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Nature Valley Classic: Garbine Muguruza out, Petra Kvitova advances in Birmingham

  • Posted: Jun 21, 2018

Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza was knocked out of the Nature Valley Classic with a 6-2 6-4 defeat by Barbora Strycova in Birmingham.

The top seed got back into the match by breaking to lead 4-2 in the second set but lost the next four games.

There was no such trouble for defending champion Petra Kvitova, who beat Daria Gavrilova 6-2 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.

The Czech next faces Julia Gorges or Nottingham Open winner Ashleigh Barty.

In windy conditions, Kvitova raced into a 4-0 lead in the first set before being pegged back by Gavrilova in a match lasting nearly one hour 20 minutes.

The two-time Wimbledon champion sealed victory on her first match point when the Australian world number 25 fluffed a smash.

“I think a few of the games were very tight, especially when you need to break. It’s always tough to get the break on the grass,” Kvitova said.

“The grass helped me, for sure. That’s my surface. It was great.

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“I think there’s still a few things I can improve – the serve, probably. You need to serve well on the grass.

“The conditions were pretty tough today with the wind.”

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Ebden Capitalises On Kohlschreiber Lapse In Halle

  • Posted: Jun 21, 2018

Ebden Capitalises On Kohlschreiber Lapse In Halle

Australian awaits the winner of Federer versus Paire

Matthew Ebden, competing at a career-high No. 60 in the ATP Rankings, continued his impressive run of form on grass courts by beating local hope Philipp Kohlschreiber on Thursday at the Gerry Weber Open.

Ebden, fresh off his second ATP World Tour semi-final at the Libema Open (l. to Chardy), ran out a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 winner over 2011 champion Kohlschreiber, who has a 31-12 record in Halle.

The Australian will next challenge World No. 1 Roger Federer, on a 17-match grass-court winning streak dating back to his ninth Halle title last year, or Benoit Paire of France.

Watch: Join Ebden In An Off-Court Halle Training Session

Kohlschreiber was in complete control until a lapse in concentration early in the second set, which lasted just 23 minutes. Ebden won eight of nine games, before Kohlschreiber saved six break points in a 12-minute third game of the decider. Ebden earned his ninth win of the year by hitting 37 winners, including seven aces.

Kohlschreiber is 121-64 lifetime in Germany (.654) and 318-275 elsewhere (.536), with five of his eight ATP World Tour singles titles coming on home soil.

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Wimbledon to be shown in Ultra HD for first time

  • Posted: Jun 21, 2018
Wimbledon 2018 on the BBC
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, Connected TVs, the BBC Sport website and app from 2-15 July.

Tennis fans will be able to watch Wimbledon coverage in ultra high definition for the first time when the tournament gets under way on 2 July.

All Centre Court matches will be in Ultra HD via BBC iPlayer as part of a new BBC trial.

Live matches will feature daily across BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Radio 5 live.

And there will be up to 16 live HD streams on the BBC Sport website and app, iPlayer and via the Red Button on Connected TVs.

Sue Barker will again lead the television coverage from 11.30 BST daily (11:00 BST on day one).

The BBC’s Barry Davies will be making his final Wimbledon bow and a special BBC One documentary will honour the long-serving commentator. Barry Davies: The Man, The Voice, The Legend will air on 4 July.

Tennis legends including John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Boris Becker and Billie Jean King and Grand Slam winners Tracy Austin, Pat Cash and Kim Clijsters, as well as Wimbledon favourite Tim Henman, will all give their expert views.

McEnroe will also be hosting 5 live’s 6-love-6 show.

Throughout the fortnight, listeners can ask their smart speakers to ‘Take me to Wimbledon’ to hear a short, light-hearted and informative audio insight into the tournament.

“We can’t wait to bring the most prestigious tennis event to the widest possible audience through our market-leading TV, radio and digital services,” said Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport.

“Tennis fans will have all the key action covered wherever and whenever they want it thanks to our new live streaming service providing comprehensive coverage from up to 15 courts.”

What is the BBC Ultra HD trial?

