Rafael Nadal through to Paris Masters semi-finals after beating Pablo Carreno Busta
Rafael Nadal is into the Paris Masters semi-finals after coming from a set down to beat fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.
Rafael Nadal is into the Paris Masters semi-finals after coming from a set down to beat fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.
The eight-player singles field for the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals is set. Diego Schwartzman clinched the final spot at the prestigious season-ending tournament, to be held from 15-22 November at The O2 in London, following results at the Rolex Paris Masters on Friday.
The 28-year-old Schwartzman will be the first Argentine player to compete at the Nitto ATP Finals since Juan Martin del Potro in 2013. Schwartzman is the eighth singles player from Argentina to feature in the 50-year history of the tournament, following in the footsteps of 1974 titlist Guillermo Vilas (1974-77, ’79-82), Jose-Luis Clerc (1980-83), Guillermo Coria (2003-05), 2005 champion David Nalbandian (2003, ’05-06), Gaston Gaudio (2004-05), Mariano Puerta (2005) and 2009 runner-up Del Potro (2008-09, ’12-13).
Schwartzman joins fellow debutant Andrey Rublev of Russia, alongside former qualifiers Novak Djokovic of Serbia, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem of Austria, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the 2020 singles field. There will be four players aged 24 and under at the Nitto ATP Finals for the second straight year. The last time this happened in back-to-back years was in 2008-09.
Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman, said: “This has been a season unlike any other and all the players that have qualified for the season finale deserve huge credit. In its 50th anniversary year, the event will once again showcase the top ATP players and will also bring an incredibly successful twelve year stay in London to a close. While we wish our fans could be with us for the final year at The O2, we thank them for their passionate support via broadcast and digital channels, and look forward to a thrilling week of tennis.”
Schwartzman broke into the Top 10 of the FedEx ATP Rankings for the first time at No. 8 on 12 October after a run to his first Grand Slam championship semi-final at Roland Garros (l. to Nadal). A few weeks earlier, the Buenos Aires resident beat Rafael Nadal en route to his first ATP Masters 1000 final at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (l. to Djokovic).
As the first Argentine in the Top 10 since Del Potro in May 2019, Schwartzman also finished runner-up at two ATP 250 events in a reduced 2020 season — at the Cordoba Open (l. to Garin) in February and at the bett1HULKS Championship runner-up in Cologne (l. to Zverev) in October. At 5’7”, Schwartzman is the shortest player in the Top 10 since 5’6″ Harold Solomon, whose last week in the Top 10 began on 27 July 1981.
With Paris concluding this weekend and one additional week of the regular season left in Sofia, six of the eight doubles team spots at the Nitto ATP Finals have been confirmed. Australian Open titlists Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, US Open champions Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares, Roland Garros winners Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies, Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos, Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic, John Peers and Michael Venus, and Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo have already secured their places at The O2 in London.
2020 DRAW:
The draw for the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals will take place on Thursday, 12 November. Further details will be published in due course.
In line with UK Government guidance, the 2020 season finale will be contested behind closed doors due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The Nitto ATP Finals, featuring the best eight singles players and doubles teams, has been held in London since 2009 and has successfully established itself as one of the major annual sporting events worldwide. The tournament is broadcast in more than 180 territories with global viewership reaching an average of 95 million each year. The event will be held in Turin, Italy, from 2021-2025.
Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo have become the seventh doubles team to qualify for the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 15-22 November. The Polish-Brazilian team secured their place after beating Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-7(4), 6-3, 10-8 on Friday at the Rolex Paris Masters.
Kubot and Melo have captured two ATP 500-level titles in 2020 at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC (d. Cabal/Farah) in February and also at last week’s Erste Bank Open in Vienna (d. J. Murray/N. Skupski). They also finished runners up at the bett1HULKS Indoors in Cologne (l. to Herbert/Mahut) last month. The pair has a 14-11 record in tour-level finals.
