British number two Kyle Edmund is out of the Brisbane International after losing to world number four Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals.
The world number 45 took the first set but lost 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 6-4 against the reigning US Open champion.
Edmund, 21, impressed but Wawrinka broke serve at 3-2 in the second set and twice in the decider to win in two hours 36 minutes.
The Swiss 31-year-old will play third seed Kei Nishikori in the semi-finals.
After a long day at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp, there are few things Grigor Dimitrov enjoys more than blasting some of his favourite music on the ride home.
For the Bulgarian, and the Brisbane courtesy car drivers, that’s meant plenty of American soloist Whitney Houston.
“Oh, my God. I didn’t know that thing was going to spread around that fast,” Dimitrov told ATPWorldTour.com when asked about his drive-home selection. “There’s just a couple of songs that I really like.”
Dimitrov said the tournament-provided drivers have been so nice to him on the rides back to his hotel that they’ve let him control the car stereo. “I appreciate moments like that. After a long, heavy day, you just want to like come in the car and just listen to what you really want to listen to, and it happened to be Whitney Houston,” he said.
The Monte-Carlo resident is rarely without music during the day, especially when he’s in the car. “Every time I step in my car the music starts right away. That’s the one thing that is super important for me in the car,” he said.
He also wakes up to music and falls asleep to it. “I listen pretty much 24-7,” Dimitrov said. “It’s just a part of me that I don’t think I can live without.”
The seventh seed, who faces Dominic Thiem in the Brisbane quarter-finals on Friday, is picking up where he left off last season. In July, Dimitrov was ranked No. 40 in the Emirates ATP Rankings but ended the year at No. 17 following an honest conversation with new coach Dani Vallverdu.
“I was just not playing good tennis. I think I was doing a lot of wrong things on- and off-the-court, so I think that cost me a lot of matches, a lot of tournaments, so to speak. But at the same time, I was never discouraged. I’m always open to trying something new. I’m not afraid of the work,” Dimitrov said. “As soon as I got Dani on board, things were starting to happen for us a little bit. We kind of sat down, and we were showing our true colours. And I think we came to a conclusion about what’s important is what’s ahead of us and the goals that we had. And I think so far everything has been going quite well for us.”
Dimitrov finished 2016 by reaching the China Open final in Beijing and the semi-finals at the If Stockholm Open. To return to the Top 10 in 2017, Dimitrov said, he’ll need to improve his consistency. The right-hander reached a career-high of No. 8 in August 2014.
“Consistency throughout the year. Playing good at the big matches, winning big matches… I think is pretty much the key,” he said. “Of course, you need to be healthy and everything else but I think if you’re just consistent, you focus on your own stuff, you have the right team around, with the right attitude, then everything is achievable.”
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Qatar ExxonMobil Open – Doha, Qatar
Defending champion Novak Djokovic held a kids clinic with 11 lucky Qatari youngsters.
World No. 1 Andy Murray and Djokovic officially launched the 2017 ATP World Tour season at the Museum of Islamic Art. Watch
Murray, Djokovic, Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga attended the tournament’s player party, where they were in the hot seat as Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares interviewed them for ATP World Tour Uncovered.
Malek Jaziri, Andrey Kuznetsov, Florian Mayer and Gerald Melzer were on hand to assist with the draw ceremony.
Brisbane International Presented By Suncorp – Brisbane, Australia
Stan Wawrinka showed no fear as he did the Gold Coast SkyClimb. Watch
Rafael Nadal made a new furry friend during his first trip to Brisbane: a koala named Dian. Watch
Top seed Milos Raonic took a ride on the CityCat to take in the Brisbane city sights. Watch
Kei Nishikori had his cooking skills put to the test as he learned how to make prawns on the BBQ on South Bank beach, while David Ferrer also learned to make a quick and healthy dish on stage in front of fans.
Grigor Dimitrov and Dominic Thiem participated in kids’ day activities.
Thanasi Kokkinakis met with the tournament ball kids and participated in a short drill with them before presenting them with their official caps.
Gilles Simon signed autographs and visited the Peugeot Mini Tennis activity.
Aircel Chennai Open – Chennai, India
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Roberto Bautista Agut, Damir Dzumhur, Guillermo Duran and Andres Molteni were among those to ring in the New Year at the player party at the official tournament hotel.
Bautista Agut and Steve Darcis were challenged in a cook-off as they made a pizza recipe from a book about healthy eating.
Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna, Duran and Molteni participated in the Play the Pros Kids’ Clinic.
Best of ATP Stars 2017
Open Gallery
World No. 1 Andy Murray continued his winning ways with a 7-6(4), 7-5 victory over Nicolas Almagro on Thursday at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. The Scot’s win streak extended to 27 as he fought past the Spaniard and tricky conditions in two hours and nine minutes. Murray awaits the winner of the match between third seed Tomas Berdych and fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semi-finals.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic also continued his impressive start to the 2017 ATP World Tour season by recording his 10th match win in Doha. The World No. 2 defeated 38-year-old qualifier Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-3 in 91 minutes for a place in the last four.
“It’s same for both players, so there is not much you can do,” Djokovic said of the challenging windy conditions in Doha. “The force of the nature is like that. You have to accept and try to embrace it, really be one with the wind, otherwise it’s not going to be good day for you.
“I thought in terms of my performance, under the circumstances I put the level up again, which is great. So everything is going in the right direction.”