The Ultra HD trial is already featuring in the BBC’s World Cup 2018 coverage and is being extended to cover Wimbledon. It is part of ongoing work to help get the BBC ready for a future where major live events can be streamed freely over the internet in high quality on BBC iPlayer.

Audiences with a compatible TV and a high-speed internet connection will be able to access the coverage. However, there are a limited number of spaces for each match in this trial, with the live stream available to tens of thousands of people on a first-come, first-served basis. The Ultra HD stream will be clearly labelled on the BBC iPlayer home screen as soon as programme coverage begins.

Audiences will need a connection of at least 40Mbit/s for the full 3840 pixel Ultra HD or 20Mbit/s for 2560 pixel Ultra HD.

A full list of all UHD compatible devices please can be seen here.

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Wawrinka Moving Closer To Full Fitness

  • Posted: Jun 20, 2018

Wawrinka Moving Closer To Full Fitness

Hard work paying off for Swiss star

Stan Wawrinka is mentally fresh and happy with his form on the practice court, but he continues to take small steps in his rehabilitation from two surgeries last year on his left knee.

At the Fever-Tree Championships on Wednesday, the Swiss star competed with the right intensity and despite the setback of being unable to convert seven set points in the 10th game of the first set, he once again took a great deal of positives from his loss to Sam Querrey.

“All I know is that I personally feel really good with the way I’m practising, the way I’m moving and the way I’m playing my game,” said Wawrinka. “Now all I need is to keep playing matches like today, like two days ago [against Cameron Norrie]. And also try to win little by little, get my confidence back, get used to play all those important points and feel the right way mentally on the court.

“It’s about knowing that when you play a match like that, if you play 10 matches like that, then you think less and you know exactly what you’re going to do at 5-5, you know what you’re going to do in the tie-break, and that’s how you start winning again.”

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Wawrinka knows only too well that he needs to adhere to the advice of his doctors, but once he stepped onto The Queen’s Club grass, the 33-year-old was pleasantly surprised that his knee felt better after undertaking another fitness training block.

“There are a few things on the court that are not the same and maybe will never be the same,” said Wawrinka. “But I believe that I’m strong enough now to play my best tennis. Is it going to be enough? We don’t know.

“After my surgery, I started from zero. My first fitness practice was just walking. The most difficult part was to be happy with it, when you know what you can do. If you start from zero and you finish a 20-minute or 30-minute session, you have to tell yourself, ‘Wow, this is good, this is positive’. That’s when it start to be tough, because it last for months.”

Having watched Andy Murray return and perform well against Nick Kyrgios in his first match for 342 days on Tuesday, Wawrinka admitted, “I think when you come back from surgery, there is few levels of fitness when you come back, so you cannot do everything. For me, it was like step by step, and the last step is to be 100 per cent physically ready and consistent for five hours.

“I think I’m close to that.”

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Kyrgios/Hewitt Cause Big Upset At Queen's Club

  • Posted: Jun 20, 2018

Kyrgios/Hewitt Cause Big Upset At Queen’s Club

Top seeds Kubot/Melo advance in Halle

Lleyton Hewitt and Nick Kyrgios caused a major upset on Wednesday at the Fever-Tree Championships when they knocked out two-time former champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 in 66 minutes for a place in the quarter-finals.

The Australian wild cards broke Herbert’s serve in the seventh game of the first set, but the French team regrouped to take a 4-1 advantage in the second set. Hewitt and Kyrgios took control of the Match tie-break by winning four of the first five points. They will next face Britons Kyle Edmund and Neal Skupski.

Two weeks ago, Herbert and Mahut captured the Roland Garros title – their 12th team trophy. Hewitt, 37, has played five tour-level doubles tournaments this year, including a run to the Australian Open quarter-finals with Sam Groth.

Lucky losers Marcus Daniell and Wesley Koolhof made the most of their opportunity by beating wild cards Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 7-6(2). They go onto face fourth seeds and defending champions Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

The victors will challenge top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, the leaders in the ATP Race To London for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals in November.

Marach and Pavic, with four trophies to their name this year, fought hard to defeat Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-4, 6-7(6), 10-7. They could not convert two match points at 6/4 in the second set tie-break and came back from 3/6 down in the Match tie-break.

