Tennis News

A Day At His Museum: Rafa Drops Off 20th Grand Slam Trophy

Rafael Nadal paid a visit to the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar on Wednesday to drop off his latest Grand Slam trophy.

The Spanish superstar headed to the Rafa Nadal Museum Xperience, which boasts the highlights of his sporting career, to place his 13th Roland Garros crown — for a record-equalling 20th major singles title — in his trophy cabinet.

“I’m now here in Mallorca, in Manacor and of course I’m very happy and satisfied with what I have achieved,” said Nadal, who beat World No. 1 Novak Djokovic 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 in the Roland Garros final on Sunday.

“It’s no less true that it’s a bittersweet feeling, because we have been through some very complicated months in various senses and the most important thing is health. The second is the economic situation, which is causing many families to go through a hard time. We have to trust that [things] will improve, trust that the vaccine will come as soon as possible and that we can all go back to living in a more pleasant world and be happier.

“I also wanted to thank you for all the messages of support over the past few weeks. To me, although we have been a little more distanced than normal, as we have not been able to have direct contact, receiving so many messages of support on social media and directly to my mobile has helped me, without a doubt. Thank you so much for the support. Finally, I would like to tell you that I am leaving the trophy here in the museum at the Academy, in Manacor, for all of you that would like to see it.”

The Rafa Nadal Museum Xperience not only includes the trophies Nadal has won during his illustrious career, but the shirts and trainers he has worn during each of the Grand Slam finals he has contested. There are also mementos donated by some of the biggest figures in the history of world sport, such as Michael Jordan, Fernando Alonso, Pau Gasol, Roger Federer, Mireia Belmonte, Usain Bolt, Serena Williams and Cristiano Ronaldo.

A significant part of the profits from the Museum go towards Rafa Nadal Foundation projects.

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Shapovalov Opens Quest To Emulate Coach Youzhny In St. Petersburg

Second seed Denis Shapovalov began his St. Petersburg Open quest to emulate his coach, 2004 champion Mikhail Youzhny, on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old Canadian recorded his 15th match win of the year with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Serbian lucky loser Viktor Troicki in 63 minutes. Shapovalov secured two breaks of serve in each set, hit 10 aces and lost just four of his first-service points (24/28).

“[It’s] always great to get the first win, especially against a player like Viktor,” said Shapovalov. “We’ve had a lot of battles before and they’ve been really long matches, so I’m really happy to get a straight-sets win today.

“Indoor tennis is just natural for me. It’s what I grew up playing on. For sure, it’s difficult to have those transitions really quickly from clay court to hard court, but we’re having to get used tot these situations now and trying to adapt quickly. So I’m really happy with the way I’ve been able to transition.”

Last month, the World No. 12 reached his first Grand Slam championship quarter-final at the US Open (l. to Carreno Busta). He also became the first player to reach both singles and doubles (w/Rohan Bopanna) quarter-finals in New York since Youzhny in 2006.

Shapovalov will next face Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka, who beat Adrian Mannarino on Tuesday. Shapovalov defeated World No. 141 Ivashka 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 at the 2018 Shenzhen Open.

“I really feel like it’s my second home over here, and every time I come here the fans just love me and the atmosphere is amazing,” said Shapovalov. “Of course, the city is so beautiful, so it’s always an honour to come here.”

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Elsewhere, Reilly Opelka fired 26 aces and won 91 per cent of his first-service points (49/54) to get the better of Croatian qualifier Nino Serdarusic 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 in one hour and 34 minutes.

The American, who has now struck 328 aces in 17 tour-level matches this season, awaits the winner of the evening clash between top-seeded Russian and defending champion Daniil Medvedev and Richard Gasquet of France.

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Vesely, Djere Upset Seeds In Sardinia

Three seeds — Dusan Lajovic, Lorenzo Sonego and Pablo Andujar — all lost on Wednesday at the Forte Village Sardegna Open.

Laslo Djere survived a late comeback to beat fellow Serbian and second seed Lajovic 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 43 minutes for a quarter-final clash against Jiri Vesely, who overcame fifth-seeded Italian Sonego 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in two hours and 15 minutes.

Elsewhere, Federico Delbonis recorded his first win over sixth-seeded Spaniard Andujar, 10 years on from their first match at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Genova.

