Rome 2016 Gallery
Rome 2016 Gallery
May082016
Novak, Rafa Lead Strong Field: The Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the fifth ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season, is headlined by every member of the Top 10 Emirates ATP Rankings (and 17 of the Top 20 overall). The past 11 titles in Rome have been won by reigning two-time champion (four overall) Novak Djokovic and seven-time winner Rafael Nadal. The last player to win the Rome crown other than Djokovic or Nadal was Carlos Moya in 2004. In the 11 previous years from 1994-2004, there were 10 different winners with Thomas Muster the only multiple champ in 1995-96. Nadal has a 47-4 record in Rome while Djokovic owns a 34-5 record.
Big Title Kings: For the first time ever the trio of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal are seeded together in the same half of the draw in Rome. The trio have combined to win 133 Big Titles in their career, which consists of Grand Slam, ATP Masters 1000 and Barclays ATP World Tour Finals level tournaments. Over the past five-plus years (since 2011), the trio have combined to win 83 per cent (40 of 48) of ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. Federer leads the way with 47 Big Titles: 24 ATP Masters 1000, 17 Grand Slam and six Barclays ATP World Tour Finals crowns. Djokovic follows with 44 Big Titles, 28 coming in ATP Masters 1000 level, 11 Grand Slam and five Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Nadal has 42 Big Titles on his resume with 28 coming at ATP Masters 1000 level and 14 Grand Slam.
Big Four Title Holders: Going into Madrid, in 51 of the past 55 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (since 2010 Monte-Carlo), one of the Big Four: Djokovic, Murray, Federer and Nadal have lifted the trophy. During that stretch, Djokovic has won 23 titles, Nadal 13, Federer, eight and Murray, seven. Since 2013, one of the Big Four has reached the past 30 ATP Masters 1000 finals.
Novak Rolling Along: World No. 1 and reigning two-time champion Novak Djokovic returns to Rome for the 10th straight year (34-5 record). He is looking for his fifth title in Rome. Djokovic won last year’s title over No. 2 Federer and two years ago beat No. 1 Nadal in three sets. He also won titles in 2008 (d. Wawrinka) and 2011 (d. Nadal). His most recent loss in Rome came in 2013, when he lost to Berdych in the quarte-finals. He has never lost before the quarter-finals in his nine previous appearances. As of May 9, Djokovic is two weeks away from reaching 200 weeks at No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Djokovic will reach the 200 week milestone on May 23. He will become the fifth player in the history of the Emirates ATP Rankings to hold No. 1 at least 200 weeks in his career. He owns an ATP World Tour-best five titles, including the Australian Open and ATP Masters 1000 titles at Indian Wells, Miami and Madrid.
Rafa in Rome: The most successful player in tournament history is seven-time champion Rafael Nadal, who owns a 47-4 career record. He has reached the final in six of the past seven years and nine overall in 11 visits. Last year his streak of six straight finals ended when he fell to Wawrinka in the quarter-finals. He won titles in 2005-07, ’09-10, ’12-13 and was runner-up in 2011 and ‘14. The only other time he didn’t reach the final was in 2008 (l. to Ferrero in 2R). Nadal is trying to win a fourth different tournament at least eight times. He’s won Barcelona, Monte-Carlo and Roland Garros nine times.
Rafa on Clay: Nadal, who has won at least two European ATP World Tour clay court titles coming into Roland Garros in 10 of the past 12 years (2005-13, ‘16), is putting together a solid season on clay. The 29-year-old Spaniard is 13-1 on European clay courts this season. If he wins Rome, it will be the ninth time in his career he’s won three European clay court titles leading into Roland Garros.
Murray Clay Improvement: Going into the Madrid final, Andy Murray has won 24 of 26 matches on clay (.923) during 2015-16, including a career-best 17-1 record last season with two titles. Prior to last year Murray, had never reached a clay court final. Murray has an 88-39 career record (.693) on clay.
