Tennis News

Rafael Nadal isn’t one to shy away from a rivalry. His confrontations with peers Novak Djokovic (44 matches), Roger Federer (33 matches) and Andy Murray (21 matches) are the stuff of tennis legend. But there’s a new antagonist on the scene these days: Italy’s Fabio Fognini.

Nadal and Fognini faced each other just four times prior to 2015, Nadal emerging victorious on each occasion. But coming into the China Open, they had played that many times this year alone, Fognini having reversed his fortunes with three victories, including a stunning come-from-behind third-round shocker at the US Open, one in which he erased a seemingly irreversible two-sets-to-love deficit. Nadal had never lost a Grand Slam match after winning the first two sets.

As fate would have it, they would meet yet again on Saturday with a trip to the Beijing final on the line. But this time it was Nadal who would move ahead 6-3 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head with a 7-5, 6-3 win on a chilly day at the National Tennis Center.

There were no less than five breaks of serve in the jittery opening set as the foes searched for rhythm from the baseline. But with Fognini serving to stay in the stanza at 5-6, it was Nadal who grabbed the break that mattered most.

Nadal would score another important break in the sixth game of the second set when a Fognini backhand sailed long, giving him a 4-2 advantage. The 28th-ranked Italian managed to save two match points to hold at 2-5, but one game later his opponent held serve to close it out in one hour, 45 minutes.

“He’s a great player, a great and talented player,” said Nadal. “It was a tough first set, as I expected. Tough match in general. But I think I played well. I played much closer to the baseline than the previous days. That’s very important for me, very important for my game. The position for me on the court today was more aggressive, and that’s why I was able to beat him today after a couple of defeats.”

Nadal, who landed 73 per cent of his first serves and converted four of 10 break-point chances, remains in the hunt for one of four remaining spots at the year-end Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be played 15-22 November at London’s O2 arena. The Beijing champion will receive 500 points in the Emirates ATP Race to London.

“I’m happy to be in the final obviously,” said Nadal. “It’s a good result for me, very positive one. And tomorrow is a match to enjoy.

“[This result gives me] a lot of important points for the [Barclays ATP World Tour Finals] too,” added Nadal. “I don’t say that I am qualified, but with that result I am much closer to being qualified for the World Tour Finals.

“At the same time, the goal for me is try to find a good level at this end of the season. Playing matches is the best practice possible, trying to do things in the matches, to have better feelings, practice the things that I need to do next year. I think today was an important victory. I really played the way that I wanted to play.” 

Fognini, still seeking his first title of 2015, was hoping to join Djokovic as one of only two men to beat Nadal four or more times in a single season. Nadal will next meet the top-seeded Djokovic for the Beijing title.

“Of course, I’m disappointed because I lost,” said Fognini. “But this is sport. I think I played good tennis. I have to accept these kinds of matches, that I know I can beat him anytime at the moment. So it’s really good for me that I know I can play with him.”

Stan Wawrinka booked a spot in his fourth final of the year Saturday at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo. He will face Benoit Paire for the title.

The top seed ended the fine run of Gilles Muller 6-4, 7-6(5) in one hour and 36 minutes and will now look to capture the 11th title of his career. It was his 47th match win in 60 matches this year.

The first set went with serve until the seventh game, when Wawrinka capitalised on his second break point opportunity to take a 4-3 lead. Overall, the Swiss hit six aces and lost just four of his service points.

Pressure mounted for Muller to keep points short early in the second set, when he struck a double fault to lose his serve in an 10-point third game. However, he bounced back immediately breaking to 30 to level at 2-2.

At the encounter wore on, Muller kept attacking to rush Wawrinka into a number of groundstroke errors but at 4-4, Wawrinka flicked a crosscourt forehand return that led to him convert his third break point chance. Muller was left deflated, but managed to regroup in the next game and strike back – planting a forehand approach into the corner, prior to a smash winner.

Wawrinka hit his spots to keep the points short and Muller used his swing server to great effect in the tie-break, which saw no mini breaks. On Wawrinka’s first match point, at 6/5 with Muller serving, the Luxembourg native punched his first backhand volley wide into the tramlines.

Muller, who had beaten Kevin Anderson, Jeremy Chardy and Gilles Simon en route to his fourth ATP World Tour semi-final of 2015, is now 32-20 in a career-best season. On Monday, he will break back into the Top 40 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since the week beginning 23 March.

Wawrinka has already qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 15-22 November. He has won three titles at Chennai (d. Bedene), Rotterdam (d. Berdych) and Roland Garros (d. Djokovic) this year.

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Rafael Nadal is the first player through to the China Open semi-finals, his first in the past year, after a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Jack Sock on Friday. The No. 3 seed fought back to defeat the World No. 30 in little more than two hours.

The Spaniard hit 10 less winners than Sock’s 29 but was the more consistent of the two. He committed 10 less unforced errors than his opponent’s 35. Nadal said the comeback nature of the victory was what mattered most.

“Obviously I finished the match playing better than what I started. This year I lost a lot of matches when I had an advantage,” Nadal said. “So to have the chance to win a match when I start losing … is important for me.”

Sock claimed his first title in Houston in April, but it has been a dry spell for him against Top 10 opponents in 2015. After defeating Kei Nishikori nearly a year ago in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Shanghai he has now lost six straight.

Nadal had beaten the American once before in the fourth round at Roland Garros this year and despite dropping the opening set, found his range in the second set. He saved a break point while serving for the set and went on to level the match when Sock netted a backhand return.

The Spaniard landed a break at 3-all in the decider when Sock shanked a forehand into the stands for 4-3. He would not have to serve it out. He broke Sock on his first match point when the American sent a forehand long. 

