Tennis News

Karatasev, Zverev Lead The Field In Stuttgart

Alexander Zverev, Aslan Karatsev and Felix Auger-Aliassime will lead the field at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart. The ATP 250 is the first of seven grass-court events on this year’s calendar, and it begins on 8 June.

Karatsev has been the breakout star of the season with a semi-final run as a qualifier at the Australian Open followed by an ATP 500 title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Leaping from outside of the Top 100 in January to World No. 25 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, Karatsev has scored wins over the likes of Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev. Stuttgart will mark Karatsev’s tour-level grass debut.

The field includes Madrid champion Zverev, Rome semi-finalists Reilly Opelka and Lorenzo Sonego, new Top 20 member Jannik Sinner and three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka.

Milos Raonic, who has not played since the Miami Open presented by Itau, is entered, with Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov also on the list.

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Andujar Upsets Federer In Geneva

Pablo Andujar upset Roger Federer on the Swiss superstar’s ATP Tour return on Tuesday at the Gonet Geneva Open.

World No. 75 Andujar bounced back from 2-4 down in the deciding set to win 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 over one hour and 52 minutes in front of a small crowd at the Parc des Eaux-Vives.

“As [far as wins, this is] number one for sure,” Andujar said. “To win a tournament could be more emotional, but this is something I think I will remember my whole life.”

Federer, who was playing his first match since 11 March, saw his 32-match winning streak on Swiss soil come to an end as Andujar recorded just the fifth Top 10 win of his career (5-23 lifetime).

Federer initially struggled for groundstroke depth, but started to move well and threw off the shackles 46 minutes into the match with his first break of serve. He lost just four of his service points in the second set and thereafter posed a threat to Andujar’s serve before a tense finale.

“I was trying to keep the gap between the games small, trying to have faith that he was going to serve a little bit with second serves and at that moment I hoped I would have the chance to break him,” Andujar said. “For me it was very difficult, I couldn’t see his serve and he was serving pretty well, so it was difficult for me to return. I just got the chance at 4-3 when he didn’t serve with first serves and lucky me, I was able to break him.”

Andujar will next challenge fellow Swiss Dominic Stephan Stricker, currently No. 419 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, or Marton Fucsovics of Hungary.

Learn More About The Spaniard
The Nomadic Life… With Andujar
Andujar On Federer: ‘I Want To Tell My Grandkids I Played Him’

Andujar placed his serve and capitalised on Federer’s shorter groundstroke depth in the early stages. Although Federer’s movement improved, groundstroke errors cost the Swiss at 4-5 when Andujar wrapped up the 38-minute opener.

It wasn’t until the third game of the second set that Federer created his first break point off a forehand winner. With a 2-1 advantage, Federer grew in confidence and started to impose his all-court game. He finished the set with a flourish, striking a backhand winner to carry the momentum into the decider.

Federer began to play inside the baseline and flicked a crosscourt forehand winner to break for a 2-1 lead in the third set. With the finish line in sight, Federer struggled to land a first serve and Andujar broke back to 4-4 with a forehand winner. Federer saved two match points, but at the third time of asking Andujar claimed a memorable win in their first ATP Head2Head meeting.

“Of course he’s much better than me and if he plays a [normal] match, he would beat me for sure. But I don’t think he played a really bad match,” Andujar said. “That’s my point of view. I think in some of the points, in some of the facets of the match, he played pretty well. I couldn’t return his serve, his first stroke after the serve is always very good. During the match, there were some good points.”

Andujar’s last Top 10 win came over World No. 8 David Ferrer in the 2015 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell semi-finals.

It was Federer’s first loss in Switzerland since 27 October 2013, when Juan Martin del Potro beat him in the Swiss Indoors Basel final. Federer was contesting his first match since a quarter-final exit at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open (l. to Basilashvili) and his first clay-court match since the 2019 Roland Garros semi-finals (l. to Nadal).

“Of course at 4-2 in the third you feel like, ‘Oh, that’s nice that I was able to turn around the match.’ You start feeling better and that’s when it dips and everything is over 10 minutes later,” Federer said. “But we know how tennis goes and that’s where it’s so brutal sometimes. But I feel like I didn’t deserve it at the end. There was just not enough happening in my game.”

