Australian Open: Francesca Jones into final round of qualifying
Britain’s Francesca Jones is through to the final round of Australian Open qualifying with a 7-6 (9-7) 2-6 6-1 victory over Jana Fett.
Britain’s Francesca Jones is through to the final round of Australian Open qualifying with a 7-6 (9-7) 2-6 6-1 victory over Jana Fett.
Alex de Minaur fought hard to reach his eighth ATP Tour final on Tuesday at the Antalya Open. The fourth-seeded Australian recorded his second straight win over second seed David Goffin of Belgium 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in one hour and 52 minutes.
The 21-year-old De Minaur, who lifted three trophies in 2019 at Sydney, Atlanta and Zhuhai, awaits the winner of eighth-seeded Kazakhstani Alexander Bublik and Jeremy Chardy of France.
World No. 23 De Minaur broke serve immediately and ran through the 43-minute first set, losing just three of his service points. But No. 16-ranked Goffin turned the tables by winning the first three games of the second set. De Minaur broke for a 3-1 advantage in the decider, but Goffin responded only to lose the momentum.
Goffin, who is working with new coach Germain Gigounon, had been bidding to advance to his first ATP Tour final since August 2019 at the Western & Southern Open. He saved five match points to beat his doubles partner, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, in the Antalya Open first round on Thursday last week.
British number three Cameron Norrie is through to the Delray Beach Open semi-finals after a 6-0 3-6 6-4 win over Frances Tiafoe.
John Isner, who lost in the quarter-finals of the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com Monday evening, announced after the match that he will not compete in the Australian Open this year. The American made his decision Sunday evening.
“It wasn’t an easy decision at all,” Isner said. “I thought long and hard about it, but I feel comfortable with my decision right now and [I am] looking forward to getting home.”
Isner and his wife, Madison McKinley Isner, have two children — two-year-old Hunter Grace and one-year-old John Hobbs — whom he does not want to be away from for an extended period.
“At this stage of my career and in my life, I always had visions of being able to travel with my family. Of course, that wouldn’t be the case for Australia this year. Understandably so, I get it,” Isner said. “It really was just a situation where I didn’t want to be away from my family for that long. I decided to stay home.”
At 35, Isner wants to make his family a big part of his traveling life on the ATP Tour, but that is not possible for this trip due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon arriving in Australia, players will be mandated to serve a 14-day quarantine, before playing a lead-in event to the Australian Open, which begins 8 February.
“I told myself prior to the pandemic that we were going to travel with them as much possible and we were going to make it as much fun as possible on the road,” Isner said. “When I travel in Europe, I was going to stay at the nicest hotels and just make a really nice trip out of all of it because I won’t be playing tennis forever, there’s no doubt about it. Certainly, right now, tennis is not the most important thing in my life. It’s my family.”
The American No. 1 is the No. 25 player in the FedEx ATP Rankings. Although Isner will not travel to Australia, he still is working hard to add to his collection of 15 ATP Tour titles and compete on the sport’s biggest stages against the best players in the world.
“Me not going to Australia doesn’t mean that I’m not committed, because I still am,” Isner said. “I’m healthy, I feel really good and I’ll continue to take care of my body. Once the Tour gets back from Australia, I look forward to playing as full of a season as I possibly can.”
Sebastian Korda has wasted no time making his mark on the ATP Tour in 2021.
The #NextGenATP American upset countryman John Isner, the second seed, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 at the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com on Monday evening to reach his first ATP Tour semi-final.
For a moment, it appeared Korda’s big moment might come undone. As the World No. 119 served for the match, Isner jumped to a 0/40 advantage. The American No. 1 broke serve once in the second set, but the three points he played to gain that advantage were some of his best of the match.
Korda did not panic, instead playing some of his best tennis to battle through Isner’s surge and triumph after one hour and 51 minutes. The former junior World No. 1 let out a massive roar on match point.
“I was super happy with how I played that whole game. I mean, he played an incredible first three points. The way he played those, I was like, ‘Too good.’ I couldn’t really do anything. He came to the net, he played big balls, he played a super good three points,” Korda said. “I just stuck with it, I got a little bit more aggressive. At the end, there was a lot of stress in that last game, so I kind of let it go [with the roar].”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Korda began the week with three tour-level wins, all of which came at Roland Garros last year. The 20-year-old in Florida has doubled that count, and now he will play 2018 champion Frances Tiafoe or Cameron Norrie for a spot in the final. Korda’s father, former World No. 2 Petr Korda, played in Delray Beach twice, but never made a quarter-final, let alone a semi-final. That’s not something “Sebi” will remind his father of any time soon.
