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Zhang upsets Medvedev in Halle

  • Posted: Jun 19, 2024

Chinese No. 1 Zhang Zhizhen scored his second Top 5 victory Wednesday when he upset third seed Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5) at the Terra Wortmann Open.

From 3/5 in the third-set tie-break, Zhang won four consecutive points to stun the World No. 5 and become the first Chinese player to reach the Halle quarter-finals.

“A really tough match. Last time I lost a third-set tie-break [in Stuttgart last week]. And today again, a third-set tie-break. I was thinking, ‘Okay, it’s time. The perfect moment to get revenge’,” Zhang said. “I’m super happy that today I handled it to the end.”

The 27-year-old dropped six consecutive games from 2-2 in the second set but recovered a break deficit early in the decider to pull within striking distance. Zhang, whose previous Top 5 victory came against Casper Ruud at last year’s US Open, again fought off a challenge on serve at 4-5 in the third set, when Medvedev was two points away from victory.

The World No. 42 in the PIF ATP Rankings next faces American Christopher Eubanks, who ousted defending champion Alexander Bublik 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3. It will be Zhang’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Eubanks.

Medvedev fell to 28-9 on the season, with his best result being a final appearance at the Australian Open and in Indian Wells. The 28-year-old was aiming for his 10th consecutive ATP 500 quarter-final.

Earlier in Halle, Jan-Lennard Struff earned a dramatic victory against Luciano Darderi, converting his 10th match point to win 6-7(2), 7-5, 7-6(10) after two hours, 31 minutes. The Italian Darderi will rue letting slip a match point at 8/7 in the third-set tie-break.

Matteo Berrettini defeated American Alex Michelsen 7-6(5), 6-2 and Arthur Fils cruised past Dominik Koepfer 6-3, 6-4. Fils, 20, holds the top spot in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah. The Frenchman is aiming for a return trip to the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, where he was a finalist in 2023.

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Korda overcomes Dimitrov to reach Queen's Club QFs, Murray retires

  • Posted: Jun 19, 2024

Sebastian Korda continued his impressive grass-court season on Wednesday at the cinch Championships, where he won a close second-round clash against Grigor Dimitrov.

The American, who is competing at a career-high No. 23 in the PIF ATP Rankings, battled hard to earn a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 victory against the 2014 Queen’s Club champion.

“It was a big struggle. We were both serving well and waiting for our chances and there weren’t many. But when they came, I tried to take them,” Korda said. “It is incredible playing at Queen’s, it is one of my favourite tournaments.”

Korda was more consistent from the baseline than Dimitrov, committing nine unforced errors compared to 17 from the Bulgarian, according to ATP Infosys Stats. With his two-hour, one-minute win, the 23-year-old earned his seventh Top 10 victory and third on grass.

Korda, who reached the final on grass in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last week, now leads World No. 10 Dimitrov 2-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series. He will next play Rinky Hijikata in the quarter-finals.

Five-time tournament champion Andy Murray retired five games into his match against Jordan Thompson. The former World No. 1’s movement was hindered.

Murray received a visit from the physio for treatment on his lower back and was unable to continue after Thompson took a 4-1 lead.

Taylor Fritz downed former No. 3 Milos Raonic 7-6(5), 6-4 after winning 81 per cent of his first-serve points.

The fourth-seeded American tallied four consecutive points from 3/5 in the first-set tie-break to gain an advantage on the Canadian, who was playing just his fifth tournament of the year. In Fritz’s second service game of the second set, he again dug out of a hole, holding despite a 0/40 start. The 26-year-old earned a decisive break at 4-4 and proceeded to hold at love, booking his spot in the last eight.

Australian qualifier Hijikata defeated Italian Matteo Arnaldi 7-6(0), 7-6(7) to reach his third tour-level quarter-final of the season.

The 23-year-old, who is making his debut at the ATP 500 event, showed signs of nerves in the closing stages of the second set, squandering five match points before eventually sealing victory on his sixth opportunity.

Hijikata is up 23 spots to No. 75 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings after reaching his second ATP Tour grass-court quarter-final. He advanced to the semi-finals in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last year.

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Marozsan recalls clash against 16-year-old Sinner before Halle showdown

  • Posted: Jun 19, 2024

In the final full week of January in 2018, Jannik Sinner played qualifying for an ITF World Tennis Tour event in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Then 16, he had not yet earned a PIF ATP Rankings point.

Standing across the net in the second round was a Hungarian named Fabian Marozsan. The 18-year-old rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory that day, and he has not faced the Italian since.

That will change Thursday when Marozsan plays new World No. 1 Sinner in the second round of the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle.

“I remember that I was going to play against an Italian player who was very young and I just saw the last game of his match. He played very fast, he was moving into the court and putting a lot of pressure on the opponent and I said, ‘Okay, it’s not going to be easy. But he’s still young, and maybe I have a chance to win against him’,” Marozsan recalled from their meeting in Egypt. “That was maybe my first or second year of the ITFs. I just started the Futures tournaments and I was still still a young player, but he was much younger than me.”

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Thinking back more than six years to that encounter, Marozsan believed Sinner could be a “really good player, but not the No. 1”.

“But he was very, very talented,” Marozsan said. “He is moving really fast and well. He is very smart on the court and huge forehand, good backhand also. He has the good feeling with the balls and he’s a good guy so let’s see. I just want to enjoy and maybe use my chances if I have some.”

Now 24 years old, Marozsan has climbed as high as No. 36 in the PIF ATP Rankings. He has already sprung big upsets, including a stunner last year in Rome against Carlos Alcaraz.

