Coco Gauff: American 17-year-old wins second WTA title at Emilia-Romagna Open
American 17-year-old Coco Gauff clinches her second WTA title by beating Wang Qiang in the final of the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma.
American 17-year-old Coco Gauff clinches her second WTA title by beating Wang Qiang in the final of the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma.
Lorenzo Musetti is looking forward to continuing his recent run of fine form next week at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma.
“My goal is to continue to win matches and to try and go as far as I can in Parma and at Roland Garros,” said Musetti, after he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 on Saturday in the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon semi-finals.
“During the clay season, I want to win as many matches as I can, and have good feelings each week. I played well in Rome [at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia]. I did well this week and I want to continue that confidence in Parma and then at Roland Garros. I think I will do well.”
The 19-year-old #NextGenATP Italian is set to break into the Top 80 of the FedEx ATP Rankings for the first time on Monday after a run to his third ATP Tour semi-final (also 2020 Sardinia and 2021 Acapulco].
Musetti, who lost to Tsitsipas 6-1, 6-3 in the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado HSBC semi-finals in March, admitted he was happy with Saturday’s clash in France.
“It was a really good match,” said Musetti. “I think I played my best tennis in the first set and the first game of the second set, then Stefanos increased the intensity and I was unable to maintain my level. I am still proud of what I did and I am happy.
“I was leading in the first set and it was a battle of crosscourt backhands, then the first one who got a forehand would win the point. For the first set-and-a-half I was doing well, then in the second half of the match he was better than me physically and he deserved the win today.”
Musetti, who is now 12-7 in tour-level matches this year, also finished as runner-up in two ATP Tour Challenger Tour finals at Antalya (l. to Munar) and Biella (l. to Kwon).
In the battle for the final and for best head of hair, Stefanos Tsitsipas prevailed over Lorenzo Musetti 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon on Saturday. The Greek awaits the winner of Cameron Norrie and Karen Khachanov.
Tsitsipas improves to 2-0 in the ATP Head2Head Series against Musetti and now leads the tour with 32 wins. Sitting at a career-high ranking of No. 5, he picked up his sixth title, and first ATP Masters 1000, in Monte-Carlo before reaching the final in Barcelona.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Despite the grandness of the occasion, Musetti showed no signs of nerves in the first set, breaking at 2-2 and showing off his wide array of shots. With Tsitsipas hanging back far behind the baseline, Musetti was effective in hitting drop shot after drop shot.
Tsitsipas stayed calm and took control in the second set, while Musetti couldn’t maintain his level. After Tsitsipas broke at love for 5-3, he didn’t lose another game, racing to the finish line and into his 16th final.
Musetti is one of the newest and youngest faces inside of the Top 100 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. After a run to the Acapulco semi-finals, which ended at the hands of Tsitsipas, the 19-year-old Italian jumped from No. 120 to No. 94.
Musetti’s week in Lyon began as an alternate and he took out seventh seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the first round and backed it up with wins over Sebastian Korda and Aljaz Bedene.
John Peers and Michael Venus improved their perfect ATP Tour finals record to 4-0 on Saturday when they captured the Gonet Geneva Open doubles title.
The second seeds swept past Italian Simone Bolelli and Maximo Gonzalez 6-2, 7-5 in 76 minutes at the Tennis Club de Geneve Eaux-Vives. They are now 9-3 on the season, which includes a run to last week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia semi-finals (l. to Mektic/Pavic).
“It was definitely a tough week,” Peers told ATPTour.com. “We tried three times to get on court for our first match [against Marcelo Arevalo and Matwe Middelkoop] and the ground staff did an incredible job to get the courts ready. It was a nice, sunny day for the final and it was good fun.”
Venus told ATPTour.com, “I didn’t know we had a 4-0 record in finals! It shows that when we’re confident and playing well good things happen. Hopefully we can use this confidence going forwards.”