Roger Eyes First Title, Milestone: Roger Federer is attempting to capture his first title in Rome in 16 appearances (31-15 record). His first career ATP World Tour title came in Italy in 2001 Milan. He’s a four-time finalist in Rome: 2003 (l. to Mantilla), ’06 and ’13 (l. to Nadal both times) and last year (l. to Djokovic). This is only Federer’s fourth tournament t of the season. He withdrew from Madrid last week due to a back injury after a knee injury sidelined him after the Australian Open. Federer is two match wins away from tying Ivan Lendl on the Open Era career match wins list. Federer has 1,069 wins and Lendl 1,071. Jimmy Connors is the all-time leader with 1,256 wins.
Milos on the Move: The youngest player in the Top 10 Emirates ATP Rankings is 25-year-old Milos Raonic, who returned to the Top 10 on May 2 for the first time since Oct. 26, 2015. Raonic is the only player on the ATP World Tour this season to reach the quarter-finals or better at the first four ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. He comes into Rome with a 23-5 match record on season. Two years ago, he advanced to the semi-finals in Rome, losing to Djokovic in three sets.
Next Generation Update: There are three Next Gen players in the main draw, led by Nick Kyrgios, who is coming off a quarter-final in Madrid (l. to Nishikori). The 21-year-old Aussie is making his second straight appearance in Rome while teenagers Borna Coric and Alexander Zverev are appearing in the main draw for the first time.
Outstanding Doubles Field: For the second week in a row, the doubles draw features nine of the Top 10 teams in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings:
1) Jamie Murray & Bruno Soares
2) Pierre-Hugues Herbert & Nicolas Mahut
3) Treat Huey & Max Mirnyi
T4) Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan
T4) Juan Sebastian Cabal & Robert Farah
6) Daniel Nestor & Radek Stepanek
7) Feliciano Lopez & Marc Lopez
8) Pablo Cuevas & Marcel Granollers
10) Raven Klaasen & Rajeev Ram
Former Doubles Champions: There are nine former doubles champions in the field:
Pablo Cuevas (2015)
Daniel Nestor (1997, 2006, 2009, 2014)
Nenad Zimonjic (2007, 2009, 2014)
Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan (2008, 2013)
Marcel Granollers (2012)
Marc Lopez (2012)
Sam Querrey (2011)
Max Mirnyi (2004)
In Case You Missed It
Novak Djokovic secured a record 29th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Madrid. Read
Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau made an important breakthrough in winning the Madrid doubles title. Read
Andy Murray credits improved movement for the uptick in his results on clay in the past two years. Read
Enrique Lopez-Perez is climbing up the rankings thanks to recent results on several surfaces. Read
Nick Kyrgios hit one of the best Hot Shots of the season at the Mutua Madrid Open. Watch
Birthdays
9 May – Gilles Muller (33)
15 May – Leonard Mayer (29)
Ranking Movers
+16 Filip Krajinovic (98)
+15 Denis Istomin (64)
+11 Daniel Evans (86)
+11 Dudi Sela (63)
+9 Santiago Giraldo (96)
+6 Kyle Edmund (82)
Milestones
Rome Singles
Julien Benneteau – 245 wins
Jeremy Chardy – 199 wins
Joao Sousa – 97 wins
Aljaz Bedene – 45 wins
Rome Doubles
Andreas Seppi – 98 wins
Jeremy Chardy – 97 wins
A LOOK BACK
Open du Pays d’Aix (Aix-en-Provence, France): In a battle between unseeded players, Thiago Monteiro won his first ATP Challenger Tour title by prevailing in the final over Carlos Berlocq, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. He now rises to a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 142 , having started the year at No. 463. Berlocq was looking to win his 17th ATP Challenger Tour singles title, which would have tied him for third on the all-time titles list with Paolo Lorenzi and Go Soeda.