“No, because he’s then just going to counter that and say, ‘I’ve got a Grand Slam,'” Sebi joked. “My dad is not anything like that. He’s all for me. As long as I’m happy, he’s happy.”
Isner crushed 13 aces and he battled until the end. But too often once rallies began, it was Korda controlling play and coming up with either an impressive passing shot or a key winner when he needed one.
“He’s a good player. I think tonight in particular he was just a little bit better than I was. It was sort of an uphill battle for me out there,” Isner said. “I wasn’t maybe feeling that great out there, but I competed hard and I fought hard, but he came up with the goods.”
Perhaps most impressive about Korda was his demeanour on court. Playing a grizzly veteran like Isner, against whom just a few minutes’ lapse of concentration is costly, Korda remained calm throughout to earn one of the biggest wins of his young career.
“Whenever i’m on court my head is pretty clear and I’m a super positive guy on court, so I’m always in the moment and always super positive. There are very few times you’ll see any emotion come out of me that’s negative,” Korda said. “I worked a lot on that during this break and it’s paying off right now.”
Christian Harrison is living a movie script this week at the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com, and the World No. 789 is just happy to be enjoying the ride.
The 26-year-old American, who has undergone eight surgeries, defeated 2020 Rio de Janeiro finalist Gianluca Mager 7-6(2), 6-4 on Monday afternoon to reach his first ATP Tour semi-final.
“It feels pretty amazing,” Harrison said on court after the match. “I’m just happy that I have everyone here, all my friends and family around that are here to support, especially here in Delray being so close to home.”
Entering the week, Harrison had just two tour-level singles wins. The qualifier has three this tournament alone, and he is also into the doubles semi-finals alongside older brother Ryan Harrison.
“I’m feeling very good. I feel fresh, still. I think a couple days off in between helped,” Harrison said. “One of the days off we only had one doubles, which was probably a good recovery anyway. Looking forward to the semis tomorrow.”
Initially, nerves appeared to be getting to Harrison in his first ATP Tour quarter-final. The home favourite hit two double faults and made two baseline errors in the first game of the match to immediately lose his serve. But Harrison never panicked, and he settled in after that.
“I just kept doing the same thing because I just played a sloppy first game of the match and got broken,” Harrison said. “Then I felt like he was playing solid the whole time, hitting a lot of good first serves, and sometimes there was nothing I could do. I had a lot of break points in the first couple games that I didn’t really get, so I honestly just tried to do the same thing.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Harrison won 83 per cent of his first-serve points and faced just four break points in the match. Although he only converted two of his 11 break points, the American kept battling to earn more opportunities. At 2-2 in the second set, Mager double faulted a break away, and that was the only advantage Harrison needed.
The World No. 789 is the second-lowest-ranked semi-finalist in tournament history behind Juan Martin del Potro, who accomplished the feat as World No. 1,042 in 2016. This is uncharted territory for the American, who had not played a tour-level main draw since 2018 Newport.
But now, Harrison is two wins from becoming the lowest-ranked ATP Tour titlist in history (since 1990). He will next play fourth seed Hubert Hurkacz or qualifier Roberto Quiroz.
“I’m pretty even keeled right now,” Harrison said. “Just happy to keep playing and hopefully could have two solid matches tomorrow.”
Former World No. 17 Bernard Tomic got off to winning ways on Monday in the Australian Open qualifying first round. The Australian, who has reached the fourth round of the main draw in 2012, 2015 and 2016, knocked out No. 14 seed Jozef Kovalik 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Tomic will next face compatriot Tristan Schoolkate on Tuesday in Doha, where this year’s competition is being played due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elsewhere, Slovenian No. 32 seed Blaz Rola defeated former World No. 10 Ernests Gulbis, who has appeared in the main draw on 10 occasions, 7-6(2), 6-3. Former World No. 23 Damir Dzumhur overcame Emilio Gomez 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. The Bosnia and Herzegovina native reached the main draw third round in 2014 and 2018.