Andujar, who’d previously won six straight matches over the Argentine – three at tour-level and three at Challengers – came within two points of victory at 5/4 in the second-set tie-break, but Delbonis fought back to win 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-4 in two hours and 45 minutes.

Delbonis will now challenge Serbian lucky loser Danilo Petrovic, who completed his first ATP Tour match win over Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain 6-1, 6-4 in 87 minutes.

In first-round action, German Yannick Hanfmann swept past Salvatore Caruso of Italy 6-0, 6-4, while France’s Corentin Moutet knocked out Frances Tiafoe of the United States 7-6(0), 6-4.

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Verdasco Ousts Murray In Cologne

Fernando Verdasco lost 13 of his first 14 clashes against Andy Murray. But on Tuesday evening in Cologne, the Spaniard earned his third consecutive victory against the former World No. 1.

The seven-time ATP Tour titlist overpowered Murray 6-4, 6-4 to reach the second round of the bett1HULKS Indoors. The 36-year-old will meet top seed and recent US Open finalist Alexander Zverev in the second round.

“This is a very important victory for me for many reasons,” Verdasco said on court after his win. “Playing against a player like Andy, we have been playing together for all our careers. We’ve had really tough battles over the years. It’s always a challenge and a motivation to play against someone like him. I’m very happy for that.”

This is Verdasco’s first win since the Australian Open, where he reached the third round (l. to A. Zverev). The World No. 62 used his big forehand to control play on the slow Cologne hard court, pushing Murray back and forcing him to defend.

Murray battled hard, earning two break points as Verdasco served for the first set and four break points as the lefty served for the match. The former World No. 7 was too solid on the evening, and he will now have a chance to earn his third ATP Head2Head victory against Zverev (Zverev leads their series 3-2).

“I will try my best. I will enjoy it and hopefully I will be able to play good and make a good performance,” Verdasco said. “It’s going to be a good match.”

^{Photo Credit: bett1HULKS Indoors}
Eighth seed Marin Cilic had to work hard in the first round of the bett1HULKS Indoors on Tuesday, battling past American lucky loser Marcos Giron 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 after two hours and 30 minutes.

The former World No. 3 hit nine aces, but he faced 18 break points. Cilic saved 15 of those chances in his Cologne triumph.

“He’s a very tough competitor. I’d never played him and he played really well today,” Cilic said on court after his win. “I had to really fight hard, especially in the third set. This surface is a bit slower than usual, so you have to work for every point and he’s a great runner at the back of the court. It was definitely a tough, tough match.” 

Cilic will next play 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals competitor Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who ousted #NextGenATP Finn Emil Ruusuvuori, a qualifier, 7-5, 6-4.

Former World No. 6 Gilles Simon cruised past Marton Fucsovics, who made the fourth round at Roland Garros, 6-0, 6-3. The Frenchman triumphed after 75 minutes in a match that didn’t feature any aces or double faults. Simon will next challenge second seed Roberto Bautista Agut.

Qualifiers who emerged victorious Tuesday were Lloyd Harris, who played impressively to eliminate 2018 Antwerp titlist Kyle Edmund 7-5, 7-6(1), and Henri Laaksonen, who defeated wild card Daniel Altmaier 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5).

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Kyle Edmund loses to Lloyd Harris in Cologne first round

Britain’s Kyle Edmund loses in the first round of the Bett1 Hulks Indoors event against South Africa’s Lloyd Harris in Germany.

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St. Petersburg: Rublev Rolls In First Match As A Top 10 Player

Andrey Rublev’s time inside the Top 10 of the FedEx ATP Rankings is off to a good start.

Rublev defeated big-serving Canadian Vasek Pospisil 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday to advance to the second round of the St. Petersburg Open and take a 2-1 lead in their ATP Head2Head series.

Pospisil is dangerous on hard courts, especially indoors. The World No. 79 made the fourth round of the US Open and the final at Marseille earlier this year, but he only won 52 per cent of his service points against the home favourite. Rublev earned four service breaks and won 87 per cent of his first-serve points to move on after one hour and 19 minutes.

On Monday, Rublev reached a career-high World No. 10 following his quarter-final run at Roland Garros. The third seed has won three ATP Tour titles this year and with his triumphs in Doha and Adelaide, he became the first player to lift tour-level trophies in the first two weeks of a season since Dominik Hrbaty in 2004.