Busan Open Challenger (Busan, Korea): Konstantin Kravchuk won his first ATP Challenger Tour singles title in seven years with his win on Sunday over Daniel Evans, 6-4 6-4. The 31-year-old Russian was able to get revenge from Evans’ victory over him in last week’s ATP Challenger Tour final in Taipei. Kravchuk, who broke a six-match losing streak in Challenger finals, will also move up to a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 102 when next week’s standings are released.
Despite the loss, Evans continues to be in top form this year. The Brit has compiled a 16-2 record on the ATP Challenger Tour since March.
Karshi Challenger (Karshi, Uzbekistan): In one of the biggest upsets this year on the ATP Challenger Tour, World No. 251 Marko Tepavac won his first Challenger title by shocking No. 1 seed and World No. 74 Dudi Sela, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4). The 24-year-old from Serbia had won only one main draw match on the ATP Challenger Tour prior to this week. He also became the first player to beat the top two seeds on his path to winning the title since Pedro Cachin did the same last September in Seville, Spain.
Sela was bidding for his 21st ATP Challenger Tour singles title. He won his 20th title last March in Shenzhen, China.
Roma Garden Open (Rome, Italy): No. 2 seed Kyle Edmund continued his dominant form in 2016 by winning his second ATP Challenger Tour title of the year, convincingly beating No. 5 seed Filip Krajinovic in the championship match, 7-6(2), 6-0. He’s now won five Challenger titles on four different continents and ties Hyeon Chung for the most titles among #NextGen players. Edmund previously prevailed on clay last November at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID
Kravchuk: “It’s an amazing feeling! This title means that hard work and faith allow you to achieve goals you put your mind to. It makes you stronger and proud for what you do. My goal before this trip was to get into the Wimbledon main draw directly and Seoul is the last opportunity to do that. I think I need two more match wins. I will fight for that.”
A LOOK AHEAD
There are four tournaments on the calendar this week, with the $100,000 tournament in Bordeaux, France, taking top billing. This Challenger returns for the ninth straight year and features several prominent champions including Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils. All eight seeds this year are ranked inside the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, with world No. 62 Diego Schwartzman taking top honors as the No. 1 seed and World No. 72 Lukas Rosol coming in as the No. 2 seed.
Other notable names in the draw include No. 6 seed Jordan Thompson, a winner of two ATP Challenger Tour singles titles this year. #NextGen stars Elias Ymer, Jared Donaldson and Quentin Halys, all of whom have won Challenger titles within the last two weeks, are also in the draw. Last week’s winner in Aix-en-Provence, Thiago Monteiro, faces No. 3 seed Adrian Mannarino in the first round.
The $100,000 challenger in Seoul, Korea, is also back for the 16th year. Three players ranked inside the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings are in the draw, with World No. 67 John Millman taking top seed status. Other notable names in the draw include last week’s winner and finalist in Busan, Konstantin Kravchuk and Daniel Evans, with the latter coming as the No. 4 seed. Also returning is Yen-Hsun Lu, this year’s No. 5 seed and a three-time champion in Seoul, while 2009 winner Lukas Lacko is the No. 8 seed.
The illustrious $75,000 event in Heilbronn, Germany, returns for the 29th consecutive year and features a prominent list of past champions that include Robin Soderling and Magnus Larsson. World No. 55 Ricardas Berankis, a winner of two ATP Challenger Tour titles this year, is the No. 1 seed, while World No. 91 Horacio Zeballos is the No. 2 seed. Other notable names in the draw include former World No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic, former world No. 22 Albert Montanes, and #NextGen stars Andrey Rublev, Frances Tiafoe and Yoshihito Nishioka, with the latter coming in as the No. 5 seed .
Lastly, the $50,000 event in Samarkand, Uzbekistan holds its 20th edition this year. #NextGen star Karen Khachanov is the No. 1 seed, while Radu Albot is the No. 2 seed. Other notable names in the draw including local favourite and 2014 champion Farrukh Dustov, as well as last week’s winner in Karshi, Marko Tepavac.