Stricker, an 18-year-old wild card, recorded his first ATP Tour match win over 2016 finalist Marin Cilic 7-6(5), 6-1 in 79 minutes, while Fucsovics got the better of Swiss qualifier Henri Laaksonen 7-5, 7-5 in one hour and 50 minutes.

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Wild Card Stricker Stuns Cilic In Geneva

It was Roger Federer’s big week back on tour but Dominic Stephan Stricker has stolen the spotlight at the Gonet Geneva Open. The Swiss teenager made quite the statement on Tuesday by taking out Marin Cilic 7-6(5), 6-1.

“It was a great match,” Stricker said. “I played good from the start. Of course, I was nervous. I tried my best. I served pretty well the whole match so it helped me a lot. I’m just very happy.”

Playing in his tour-level debut, the World No. 419-ranked wild card took out the 2014 US Open champion in one hour and 19 minutes with powerful serving and nerves of steel. The lefty would hit nine aces and win 80 per cent of his first-serve points. He’d save a break point in the final game before closing it out on his first match point.

“It was actually OK until 5-1, 30/0, and then I started getting nervous again,” Stricker said. “I was happy to finish it 6-1 so I didn’t have to serve again at 5-3.”

After beginning the season outside of the Top 1,000, Stricker has risen to become one of three 18-year-olds inside of the Top 500. In March, he won his first ATP Challenger Tour title, in Lugano, making him the third-youngest Swiss behind Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka to do so. The teenager is one of the freshest new faces on tour, having won the 2020 Roland Garros junior crown last year and finishing the year as the No. 3 junior in the world.

Stricker will face Marton Fucsovics in the second round. Earlier on Tuesday, Fucsovics eased past qualifier Henri Laaksonen 7-5, 7-5. The winner of Fucsovics and Stricker will face Pablo Andujar in the quarter-finals after the Spaniard upset top seed Roger Federer 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. 

Elsewhere, Fabio Fognini dispatched Guido Pella 6-2, 6-2 and Pablo Cuevas took out Rome semi-finalist Reilly Opelka 7-6(5), 6-2. Ranked No. 102, Cuevas had to come through qualifying this week. Feliciano Lopez eased past German alternate Daniel Altmaier, and qualifier Ilya Ivashka beat Fernando Verdasco.

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Musetti Fights To Beat Felix In Lyon

Lorenzo Musetti battled to record the fifth Top 20 victory of his career on Tuesday at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon.

The 19-year-old Italian overcame fellow #NextGenATP star and seventh-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5 in two hours and 46 minutes at the ATP 250 clay-court event.

“We played a really intense match, a real fight,” said Musetti. “I learned from the loss to Felix in Barcelona. It’s a good start and I hope to continue like that.”

Musetti, who has now won 10 of his 16 tour-level matches this year, including a run to the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC semi-finals (l. to Tsitsipas), will now challenge Sebastian Korda. The American sits behind Auger-Aliassime and Musetti in the ATP Race To Milan for a place at the Next Gen ATP Finals in November.

“It’s going to be really tough [against Korda] and he’s one of the best #NextGenATP right now,” said Musetti. “I know him so well from juniors. We never played against each other. He is a fighter, so I will try and do my best to get into the quarter-finals.”

Musetti is currently at a career-high No. 82 in the FedEx ATP Rankings and is 5-3 lifetime against Top 20 opponents, having beat Stan Wawrinka (2020 Rome), Diego Schwartzman and Grigor Dimitrov (2021 Acapulco) and Hubert Hurkacz (2021 Rome).

Musetti recovered from 15/40 down in the opening game and soon caused 2019 Lyon finalist Auger-Aliassime problems. Regularly stepping inside the baseline, Musetti broke for a 3-1 advantage when Auger-Aliassime mis-hit a forehand, but the momentum soon changed.

Tactical errors started to cost Musetti, who was broken in the seventh game and Auger-Aliassime could have taken a 5-4 lead, but the Canadian hit a return long on break point. Musetti broke clear at 3/3 in the tie-break with three consecutive winners en route to the 64-minute opener.

Auger-Aliassime bounced back early in the second set, breaking serve with a powerful forehand winner for a 2-0 lead. Despite letting Musetti back in, the Canadian pressed again with his forehand and surged to a 5-2 advantage, before closing out the second set with a smash.