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Kubot/Melo Move On In Halle
Defending champions Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo booked their place in the Gerry Weber Open quarter-finals, defeating qualifiers Jonathan Erlich and Nicholas Monroe 6-3, 6-4.

The top seeds advanced after 69 minutes, firing seven aces and saving three of four break points to progress. Kubot and Melo, who own an 18-12 record this season, will meet Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald for a semi-final spot. Mirnyi and Oswald edged past Marcin Matkowski and Matwe Middelkoop 7-5, 7-6(4) in 81 minutes.

Ivan Dodig and Rajeev Ram wasted no time in their opening match, cruising past Karen Khachanov and Lucas Pouille 6-3, 6-0 in 57 minutes. The fourth seeds won all four break points they earned to power past the Russian-French duo, who contested the Open 13 Provence singles final in February.

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Birmingham Classic: Naomi Osaka retires; Elina Svitolina through to quarter-finals

  • Posted: Jun 20, 2018

Japan’s Naomi Osaka retired from her second-round match against Dalila Jakupovic in Birmingham with an abdominal problem.

Osaka, ranked 18th in the world, struggled on serve and lost the first set 6-3 before calling for the trainer.

She previously struggled with an abdominal injury during last year’s hard-court season.

Slovenian qualifier Jakupovic now faces Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova in the Nature Valley Classic quarter-finals.

Rybarikova, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals last year, overcame Kristina Mladenovic of France 3-6 6-2 6-1.

Second seed Elina Svitolina reached the last 16 in Birmingham for the first time with a 6-4 6-2 win over Alize Cornet of France.

The Ukrainian will play Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu on Friday, following her 4-6 6-3 6-2 win over Czech Petra Martic.

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Osaka is scheduled to play in the WTA event at Eastbourne, which begins on 25 June.

Despite the injury, she hit nine winners against Jakupovic, but the big-hitting Slovenian broke to love in the seventh game.

Osaka was unable to capitalise on two break points in the next game and she struggled to generate power on her serve, eventually retiring after 33 minutes.

“It’s never nice to win when somebody’s injured. I feel sorry for her,” Jakupovic told Eurosport.

“I was trying to focus on my play and I didn’t really look on her side, but I hope she’s going to be better for her next tournament.”

At the WTA event in Mallorca, former world number one Angelique Kerber fell 5-7 6-2 6-1 to American Alison Riske, and French top seed Caroline Garcia beat Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-4 6-3.

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Fever-Tree Championships 2018: Stan Wawrinka beaten by Sam Querry at Queen's

  • Posted: Jun 20, 2018
2018 Fever-Tree Championships on the BBC
Venue: Queen’s Club, London Dates: 18-24 June
Coverage: Watch live on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, Connected TVs, the BBC Sport website and app.

Stan Wawrinka failed to convert 12 break points as he lost to Sam Querrey in the second round of the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s.

The Swiss, who has dropped to 261st in the world after injury, was beaten 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 6-1 by the American.

Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion, wasted seven set points at 5-4 in the first set and only capitalised on one of 13 break points in the match.

Querrey dominated on serve, hitting 25 aces as he closed out victory.

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Fifth seed and 2010 champion Querrey will face Croatian top seed Marin Cilic, who came from behind to beat Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 4-6 6-3 6-3.

It was a battle of the big servers as the pair delivered 36 aces between them, with Cilic edging Muller 19-17.

American Frances Tiafoe reached his first ATP grass-court quarter-final with a 6-4 2-6 6-4 win over Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.

In the ATP grass-court tournament in Halle, French Open runner-up and third seed Dominic Thiem was stunned 6-2 7-5 by world number 52 Yuichi Sugita of Japan.

Seventh seed Kei Nishikori was also knocked out, with Russia’s Karen Khachanov beating the Japanese player 6-2 6-2 to go through to the quarter-finals.

Khachanov, who reached the fourth round at this year’s French Open, will next face Roberto Bautista Agut after the Spanish fourth seed beat Dutchman Robin Haase 4-6 7-5 6-4.

The top seed in Halle is Swiss eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, who plays Frenchman Benoit Paire on Thursday for a place in the last eight.

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