Kei Nishikori on Friday kept alive his hopes of earning a third Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell title, battling past home favourite Roberto Carballes Baena 6-4, 7-5 to reach the semi-finals.

The 2014-15 Barcelona champion arrived in Spain on a three-match losing streak, but he has raised his level at the ATP 500 tournament with three straight-sets victories. The World No. 7 won all but six first-serve points (39/45) en route to his one-hour, 53-minute triumph.

Nishikori will face in-form Daniil Medvedev for a spot in Sunday’s championship match. The Japanese star has won two of the pair’s three FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, including their only match on clay last year in Monte-Carlo. But the Russian was victorious in their biggest battle, in the final of Tokyo last season.

It was not an easy quarter-final for the fourth seed, who was made to fight hard by Carballes Baena, the 2018 Quito champion. The Spaniard did well to neutralise Nishikori’s offence as best he could, taking any opening he could find to dictate play. But after saving the first eight break points he faced in the second set, Carballes Baena could not hold off Nishikori, who also made the 2016 final here.

Seventh-seeded Russian Medvedev lost just two of his first-service points and broke once in each set to stop the giant-killing run of Chilean lucky loser Nicolas Jarry 6-3, 6-4 in 86 minutes for a place in the last four. Jarry had beaten second seed Alexander Zverev and No. 13 seed Grigor Dimitrov in the two previous rounds.

“I think it was really tough conditions to play. It was dry and windy, so the balls were flying a lot,” Medvedev said. “I needed to win it. I needed to be in the semi-finals. I won it and I’m happy.”

Medvedev, who captured his fourth ATP Tour title at the Sofia Open (d. Fucsovics) in February, has a tour-leading 24-7 match record on the season.

Did You Know?
Medvedev had two tour-level clay-court wins entering the year, and he now has seven this season alone (including a run to the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters semi-finals).

Qualifier Filip Krajinovic broke down the serve of second-seeded Croatian Borna Coric on Friday in a 6-4, 7-5 victory to book his place in the Hungarian Open semi-finals.

Krajinovic fought back from a 2-4 deficit in the first set, at a point when Coric had lost just three of his service points in as many games. The 27-year-old saved three set points on serve at 4-5 in the second set, prior to breaking Coric in the next game.

The Serbian will now prepare to contest his first ATP Tour semi-final since February 2018 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, against France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who was a 6-3, 6-4 victor over Hungarian wild card Attila Balazs in Budapest. In November 2017, Krajinovic reached the Rolex Paris Masters final (l. to Sock).

“I’m really proud of myself to play the match that I played. It’s never easy to play in front of the home crowd. They were supporting him from the first until the last point,” Herbert said. “He was playing actually some great tennis this week, so I expected a tough match. That’s what it was.”

Later in the day, Italian Matteo Berrettini advanced to his third ATP Tour semi-final by beating Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in one hour and 52 minutes. He now plays fifth-seeded Serbian Laslo Djere, the Rio Open presented by Claro champion in February, who defeated fourth-seeded Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 45 minutes.

It was only a few years ago that Attila Balazs was coaching tennis. This week, he’s giving lessons to his opponents at the Hungarian Open.

The 30-year-old, currently No. 246 in the ATP Rankings, has made full use of his wildcard by advancing to the quarter-finals. His upset victories over Hubert Hurkacz of Poland and sixth seed John Millman of Australia marked the first time in seven years that Balazs has reached the last eight at this level (2012 Bucharest SF, l. to Fognini).

His run in Budapest is even more surprising considering that he’s in the early stages of coming back from a hip injury. Balazs returned to action in March after being sidelined for seven months.

“It means a lot to me. It’s a special feeling to play in front of friends and family, so I’m really enjoying the support,” said Balazs. “This result is a surprise for me and a very positive sign for the upcoming weeks. I was hoping to be back very quickly, but wasn’t expecting to do so well at that point.”

Injury woes were what prompted Balazs to retire from the tour in August 2014, four years after reaching his career-high ATP Ranking of No. 153. But life as a tennis coach wasn’t what he envisioned and thoughts of a comeback soon entered his mind.

“It was just too boring,” laughed Balazs. “I said that I’m too young for coaching and felt the motivation in myself to make a comeback. I felt that I had nothing to lose and obviously now I’m very happy with the decision.”

