Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas will go for his seventh ATP Tour title this week at the inaugural Cordoba Open in Argentina. The 33-year-old Cuevas last won a title at the 2017 Brasil Open in Sao Paulo and all six of his trophies have come on clay.
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Cuevas receives a first-round bye and will meet either Argentine wild card Carlos Berlocq or Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri, the sixth seed.
Italians lead the field at the tournament in central Argentina. The top two seeds, respectively, are Fabio Fognini, an eight-time ATP Tour titlist, and Marco Cecchinato, who reached the Roland Garros semi-finals last year.
Two other ATP Tour 250 events start on Monday as well: The Sofia Open, led by top seed Karen Khachanov of Russia, and the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, where defending champion Lucas Pouille looks to retain his title.
Take the Ashes urn, for example, at 11cm high, and then compare it with the Indy 500’s Borg-Warner Trophy, which comes in at 163cm tall.
Then there is the tree-shaped Paris Masters trophy, and the Qatar Masters’ ‘Golden Clam’.
How about a dolphin balancing a ball on its nose? That’s what Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska is taking home from the Thailand Open.
On Sunday, the 18-year-old world number 47 was presented with the trophy after beating Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2 2-6 7-6 (7-3) in Hua Hin for her second career WTA singles title.
Here, BBC Sport takes a look at some of the weird and wonderful sporting trophies, starting with tennis.
Australia, Germany, Serbia and Italy have won their Davis Cup ties to make it through to the 18-nation World Cup-style event in Madrid in November.
Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands and Russia also won their qualifying ties.
The winners join automatic qualifiers Argentina, Croatia, France, Great Britain, Spain and USA in the finals.
Serbia, without world number one Novak Djokovic, were given a scare by Uzbekistan but emerged 3-2 victors.
Uzbekistan were 2-0 down overnight only to level at 2-2, with Denis Istomin partnering Sanjar Fayziev to a 2-6 6-1 6-3 win over Nikola Milojevic and Viktor Troicki in the doubles before Istomin beat Dusan Lajovic 6-3 6-4 in the singles.
However, Serbia went through after Filip Krajinovic came back from a set down to overcome Fayziev 4-6 6-3 6-0 in the final rubber.
Japan had to come back from 2-1 down against China to reach the finals, with Taro Daniel beating Zhe Li 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 in the deciding match.
Felix Auger-Aliassime beat Norbert Gombos 6-3 6-4 in a decider to send Canada through at the expense of Slovakia, while Chile knocked out Austria thanks to Christian Garin’s 6-2 6-1 victory over Jurij Rodionov in the final rubber.
Switzerland, who were missing 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, fell 3-1 to Russia.
There were also 3-1 wins for Italy over India, Kazakhstan against Portugal and for Netherlands in their tie with Czech Republic.
Germany were emphatic 5-0 winners against Hungary, while Australia and Colombia were comfortable 4-0 victors against Bosnia & Herzegovina and Sweden respectively.
Bernard Tomic ‘trying to damage’ Australia’s team culture
The Davis Cup format has undergone an overhaul and has been replaced by the event to be held in Madrid later this year, with matches to be played over the best of three sets across two days rather than three.
In September 1997, when Slovakia defeated Canada in the two nations’ only previous Davis Cup meeting, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov had not even been born. More than 21 years later, the #NextGenATP duo was responsible for levelling Canada’s head-to-head record against Slovakia, rallying from 1-2 down in Bratislava to earn Davis Cup Finals qualification.
Earlier in the day, Martin Klizan and Filip Polasek had come from a set down to beat Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 and earn Slovakia a 2-1 lead. But Shapovalov soon sent the tie into a decisive fifth rubber, beating Klizan 7-6(4), 6-4 in one hour and 45 minutes.
“I think with today’s result, the debate as to whether I can play on clay is definitely over,” Shapovalov told DavisCup.com. “The level of tennis was very high today. [I am] very happy to get the win for Canada, we really needed it.”
The 18-year-old Auger-Aliassime then booked Canada’s place in the 18-nation event, defeating Norbert Gombos 6-3, 6-4 in 88 minutes. The victory was Auger-Aliassime’s first in Davis Cup competition, following his debut loss to Klizan on Friday.
After winning both opening singles rubbers, Germany completed a perfect tie in Frankfurt with three victories on Saturday. The home nation clinched victory after Tim Puetz and Jan-Lennard Struff’s 6-2, 6-3 win over Gabor Borsos and Peter Nagy, before Alexander Zverev and Philipp Kohlschreiber scored their second wins of the tie.
Zverev dropped only three points behind his second serve (7/10) to beat Borsos 6-3, 6-4, while Kohlschreiber edged David Szintai 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-5. Kohlschreiber hit eight aces and clinched the only break of the match, in the second set, to triumph after one hour and 38 minutes.
