Novak Djokovic: World number one 'playing by his own rules' – Tsitsipas
Novak Djokovic is “playing by his own rules” and has made vaccinated tennis players “look like fools”, says world number four Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Novak Djokovic is “playing by his own rules” and has made vaccinated tennis players “look like fools”, says world number four Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini did double duty Thursday as they won two matches at the Sydney Tennis Classic to reach the semi-finals.
Firstly, the Italians upset fifth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 7-6(3), 4-6, 10-6 in two hours, before they won 86 per cent (37/43) of their first-serve points en route to a 7-5, 7-5 quarter-final victory against Fabrice Martin and Jonny O’Mara
Bolelli and Fognini will face Andreas Mies and Kevin Krawietz in the last four after the sixth seeds moved past Facundo Bagnis of Argentina and Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico 6-4, 6-3 in 68 minutes.
Earlier in the day, second seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah reached the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 7-5 victory against Jiri Vesely and Szymon Walkow. However, the Colombians were unable to follow in the footsteps of Bolelli and Fognini and win two matches in one day, losing to Alexei Popyrin and Matt Reid.
The Australians fired seven aces as they earned a 7-6(4), 3-6, 10-7 victory. They will meet John Peers and Filip Polasek after the third seeds saved two match points in the Match Tie-break at 8/9 and 10/11 against Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi to advance 3-6, 6-3, 14-12 after 84 minutes.
Dodig/Melo Move Through In Adelaide
Second seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo clawed past Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 3-6, 6-4, 10-8 to book their spot in the semi-finals at the Adelaide International 2.
The Croatian-Brazilian tandem will next play Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski after the third seeds moved past Oscar Otte and Benoit Paire. The German-French pair were forced to retire after 41 minutes when trailing 4-6, 0-1.
Tomislav Brkic and Nikola Cacic defeated fourth seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-2, 6-3, while Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar beat Australians Aaron Addison and Thomas Fancutt 3-6, 7-5, 10-6. Brkic and Cacic will next meet Behar and Escobar.
Great Britain’s Liam Broady moved to within one win of making his main-draw debut at the Australian Open Thursday, downing American J.J. Wolf 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the final qualifying round in Melbourne.
The World No. 127, who has advanced to the second round at Wimbledon twice, broke Wolf three times to triumph after one hour and 56 minutes.
Broady will next face in-form Russian Roman Safiullin after the World No. 146 continued his strong start to the season with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 one-hour, 33-minute victory over 25-year-old Christopher Eubanks.
Safiullin earned vital singles victories against Arthur Rinderknech and James Duckworth at ATP Cup for Team Russia last week. The 24-year-old reached the second round as a qualifier at the Australian Open in 2021.
World No. 120 Taro Daniel cruised past Gian Marco Moroni 6-3, 6-1 in 77 minutes to book his place in the third qualifying round. The 28-year-old is bidding to make his fifth main draw appearance in Melbourne.
Daniel will next meet Salvatore Caruso after the Italian defeated World No. 236 Juan Pablo Ficovich 7-5, 7-6(5) after two hours and 10 minutes.
In other action, Australian Matthew Ebden beat Dominic Stricker 7-6(2), 6-2, while Norbert Gombos rallied from a break down in the final set, edging Renzo Olivo 6-0, 3-6, 7-6(6). Ebden will meet Gombos next.
Czech Tomas Machac overcame Yuki Bhambri 6-1, 6-3 and next plays Jesper De Jong after the 21-year-old saw off Australian Edward Winter 6-1, 6-2.
Andy Murray books a semi-final spot in Sydney as Belgian eighth seed David Goffin is forced to retire injured from their last-eight match.
Aslan Karatsev’s love affair with Australia continued on Thursday when the top seed overcame Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals at the Sydney Tennis Classic.
The Russian enjoyed a breakthrough run to the last four as a qualifier at the Australian Open last season and produced a strong returning performance against Sonego, breaking five times to advance to his fifth tour-level semi-final in the past year.
The World No. 20, who was voted 2021 Most Improved Player of the Year, triumphed after two hours and 49 minutes in a hard-fought encounter as he improved to 2-0 in the pairs ATPHead2Head series.
Karatsev will next face third seed Daniel Evans or American Maxime Cressy, who reached his first tour-level final at the Melbourne Summer Set last week.
[FOLLOW ACTION]Former World No. 1 Andy Murray moved past David Goffin after the eighth seed was forced to retire having lost the first set 6-2. It is the first time Murray, who saved both break points he faced against Goffin in the 46-minute opener, has reached a tour-level semi-final since Antwerp in 2019.
The Scot went on to win the title in Belgium three years ago, defeating former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in the final.
Murray has earned wins against Norway’s Viktor Durasovic and second seed Nikoloz Basilashvili this week and now leads Goffin 7-0 in their ATPHead2Head series.
The wild card will play big-serving American Reilly Opelka in the semi-finals following the fourth seeds 7-6(4), 6-2 victory over #NextGenATP countryman Brandon Nakashima. Opelka fired 17 aces en route to his 83-minute win to improve to 2-6 in his last eight matches against fellow Americans.