Djokovic will next face Fernando Verdasco, who withstood 13 aces from Ivo Karlovic’s racquet in a 6-2, 7-5 victory. Djokovic has an 8-4 lead against the Spaniard in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, and won their most recent match 6-2, 6-2 in Doha last year.
“He’s a very complete player,” Djokovic said of Verdasco. “He’s got weapons from the forehand side, [a] big serve [and he’s] very strong.”
The top two players in the world practised ahead of their respective quarter-finals clashes, the Serbian tweeting:
Had a great warm up with @andy_murray today ?? pic.twitter.com/hM2sV06iSR
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) January 5, 2017
In doubles, Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin upset top seeds and World No. 1 team Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares to reach the final. The all-French duo saved two of the four break points they faced for a 7-6(3), 7-6(6) victory in 96 minutes. They await the winners of the match between third seeds Vasek Pospisil/Radek Stepanek and Nicolas Almagro/Fernando Verdasco.
Australian Open junior champion Oliver Anderson has been charged with match-fixing in his native Australia.
The charges relate to a match at the Traralgon Challenger tournament in Victoria last October, according to a statement from Victoria Police.
Anderson, 18, beat Uzbekistan’s Jurabek Karimov to claim the Australian Open boys’ singles title in January 2016.
“Oliver is cooperating fully with authorities. He now awaits the legal process,” said a family spokesman.
He will appear before magistrates on 2 March.
Anderson, who is from Brisbane and ranked 743rd in the world, was first named by the Age newspaper in Melbourne on Thursday.
A Victoria Police statement added: “Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit detectives and bookmakers assisted with the investigation.
“The Queensland man was charged with engaging in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome.”
In the match at the centre of the allegations, Anderson lost the first set against Harrison Lombe after being broken at 4-4 before going on to win the next two sets.
Anderson then lost to John-Patrick Smith in the second round of the second-tier event in Latrobe City.
Last year, a joint BBC/Buzzfeed investigation alleged that the Tennis Integrity Unit, the organisation responsible for policing the sport, failed to act on suspicions that 16 top-50 ranked players have been involved in match-fixing.
Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent
The tennis authorities robustly defended their anti-corruption record when the BBC and Buzzfeed published their allegations on the first morning of last year’s Australian Open.
The independent review panel which was established in its wake is due to issue an interim report in the next few months, but there have already been a number of changes made to the Tennis Integrity Unit.
Its staff has been doubled in size; it now publishes the number of match alerts it receives from betting organisations on a three-monthly basis; and on the education front, there is an app presented in six different languages for players to download.
Sir Andy Murray progressed to the Qatar Open semi-finals by beating Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.
The top seed was broken in his opening service game by 31-year-old Almagro, ranked 44th in the world, but recovered to take the first set tie-break.
The pair exchanged breaks early in the second set before Murray prevailed.
Murray will face third seed Tomas Berdych in the semis and, if he progresses, could meet Novak Djokovic in Saturday’s final.
Djokovic, whom Murray replaced as world number one in November, beat veteran Radek Stepanek 6-3 6-3 in their quarter-final to book a meeting with Fernando Verdasco of Spain in the last four.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Aljaz Bedene beat Slovakia’s Martin Klizan to reach the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open in India.
And Australia’s Nick Kyrgios was beaten 6-2 6-2 by Jack Sock at the mixed teams Hopman Cup, in the tie between Australia and the United States.
Kyrigos was defeated in under an hour and later pulled out of the mixed doubles event with a knee problem.
His injury comes less than two weeks before the Australian Open – the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne.
Britain’s Aljaz Bedene beat Slovakia’s Martin Klizan to reach the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open in India.
Bedene, ranked 101, overcame the fourth seed 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-2).
The British number four came from 5-2 down to force a tie-break and take the first set, but he was broken at the start of the second and the world number 35 went on to level the match.
Bedene broke early in the third set and, after three hours on court, prevailed in a third tie-break to win.
The Briton faces French fifth seed Benoit Paire on Friday.
After 15 months out, Kokkinakis has a smile back on his face
Australian Next Gen start Thanasi Kokkinakis is set to play his first ATP World Tour singles match in more than a year at the Apia International Sydney next week after a confidence-boosting run to the semi-finals of the Brisbane International doubles. Kokkinakis is happy with how his right shoulder has held up in two doubles wins with fellow Australian Jordan Thompson in Brisbane this week, including Thursday’s 1-6, 6-4, 10-7 upset of top seeds and reigning Wimbledon champions Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.
“The body felt good today,” Kokkinakis said. “I feel I am still five to 10 percent off. Getting the confidence back in the body is the biggest thing.
“I’m excited (to take the Sydney wild card]. I was trying to play here but I just didn’t feel I was quite ready. I’m trying to train as much as I can because I didn’t have a massive pre-season trying to get healthy. Had it not been the Australian summer I probably would have taken more time, but it would be tough to miss two in a row for me. I’m really keen to play.”
Kokkinakis, 20, said that his decision to enter the Australian Open later this month would depend on his his body felt after his singles return in Sydney. “Obviously I want to play but honestly it’s 50/50 at the moment because I know how much of a step up five sets is,” he said. “If I don’t play singles I want to play the doubles at least, maybe even mixed.
In 2015 the Adelaide native reached a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of 69 and finished (at No. 80) as one of four teenagers in the year-end Top 100. Kokkinakis underwent shoulder surgery on December 29, 2015. He did not play a tournament match on the ATP World Tour last year. His lone appearance came at the Rio Olympics.