Tennis TV will feature expansive coverage of February’s 12 tournaments
The busiest month on the 2019 ATP Tour calendar begins Monday. In February, there will be 12 tournaments contested in eight countries across four continents and you can watch it all on TennisTV.com.
Three ATP 250 tournaments begin next week, with the inaugural Cordoba Open joining events in Montpellier and Sofia. Fabio Fognini leads the field in Cordoba, with former World No. 7 David Goffin and Rolex Paris Masters champion Karen Khachanov headlining in Montpellier and Sofia, respectively. The following week marks the first of four ATP 500 events in February, with World No. 3 Alexander Zverev, Marin Cilic, Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka all competing. Also in action will be Top 10 stars Kevin Anderson (New York Open) and Dominic Thiem (Argentina Open), who will be aiming to defend their titles during a busy week.
Week three of Frantic February will see Thiem and Diego Schwartzman attempt to lift their second titles at the ATP 500 event in Rio de Janeiro, with Juan Martin del Potro scheduled to make his 2019 ATP Tour debut at the Delray Beach Open. In Marseille, defending champion Khachanov will return to action at the Open 13 Provence.
In week four, Roger Federer (Dubai) and Rafael Nadal (Acapulco) will be joined by a number of Top 10 stars at the final two ATP 500 events of the month, with Sao Paulo hosting the second of two events in Brazil.
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Cordoba Open Following the relocation of the Ecuador Open, the first edition of the Cordoba Open will be take place from 4-10 February. Top 20 stars Fognini, Schwartzman and Marco Cecchinato will all compete for the first clay-court trophy of the 2019 ATP Tour season in the opening leg of the five-tournament swing through Latin America, aptly coined the “Golden Swing”.
Open Sud de France Australian Open semi-finalist Lucas Pouille will attempt to lift his second straight title at the Open Sud de France. Last year, Pouille became the sixth French champion in the eight editions of the event, beating three-time champion Richard Gasquet in the championship match.
Sofia Open Young stars Khachanov, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev will be joined by Wawrinka for the fourth edition of the event in the Bulgarian capital. Last year, Mirza Basic defeated Marius Copil in a surprise final.
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament Zverev, Cilic and Nishikori will feature in Rotterdam, alongside Wawrinka. The event, first staged in 1974, was won for a record third time by Federer in 2018. As a result of his final victory over Grigor Dimitrov, Federer returned to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings, a position he held for a total of six weeks during the 2018 ATP Tour season.
New York Open Following its relocation from Memphis to Long Island in 2018, the second edition of the New York Open will be headlined by Anderson and John Isner. In last year’s championship match, Anderson lifted his first tour-level trophy since 2015, beating home favourite Sam Querrey in a final-set tie-break.
Argentina Open Thiem will be aiming to lift his third title in Buenos Aires. The Austrian first triumphed in the Argentine capital in 2016 (d. Almagro), before returning last year to claim his second trophy (d. Bedene).
Rio Open presented by Claro Former champion Thiem will also headline in Rio de Janeiro, alongside Fognini, Cecchinato and Schwartzman, the defending champion. Nadal won the inaugural edition of the event in 2014, defeating Alexandr Dolgopolov in the championship match.
Open 13 Provence Last year’s titlist Khachanov will bid to become the first man since Thomas Enqvist in 1998 to win back-to-back titles in Marseille. The event, first held in 1993, has seen six French men lift the trophy, including Guy Forget (1996), Fabrice Santoro (1999), Arnaud Clement (2006), Gilles Simon (2007, 2015), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2009, 2013, 2017) and Michael Llodra (2011).
Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com Former champions Del Potro (2011) and Anderson (2012) will attempt to snap a three-year streak of home champions in Delray Beach. Last year, #NextGenATP star Frances Tiafoe joined countrymen Querrey (2016) and Jack Sock (2017) on the honour roll after beating Peter Gojowczyk to lift his maiden ATP Tour trophy.
Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Federer is scheduled to return to action for the first time since the Australian Open in Dubai. The seven-time champion will aim to capture his 100th tour-level title at the ATP 500 event, won by Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in 2018.
Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC Australian Open runner-up Nadal is scheduled to make his return in Acapulco, alongside Zverev, Anderson and Wawrinka. The Spaniard lifted the trophy in 2013 (d. Ferrer) and also reached the championship match in 2017 (l. to Querrey).
Brasil Open The final event in the “Golden Swing” will feature Malek Jaziri, Joao Sousa and Leonardo Mayer. Between 2008 and 2013, each of the six editions of the event in Sao Paulo were won by Spanish players.
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