View Draws & Watch Free Live Streams
ATP CHALLENGER TOUR ON TWITTER: New in 2016, the ATP Challenger Tour has launched a dedicated Twitter account for the latest news and information about players and events. Follow @ATPChallengerTour at twitter.com/ATPChallengerTour.
Brit finding comfort on clay
Defending champion Andy Murray surrendered his Mutua Madrid Open title in three sets to Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday, but the Brit, who took out an in-form Rafael Nadal en route to the final, is feeling stronger than ever on clay.
“I think I’m definitely moving better. It makes a huge difference,” said Murray, who had never won a tour-level title on clay until triumphing in Madrid and Munich last year. “On the other surfaces, it’s a massive strength of mine, a big part of my game, and for a number years I didn’t move well on the clay.
“It was a hindrance, and that makes you uncomfortable. If you took Ivo Karlovic’s serve away he would feel uncomfortable going on the court. For me, take my movement away…
“When I was having the problems with my back it was difficult for me when stepping on the court; whereas now my body feels great. I feel like I’m moving a lot better. So I’m not going on the court sort of a little bit nervous or apprehensive. I believe I can play well on clay now.”
Murray’s improvements have allowed him to push Djokovic to the limit in Madrid, though he is now 0-4 against the Serb on clay. Djokovic leads the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 23-9 overall.
“We’ve been in the top of the game for a very long time. I hope I can stay there for longer. Some players are playing into their late 30s now. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that, but hopefully I still have a few more good years left,” said Murray. “I think I need to start winning a few more to call it a great rivalry. We’ve played in a lot of big matches. Up until the last couple of years it was extremely close.
“Today I needed to keep my sort of intensity very high and concentrate on every point. I made a few mistakes in the middle of the third. The best players capitalise on that,” noted Murray, who was broken twice in the deciding set and only converted on one of eight break chances against the Djokovic serve. “In the last game, I don’t know how many break point chances I had, but must have been six or seven.
“Both of us were pretty clinical on the break points up until the last game for me. That’s why he’s No. 1 just now. He fought very hard in that game and served well when he was a bit nervous. At the end, he came up with some big serves and got himself some free points.”
Murray understands that only one player can come out the winner in any given match. Overall, he is happy with his form, especially considering his 7-5, 6-4 semi-final victory over Rafael Nadal. Nadal had won back-to-back titles at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters and the Barcelona Open BancSabadell.
“It is a completely different game, playing against Rafa. Novak plays significantly flatter, stands much closer to the baseline and returns much closer to the baseline, so there is much less time. Maybe took me a while to adjust to that.
“Against Rafa, you have more time because he plays higher over the net. You’re then able to play with spin as well; whereas at the start when Novak is hitting the ball flatter and faster, it’s not as easy to play high and use your spin.”
“I think the week as a whole and the clay season so far has been positive for me. I just need to try to find the way for whole weeks and not drop my intensity at certain moments,” Murray said. “It’s been positive from where I was a few weeks ago going into Monte-Carlo. I’ve played well. We’ll see what happens the next few weeks.”
Casual tennis fans often assume that Spanish players are naturally adept on clay courts, but a crash course in South America this past off-season helped Enrique Lopez-Perez start to feel comfortable on the dirt and produce some of the best results of his career.
The 24-year-old started the year by going on a tear in Futures events, compiling a 21-3 record in five tournaments and winning two of them. Lopez-Perez built on that momentum last month by coming through qualifying to reach the semi-finals of the ATP Challenger Tour event in Barletta, Italy, and made his first Challenger final the following week at another Italian tournament in Turin. Switching back to hard courts at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Karshi, Uzbekistan, Lopez-Perez won the doubles title with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan
Having started the year at No. 479 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, he has already cut his ranking in half. Lopez-Perez admitted that he has more experience on hard courts, but said his time in South America showed him that he’s capable of being an all-surface player.
