Cincinnati Masters: Andy Murray and Heather Watson progress but Dan Evans out
Andy Murray wins his first singles match since pulling out of the individual event at the Olympics as he beats Richard Gasquet in Cincinnati.
Andy Murray wins his first singles match since pulling out of the individual event at the Olympics as he beats Richard Gasquet in Cincinnati.
In his first outing of the North American hard-court swing for 2021, newly minted Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Alexander Zverev begins his Western & Southern Open campaign on Tuesday against South African Lloyd Harris. A winner of four ATP Masters 1000 titles, the German is keen to build on his recent success in Japan as he targets further big titles.
Harris, No. 46 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, scored the biggest win of his career against top seed Rafael Nadal en route to the quarter-finals in Washington, D.C. earlier this month and reached the Round of 16 in Toronto last week. In a showdown between 24-year-olds, third seed Zverev claimed their only prior ATP Head2Head meeting indoors in Cologne last year.
“I’m past the stage of learning. I’m 24 years old now. I’m not at a stage where I’m learning how to play tennis anymore,” Zverev said ahead of his campaign. “Yes, I’m learning every day on different experiences and different situations…
“But I think a lot of guys now are at the stage where we’re trying to compete for the biggest titles of the world, and I feel like if you look at the Masters winners this year, we had a different Masters winner every single tournament. So I think there is a lot of guys that are hungry for more right now.”
Fifth seed Matteo Berrettini makes his return to the ATP Tour following his run to a maiden Grand Slam final at Wimbledon last month, when he defeated the likes of Felix Aguer-Aliassime and Hubert Hurkacz before falling to Novak Djokovic. The Italian opted to skip the Tokyo Olympics due to a thigh injury he developed on his run to the final at the All England Club.
The 25-year-old takes on World No. 49 Albert Ramos-Vinolas for the first time. The Spaniard scored a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over American Taylor Fritz to book his place in the second round in Cincinnati.
Sixth seed Denis Shapovalov will be out to cast aside the disappointment of a first-up defeat on home soil in Toronto last week to Frances Tiafoe as he faces Frenchman Benoit Paire for a place in the Round of 16. Shapovalov made the semi-finals at Queen’s before his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon last month.
Paire will be looking to improve on an 8-22 win-loss record this season but comes off a three-set victory over Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic in the opening round. He boasts a 2-1 ATP Head2Head record over the Canadian.
Two-time Western & Southern Open champion Andy Murray battled past former World No. 7 Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-4 on Monday evening to reach the second round in Cincinnati. The former World No. 1 said that the feeling of winning such a match never gets old.
“No, [it does] not really. It’s something I’ve missed,” Murray said. “Obviously great to be back here playing again and playing at that level was really nice. I was really happy with it.”
After the match, Murray spoke to ATPTour.com about players he enjoys watching, who he feels could reach World No. 1, Novak Djokovic’s chase for a seventh year-end No. 1 finish in the FedEx ATP Rankings and more.
Who are the most entertaining players you enjoy watching?
I like watching [Corentin] Moutet. I like watching [Gael] Monfils. I like watching [Nick] Kyrgios when he’s into it. When he’s not into it, I don’t enjoy that at all. But when he’s into it, I really enjoy watching him.
Some of the youngsters now, the young, young ones, are really fun to watch. I like watching [Daniil] Medvedev as well. I think he’s a very interesting player who has got lots of variety and has an awkward-looking game. But he’s very intelligent on the court and that’s what I like to see. I like people who are thinking out there.
Who is a young player emerging who people aren’t paying attention to who you think has a great game?
Good question. Of the young guys? It’s a difficult one off the top of my head. A lot of the young, young ones like [Lorenzo] Musetti, I like to watch him but he’s not got much experience on the hard courts.
I think [Stefanos] Tsitsipas for example, he had a great result like at the French Open and I think he’s really good for the game. I feel like he’s got a lot of charisma on the court and an entertaining game to watch. It’s difficult to pick one that’s underrated. Tennis is going to be in a good place in four or five years. I think the next generation of players coming through are really good.
You’re the last player to reach World No. 1 for the first time. If I had to make you pick a current player who will reach No. 1, who would you pick and why?
Of the current ones Medvedev would be the guy I would expect to get there first. I think maybe he will need to be a little bit more consistent on the clay to get there, but I think he’s got a good chance. From the young, young ones, I think [Carlos] Alcaraz is really, really good. I think he’s got a good chance at it. I would probably say Alcaraz if I had to pick one from the young guys.
People might not realise the pressure the young stars face with so many people talking about them, so much attention. What would your advice be to them?