Something that has helped the Hungarian is his improved mentality and the use of a “poker face”. Growing up, Marozsan would cry during matches or even throw his racquet. People in Hungary told him if he wanted to become a professional player, he needed to change and focus on the next point.

“It’s not easy because sometimes when things are not going in a good way, I’m that person who is showing the negative things. It’s not a good thing and I have to learn how to [hide] the face and how to keep calm a little bit and and show to everyone and of course to the opponent that I am still positive and believing in myself,” Marozsan said. “But sometimes it’s really hard and sometimes I’m missing this one because I’m showing the negative and the bad things. I’m trying to focus on this one.”

One advantage Sinner will have is his experience on the sport’s biggest stages. Although Marozsan has played seven Top 10 opponents (4-3) according to Infosys ATP Stats, centre court has not been his playground the way it has been for the player he called “the best at the moment”: Sinner.

“He feels like he’s at home because of the centre court, I never played here before. It’s a little bit difficult and different for me, so let’s see,” Marozsan said ahead of the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head (tour-level) meeting. “I’ll try to believe in myself and keep my serve and probably I have a bigger chance here on grass to beat him or maybe just win one set. So we will see, I’m looking forward this one and I want to enjoy [it].”

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Diary of a new World No. 1: Jannik Sinner returns home

  • Posted: Jun 19, 2024

There is no place like home. That showed when Jannik Sinner returned to his hometown of Sexten in the Dolomites last week to celebrate his ascent to the top of the PIF ATP Rankings.

“If you imagine coming from here, a tennis player, it’s very, very strange,” Sinner said in a special behind-the-scenes documentary of the first Italian World No. 1’s visit.

The 22-year-old provided a film crew unprecedented access throughout his trip. Sinner gave fans a look at his life growing up in the mountains. The special feature helps tell the story of how Sinner evolved from a kid in a small town known for skiing to the best tennis player in the world.

“I have my house here, and here is the other house with [my] grandma and grandpa and they always cooked for me and then after, I had to wear the ski stuff because I went to skiing immediately from two to four, and then twice a week I was playing tennis and that was it,” Sinner said. “You got it on camera!”

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The Italian added: “We played football and we were all the time together with friends and nobody had a phone. We only had a watch and the parents they said, ‘Look, at five you should be at home’. And sometimes you arrived at 5:15 and then the parents, they got p****d a little bit!”

Watch the full documentary above and click here to read about all the players who have reached No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

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Darderi (and dad) dare to dream big

  • Posted: Jun 19, 2024

It is only fitting that Luciano Darderi’s two title runs this season, one on the ATP Tour and another on the ATP Challenger Tour, have come in Argentina and Italy, the two countries where the 22-year-old has split time throughout his life.

Born in the coastal town of Villa Gesell, Argentina, Darderi was ‘around five years old’ when he received his first tennis racquet as a gift from his grandmother. Little did he and his grandmother know that ‘Luli’ would become a Top 40 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, with his father Luciano as his coach.

“I remember when I was six or seven, I would go by bicycle with my dad and play together,” Darderi recently told ATPTour.com. “It was a court at a hotel, close to the forest and beach. After 10 or 11, I was going to Buenos Aires because they play more tennis there and I started playing more tournaments.

“It’s really special for me and my dad too. We have arrived at the level, the ranking, the dream that we’ve had together. This fast, at 22 years old, is really special. In one year, we are doing a lot of things and I think we have a lot more things to do.”

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Set to face German Jan-Lennard Struff in the first round of the Terra Wortmann Open on Wednesday, Darderi realised his potential competing at junior tournaments aged 10, when he started spending six months in Argentina and the other half of the year in Italy, where his grandfather resided. “I started to play 100 per cent and I started to think about playing professionally,” said Darderi, who moved to Italy at age 11.

That young Luciano who was bouncing between two countries and dabbling in three different languages (Spanish, Italian and English) would be proud of everything he has accomplished in his first full season on the ATP Tour.

Darderi enjoyed a surprise run at February’s ATP 250 event in Cordoba, where as a qualifier ranked No. 136 in the PIF ATP Rankings, he went all the way to lift the trophy. Prior to that week, Darderi had just one tour-level match win in two appearances.

“It was incredible to start 2024 making the Top 100. It was very special,” Darderi said. “Coming from qualies in my first ATP Tour tournament of the year, winning in Argentina, it was amazing.”

<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/06/18/23/31/darderi-turinch-2024-autographs.jpg” style=”width:100%” alt=”Luciano Darderi greets fans at the Turin Challenger in May.” />
Luciano Darderi greets fans at the Turin Challenger in May. Credit: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour

Now at a career-high World No. 34, Darderi last week built upon his breakthrough season with a dominant run at the Perugia Challenger. The top seed did not drop a set en route to becoming the third player this season to win on the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour, alongside Alejandro Tabilo and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

Darderi’s success on the ATP Challenger Tour last year preceded his current rise. He tallied 42 match wins at that level in 2023, third most behind Argentines Francisco Comesana and Facundo Diaz Acosta. A highlight came at the Lima Challenger in November, Darderi’s penultimate tournament of 2023, when he defeated Alejandro Tabilo and Mariano Navone en route to the title. Navone and Tabilo are now inside the Top 30 amidst their own breakthrough seasons.

“After Lima, I was thinking I have the level to be in the Top 100,” Darderi said. “I think playing Challengers was helping me a lot. The Challengers are a very high level and it’s very close to the ATP level I think. Playing a lot of matches, practising during the tournaments. When you play a lot of matches, it gives you a lot of confidence for the next level.”

Darderi will not be short on confidence Wednesday, when he looks to build upon last week’s ATP Challenger Tour title run in his first-round clash against Struff in Halle. It will be Darderi’s first ATP Tour grass-court match.

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