It has been a long wait, but Dominic Thiem is a winner on the ATP Tour once again.

The former World No. 3 battled to a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) first-round victory against Emil Ruusuvuori on Tuesday afternoon at the Nordea Open in Bastad. It was the Austrian’s first tour-level win for 14 months, nine of which the 2020 US Open champion spent out of action due to a wrist injury.

“It’s a long time,” said Thiem in his on-court interview. “My last victory was in Rome in 2021, it feels like a different world somehow. Many, many things happened. It was tough, but it was also a very good experience, I think, for life in general. I’m so happy that I got this first victory here today.”

Thiem was under pressure early against the World No. 43 Ruusuvuori in the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting. The Finn raced to an unassailable 5-1 lead in the opening set, but Thiem raised his level to roar back into contention by reeling off five games in a row in the second set to level proceedings.

Despite some nervous moments in the deciding-set tie-break, Thiem stayed solid to clinch just his second win at any level in 2022 having saved eight from 12 break points against the clean-hitting Finn.

“It was a very difficult match,” said Thiem. “I didn’t have a very good start and then I fought really well, but I had a really tough period with many losses and not many wins, so it was really difficult for me to close out the match. Even though I played pretty good in the second and third sets. I have to control the nerves a little bit better, especially when it gets to the end.”

Thiem’s next opponent on his debut appearance in Bastad will be fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut.

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Earlier on Tuesday, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina notched an impressive 6-4, 6-2 win against Joao Sousa to reach the second round in Bastad for the first time. The Spaniard, who surged to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final on the clay at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in April, next faces a tough assignment against eighth seed Sebastian Baez or 2018 champion Fabio Fognini.

A pair of first-round matches with one-sided opening sets also saw Aslan Karatsev and Federico Coria advance to the second round in Sweden.

Karatsev breezed through the opening set against Lorenzo Sonego, but had to rally from a break down in the third set to complete a 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 win and extend his ATP Head2Head series against the Italian to 3-0. In contrast, Coria endured a nightmare start to his all-Argentine clash with qualifier Federico Delbonis, but the World No. 65 raised his game for a 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 win to book a second-round appointment with Andrey Rublev.

Steve Johnson, the 2018 Infosys Hall of Fame Open champion, made a good start to his pursuit of a second Newport title on Monday.

The American defeated countryman Stefan Kozlov 7-5, 6-3 to reach the second round at the final tour-level grass-court event of the season.

“[My level was] decent when it needed to be decent and average when it needed to be better. I thought I played well at the end of sets, but there was a stretch there in the middle of both sets that I didn’t like the way I was playing and executing,” Johnson said. “But when you’re not doing that and you still get a win, that’s a good sign.”

This was the fourth time this year at all levels that Johnson and Kozlov have clashed. After Kozlov took the first two meetings, Johnson has now claimed two in a row, with both coming on grass.

“Glad to get a win today and try to put the first couple this year behind me,” Johnson said. “He plays a very awkward, tricky style game and he does it well.”

Another American also moved on when Jack Sock clawed past Moldovan Radu Albot 6-1, 7-6(2). Sock is chasing his first tour-level singles title since the 2017 Rolex Paris Masters.

“Definitely a tricky first match against a very solid opponent,” Sock said in his on-court interview. “But happy to get through.”

German Peter Gojowczyk, a 2017 Newport semi-finalist, eliminated Frenchman Ugo Humbert 7-5, 6-4. Gojowczyk entered the match with a 1-9 tour-level record on the season, but is now 6-2 at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open. He will try to improve that record in the second round against four-time champion John Isner, the second seed.

In an all-Australian battle, Jason Kubler ousted Jordan Thompson 6-2, 6-3 to set a clash against top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is making his Newport debut.

Top Seeds Advance In Doubles
Raven Klaasen and Marcelo Melo, the top seeds in the doubles draw, eased into the second round with a 6-2, 6-4 victory against Serbian twins Ivan Sabanov and Matej Sabanov.

Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan and Australian John-Patrick Smith upset second seeds Hans Hach Verdugo and Hunter Reese, while Americans Robert Galloway and Alex Lawson ousted Frenchmen Quentin Halys and Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.

While all eyes were on Wimbledon last week, three legends of the sport made an impact of their own away from the grass courts of the All England Club.

On 4 July, Roger Federer joined fellow Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award winner Richard Krajicek and wheelchair tennis icon Esther Vergeer for a clinic at Krajicek Playground Reigersbos in Amsterdam, providing a special day for children supported by the Krajicek Foundation and the Esther Vergeer Foundation.

“It was a pleasure playing tennis with all the children. Tennis has connected Esther, Richard and myself throughout our whole career, so I think it’s nice for us to stand on a court together and motivate and inspire the new generation of players,” Federer said. “It’s great that the Roger Federer Foundation, The Krajicek Foundation and Esther Vergeer Foundation are all connected through the Postcode Lottery.  I enjoyed myself a lot here in the Netherlands. And I hope I will see a future champion from here.  