“I don’t have clay courts in my city and only practice on hard courts, so I took a coach and went down to South America for a month to practice on clay courts for the first time. My results on clay have been much better since then,” said Lopez-Perez. “Playing on hard courts in Karshi wasn’t difficult because I’m able to switch surfaces pretty easily, plus the staff here is working well and doing everything they can to help the players.”
Perhaps most importantly, Lopez-Perez is now injury free after receiving extensive treatment on his wrist. He said the time away from the tour may have also been a blessing in disguise because it allowed him to work on other areas of his game.
“I didn’t get to play that much last year, so I worked on my fitness a lot more than usual and now I’m in better shape,” he said. “I’m starting to feel a little bit of pain in the wrist after playing so many matches this year (49 singles matches in total), but I’m still healthy and able to play at the moment.”
Lopez-Perez said his start to 2016 has surpassed his initial expectations, but there’s still one main goal he has yet to achieve.
“I want to win my first ATP Challenger Tour singles title,” he said. “Once I do that, maybe I’ll head to the U.S. this summer and start to play some of the bigger tournaments on hard courts.”
Serb wins 29th Masters 1000 title
Novak Djokovic now stands alone.
The World No. 1, who was tied with Rafael Nadal with 28 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, won his 29th championship at the Mutua Madrid Open on Sunday. The Serb overcame a worthy fight from defending champion Andy Murray 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and six minutes.
The 28 year old continued his mastery over the game’s best. He has won 33 of the past 35 sets against Top 10 opponents, over a stretch of 15 matches. He’s also won five of the past six and 10 of the past 14 Masters 1000 titles. Djokovic also pulled level with Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras for sixth on the Open Era titles list with title No. 64.
“It’s obviously very flattering to be alongside such legends of the sport, tennis players that I was looking up to, especially Pete Sampras. When I was growing up he was ruling the tennis world,” Djokovic said. “It’s an achievement that I’m very proud of. As you said, it’s a motivation for more. When you get to this particular phase of your career, you need to constantly look for more ways of inspiring and motivating yourself to keep going.”
Murray has felt Djokovic’s reign. The Scot is 24-3 on clay during the past two years, and two of the losses have come against Djokovic. The World No. 2 also is 2-14 against Djokovic since October 2012. “We played in a lot of big matches. Up until the last couple years it was extremely close,” Murray said. “Obviously [I’ve] managed to win a couple of the big ones against him; lost some tough ones.”
Djokovic looked like he would dominate the pair’s 32nd meeting in the early going. Murray had erased more than 80 per cent of break points faced in Madrid before Sunday. But he was broken to start the match and again in the first set. Djokovic especially pounced on Murray’s second serve, winning five of those six points in the opener.
Murray, meanwhile, struggled against Djokovic’s serve. The No. 1 seed lost only three points on his serve during the first set (16/19) and gained the early lead in 31 minutes. “He played unbelievable at the start,” Murray said.
But Murray responded in the second set, striking deep groundstrokes to keep Djokovic back. Murray held to start the set and later earned his first break of the match on a Djokovic double fault to go up 3-1. He consolidated the break with powerful serving and served out the set at 5-3 with a drop-shot winner. “He started serving very well, especially down the T and deuce side,” Djokovic said. “Very precise and very strong, and he was backing that serve up with aggressive first shots.”
The two exchanged breaks early in the third. But Djokovic earned another at 3-2 and erased seven break points at 5-3 to win his second title in Madrid. “Of course I did not want to let that service game go because I know that Andy will capitalise on his opportunities and [would] start to play better if he broke my serve,” Djokovic said. “So I fought. I fought very hard, and I’m just glad that I managed to finish that game.”