Melo has now qualified for the prestigious season finale for the eighth straight year (since 2013). Six years ago, the Brazilian advanced to the final in London with Ivan Dodig (l. to Bryans). Kubot has competed at The O2 in London on six occasions (2009-10, 2014, 2017-2019). In November 2017, together with Melo, they finished as the year-end No. 1 team and advanced to the championship match (l. to Kontinen/Peers).
Bob Brett, who worked with Grand Slam champions such as Johan Kriek, Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic and Marin Cilic in a 46-year coaching career, has been presented with the Tim Gullikson Career Coach Award in the 2020 ATP Awards.
The 66-year-old Australian, who also worked with many national tennis associations, has been unanimously chosen as the second winner of this award, following in the footsteps of compatriot Tony Roche. The recipient exemplifies excellence, leadership, respect, and a true love for the sport of tennis and the art of coaching.
Named after the late Tim Gullikson, the award showcases someone who has inspired generations of young players and fellow coaches to grow the sport of tennis.
Brett taught his players about life, as well as how to hit a forehand, and maintained positive relationships with each of his charges well after their partnerships ended. Renowned for his lengthy counting drills, which restarted when a player made a mistake, he opened an academy, which bears his name, in San Remo, Italy in 2002.
The Melbourne-born coach enjoyed his greatest success as Becker’s full-time coach from November 1987 until February 1991, shortly after the German won the Australian Open and became World No. 1 on 28 January 1991. Becker immediately bought into Brett’s work ethic and readjusted the German’s service grip early on. “We played golf and chess and Boris was inquisitive,” said Brett in 2008. “He was very good at being able to execute what I told him. His understanding of opponents was very good too and I encouraged him to work hard, but also the value of recovery.”
Brett was soon hired by Goran Ivanisevic’s father, Srdjan, in 1991 and fine-tuned the Croatian’s groundstrokes and volleying. In a four-year partnership, which ended at the end of the 1995 season, Ivanisevic won nine titles from 17 tour-level finals, with runner-up finishes at Wimbledon in 1992 (l. to Agassi) and 1994 (l. to Sampras).
Brett then coached Andrei Medvedev to the 1999 Roland Garros final, took Nicolas Kiefer from outside of the Top 50 to World No. 4 and assisted Mario Ancic. In the summer of 2004, Ivanisevic bought a promising 6’3” 15-year-old to San Remo. Brett’s nine-year partnership with Marin Cilic, saw the Croatian develop technically and powerfully en route to the 2005 junior Roland Garros title and World No. 9 as a pro.
The Australian coach also spent up to 20 weeks of the year working in Japan. Until recently, he continued with the camps and the male national junior team. He was a high-performance consultant for Tennis Canada between 2006 and 2008, and Brett played a large part in remodelling training camps and performance programmes as Director of Player Development for the British Lawn Tennis Association in 2014 and 2015. He was also the first principal of the Bob Brett/now Patrick Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Montreuil, an eastern suburb of Paris from 1996 to 2002.
Milos Raonic was as close as you can get to defeat on Friday at the Rolex Paris Masters, but the former World No. 3 found a way to win.
Raonic saved two match points to battle past home favourite Ugo Humbert 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7) after two hours and 19 minutes. The Canadian was unrelenting in a 30-shot rally on the Frenchman’s serve to save the first of those match points, clawing into the Paris-Bercy semi-finals for the third time.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that that match point is the way I want to be playing too many points that I saved in that long rally. But I just tried to stick with it as much as possible, tried to find a way through and got a bit fortunate, hit a few balls close to the line,” Raonic said. “Today it turned my way, but I’ve just got to keep plugging away. Doesn’t necessarily mean it always will, but at least give it a chance for it to turn around.”
One of the best servers of his generation, Raonic lost his first three service points of the final-set tie-break, including a surprising double fault long, to fall behind 1/5. Humbert put on his track shoes to track down one attacking shot after the other on his first match point at 6/4, but Raonic ultimately put away a forehand volley. He swatted away the next match point with a booming serve down the T.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Although Humbert once again showed his heart by playing tremendous defence on the first match point he faced at 6/7, it was not enough. Raonic crushed his 25th ace of the match to advance to the last four, in which he will play Daniil Medvedev, who eased past Diego Schwartzman earlier in the day.