Balazs returned to action in August 2016 and won 10 ITF Futures events in his first year back. He has primarily competed in clay-court ATP Challenger Tour events since then because “the best weapons I have are my kick serve and my drop shot. Those shots work better on clay than some other surfaces.”

Happiness off the court – his daughter, Izabella, was born in February 2017 – has translated into success on the court. With no ATP Rankings points to defend in the last four months of this season, Balazs is convinced he can crack the Top 150 for the first time and climb even higher.

“This week has given me a lot of confidence,” he said. “I’m going to play some Challengers after this and I feel good for those events. I know that I can do well now against the players I’ll need to face at that level.”

For two decades, the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger has demonstrated a steadfast and unwavering commitment to growing the game on the ATP Challenger Tour. And this week, the tournament has reached a significant milestone, celebrating its 20th anniversary on the circuit.

The great heritage of Challenger tournaments in the United States continues to grow, with a sixth event crossing the 20-year mark. Tallahassee joins Aptos, Winnetka, Binghamton, Lexington and Dallas as tournaments spanning at least two decades.

It’s no surprise that the longest-running clay-court Challenger in the country continues to thrive. Boasting a winners’ circle that includes Top 10 stalwarts Mardy Fish (2006), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2007) and John Isner (2009), as well as two-time finalist and #NextGenATP star Frances Tiafoe (2015-16), the level of competition has set the bar over the years.

Held at Forestmeadows Tennis Center, located on the north side of Tallahassee, the tournament has been under the direction of Karen Vogter since 2004. All proceeds from the event go to the Vogter Endowment, which funds the Vogter Neuro Intensive Care Unit – named for her late husband Mark – at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.

The tournament is truly a community event, with more than 300 volunteers coming together to make it possible, in addition to an entire administration run by volunteers. Vogter, her staff and the entire Tallahassee community, including nearby Florida State University, rally around the tournament to ensure the more than 6,000 spectators have the best experience possible.

“It’s pretty rare to have a tournament like this that is entirely run by volunteers,” Vogter said. “It’s nice for Tallahassee to have a professional event. We’re the only one here. We’re growing every year and bringing more players and fans. What’s really fun about the tournament is the ability for people from the community to support foreign players who are from their countries. It’s fun to see how international it is.”

As a critical care nurse for years, Vogter has a passion for creating an inviting environment and world-class atmosphere for people. Her late husband Mark was a neurosurgeon before his unexpected passing. They had both spent countless years supporting the community and playing tennis and Vogter carries that legacy to this day.

It was only fitting that the tournament would invite 2018 champion Noah Rubin and runner-up Marc Polmans, in addition to doubles players Hunter Reese and Anderson Reed, to visit a new state-of-the-art wing at the neuro intensive care unit.

“It’s great to see that this is much more than a tennis tournament,” said Rubin. “The proceeds are helping people and to see an incredible place like this and the technology behind it, it’s really impressive. We always look for that outside motivation to show that it’s not just for us. It’s for people that truly need our help.”

Photo credit: Jacob Stuckey/Tallahassee Tennis Challenger

Jan-Lennard Struff is closing in on new territory at the ATP Masters 1000 level. At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the 28-year-old German is one win away from making his first Masters 1000 quarter-final.

Struff beat Alexander Zverev on Monday to reach his fifth Round of 16 at the prestigious level. Struff will next meet Canadian and 2016 finalist Milos Raonic, who came back from 1-4 down in the third set to beat American Marcos Giron.

Here are five things to know about Struff, who loves football and going to the cinema – he names his favourite movie below – and was practically born into the sport of tennis.

1. He had never beaten Alexander Zverev before this week.
Dating back to their 2015 matchup on the ATP Challenger Tour, Zverev was 5-0, including four tour-level matchups. against his older countryman. But Struff beat Zverev 6-3, 6-1 to reach the Indian Wells Round of 16 for the first time.

It was his second Top 5 win. He beat then-No. 3 Stan Wawrinka at the 2016 Rolex Paris Masters.

“I was really happy that I won that match. The score, 6-3, 6-1, feels good for me,” Struff told ATPTour.com. “He’s such a good player, and I’m very happy that I could beat him.”

2. He’s a doubles champion
Struff doesn’t play doubles to get used to the courts. He doesn’t join regular teammate Ben McLachlan of Japan for more match repetitions. No, his motivations for doubling his court time at tournaments are far simpler than that: “I like doubles. I like the game. I like to play,” Struff said.