“I think the first set I was not playing very bad, but I was playing three metres behind the baseline,” Nadal said. “So he was playing with a lot of time, plenty of time to do whatever he wanted with the ball. I think I analysed that well at the right time. I was a little bit closer to the baseline later without losing the court, so he didn’t have all that time to hit his forehand every single time. That was the key, in my opinion, the position on court. I changed that.”

Next up for Nadal is the chance to right some wrongs against Fabio Fognini, whom he has lost to in three of their four meetings this season.

The Italian finished strongly to defeat Pablo Cuevas 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 in 88 minutes and will look to record another victory over Nadal, having rallied from two sets down to shock the Spaniard in five sets at the US Open in their last meeting. He also derailed Nadal in the Rio de Janeiro semi-finals and again on clay in Barcelona. Nadal’s lone victory over Fognini this season came in the Hamburg final.

“He’s a great player,” said Nadal. “When you play against a great player, especially if you don’t play to your best, your chances are lower. If I am able to play my best tomorrow, I am going to have my chances. If not, it is going to be tough. It’s simple. Sport is simple. The winner is the player who plays better. Fognini played better in the three matches that he beat me.

“I was not unhappy at all after the US Open loss. I didn’t play a very bad match. I played okay. He played great. He beat me. Congratulate him and keep going for me.”

The No. 28-ranked Fognini is bidding to reach his third ATP World Tour final of the season after runner-up showings in Rio de Janeiro (l. to Ferrer) and Hamburg.

Stan Wawrinka remained on course to capture the 11th title of his career Friday by reaching the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships semi-finals, where he will meet Gilles Muller. The pair has played two times earlier this year, with Wawrinka winning their Chennai and Rotterdam encounters.

Top seed Wawrinka, who has three titles to his name this year, outclassed qualifier Austin Krajicek, currently No. 124 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, 6-3, 6-4 in 59 minutes on a hot day in Tokyo. He is now 46-13 on the year, which includes titles at Chennai (d. Bedene), Rotterdam (d. Berdych) and Roland Garros (d. Djokovic).

Wawrinka, competing in the Tokyo quarter-finals for the third time, was solid on serve for the majority of the 28-minute first set, which saw him break Krajicek to love in the sixth game. Having dropped four points in his first four service games, Wawrinka saved one break point at 5-3. Krajicek became more competitive in the second set, but Wawrinka raised his game to break for a 3-2 lead.

The Swiss has already qualified alongside Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Roger Federer for next month’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, but one player hoping to improve his chances of securing one of the four remaining spots at The O2 in London was beaten in the first match of the day.

Gilles Simon, who is currently No. 14 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, came unstuck against Muller, enjoying a career-best year. The 32 year old became the first player to reach the semi-finals after he struck eight aces and lost just six of his first service points in a 6-3, 6-4 over one hour and 36 minutes.

Simon came through a 15-point fourth game, but was powerless at 3-4 when Muller broke en route to winning the 46-minute opener. The World No. 43 opened up a 5-2 lead in the second set, courtesy of service breaks in the third and seventh games. However, at 5-3, he withstood five break points but could not convert his first match point opportunity and was broken. Simon’s rally was too late, as Muller closed out his 31st win of the season.

Muller also reached the semi-finals at Sydney (l. to Troicki), ‘s-Hertogenbosch (l. to Goffin) and Atlanta (l. to Baghdatis) this year. He’ll now look to reach his first ATP World Tour final since July 2013 at Atlanta (l. to Roddick).

When Michael Chang broke through at Roland Garros in 1989, a 17-year-old Chinese-American who moon-balled and scoop-served his way past the steely Ivan Lendl en route to becoming the youngest male champion in Grand Slam history, folks began to wonder if China would be spurred by the tenacious teen’s early-career success.

There have since been plenty of success stories out of Asia. In 2003, Hyung-Taik Lee became the first Korean to win an ATP World Tour title, in Sydney. That same year, Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan became the first Asian-born man to crack the Top 10 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. And last year at the US Open, Japan’s Kei Nishikori became the first Asian man to reach a Slam singles final, and the 25-year-old remains a Top 5 force. But while players like Li Na and Shuai Peng have made inroads on the WTA Tour, China — home to consecutive ATP events in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai — hasn’t had much to brag about on the men’s side. That’s surprising considering that China has a talent pool of some 1.4 billion people to choose from.

But that doesn’t mean Chinese men aren’t close to a breakthrough. The 2008 Beijing Olympics clearly raised awareness in the world’s most populous nation and put the sport in the spotlight, and the development of players like Ze Zhang, Di Wu and Yan Bai is proof that things are heading in the right direction.

“It’s a question of tradition, a question of years,” said Rafael Nadal in Beijing, where he’s playing the October 5-11 China Open. “This country has an amazing potential. I am sure in a short period of time the next generation will be there fighting for important things on our Tour.”

“You need good coaches, you need good centers, good academies,” continued the 27-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 winner. “I think today China has an amazing potential to send players outside of China to the best academies of the world that will be a good experience for the young players, and at the same time has the right potential to create the right academies here in China to have all the facilities possible, all the needs possible for young kids.”

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic echoed that sentiment.

“I’m sure they will produce some high‑quality players,” said the Serb, who defeated Zhang, a player he says has Top 100 stuff, in the second round in Beijing 6-2, 6-1. “It’s just a matter of how much you really invest and dedicate time and energy and funding to the sport. Bring in the experts. China is a very stable economic market. I’m sure if they find an interest to support men’s tennis, it will be great for our game. You already have many great Asian tournaments, in China specifically. People here need a home player.”

But Djokovic also cautioned that success won’t come overnight.

“You need to invest in a systematic planning and development,” he explained. “It all starts from a very young age, the way they approach tennis, approach life…I don’t think it’s an issue for them to bring in coaching experts, or other sport‑related experts to help the development.”