“The past few weeks he’s played well. I think he just needs the consistency,” Raonic said of Humbert. “He’s not an easy guy to play, by any means. I think with maturity, and he’s playing the right way, I think he can continue to move up much more.”
It was a scrappy performance throughout for Raonic, who was close to letting slip his grip on the match multiple times. After losing the second set, the 2014 finalist faced 0/40 on his serve to start the decider. But the 10th seed kept his composure against an inspired Humbert, riding his first serve to victory.
“It was looking a little dark for me at the beginning, triple break point at the beginning [of the third set],” Raonic said. “But then I created some opportunities. It kept me around. And it’s something that [has] happened maybe too many times before, that things have slipped because I haven’t taken that step forward mentally. And I just tried to do something better today.”
Humbert showed no fear competing in his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final. The lefty, who won his first two ATP Tour titles earlier this year, played attacking tennis and had a spot in the semi-finals on his racquet. But on the key points, it was Raonic who controlled the action.
The 29-year-old will try to reach his second Masters 1000 final of the year after making the championship match at the Western & Southern Open in New York. Raonic owns an 0-2 ATP Head2Head record against Medvedev.
Daniil Medvedev booked his place in the Rolex Paris Masters semi-finals on Friday and ensured Diego Schwartzman will have to wait on whether he has qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.
Third seed Medvedev swung freely to overpower the sixth-seeded Argentine 6-3, 6-1 in 63 minutes to reach his second tour-level semi-final of the year (also US Open, l. to Thiem). He will next play Canadian No. 10 seed Milos Raonic or Ugo Humbert of France
Pablo Carreno Busta, who plays top seed Rafael Nadal later today, could deny Schwartzman the final qualification spot at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 15-22 October, by lifting the Paris trophy and also next week’s Sofia Open crown. But Carreno Busta must first improve upon an 0-6 record against fellow Spaniard Nadal.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Medvedev capitalised on early errors from Schwartzman to win 12 of 13 points for a 3-1 advantage, which came when Schwartzman hit a forehand long. The Russian’s greater power on serve did the damage and he clinched a one-sided 36-minute opener once Schwartzman struck his eighth forehand error into the net.
Schwartzman battled in the second set, but Medvedev was relentless in defence from behind the baseline and gained breaks at 2-1 and 4-1 with terrific scrambling. Medvedev finished with an ace down the T, his 17th winner, and is now 4-0 lifetime against Schwartzman, including a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory at the inaugural ATP Cup in January. The 24-year-old, who won 27 of his 28 first-service points against Schwartzman, has a 21-10 match record in 2020.
World No. 9 Schwartzman is now 25-12 on a career-best year, which includes three runner-up finishes at the Cordoba Open (l. to Garin) in February, his first ATP Masters 1000 title match at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (l. to Djokovic) in September and the bett1HULKS Championship (l. to A. Zverev) last month.
No.12 seed Stan Wawrinka turned around a first-set rout to upset the in-form Andrey Rublev and grab the last spot in the Paris Rolex Masters quarter-finals.
Rublev, the fifth seed, had posted an ATP Tour-leading 40th win of the season in the second round, and looked set to add another scalp to his world-beating count as he raced to a 6-1 lead against Wawrinka. But the three-time Grand Slam winner responded emphatically to complete the turnaround 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 after an hour and 43 minutes.
“I think of course at the beginning he was playing faster than me, was playing better than me,” Wawrinka said in his post-match press conference. “It was tough for me to really find any solution when he’s playing that well.
“I was still believing that I could change something in my game and play a little bit better.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]The Russian player is one of the most in-form players of the season, and clinched his Nitto ATP Finals spot after lifting his fifth trophy of the season at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. He charged through his Paris opener, dropping just three games to Radu Albot to book his clash with Wawrinka.
Rublev carried all of that momentum into their late-night match-up in Paris, keeping the Swiss player’s serve under pressure from the start. Rublev pushed Wawrinka to deuce in three of his four service games, and was rewarded with a break each time as he charged through the set, 6-1.