Second seed Hugo Dellien swept past Alejandro Tabilo 6-1, 6-0 and now faces Andrew Harris, a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 victor over Ruben Bemelmans. Third seed Aslan Karatsev struck 10 aces past Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-2 for a place in the second round. Karatsev now prepares to meet Australian Max Purcell, who battled past Hugo Gaston 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3.
Three Americans — fourth seed Denis Kudla, Michael Mmoh and Maxime Cressy — also got off to strong starts in qualifying. Kudla stuck eight aces and was solid on serve to beat Elliot Benchetrit 6-4, 6-3, Mmoh defeated No. 24 seed Danilo Petrovic 6-3, 6-2 and Cressy recovered from 2-4 down in the deciding set to edge past No. 16 seed Go Soeda 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-5.
New team Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic continued their strong start to the season by blasting their way into the Antalya Open doubles final on Monday. The top seeds beat Italians Salvatore Caruso and Andrea Vavassori 6-1, 6-1 to set up a championship match against second seeds Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek, who overcame third-seeded Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin 6-3, 6-1.
Mektic and Pavic both competed in the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals, but with different partners. Mektic won the season finale alongside Wesley Koolhof, and Pavic and Bruno Soares finished as the year-end No. 1 doubles team. The 32-year-old Mektic has an 8-8 record in tour-level finals, while Pavic is 17-22 overall.
Dodig and Polasek have a 2-2 record in ATP Tour finals, having captured two crowns in 2019 at the Western & Southern Open and the China Open. Dodig and Pavic finished runner-up in September last year at the Hamburg European Open (l. to Peers/Venus).
Alexander Bublik recorded one of the biggest victories of his career on Monday to reach the Antalya Open semi-finals. The eighth-seeded Kazakhstani held his nerve to beat top seed and World No. 10 Matteo Berrettini 7-6(6), 6-4 in one hour and 31 minutes.
Bublik, who recovered from 3-5 down in the first set and a 1/3 deficit in the tie-break, struck 12 aces and saved five of six break points. Italian Berrettini was broken in the fifth game of the second set.
“Getting to a semi-final in the first week of the season, and beating a couple of top players — Matteo is a Top 10 player. It’s a great start,” said Bublik, who will next play Jeremy Chardy of France.
Chardy saved two match points in the deciding set tie-break to beat fifth-seeded German Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(8) in two hours and 36 minutes.
Chardy, who had led 4-1 in the deciding set, was forced to save match points at 5/6 and 7/8 in the tie-break. He is now tied 3-3 with Struff in their ATP Head2Head series.
“It was a difficult match and I was a little bit tired too from yesterday,” said Chardy, who beat Fabio Fognini in three tie-break sets on Sunday. “He (Jan-Lennard) had two match points at the end, so it was difficult. But I am happy to be in the semi-finals.”
Chardy will contest his first ATP Tour semi-final on Tuesday since January 2019 at Brisbane (l. to Nishikori).
David Goffin continued his excellent start to 2021 on Monday with a place in the Antalya Open semi-finals. The second-seeded Belgian, who is bidding to capture the fifth ATP Tour title of his career, played with great confidence to beat Stefano Travaglia of Italy 6-3, 6-2 in 63 minutes.
“I got off to a good start in both sets and felt that I was aggressive on my forehand and solid on return,” Goffin told ATPTour.com. “I am happy to be in the semi-finals, as I served well and felt physically better.”
Working with new coach Germain Gigounon, Goffin is hoping to regain the kind of form that helped him to 59 tour-level wins in 2017 and a career-high No. 7 in the FedEx ATP Rankings.
Goffin explained, “We’ve worked on small details. My technique is okay, but it’s been about motivation and going back to basics. I feel I have a solid game, but I’ve worked on moving better, taking the ball earlier and work on my serve.
“I need to get back to what I used to do. The past few months of last season, I had good and bad matches. I need consistency and Germain is a good friend, so I’m happy with my start this year.”
Goffin, who saved five match points against Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the first round, is through to his first ATP Tour semi-final since February 2020 at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier (l. to Pospisil). He will next challenge fourth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur.
De Minaur broke twice in each set to overcome sixth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 6-2, 6-4 in 75 minutes. The 21-year-old Australian will now attempt to advance to his eighth ATP Tour final.
View Antalya Singles Draw