He and McLachlan last year made the quarter-finals at the Mutua Madrid Open and Wimbledon and the semi-finals at the Australian Open and the Miami Open presented by Itau.

They won their first tour-level title together at the ATP 500 in Tokyo, and followed it with another title to start 2019 at the ASB Classic in Auckland and another final at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

“Last year was an amazing year for me in doubles, for Ben as well, his first year on Tour,” Struff said. “It feels really good, building up some self confidence around that, and helps a lot for singles, for sure. I definitely want to play a lot of doubles. It’s a bit exhausting some times, but it makes it a lot of fun.”

3. He loves tennis, but…
Both of Struff’s parents are tennis coaches at Tennis Park in his hometown of Warstein, Germany. “I always loved the game and still love it. Tennis is my life,” he said.

But if he’s not on Tour or at the club’s four outdoor clay courts or five indoor rubber courts, he’s supporting his one and only football team, Borussia Dortmund. “Just one team and just full for the team, everything,” Struff said. “I live 10 minutes away from the stadium, and my father has season tickets.

“I always went when I was small, not that often anymore, maybe two, three times.”

4. “Pursuit of Happyness” is one of his favourite movies.
Struff has seen the 2006 movie starring American actor Will Smith 10 or 15 times. He watched it again on his 16-hour flight from Dubai to Los Angeles before the BNP Paribas Open. “I love the story,” Struff said.

5. He beat Raonic for the first time last month.
The German was 0-1 against the former World No. 3 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series before Dubai. But Struff saved six of seven break points to win their first-rounder on 25 February in Dubai.

Pablo Cuevas stared down match point against top seed Marin Cilic of Croatia at the Hungarian Open, but the Uruguayan dug deep and prevailed to reach the quarter-finals 5-7, 7-6(6), 7-6(3).

“To beat a player like Cilic is very important for me, so I’m very happy for this,” said Cuevas. “It was a very tough match, but I have confidence and fought for every ball today.”

Cuevas served to stay in the match at 4-5 and 5-6 in the second set. He then faced a match point at 5/6 in the tie-break, but Cilic pushed a forehand wide and Cuevas evened the score two points later. The Croatian saved a pair of match points in each of his service games at 4-5 and 5-6, but Cuevas hit a passing shot winner on his sixth match point to advance after three hours and 13 minutes.

The World No. 73 in the ATP Rankings reached at least the quarter-finals at three other ATP Tour clay-court events this year (Cordoba, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro) and won last week’s clay-court ATP Challenger Tour event in Tunis without dropping a set. Cuevas will next play Matteo Berrettini of Italy, who saved two set points in beating Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia 7-6(8), 6-2.

Meanwhile, Cilic’s struggles continue this season. The World No. 11 in the ATP Rankings has won only one of his past seven matches.

Second seed Borna Coric survived a tricky encounter with Dutchman Robin Haase to advance 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. The Croatian has reached at least the quarter-finals in four of his past five tournaments. He’ll play Filip Krajinovic for a place in the last four after the Serbian qualifier defeated eighth seed Radu Albot of Moldova 7-5, 6-4.

“I started very well in the match, but was not putting so much pressure on him in the second set and he started to play better,” said Coric. “I just stayed calm and started to play better at the end of the match.”

Fourth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili of Germany recovered from a shocking second set in which he only won eight points to defeat Peter Gojowczyk of Germany 6-3, 0-6, 6-3. He’ll play fifth seed Laslo Djere of Serbia, who sprinted past Italian teenager Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-1. Sinner, 17, won his first ATP Tour main draw match on Wednesday.

Begemann/Gulbis Oust Top Seeds

All four doubles quarter-finals took place on Thursday. Andre Begemann of Germany and Ernests Gulbis of Latvia defeated top seeds Rohan Bopanna of India and Dominic Inglot of Great Britain 6-3, 6-4. They’ll play third seeds Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski of Great Britain, who moved past Marcelo Demoliner of Brazil and Divij Sharan of India 7-6(6), 5-7, 10-7.

Marcus Daniell of New Zealand and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands upset fourth seeds Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Frederik Nielsen of Denmark 6-4, 7-6(5). Next up for them is the German pair of Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies, who beat British duo Luke Bambridge and Jonny O’Mara 3-6, 6-4, 10-6.