The Belgrade native will receive 1,000 Emirates ATP Rankings points and €912,900. Murray will receive 600 Emirates ATP Rankings points and €447,630. He also will fall to No. 3 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, having needed to retain the title to remain at No. 2. Roger Federer will take his place in the second spot.
| Player | Masters 1000 Titles |
| Novak Djokovic | 29 |
| Rafael Nadal | 28 |
| Roger Federer | 24 |
| Andre Agassi | 17 |
| Andy Murray | 11 |
| Pete Sampras | 11 |
World number one Novak Djokovic beat defending champion Andy Murray 6-2 3-6 6-3 in the Madrid Open final.
The defeat means the 28-year-old Briton will lose his world number two ranking to Roger Federer on Monday.
The Scot was blown away in the opening set, but fought back to level, only to fall to the Serb’s power and accuracy in the decider.
Djokovic now moves ahead of Spain’s Rafael Nadal with a record 29 ATP Masters 1000 titles.
The Serb underlined his current dominance as he claimed his fifth title in the past six Masters tournaments but he was pushed hard by Murray, exemplified by a 14-minute final game as Djokovic survived six deuces and seven break points to hold for the match.
“Novak has had a lot of wins against me in the last couple of years unfortunately, but he has done some great things and also deserved this win,” said Murray.
Djokovic broke Murray’s serve in the opening game and the 2011 winner gave a masterclass combining powerful ground shots with brutal accuracy as he found the lines with uncanny regularity.
Murray found his second serve coming under huge pressure and Djokovic duly earned a double break before racing to the first set in just 31 minutes.
In the second, however, the Scot’s serve began to click into gear and, having won just 17% of points on his second serve in the first set, he increased it to an impressive 60% in the second.
Djokovic made crucial forehand and backhand errors in the third game before serving a double-fault to be broken for only the second time in the tournament.
The Madrid crowd who were muted as Murray beat local favourite Rafael Nadal 7-5 6-4 in Saturday’s semi-finals were now encouraging the Briton, who responded with some of his best tennis of the week as he won the set with a cheeky drop shot from the back of the court.
It was Djokovic’s turn to regroup and after a comfortable hold needed just one of two break points to take the early initiative in the decider.
But this was a different Murray from the opening set and the Scot immediately broke back with Djokovic again serving a double fault at the crucial moment.
Again, however, the world number one raised the bar and this time it proved crucial with a decisive break in the sixth game.
“Murray began the match a shadow of the man who had played so well in Madrid all week. The first set wasn’t a contest, but once given an opening by the world number one early in the second, Murray started playing with real conviction, and pushed his man to the limit.
“At 2-2 in the decider the match was genuinely in the balance. Djokovic’s response, though, was characteristically brilliant, and after surviving a bout of jitters and a 14-minute final game, he deservedly clinched his record 29th Masters series title.”
Britons Heather Watson and Aljaz Bedene are through to the main draw of the Italian Open after victories in the second qualifying round.
Watson, 23, beat Croatia’s Ana Konjuh 7-5 4-6 6-3, while Bedene, 26, defeated France’s Kenny de Schepper 6-3 6-3. Both are ranked number two in Britain.
However, British number three Naomi Broady went down in three sets to the USA’s Christina McHale, 4-6 6-3 1-6.
Laura Robson was knocked out in the first qualifying round on Saturday.
Earlier on Sunday, Dan Evans failed in his attempt to win a second Challenger title in a row, losing 6-4 6-4 to Russia’s Konstantin Kravchuk in the final in Busan, South Korea.
The Italian Open is the final major ATP World Tour tournament on clay before the French Open, which begins in Paris on 22 May.
British number one Andy Murray, seeded second, is likely to be in action in Rome on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old Scot – who takes on Novak Djokovic in the Madrid Open final later on Sunday – has been granted a bye in the first round and will meet either Borna Coric or a qualifier in round two.
Listen live to Sunday’s Madrid Open final on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra from 17:30 BST
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