But the former World No.3 finally found his footing in the second set, and improved his first serve percentage from 69% to 78%, working his way back into the contest. He claimed his first break of the match at 4-3, and dodged two break points to take the set and send the contest into a decider.
Wawrinka continued to press as the match wound to a close, and a pair of service breaks bracketed the final set. Rublev fired a backhand into the net to end his winning streak at 11 consecutive matches, and send the former Paris semi-finalist back into the last eight.
“I didn’t start great the match, and he took the confidence from me also,” said Wawrinka. “I think for me it was important to really focus on my serve. I start to serve better, to mix more, to get more free points, to start to push him a little bit more, put him on defense a little bit. That’s when I knew I will have some occasion to break him. I’m really happy with the victory.”
Fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev awaits in the quarter-finals after the German needed three sets and three hours to fend off an inspired challenge from veteran Adrian Mannarino, 7-6(11), 6-7(7), 6-4.
“It’s going to be a tough one, for sure,” Wawrinka said. “I lost to him in the Australian Open. Lost a few times to him already in the past. He’s a tough player for me to play, so it’s going to be interesting. I watched him a little bit tonight. He played also a long match. Hopefully I can deliver a great match tomorrow night.”
After edging through a marathon, nearly 16-minute tie-break in the opening set, Zverev arrived at match point in the second as they stayed deadlocked into another deciding tilt. This time it was the French lefty, looking for his first Masters 1000 quarter-final, who charged back to level the match.
But Zverev responded by hitting his spots on serve to fend off a Mannarino comeback, improving his winning percentages from 70% to 89% behind his first serve and from 29% to 50% on second serve. Zverev fired his seventh ace of the match to seal his spot in the Paris quarter-finals for the second time.
Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo won a critical match in the FedEx ATP Battle For London on Thursday, defeating Brits Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski 6-2, 1-6, 10-6 to reach the quarter-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters. Less than a week ago, Kubot and Melo beat the same team in the Erste Bank Open final.
“It was a very tough match today. We played in a couple of days two big matches against them: in the final of Vienna and now [in Paris],” Melo said. “It was a very important step towards the [Nitto ATP] Finals for us. I think the level was pretty much the same as the final in Vienna. We knew for them it [would] almost secure their qualification for the Finals [if they won].”
Murray and Skupski began the day in seventh place in the Battle, while Kubot and Melo were in eighth. But with Kubot and Melo’s 79-minute victory, the teams swap positions.
“We’re in such a good position now at No. 7, but we still need to get more points,” Melo said. “That’s why the match was nervous for both teams.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Murray and Skupski are also vulnerable in the eighth position. If Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin beat Rohan Bopanna and Oliver Marach on Friday, they will move into eighth place. Kubot and Melo only lost one service point in the Match Tie-break to emerge victorious, setting a clash against fifth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. The Frenchmen beat Marcelo Arevalo and Matwe Middelkoop 6-3, 7-6(4).
“We are glad to play very good in the Match Tie-break. Me and Kubi have a very good record in Match Tie-breaks,” Melo said. “It was great. We are happy. Now we have the French. Maybe it’ll be another nervous match, but for sure it will not be like it was today.”
In other action, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Hubert Hurkacz upset top seeds Robert Farah and Horacio Zeballos 6-3, 3-6, 10-6.
Two teams also qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals on Thursday, leaving two spots remaining. Wesley Koolhof/Nikola Mektic and John Peers/Michael Venus guaranteed their spots at The O2.
Koolhof and Mektic secured their places by beating Taylor Fritz and Casper Ruud 6-4, 7-6(1) after recovering from 2-5 down in the second set. Peers and Venus ousted Austin Krajicek and Frank Skugor 6-4, 7-6(4) and then second seeds Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares guaranteed their qualifications by eliminating Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-4, 7-6(3).
Rafael Nadal became the fourth player in the Open Era to reach 1,000 tour-level wins on Wednesday. On Thursday, it was back to business for the Spaniard at the Rolex Paris Masters.