Marin Cilic continued his impressive start to the season Thursday, moving past American Tommy Paul 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals at the Adelaide International 2.
The fourth seed produced a strong serving performance, firing 14 aces and winning 84 per cent (38/45) of points behind his first delievery to advance after one hour and 56 minutes and improve to 2-0 in their ATPHead2Head series.
[FOLLOW ACTION]The Croatian enjoyed a run to the last four at the Adelaide International 1 last week and will next face Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis as he aims to go one step further at the ATP 250 event. The former World No. 3 has now won four of his five matches in 2022.
Kokkinakis rallied from a set down to claw past countryman Aleksandar Vukic 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and 16 minutes. Kokkinakis also reached the last four in Adelaide last week.
Third-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov, who beat Cilic in Adelaide last week, suffered a surprise defeat against World No. 58 Arthur Rinderknech. The Frenchman overcame Khachanov 7-6(7), 7-5 in one hour and 43 minutes to reach his second tour-level semi-final (Kitzbühel 2021).
Rinderknech broke Khachanov twice en-route to victory and will next play countryman Corentin Moutet after the qualifier downed lucky loser Thiago Monteiro 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 45 minutes. It is the third time the World No. 115 has reached the semi-finals at a tour-level event.
Novak Djokovic remains in the Australian Open draw as the decision over whether the defending champion can stay in the country drags on.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have learned their paths to a potential record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title, with both placed in the top half of the draw following Thursday’s release of the Australian Open draw.
Nine-time defending champion and World No. 1 Djokovic will open against fellow Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic and could meet American Tommy Paul or a qualifier in the second round. The 34-year-old is seeded to meet Lorenzo Sonego in the third round.
The top seed could face Chile’s Cristian Garin or 11-time tour-level titlist Gael Monfils in the fourth round, with a potential Wimbledon final re-match with Matteo Berrettini in the quarter-finals.
Sixth seed Nadal, who could meet Djokovic in the semi-finals, has landed in the same quarter as World No. 3 Alexander Zverev and is seeded to meet the German in the quarter-finals. But the Spaniard won’t be looking that far ahead this early in the tournament. He will be focused on a first-round meeting against American Marcos Giron, with a potential second-round clash with in-form Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis. Last year’s semi-finalist Aslan Karatsev or 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz could face the Spaniard in the fourth round.
Reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Zverev will open his campaign against countryman Daniel Altmaier as he looks to win his first major and could face 30th seed Lloyd Harris in the third round. Should Zverev advance to the fourth round, he may play big-serving American Reilly Opelka or 14th seed Denis Shapovalov.
In the bottom half of the draw, second seed Daniil Medvedev will be aiming to win his second major, after triumphing at the US Open in September. The Russian opens against Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland, with dynamic Australian Nick Kygrios or a qualifier awaiting in the second round.
The World No. 2 is seeded to meet Ugo Humbert in the third round, Argentine Diego Schwartzman in the fourth round and either ninth-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime or countryman Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals.
Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas will play Swede Mikael Ymer in the first round and could face last year’s quarter-finalist Grigor Dimitrov in the third round, with a clash against eighth seed Casper Ruud a potential last-eight match.
Interesting first-round matches include 12th seed Cameron Norrie against #NextGenATP American Sebastian Korda. Seventh seed Berrettini will play 20-year-old Brandon Nakashima, while Lorenzo Musetti will take on home favourite Alex de Minaur, who is the 32nd seed. Former World No. 1 Andy Murray opens against 21st seed Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Former Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals champions Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are seeded 31st and 11th and both open against qualifiers.
British former world number Andy Murray overcomes world number 23 Nikoloz Basilashvili in three hard-fought sets to make the last eight of the Sydney Tennis Classic.
Andy Murray showed his fighting qualities once again on Wednesday, edging second seed Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals at the Sydney Tennis Classic.
The former World No. 1 demonstrated a mixture of grit and quality as he recovered from squandering three set points on serve at 5-4 in the second set to overcome Basilashvili in a physical encounter that lasted three hours and 15 minutes on Ken Rosewall Arena.
[FOLLOW ACTION]“It was an unbelievably tough match,” Murray said in his on-court interview. “He is hitting the ball consistently bigger than anyone on the Tour. I was having to do a lot of defending and running but my legs stood up well and at the end I served really well in the last set.”
Murray earned his first win of the season against Norway’s Viktor Durasovic in the opening round in Sydney and backed this up against the Georgian, sitting deep behind the baseline as he soaked up Basilashvili’s powerful groundstrokes using a combination of slices and flat backhands.
The Scot, who let out a roar following his hard-fought victory, now leads the Basilashvili 2-0 in their ATPHead2Head series, after also defeating the World No. 23 in the first round at Wimbledon last year. The 34-year-old will next face David Goffin after the Belgian beat Denis Kudla 6-2, 6-3.
“I got a lot of free points on my serve,” Murray said. “When we were in the rallies, it was more on his terms, so I tried to serve a little bit bigger and thankfully they went in. When he was serving, I tried to take time away from him and rush him and I hit some better returns.”
It is the third time Murray has advanced to the quarter-finals at a tour-level event since the start of last season, having enjoyed runs to the last eight in Metz and Stockholm in 2021.