Rublev will next play Frenchman Ugo Humbert or Russian qualifier Pavel Kotov for a spot in the quarter-finals. 

Elsewhere in his quarter, Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic held off Kazakhstani Mikhail Kukushkin  6-3, 7-6 (7). Kecmanovic recovered from 3/6 down in the second-set tie-break, saving three set points to earn a battle against Cameron Norrie in the second round. The Brit ousted eighth seed Taylor Fritz 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 on Monday.

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Sonego, Andujar Made To Work In Sardinia; Cecchinato Saves 1 M.P.

Lorenzo Sonego regrouped after a second-set comeback from fellow Italian Giulio Zeppieri on Tuesday for a place in the Forte Village Sardegna Open second round. Fifth seed Sonego, who won 82 per cent of his first-service points, earned a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory over the 18-year-old wild card in one hour and 40 minutes.

Last week, Sonego reached the Roland Garros fourth round (l. to Schwartzman), having beaten Taylor Fritz 7-6(5), 6-3, 7-6(17) — the longest tie-break in the Grand Slam championship’s history. The 25-year-old, who is competing in Sardinia at a career-high No. 42 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, will now challenge Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic.

Elsewhere, Marco Cecchinato lived to fight another day, saving one match point at 6/7 in the second-set tie-break of a 5-7, 7-6(7), 6-2 win over Italian compatriot Gianluca Mager in two hours and 33 minutes. Cecchinato will now meet American Tommy Paul.

Earlier in the day, sixth-seeded Spaniard Pablo Andujar saved two set points in the first set and recovered from 1-3 down in the second set to overcome qualifier Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia 7-5, 7-5 in two hours and three minutes. Andujar saved two set points when Kovalik served at 5-4, 40/30 and Ad-In in the first set.

The 35-year-old Andujar, a winner of four ATP Tour titles from nine clay-court finals, will next face Federico Delbonis, who was solid on serve to edge past Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-5, 7-6(6) in one hour and 57 minutes. Delbonis and Seppi met only last week at the Internazionali di Tennis Emilia Romagna in Parma, with the Argentine winning 6-1, 7-6(6).

Roberto Carballes Baena, who beat Denis Shapovalov 8-6 in the fifth set of their Roland Garros second-round match two weeks ago, came through a match of 10 service breaks mid-afternoon, 7-5, 6-4, over Argentine qualifier Federico Coria in just under two hours. The Spaniard now prepares to meet top seed Fabio Fognini.

View Sardinia Draws

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Raonic Blasts 21 Aces In St. Petersburg Win

Sixth seed and 2015 champion Milos Raonic struck 21 aces on Tuesday and saved five set points at 4-5 in the first set en route to a 7-6(5), 6-1 victory over American qualifier J.J. Wolf in the first round of the St. Petersburg Open.

The Canadian needed one hour and 40 minutes to earn his 15th match win of the season. Less than two months ago, the former World No. 3 showed impressive form to reach the Western & Southern Open final (l. to Djokovic). He will next play Alexander Bublik, who hit 25 aces in his own first-round victory Monday.

Raonic is competing in St. Petersburg for the first time since 2016. He is now 5-1 at the tournament and four of his triumphs have come in straight sets.

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The highest seed in Raonic’s quarter is fourth seed Karen Khachanov, who eased past Aussie James Duckworth 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 17 minutes. The Russian is seeking his second ATP Tour title on home soil after lifting the Moscow trophy two years ago.

Khachanov, who only lost serve once in his win, will play Russian wild card Aslan Karatsev, who is 15-1 on the ATP Challenger Tour since tennis restarted in August. 

Borna Coric, who finished runner-up to Daniil Medvedev in last year’s St. Petersburg Open final, was rock solid on serve Tuesday when he defeated Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3, 7-6(2) in one hour and 36 minutes. The seventh-seeded Croatian struck 12 aces and lost only nine of his service points (45/54). Coric will now play Russian wild card Roman Safiullin or lucky loser Emilio Gomez of Ecuador.

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Opelka Is Three Times Above Average In This Serving Area

Players on the ATP Tour average around half an ace per service game on hard courts. Solid numbers.