I know it’s difficult, but when I reflect a little bit on my own career, I wish I had enjoyed the good moments more. Tennis sometimes because of the way the schedule is, you go from one tournament to the next and you don’t often have the opportunity to enjoy great results. If you win in Canada, you’re on a flight that night to come here and if you win the tournament here, you’re straight to New York to start preparing for that event.
I just kind of wish that in those moments that I’d taken a bit of a step back and taken a few days to enjoy the wins more. So much hard work goes into them and it’s what you always dreamed of. But once you’re in it, you’re just always onto the next week. I regret that a little bit.
You finished year-end No. 1 in 2016 and know how incredibly difficult that was. If Novak Djokovic finishes No. 1 this year it will be his seventh time. How would you explain just how big of an achievement that would be?
What all those guys have been doing has been amazing. To finish No. 1 also not playing loads of events as well I think is really impressive. There’s not much you can say about what those guys have done. It’s incredible. They’ve totally dominated the sport. Their drive and love for the game is obviously unbelievably high and mentally I think is the hardest part.
Winning one tournament is difficult. It’s for sure hard to do that. But for me to get to No. 1, I had to win the last five or six tournaments in a row on top of all the events that came before that. To do it for a whole season is extremely difficult.
[For Novak] to do that seven times to get to No. 1 [is impressive], but if you look at his other years they’re not too shabby either. There are a lot of No. 2 and No. 3 finishes and winning Slams and winning lots of events in those years as well, so it’s impressive.Two-time champion Andy Murray made good on a main draw wild card to claim his opening match against Frenchman Richard Gasquet at the Western & Southern Open on Monday. In his first match since a third-round defeat to Denis Shapovalov at Wimbledon, the former No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings ground out a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the World No. 53.
On a humid night, the Briton finished with 38 winners, including 15 aces, to Gasquet’s 20 winners. He won 81 per cent of first-serve points to his opponent’s 61 per cent and committed 28 unforced errors.
“I thought I did well. I moved pretty well for my first singles match in a while on hard courts,” Murray said. “Certainly, a little bit more confidence in my movement than when I played him a couple of years ago. It was my first match [in 2019] I’d played since [I had] the metal hip in so I was a bit apprehensive.
“He uses all the angles on the court really well and makes you move a lot so you need to move well against him and I did that tonight. I served good. I got a lot of free points on my serve. I thought I was taking control of the rallies when I had the opportunities so it was a good match.”
A champion in Cincinnati in 2008 and 2011, and a runner-up to Marin Cilic in 2016, Murray had found success on this court before and after 40 minutes of play, he was the first to break for 4-2.
His attempt to serve out the set ended in a love break. But he made amends immediately as he broke to take the set at the one-hour mark.
The Frenchman had beaten Fernando Verdasco and Jaume Munar in qualifying to take his place in the main draw and would have done well to remember his most recent encounter with Murray – a straight-sets victory in his favour at this stage in Cincinnati two years ago.
It was Murray who held the advantage in the pair’s ATP Head2Head and he improved that to 9-4 when he broke Gasquet for the last time to secure victory after one hour and 50 minutes. He awaits the winner of ninth seed Hubert Hurkacz and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
“The courts and the balls are pretty fast. Obviously playing in the evening slows it down a little bit but that was to my advantage,” Murray said. “He played with a lot of spin and during the day the ball gets up very high but he wasn’t able to get as high on me today so I was able to step in and control a lot of the points…
“It’s amazing. They were saying it’s the 16th year I’ve been here. I don’t think I’ve played any tournament more than that.”
Felix Auger-Aliassime overcame a slow start and a rain delay before he saw off Marton Fucsovics in the opening round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Monday. The pair had split two previous ATP Head2Head encounters but it was the 12th seed who claimed the latest clash 7-6(0), 6-3.
Having broken for 3- 2 in the opening set, Fucsovics held a set point at 5-4 only to be broken. The Hungarian stared down a set point two games later. But after forcing the tie-break he was unable to make any inroads as the Canadian reeled off seven straight points for the set.
Following a rain delay early in the second set, it was all Auger-Aliassime as he broke three straight times to secure the match. He finished with 23 winners – 13 of those off his forehand – and won 68 per cent of first-serve points.
Following a red-hot run on grass, in which he reached his eighth ATP Tour final in Stuttgart, a semi-final in Halle and a maiden Grand Slam quarter-final at Wimbledon, the Canadian has suffered early exits at his first two stops on the North American hard-court swing. He fell to Jenson Brooksby in the second round in Washington, D.C. and in the first round to Dusan Lajovic on home soil at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Toronto last week.
Auger-Aliassime awaits the winner of Karen Khachanov and Kevin Anderson for a place in the Round of 16 in Cincinnati. He lost his only previous ATP Head2Head clash with Khachanov two years ago in Toronto and has yet to face Anderson.
