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Roger Federer seals 99th tournament victory with ninth Swiss Indoors title

  • Posted: Oct 28, 2018

Roger Federer sealed the Swiss Indoors title for the ninth time with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory over Marius Copil and is now one short of 100 tournament wins.

The 37-year-old world number three, who first won the Swiss title in 2006, was a break down in each set to Romanian Copil, seeking his first title.

But the Swiss beat the world number 93 in an hour and 34 minutes.

In Vienna, Kevin Anderson qualified for the ATP Finals in London with victory in the Erste Bank Open.

Second seed Anderson beat fifth seed Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-3 7-6 (7-3).

Anderson, 32, who has never previously finished in the end-of-year top 10, is the first singles player from South Africa to play in the Tour Finals since Wayne Ferreira in 1995.

He joins Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro and Alexander Zverev at the eight-man event, to be held at The O2 from 11-18 November.

The two final places will be decided at the Paris Masters, where Federer will attempt to become the first man to reach a century of ATP tournament victories.

He will be the third seed in Paris and has a bye into round two, where he will face Canada’s Milos Raonic or France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

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WTA Finals: Elina Svitolina beats Sloane Stephens for biggest win of career

  • Posted: Oct 28, 2018

Elina Svitolina beat Sloane Stephens to claim the biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals in Singapore.

The first Ukrainian to be crowned champion, Svitolina recovered from a difficult start to win 3-6 6-2 6-2.

Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, controlled the first set but Svitolina broke three times in the second.

The 24-year-old then repeated the feat in the decider to become the first player to go unbeaten at the tournament since Serena Williams in 2013.

“It is amazing. I am very pleased with my performance this week,” said Svitolina, who has won her past nine finals on the WTA Tour and not lost one in the last two seasons.

“There were nerves early on but I was just trying to fight for every ball and I think that made the difference in the end.”

American Stephens, the world number six, raced into a 3-0 lead in the opening set and the 25-year-old went on to wrap it up in 46 minutes.

The trend of this tournament suggested the match would go to three sets, however – 10 matches have gone the distance this week, beating the previous high of six – and it duly did so when Svitolina ran away with the second set.

And the world number seven continued her dominance into the final set, breaking three times once more to secure the title.

“Sloane played amazing tennis so I really had to play my best tennis to win,” Svitolina added.

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Stephens, making her debut at the event, won all three of her group matches and then beat Karolina Pliskova in the semi-final.

“It is not the way I wanted to finish but I worked really hard to get here and I can be really proud of my result today so I am really pleased with that,” she said.

The WTA Finals feature the leading eight players of the year, split into two groups of four for round-robin matches before the semi-finals and final. This year, ninth-ranked Kiki Bertens was given a chance after world number one Simona Halep was ruled out with a lower-back injury.

Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki went out at the group stage and has since revealed she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in August.

The Finals were held in Singapore for the fifth and final time before moving to the Chinese city of Shenzhen next year.

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Skupski/Salisbury Lift Maiden Team Trophy In Vienna

  • Posted: Oct 28, 2018

Skupski/Salisbury Lift Maiden Team Trophy In Vienna

Oct282018

British duo improves to 6-1 record

Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski captured their maiden team title on Sunday, defeating Mike Bryan and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-6(5), 6-3 at the Erste Bank Open 500.

The British duo, appearing for the first time since its team debut at the 2018 Winston-Salem Open, landed 10 aces and saved both break points it faced to lift the trophy after 76 minutes. Salisbury has now won two tour-level crowns this season after clinching his first title at the Shenzhen Open (w/McLachlan) in September. Having also lifted his first tour-level trophy earlier this year in Montpellier (w/ K. Skupski), the 28-year-old Skupski is also a two-time ATP World Tour champion.

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Like Salisbury and Skupski, Bryan and Roger-Vasselin were appearing in just their second tour-level event as a team. The American-French tandem, which reached the Citi Open final on its team debut this year (l. to Murray/Soares), drops to a 5-2 record after reaching its second tour-level championship match.

World No. 1 Bryan was aiming to lift his fifth tour-level crown of the season and 121st overall. Alongside brother Bob Bryan, the 40-year-old captured the Vienna title in 2011. Winner of trophies in Metz (w/Mahut) and Antwerp (w/Mahut), Roger-Vasselin was bidding to secure his 17th tour-level doubles title.

Salisbury and Skupski gain 500 ATP Doubles Ranking points and split €142,670 in prize money for lifting the trophy. Bryan and Roger-Vasselin receive 300 points and share €69,850.

Did You Know?
Both teams entered the championship match in Vienna with a 5-1 team record.

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Bryan/Roger-Vasselin Overcome Marach/Pavic In Vienna Semi-finals

  • Posted: Oct 27, 2018

Bryan/Roger-Vasselin Overcome Marach/Pavic In Vienna Semi-finals

Oct272018

American-French duo to face Salisbury/Skupski in Sunday’s final

Mike Bryan and Edouard Roger-Vasselin advanced to their second tour-level final of the season on Saturday, overcoming top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic 6-4, 6-7(2), 10-7 at the Erste Bank Open 500.

In just their second tournament appearance as a team, Bryan and Roger-Vasselin won 82 per cent of first-serve points and captured 14 of 24 second-serve return points to advance after one hour and 36 minutes. On their team debut at the Citi Open in August, the American-French duo posted a runner-up finish after falling in a Match Tie-break to Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

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Marach and Pavic, who lead the ATP Doubles Race To London, were aiming to reach their 10th tour-level championship match of the season (4-5). The Austrian-Croatian duo won its first 17 matches of the year, picking up trophies in Doha, Auckland and at the Australian Open. Marach and Pavic lifted their most recent trophy at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open in May.

Bryan and Roger-Vasselin will meet Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski for the title. The British duo booked its spot in the championship match on Friday, ending Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo’s 10-match winning streak with a comeback 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 triumph.

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Zverev Brothers Advance In Basel
Despite falling in the singles semi-finals, Alexander Zverev kept his hopes of lifting silverware at the Swiss Indoors Basel alive on Saturday evening. The 21-year-old combined with brother Mischa Zverev to defeat Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak 6-1, 6-3. The German duo progressed to its sixth tour-level championship match (1-4) after 59 minutes. The brothers saved all five break points they faced en route to victory.

The Gerry Weber Open finalists (l. to Kubot/Melo) will face Dominic Inglot and Franko Skugor in Sunday’s final. Inglot and Skugor defeated Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos 5-7, 6-3, 10-6, firing 15 aces to advance after 86 minutes. The British-Croatian duo is undefeated in tour-level finals (2-0), following victories earlier this season in Budapest and s’Hertogenbosch.

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