Auger-Aliassime twice came close to breaking Musetti in the decider and later paid the price, when he hit a backhand approach into the net at 2-3, 15/40. But the World No. 17 put Musetti under pressure when the Italian served for the match at 5-3 and got his reward. The match ended on a double fault from Auger-Aliassime, who drops to a 14-10 record in 2021.

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Tsitsipas: 'I Am Always Trying To Reach A Level Of Perfection'

Stefanos Tsitsipas is excited to be competing at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon this week and the World No. 5 hopes to test himself in his quest for a seventh ATP Tour title.

The Greek star, who leads the FedEx ATP Race To Turin for a place at the Nitto ATP Finals in November, admitted on Tuesday, “I don’t feel exhausted, and I wanted to come to Lyon to test myself this week. It’s another opportunity to show how far I can go and play more matches on clay.”

Tsitsipas, who lost to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in a rain-interrupted Internazionali BNL d’Italia quarter-final last week, has compiled a 29-8 match record this season, including his first ATP Masters 1000 crown at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (d. Rublev).

“I still feel far from being consistent, compared to other players,” said Tsitsipas, who will play American Tommy Paul or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in the Lyon second round. “I have been quite consistent, but there is a fine gap that I can close. I am always trying to reach a level of perfection, which I have yet to reach yet.

“I am happy to stay in the lead in the [FedEx] ATP Race To Turin. I need to find a little more consistency this year. I have a lot of points and I feel I need to earn more in the second half of the year in order to reach the goals and expectations for the year. I know the second half of the year will be difficult.

“I definitely feel better physically than I did last year. I have developed routines and habits in order to improve my consistency and ensure that I am mentally there in every single match that I play.”

When asked about his form ahead of Roland Garros, which begins on 30 May, the 23-year-old said, “A lot of players have been playing great, but it may not translate into the French. I need to concentrate on the French, more than any other big event.

“I feel [that] I’m in a position I’ve never been in before, so it’s exciting. I want to try and replicate my form, but I know it’s two weeks of hell. It’s difficult, but I want to stay focused on my goal.”

Tsitsipas lost to Djokovic in last year’s Roland Garros semi-finals, but believes if he plays the way he did against the World No. 1 last week in Rome, then his chances of rising up the FedEx ATP Rankings will only improve.

“These are the challenges I need to take my game to the next level,” said Tsitsipas. “If I played the way I did against every single opponent, I don’t see a reason why I won’t improve my Ranking.”

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The Nomadic Life With… Pablo Andujar

Pablo Andujar will play Roger Federer for the first time on Tuesday at the Gonet Geneva Open. Before the match, the Spaniard spoke to ATPTour.com about his life on the road on the ATP Tour.

What are two essential non-tennis items you always pack for trips?
My mobile phone and my wallet. I always try to have a book with me. Actually my wife [gave] my parents the idea to buy me an iPad, to work a little bit on the iPad and watch some films. I recently read a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz. I like a typical novel [to help me] to [not] think so much about tennis and try to open a little bit my mind.

Do you enjoy travelling the world or consider it just something that needs to be done to be a pro tennis player? If you do enjoy it, what do you enjoy about travelling?
I enjoy more right now than before. I think I try to enjoy life a little bit more than I used to and it’s true that I miss my family so much. When you have kids, it’s a little bit more difficult on your mind and on your feelings to get away from them. But I think once I am here and I am in another place I try to enjoy it, to know a little bit about the history of that place, all the traditional things about that place, about that country, about that city. [During normal times] I try to visit and to make some tourist stops, which I didn’t do 10 years ago.

What factors into your decision to bring your child/children to a tournament and how may that change your routine?
Right now that’s not the better option, not only because of the pandemic, but I would say the fact that I have three children and they are very, very small. The oldest is three and a half. They are not independent at all and even if we bring somebody with us to help my wife, I think it’s really difficult to travel with kids at those ages. Maybe they come to the Spanish tournaments and that’s something closer to home that makes it a little bit easier. Travelling and getting a flight is even more difficult in these days.

Do you have a routine to stay in touch with them as much as possible?
I use FaceTime or WhatsApp or those kinds of things. They have helped a lot the life of parents travelling for sure. I try to phone them at least once a day. The two older kids are going to the school already, so they get back at five in the afternoon. I try to phone them to ask them about their day. They are too small, sometimes they don’t want to speak to Dad, but I accept that and at least watching them and of course speaking to my wife, telling me about their day, that’s my routine.