Peers and Venus captured three trophies in 2020 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (d. Klaasen/Marach), the Hamburg European Open (d. Dodig/Pavic) and the European Open in Antwerp (d. Bopanna/Middlekoop).
The 32-year-old Peers has now won a tour-level crown for nine straight seasons and is 24-12 overall in championship matches. Venus, 33, is now 14-14 in doubles finals.
Bolelli and Gonzalez won the Chile Dove Men+Care Open title in Santiago (d. Delbonis/Munar) on 14 March.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Herbert/Mahut Advance To Lyon Final
Top-seeded Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut advanced to the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon final on Saturday with a 7-5, 7-6(4) victory over Marcelo Demoliner and Santiago Gonzalez.
Herbert and Mahut will bid to capture their 18th team crown (17-6 in finals) on Sunday against fourth seeds Hugo Nys of Monaco and German Tim Puetz.
British number two Cameron Norrie continues his fine form as he beats Arthur Rinderknech to reach the Lyon Open semi-finals.
Hibernian fan and multiple tennis Grand Slam doubles winner Jamie Murray pitches up for a round of golf with St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson before the Scottish Cup final.
Simone Bolelli and Maximo Gonzalez took down third seeds Raven Klaasen and Ben McLachlan 3-6, 6-3, 10-4 on Friday to reach the Gonet Geneva Open final, where they will face second seeds John Peers and Michael Venus.
The Italian and Argentine team bounced back after dropping the first set to Klaasen and McLachlan in a rematch of their Dove Men+Care Chile Open semi-final. But much like in Santiago, Bolelli and Gonzalez raised their level in the decisive moments. They saved one of two break points faced and pulled away in the Match Tie-break to reach the final.
Bolelli and Gonzalez, who went on to lift the trophy in Santiago, will be seeking their second ATP 250 title of the season when they meet second seeds Peers and Venus on Saturday. Peers and Venus also needed a Match Tie-break to see off Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-8.
The Ecuadorian-Uruguayan duo had to do double duty after yesterday’s rain in Geneva, and also contested a quarter-final on Thursday against Rohan Bopanna and Franko Skugor. Behar and Escobar outlasted Bopanna and Skugor 6-3, 3-6, 13-11, but were not able to get across the finish line against Peers and Venus later in the day.
[WATCH LIVE 1]At the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon, fourth seeds Hugo Nys and Tim Puetz defeated Matthew Ebden and John-Patrick Smith 6-3, 6-4 to claim a spot in their second tour-level final of the year.
The Estoril champions await the winner of top-seeded Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Santiago Gonzalez and Marcelo Demoliner.
Top seed Novak Djokovic will next week hit the court at his namesake tennis centre in Serbia seeking his 83rd tour-level title, and a third on home soil as he leads the way at the Belgrade Open.
After starting the 2021 season with a record-extending ninth Australian Open title and breaking the all-time record of weeks at World No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, Djokovic has honed in on the clay-court swing as his next target.
In Belgrade, he will be contesting his fourth tournament on the terre-battue, and so far each tournament has gone better than the previous one: Djokovic bounced back from a third-round exit in Monte-Carlo to Daniel Evans with a run to the Serbia Open semi-finals (l. Karatsev), before reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 final of the year at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (l. Nadal).
Into the second round with a bye, Djokovic will start against either Egor Gerasimov or a qualifier as he seeks a Serbian hat-trick, having won two titles in Belgrade during the tournament’s previous four-year run (2009, 2011).
Djokovic could face countryman Miomir Kecmanovic, the seventh seed, in the quarter-finals. The match would be a repeat of their previous quarter-final in Belgrade, contested during last month’s Serbia Open held at the same venue, the Novak Tennis Centre.
Experienced clay court players including Pablo Andujar, who defeated Roger Federer in Geneva, and Pablo Cuevas are also in this section. Third seed Nikoloz Basilashvili and fifth seed Dusan Lajovic also feature in Djokovic’s half.