Nadal continued his pursuit of a maiden Paris-Bercy title with a 6-1, 7-6(3) third-round victory against Aussie Jordan Thompson. The Spaniard has reached the quarter-finals in all eight of his appearances at this tournament.
The World No. 2 saved a set point on his serve at 5-6 in the second set, winning a grueling 26-shot rally in which his final forehand, which elicited a backhand error from Thompson, clipped the baseline. Nadal surged through the ensuing tie-break to emerge victorious after one hour and 33 minutes.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Should the top seed go on to triumph at the Rolex Paris Masters, he will tie Novak Djokovic’s record of 36 ATP Masters 1000 titles. The lefty star could triumph at this level for the 15th time in the past 16 years.
This was Nadal’s first ATP Head2Head meeting against Thompson, but he wasted no time imposing his will on the match. The World No. 2 broke the Aussie’s serve early when Thompson missed a backhand volley, and Nadal later swooped into the net to carve a backhand drop volley, securing a second break and a commanding lead.
In Case You Missed It: Rafa’s 1,000th Win Tributes
Rafa’s Journey To 1,000 Wins: An Immersive Experience
The Stats Behind Nadal’s Milestone
The Challenge Of Facing Rafa
Thompson did not get discouraged. He played on top of the baseline whenever possible and clawed back Nadal’s aggressive baseline blows to force the Spaniard to finish points. At times, the Aussie even threw in serve and volleys to make sure he wasn’t consistently being pushed around.
The World No. 61’s inability to blow Nadal away proved critical. On Thompson’s set point, he earned control of the rally, and was able to go after an inside-out forehand. But Nadal never panicked and slowly worked his way into control of the point, with Thompson eventually missing a defensive backhand into the net.
Nadal then took charge of the action in the tie-break, completing his win when Thompson missed a forehand into the net. The top seed will next play countryman Pablo Carreno Busta, against whom he has never lost in six previous ATP Head2Head meetings.
The ninth seed ousted qualifier Norbert Gombos 7-5, 6-2 in 80 minutes. Carreno Busta has been one of the hottest players since the ATP Tour restarted in August, reaching his second US Open semi-final and advancing to the Roland Garros quarter-finals.
The best season of Ugo Humbert’s career keeps getting better.
The 22-year-old Frenchman battled past former World No. 3 Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 on Thursday to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final at the Rolex Paris Masters. Humbert hit 19 aces and saved three of the four break points he faced to advance after two hours and 24 minutes.
“My game is a bit different. I try to play more aggressive,” Humbert said. “[I’ve played] good matches against great players.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Humbert earned his second Top 10 victory on Tuesday when he upset reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas in a final-set tie-break, and he did not let slip his momentum against Cilic. The World No. 34, who competed in last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals, was cool under pressure to reach his sixth quarter-final of the season. Humbert, who is now 5-1 in deciding sets since Roland Garros, won his first two ATP Tour titles earlier this year.
“I think mentally I’m very strong since one month and I can win matches in three sets,” Humbert said. “I think I’m better in the key moments [than I used to be].”
After Cilic forced a decider with a good effort in the second-set tie-break, he earned a break point in the first game of the third set. Humbert hit his sliding lefty serve out wide and the Croatian was unable to put the return into play. That was the last chance he got.
Photo Credit: Cedric Lecocq/FFT
Humbert will be tested again in the last eight against recent Western & Southern Open finalist Milos Raonic. The big-serving Canadian eliminated American qualifier Marcos Giron 7-6(1), 6-2.
Raonic struck 17 aces en route to his one-hour, 22-minute victory, in which he did not face a break point. The 10th seed’s best previous result at the Rolex Paris Masters came in 2014, when he reached the final (l. to Djokovic). This will be his first ATP Head2Head meeting against Humbert.
“It will be tough, because he’s confident. He serves very well. He had good results since [the] restart of the Tour,” Humbert said. “But now I just would like to recover and I will prepare [for] my match with my coach later.”