Does that motivate you when you talk to them?
Totally. It gives me a lot of positive energy when sometimes I can be down. I have to say that since they were born, my number one priority is not tennis anymore, it’s them. Even if I lose a match — and of course I lose a lot of them — the feeling of losing a match is not anymore what it was. There’s no drama, because I know I have them and I’m going back home and I’ll be with them. That’s the best win of my whole life for sure. Speaking to them after a defeat 100 per cent helps me a lot. 

You speak Spanish, Valencian, English, French and Italian. How much does that help you on the road?
I’ve been travelling since such a young age, so I improved the languages just trying and making a lot of mistakes with them. That’s why I speak them and I try to read sometimes as well in French, Italian in English, trying to watch some films in those languages. Now I think I’m pretty fluent in them.

Sometimes we spend a lot of time in the airports and sometimes you don’t know why, but there are some issues going on and for example, I remember once being in the Paris airport. I think it was something about changing my flight. The woman there was telling me ‘no you cannot’. Then I started speaking in French and the level went down a little bit and it was easier for me. But I try not to use them in difficult situations. I only try because I like to speak other languages and I think it’s better for the person that I’m speaking to see that I’m trying.

What is your craziest travel story?
Once I went to a tournament in Paris (Bercy) and then I had to play with my coach’s racquet. I normally travel with my racquet bag, but the woman at the flight didn’t allow me to [carry it on], so I had to check it in. They lost the racquets and the next day I had to play qualifying, I had two racquets from my coach. I just had to play with them. It was not a big drama but for a tennis player, not playing with your racquet is a big issue. I don’t know if I would have won, but for sure I would have played better.

Can you talk about a time you decided to play a specific tournament in part because you wanted to travel to that city?
When I had my problem with my elbow, I didn’t know how much time I was going to [be able to] play tennis. When I came back, I tried to visit those tournaments with my family as well. For example, all the Australian swing I told my wife and my first kid at the time, ‘Bring him, you come and you see a little bit how the Australian swing and all those tournaments are.’ I also visited the Vienna tournament once and I told them it was a very nice city.

What is your favourite tournament city to visit and why?
I would say Buenos Aires. [I have] so many Argentine friends and it’s a city very similar to Spain, but in a way it’s a mixture of cultures. [There are] not only the Spaniards, but the Italians, lots of European people that came to [Buenos Aires] and I like the city as well. When we go there it’s the summer, so there are a lot of people around the streets and that atmosphere. I like it. We speak the same language, so that’s easier for us Spainiards. Of course I love Barcelona and Madrid, but that’s more because I’m used to them.

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Andujar On Tuesday Federer Clash: 'I Want To Tell My Grandkids I Played Him'

Pablo Andujar has played Novak Djokovic twice (0-2) and Rafael Nadal four times (0-4). On Tuesday, the Spaniard will get his first crack at Roger Federer in the second round of the Gonet Geneva Open.

“[I am] really, really excited. It was something that I wanted, to have a match against Roger, just to tell my kids and my grandkids when I get older that I played him,” Andujar said. “This is something that for a long time I was looking for. I played Rafa, I played Novak, and I had to close that gap. I knew I was not going to have as many opportunities because years go on. I’m really excited and really happy to play Roger, and in Switzerland as well.”

The 35-year-old has won four ATP Tour titles and climbed as high as No. 32 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. Andujar has competed in big matches against the world’s best players, and he still gets excited for opportunities like this.

“I think when you play Rafa, Novak and Roger, these guys became myths. [They are] something above the sport,” Andujar said. “Of course the elegance that Roger has is something amazing and that [is] in all the tennis schools, we see him with the technique and everything. But I would say that the most important is that they grew the sport and now they are above the sport. They are like something else.”

Federer is playing just his second tournament since the 2020 Australian Open after undergoing two arthroscopic right knee surgeries. The Swiss lost in the Doha quarter-finals in March.

“I feel sympathy with all of the players that have been struggling with long-term injuries and of course Roger is one of them. I know how difficult it is because sometimes you try to come back and then it hurts. At least for me it [did], and you have a lot of doubts,” Andujar admitted. “For sure, it’s very difficult for your mentality. But I think with the level he’s got and how he plays, if he is 100 per cent fit, he is going to be Roger Federer once again. In that sense, it will probably not be as hard as it was for me to come back to my level.”