World No. 14 Gael Monfils is the second seed, and he arrives at the Serbian capital looking to capture his 11th tour-level title – and his first match win of the 2021 season (0-3). He’ll face either countryman Arthur Rinderknech or a qualifier in his opening match. Rinderknech, who also received a Roland Garros wild card, recently turned heads in Lyon after toppling #NextGenATP Jannik Sinner for his first Top 20 win.
Monfils could book another all-French clash in the semi-finals, with fourth seed Adrian Mannarino also landing in his half. Mannarino awaits the winner of Lucas Pouille and Fernando Verdasco in the second round, and could meet sixth seed Filip Krajinovic in the quarter-finals.
Top seed Lorenzo Sonego landed in a tricky quarter of the Emilia-Romagna Open when the ATP 250 draw was revealed on Friday, a section loaded with experienced clay-court players and in-form #NextGenATP stars.
Sonego has often found his best tennis on Italian soil, and he will be seeking his third tour-level title in the northern city of Parma. He won hearts in Rome with an inspired run to his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (l. Djokovic) with wins over Andrey Rublev and Dominic Thiem. Earlier in the year in Cagliari, he also became the first Italian in 15 years to win a title at home.
The top seed, who returned to his career-high of No. 28 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, could face Italian veteran Andreas Seppi or 20-year-old Sebastian Korda in the second round. Korda isn’t the only #NextGenATP star in Sonego’s section, as he could also face 19-year-old countryman Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-finals. Musetti is set to take on Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals of Lyon.
Fourth seed Jan-Lennard Struff, sixth seed Tommy Paul and eighth seed Yoshihito Nishioka are also in Sonego’s half of the draw. Lefty Nishioka, who landed in Sonego’s quarter, will start against Sam Querrey.
Benoit Paire is the second seed, and he anchors a wide-open bottom half that includes all four qualifiers (to be placed). In the second round, the Frenchman could face either Marbella finalist Jaume Munar or a qualifier.
Fifth seeded Richard Gasquet is a potential quarter-final opponent for Paire. Gasquet will begin his Parma campaign against a qualifier, and could face countryman Gilles Simon or another qualifier in the second round.
Estoril champion Albert Ramos-Vinolas, the third seed, will face either 22-year-old Emil Ruusuvuori or a qualifier in the second round, and could meet seventh seed Aljaz Bedene, who starts against Italian Salvatore Caruso, in the quarter-finals.
Also in this section, one of the first-round matches to watch includes a battle between Frances Tiafoe and Italian wild card Marco Cecchinato. The pair recently faced off in the first round of Mutua Madrid Open qualifying, with Cecchinato claiming a straight-sets victory en route to the main draw.
Denis Shapovalov will battle Casper Ruud for the Gonet Geneva Open title on Saturday. Shapovalov topped Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 7-5 on Friday, following Ruud’s 6-3, 6-2 win over Pablo Andujar.
Shapovalov is into this third tour-level final after winning the Stockholm Open and losing in the Rolex Paris Masters final in 2019. The World No. 14 improves to a 2-10 record in semi-finals. His most recent semi-final was a third-set tie-break loss to Lloyd Harris in Dubai.
Cuevas was appearing in his 22nd semi-final overall and first since Estoril in 2019 and has now lost nine straight matches to Top 15 opponents.
In Saturday’s final, Shapovalov and Ruud will be meeting for the first time.
“Denis has also been playing very good on the surface recently and took [Rafael] Nadal to his knees last week in Rome and had match points,” Ruud said. “And I was watching the match. He was playing very well and has been playing well here as well.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Shapovalov held two match points against Nadal in Rome’s third round, eventually falling to the World No. 3 in a third-set tie-break. He bounced back this week with wins over Marco Cecchinato, Laslo Djere and now Cuevas.
On Friday, Shapovalov stayed patient and stepped his game up at just the right moments, breaking for 5-4 in the first set and 6-5 in the second. The Canadian was still aggressive off both wings, ripping multiple winners with his one-handed backhand and hitting eight aces.