“I want to congratulate Richard and Esther on everything they do with their foundation and also on their incredible careers.”

^{Photo Credit: Gilian van Twist}
The Krajicek Foundation serves vulnerable children in the Netherlands by helping them play sports in a safe environment. The Foundation, which received an ATP ACES For Charity grant in 2020, builds Krajicek Playgrounds to help create leaders who can make an impact on other children in their community.

“With my foundation we do everything we can to give children living in deprived urban areas the opportunity to do sports and play outside in a socially safe environment, close to home,” Krajicek said. “The fact that the National Postcode Lottery then makes it possible for Roger Federer to come along to give a clinic to those children is of course fantastic.”

The Esther Vergeer Foundation, which was launched in 2004, introduces children with disabilities to sports. As part of the clinic, children in wheelchairs got to rally with Vergeer, Federer and Krajicek.

“The Esther Vergeer Foundation helps children with a physical disability to play sports at a regular club. As a result, they learn to deal with their disability, their self-confidence grows and they are stronger in society,” Vergeer said. “So cool that with this special tennis clinic with Roger Federer we were able to show a large audience what sports can do. It was an incredibly beautiful day for us, but especially unforgettable for the children. Great that this has been made possible by the Postcode Lottery.”

Former Canadian player Peter Burwash, one of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs and coaches, passed away last Thursday (7 July) aged 77.

Burwash earned a physical education degree at the University of Toronto, where he played both ice hockey and tennis. He won 19 singles and doubles titles as a touring tennis pro from 1968 to 1975, when he founded Peter Burwash International (PBI), a leading tennis management company.

Burwash, one of the Association of Tennis Professional founders in 1972, went on to introduce new standards to the teaching industry as an original USTPA Master Professional member. Burwash and his coaching team worked with the likes of Venus and Serena Williams, Leander Paes, Greg Rusedski and Sebastien Lareau.

Burwash also used his experience as a motivational speaker to influence the health, hospitality, business and travel industries. He worked as a colour television commentator for CBC and TSN, was a CBS radio host, contributed to Tennis magazine for 25 years and was the author of 13 books, ranging from tennis, aerobics and vegetarianism.

Burwash, who had been inducted into six Hall of Fames, passed away in his hometown of Carmel, California, and is survived by his wife, Lynn, and their daughters Kimberley and Skyler.

Peter Burwash, tennis player, coach and manager, born 10 February 1945, died 7 July 2022.

With the 2022 edition of Wimbledon in the books, let’s relive some highlights through memorable quotes from The Championships. 

Who called first-time Grand Slam finalist Nick Kyrgios a “tennis genius”? Which WTA star – Emma Raducanu, Iga Swiatek or Serena Williams – mentioned that she’s always “rooting for Rafa”? Which American enjoyed a breakthrough win on the 4th of July?

Let’s find out how closely you followed the action at Wimbledon. Take this quiz, share your results and challenge your tennis friends!

Pablo Carreno Busta could not have asked for a much tougher first-round draw at the Nordea Open in Bastad on Monday, but the Spaniard found an impressive level to overcome 16-time tour-level titlist Stan Wawrinka at the ATP 250 event.

The fifth-seeded Carreno Busta claimed a break in each set to prevail 7-5, 6-4 in a high-quality encounter against the former World No. 3, who showed flashes of his trademark thunderous groundstrokes in just his sixth tour-level tournament since missing 13 months with a foot injury.

“It was a very tough match for me in the first round,” said Carreno Busta in his on-court interview. “Against Stan it is always very difficult to start the tournament, so I’m happy because I thought my level was good. I played very solid from the baseline. It was a bit difficult with the wind, but I thought my serve was very good throughout the match. It was very important to my game.”

Carreno Busta has endured a tough run on the clay of late, going 1-4 on the surface since reaching the final at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in April. Yet despite Wawrinka firing 10 aces and winning 90 per cent (27/30) of points behind his first serve to keep the Spaniard under pressure in Sweden, Carreno Busta was clinical in converting two of his six break point opportunities to triumph in one hour, 24 minutes.

It is Carreno Busta’s maiden ATP Head2Head victory against Wawrinka, whose three previous triumphs against the Spaniard included a semi-final victory at the 2017 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Carreno Busta has reached the quarter-finals twice in four previous appearances in Bastad, and he will attempt to make that three from five in a second-round clash with countryman Albert Ramos-Vinolas or Argentine qualifier Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

Also on Monday, Laslo Djere produced an impressive all-around display to ease past #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti. The Serbian broke his opponent’s serve four times and dropped just six points behind his own first delivery on his way to a 6-3, 7-5 victory on tournament debut. Djere’s second-round opponent will be seventh seed Holger Rune or Swiss qualifier Marc-Andrea Huesler.

There was also opening-round success for the only Swede in the draw, Elias Ymer, who edged Daniel Altmaier 6-4, 7-6(5) in the pair’s first tour-level meeting. The 26-year-old wild card has now won his opening match four times in nine appearances at home in Bastad, but he will be looking to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in his next match against third seed Diego Schwartzman.