British players Heather Watson and Dan Evans both have their first-round matches at the Cincinnati Masters suspended by rain.
Naomi Osaka broke down in tears before resuming her first news conference since the controversy over refusing to speak to media at the French Open.
Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas is feeling great after he rose to No. 3 in the FedEx ATP Rankings last week, and is targeting another strong run this week at the Western & Southern Open after reaching the semi-finals in Toronto.
The 23-year-old has recorded a tour-leading 45 victories this season which have seen him achieve one of his long-term goals of cracking the Top 3. However, Tsitsipas is aiming to rise even further in the coming weeks.
“No. 3 is a number that is very significant and it holds a big importance,” Tsitsipas said in his pre-tournament press conference. “You don’t get many exciting moments like this in your career. I saw it come out, and I felt overwhelmed by it. It was a great feeling. It adds some value to yourself for the efforts that you have put in to get there.
“It kind of pushes me so much to sustain that, to want to go the extra mile in the next tournaments, and that was my initial goal from the beginning of the year, to make it into the top three. Now the second phase of that goal is to remain there.
“The rankings are there for a reason. They signify something important. I think that the very next step would be the No. 1 spot, which I hope I can get to one day.”
[FOLLOW 1000]Tsistipas, who is making his third appearance in Cincinnati, won his first ATP Masters 1000 trophy in Monte-Carlo in April and advanced to his maiden Grand Slam final at Roland Garros in June.
However, the eight-time tour-level champion, currently in second position in the FedEx ATP Race To Turin, insists his focus is not solely on capturing trophies, but performing consistently each week.
“My top priority is getting far into the tournament, playing good tennis,” Tsitsipas said. “I have said it, I’m not aiming for titles. I’m not aiming to go and win every single one of them. I want to get to the stage of a tournament where I’m able to get a lot of points.
“I am aiming for the big points. I know that most of the big points are [from the] semi-finals onwards. That’s where you get the most amount of points, and I want to be aiming for that. If I reach the very first goal of it, I’m not going [to] stop. I’m still going to continue doing the things that I have been doing well from that point onwards.”
The second seed in Cincinnati will play either #NextGenATP American Sebastian Korda or Serbian Laslo Djere in his opening match, and is aiming to adjust to the conditions quickly in Ohio following his run to the last four in Canada last week.
“I know for a fact that all these events have different kinds of conditions to be adjusting to,” Tsitsipas added. “Some of the places are a bit more humid. My top priority is finding that balance, finding that quick adjustment from switching from one tournament to the next without massive gaps or holes in my game.”
#NextGenATP star Jannik Sinner celebrated his 20th birthday in style on Monday as he overcome Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-2, 7-5 on his tournament debut at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
The Italian, currently at a career-high No. 15 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, played aggressively against Delbonis and rallied after losing three straight games from 4-2 in the second set to advance in one hour and 38 minutes.
Sinner captured his second tour-level title of the season at the Citi Open in Washington earlier this month to become the youngest ATP 500 champion since the category was created in 2009.
The 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals titlist was also victorious at the Great Ocean Road Open in Melbourne earlier this year. Sinner will next face either Toronto semi-finalist John Isner or Los Cabos champion Cameron Norrie in the second round.
[FOLLOW 1000]In a lively start, Sinner fended off three break points, before quickly finding his range in his first meeting against Delbonis. The Italian struck the ball with consistent depth and was able to neutralise Delbonis’ topspin lefty forehand by taking the ball early at shoulder height.
After Sinner sealed the first set when Delbonis found the net with a forehand, the Italian quickly broke at the start of the second set. However, Sinner lost three straight games from 4-2 to trail 4-5 as Delbonis started to step inside the baseline and target Sinner’s backhand. The 20-year-old regained his focus though, breaking with a backhand winner before holding to seal his victory.
World No. 48 Delbonis, who was making his fourth appearance in Cincinnati, has enjoyed runs to the semi-finals in Hamburg, Belgrade and Santiago this season.
Fellow Italian Fabio Fognini also advanced with a 7-6(3), 6-3 victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili in one hour and 40 minutes to set up a second-round meeting with Guido Pella.
The World No. 36 recovered after failing to serve out the first set at 5-4, clinching the tie-break as he won 64 per cent (32/50) of his first-service points in the match.
Fognini is competing in Cincinnati for the eighth time, having made his debut in 2011, with his best result a run to the quarter-finals in 2014. This year, the 34-year-old has reached the last eight at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters and the fourth round at the Australian Open.
Who are the wheelchair tennis favourites at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics? What are ParalympicsGB’s prospects? All you need to know in one handy guide.