Reilly Opelka grabs that average by the scruff of the neck and triples it to lead the Tour in untouchable serves.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of ace leaders on hard courts identifies that the 22-year-old American has averaged a head-turning 1.5 aces per service game so far in his emerging career. No player has posted such lofty ace totals since statistics were first recorded in 1991. The data set includes players who have played a minimum of 500 service games on hard courts in their career.

Opelka’s numbers at the Western & Southern Open in New York in August were slightly higher in his first three matches than his daunting average. Opelka retired in the quarter-finals against Stefanos Tsitsipas at 5-6 in the opening set with a right knee injury. Through his first three matches, the 6’11” American was averaging 1.6 aces per service game.

Reilly Opelka: Western & Southern Open Rounds 1-3

There are only 13 players since 1991 that have averaged greater than one ace per service game on hard courts. It’s interesting that this leaderboard is dominated by five Australians.

The ATP Tour average for aces per service game is 0.52. Of the Big Three, only Roger Federer (0.63) has averaged more than half an ace per game.

Big Three’s Hard Court Aces Per Service Game

Opelka has played eight matches in his career where he has astonishingly averaged at least two aces per service game in the match. He won six of those eight encounters.

Opelka Averaging 2+ Aces Per Service Game

Prior to the return of the ATP Tour, former World No. 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov picked Opelka to win the Western & Southern Open. The American is currently ranked No. 36 in the FedEx ATP Rankings and charging fast. His days of flying under the radar are over. This week he competes at the St. Petersburg Open.

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Zverev Brothers Eliminated In Cologne Doubles

Alexander Zverev and Mischa Zverev have won two ATP Tour doubles titles together and reached five more finals. But third seeds Raven Klaasen and Oliver Marach eliminated the Germans 2-6, 6-4, 10-6 in the first round of the bett1HULKS Indoors on Tuesday.

Klaasen and Marach saved 11 of the 14 break points they faced, including all eight in the second set, to triumph after one hour and 23 minutes. The South African-Austrian duo was 1-5 after the ATP Tour’s restart before their victory in Cologne. Ironically, their one previous win since August came against Alexander Zverev (w/Tim Puetz) at the Western & Southern Open.

Klaasen and Marach will next play Spaniards Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Fernando Verdasco or Germans Daniel Masur and Rudolf Molleker.

Also advancing in Cologne were Dominic Inglot and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, who beat Nicholas Monroe and Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-4. In the other doubles match of the day at the ATP 250, Tomislav Brkic and Marin Cilic ousted Hubert Hurkacz and Steve Johnson 6-0, 6-1.

Melzer/Roger-Vasselin Advance In St. Petersburg
Second seeds Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin reached the second round of the St. Petersburg Open with a 6-2, 7-6(3) win against qualifiers Evgeny Donskoy and Roman Safiullin. They will next play Russian wild cards Daniil Golubev and Evgenii Tiurnev.

Marcelo Demoliner and Matwe Middelkoop ousted third seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 7-6(1), 7-6(7). Taylor Fritz and Cameron Norrie, who played one another in singles on Monday (Norrie advanced), beat Luke Bambridge and Daniel Evans 3-6, 6-3, 10-5.

^{Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Jurgen Melzer break serve four times to reach the second round in St. Petersburg. Photo Credit: St. Petersburg Open}
Sonego/Vavassori Save 10 Match Points In Sardinia
It’s not every day a team saves 10 match points on the ATP Tour. Italians Lorenzo Sonego and Andrea Vavassori did just that at the Forte Village Sardegna Open on Tuesday, battling past countrymen Fabio Fognini and Lorenzo Musetti 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 15-13.

Fognini and Musetti had seven match points before the second-set tie-break, but could not convert. They earned three more chances in the Match Tie-break, but ultimately fell short after two hours and 11 minutes.

Third seeds Marcus Daniell and Philipp Oswald, finalists at the ASB Classic in January, opened their Sardinia campaign with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Spaniards Albert Ramos-Vinolas and David Vega Hernandez. They won 60 per cent of their return points in a 53-minute victory, setting up a second-round clash against Artem Sitak and Igor Zelenay.

In other action, American singles stars Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe ousted Andre Goransson and Jiri Vesely 7-6(7), 1-6, 11-9. On Monday, Paul rallied from a 0-5 third-set deficit in singles against Andrej Martin. Marcelo Arevalo and Jonny O’Mara also advanced with a 4-6, 7-5, 10-4 triumph against wild cards Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov.

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