Andujar is no stranger to comebacks, having had three right elbow surgeries in a 13-month span between March 2016 and April 2017. In 2018, the Spaniard won his first ATP Tour title post-injury in Marrakech.

“Of course when you come back after a long time without playing, you don’t feel the same way as when you’ve played a lot of matches in the past weeks. But we’re talking about Roger Federer, we’re not talking about Pablo Andujar, and that is probably the big difference,” Andujar said. “He’s somebody who is so talented, even if he hasn’t played so many matches, I think he can play tomorrow as well as he did two or three years ago.”

Andujar has shared the court with the former World No. 1 before. More than a decade ago, he recalls hitting with Federer at Roland Garros when the Swiss was under the tutelage of coach Jose Higueras. The Spaniard also remembers warming up Federer as a sparring partner when the Mutua Madrid Open was played on hard courts.

“Even if I’m old, I was a kid [then],” Andujar said. “And he was already on the top.”

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Roland Garros Announces 2021 Wild Cards

Hugo Gaston, a breakout star at last year’s Roland Garros, is among seven French players awarded wild cards for this year’s clay-court major.

In 2020, Gaston reached the fourth round as a wild card with an upset of 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka. He would push Dominic Thiem to five sets and finish the season inside of the Top 200 for the first time.

Seven of the wild cards are being awarded to French players with the eighth yet to be announced. It will go to an Australian player as part of the reciprocal agreement between the two Grand Slams.

French teenager Arthur Cazaux will make his Grand Slam debut. This week at the Gonet Geneva Open, Cazaux picked up his first tour-level victory by defeating Adrian Mannarino in three sets. He’s currently ranked No. 517 in the FedEx ATP Rankings and Geneva marks his fourth tour-level event. 

Gregoire Barrere will also appear in the main draw in Paris. Ranked World No. 123, Barrere just qualified for the main draw at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon with a win over countryman Antoine Hoang.

The other wild cards will go to Benjamin Bonzi (who at No. 115 was on the cusp of the main draw), Mathias Bourgue, Enzo Couacaud and Arthur Rinderknech. Earlier this year, Rinderknech made a run to his first tour-level quarter-final, at the Open 13 Provence, and followed it by a third-round appearance at the Serbia Open.

Roland Garros will begin on 30 May.

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Serena On Roger: 'He Is Really The Greatest Player'

WTA superstar Serena Williams won her first-round match at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, and afterwards she had plenty of praise for former World No. 1 Roger Federer, who will play his second tournament of the year this week at the Gonet Geneva Open.

“I think two words sum it up: Roger Federer,” Williams said of Federer’s legacy. “He’s just a synopsis of greatness and class and amazing and really changed the game. You see players playing like him, moving like him, doing his techniques. The guy is [a] genius.”

Williams has accomplished everything there is to achieve in professional tennis, and even she admitted she is a Federer “superfan”.

“I just feel like he is really the greatest player. Just look at him,” Williams said. “You can’t not like the guy, that’s how I feel. His game is so fantastic. If I could only play like him!”

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Korda Beats Herbert To Advance In Lyon

Sebastian Korda outlasted rainy skies and a tough Pierre-Hugues Herbert to advance 7-6(5), 6-4 at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon on Monday. In the second round, he awaits the winner of seventh seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and Lorenzo Musetti.

Rain stopped the match at 5-4 in the second set, and Korda returned to the court to capatalise on his first match point, breaking Herbert for the third time. With the win, Korda snapped a four-match losing streak dating back to his quarter-final run at the Miami Open presented by Itau. At World No. 65, the #NextGenATP star is just three spots shy of his career-high FedEx ATP Ranking.

In other main-draw matches, Cameron Norrie defeated Corentin Moutet to set up a second-round clash with top seed Dominic Thiem. Thiem won their only ATP Head2Head meeting three years ago in Acapulco.

Aljaz Bedene beat Gilles Simon and takes on fourth seed David Goffin next, while Yoshihito Nishioka fought past Ugo Humbert 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The qualifying draw was completed with Kamil Majchrzak, Mikael Ymer, Joao Sousa and Gregoire Barrere snagging main-draw spots.

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