his compatriots in the second round, following a 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-8 victory over Alex de Minaur and Cameron Norrie.

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Day 2 Preview: Medvedev Meets Familiar Foe In Toronto

Canada holds fond memories for top seed Daniil Medvedev, as the site of his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final two years ago. On Tuesday, the Russian will return for the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers to open his campaign against one-time doubles partner Alexander Bublik.

Medvedev defeated Dominic Thiem en route to a final showdown with Rafael Nadal in Montreal in 2019 and despite coming up short it paved the way for a scorching North American hard-court swing, which included a first Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati a week later and his first Grand Slam final in New York.

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— Daniil Medvedev (@DaniilMedwed) August 9, 2021

The 25-year-old holds a 3-0 ATP Head2Head advantage over the flashy Bublik, of Kazakhstan, including a 6-4, 7-6(8) victory in the first round of last month’s Tokyo Olympic Games. Medvedev also claimed the honours in the opening round at Roland Garros this year on his way to a maiden quarter-final in the French capital.

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The Russian has picked up 10 of his 11 ATP Tour titles on hard courts and made no secret of how pleased he was to be back on his favourite surface at an event he has found success at before. “I like to play in Canada. I love playing in Toronto, I played only one time here,” he said. “I made… third round [having won through qualifying], which was a good result for me at the time.

“Feels great to be in a Masters 1000 again on hard courts, I like playing hard courts, so just want to show good tennis, play some good games, win as many matches as possible. That’s what I like to do.”

Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas begins his campaign against dangerous Frenchman Ugo Humbert on Tuesday. The Greek, who climbed to a career-high of No. 3 in the FedEx ATP Rankings on Monday, lost both ATP Head2Head encounters against the World No. 27 – in a third-set tie-break at the Rolex Paris Masters last year and at last month’s Tokyo Olympic Games.

Like Medvedev, the 22-year-old’s first Masters 1000 final came in Canada, in Toronto three years ago, when he became the youngest player to beat four Top 10 opponents at a single tournament since the ATP Tour was established in 1990. Humbert comes off a first-round win over Italian Lorenzo Sonego.

“I’m feeling good with my game, really happy to be back to Toronto, one of my favourite places to compete and play tennis,” Tsitsipas said. “The location is exactly as I remember it. I’m just generally happy to be competing here again.”

Sixth seed Casper Ruud will look to transfer a red-hot streak on clay to hard courts when he takes on former World No. 3 Marin Cilic in the second round. The Norwegian won three titles in as many weeks last month and will carry a 1-0 ATP Head2Head record into his match against the 32-year-old, a recent doubles silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics with Ivan Dodig. Cilic posted a three-set victory over Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

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Bublik Beats Evans In Toronto, Sets Medvedev Clash

In a clash of two of the ATP Tour’s most entertaining players, Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik beat Great Britain’s Daniel Evans 6-4, 6-4 on Monday in the first round of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.

Bublik, who has made finals in Antalya and Singapore this year, won 86 per cent of his first-serve points and converted three of his 10 break points to advance after one hour and 41 minutes.

“Obviously winning in straight sets is great. I kept my nerve after I lost the first break,” Bublik said in an on-court interview. “[I then] served better, maybe [got] a bit lucky in some points because Dan is a tricky player, he comes in so much. The key was to pass him in the right moment and I guess I did it well.”

The World No. 39 will next play top seed Daniil Medvedev. The Russian star leads the Tour’s 2021 aces leader 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series, including a straight-sets victory at Roland Garros earlier this year. 

Former World No. 3 Marin Cilic also made a good start in Toronto with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win against Spanish veteran Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

The Croatian saved five of the seven break points he faced to advance after two hours and 13 minutes, setting a second-round clash against sixth seed Casper Ruud. The Norwegian star has won the past three tournaments he has played, lifting trophies in Bastad, Gstaad and Kitzbuhel.

Five-time National Bank Open Presented by Rogers champion Rafael Nadal learned his second-round opponent when South African Lloyd Harris eliminated Canadian qualifier Brayden Schnur 6-3, 6-2. Harris stunned Nadal at last week’s Citi Open in Washington.

In other action, Italian Fabio Fognini defeated German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-4 in a battle of strong baseliners. Fognini will next try to upset fourth seed Andrey Rublev, whom he leads 5-3 in their ATP Head2Head.

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