Highlights Nadal Thiem Advance To Madrid 2017 Final
Highlights Nadal Thiem Advance To Madrid 2017 Final
May132017
Clay-Court Circuit Continues In Rome: The fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the year is in Rome, where 17 of the Top 20 players in the Emirates ATP Rankings will descend. The Internazionali BNL d’Italia first took place in 1930 and has been held every year since 1950. Seven-time champion Rafael Nadal looks for another title in Rome and is joined by fellow former winners Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Murray is the top seed, with Djokovic seeded second, Stan Wawrinka third and Nadal fourth.
10 THINGS TO KNOW IN ROME
1) Title Trio: Murray, Djokovic and Nadal return to Rome, where they have combined for the past 12 titles here. Including Roger Federer, the Big Four has won 36 of 39 ATP Masters 1000 titles since 2013 (92%), 74 of 84 since 2008 (88%) and 95 of 111 since 2005 (86%). Nadal would boost those stats by winning Sunday’s Madrid final.
2) Murray to Defend Title: World No. 1 Murray won his first of nine titles in 2016 at Rome, finishing the season on a 61-4 run after arriving at Foro Italico with a 17-5 record. Murray, who turns 30 on Monday, has played the same number of matches entering Rome this year (16-6, 1 title at Dubai).
3) Same Half for Djokovic, Nadal: Djokovic, a four-time Rome champion, is on the same half of the draw as Nadal for the fourth time in as many ATP Masters 1000 appearances this year. His seven-match and 15-set win streaks against the Spaniard ended in the Madrid semi-finals on Saturday.
4) Remarkable Rafa: Nadal, a seven-time Rome champion, enters Sunday’s Madrid final against Dominic Thiem or Pablo Cuevas with a total of 29 ATP Masters 1000 titles, one shy of Djokovic’s all-time record 30. The 30-year-old lefty is 14-0 in matches and 28-2 in sets on clay this season.
5) Former Finalists: Three other former finalists are in the Rome main draw. Tommy Haas, the 2002 runner-up, makes his final appearance in Rome before retiring later this season. World No. 3 Wawrinka, the 2008 runner-up, and former No. 3 David Ferrer, the 2010 runner-up, are also back.
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6) Major Milestones: Ferrer and No. 12 seed Tomas Berdych are on the verge of major milestones. Fifteen years after his ATP debut, Ferrer is one win from 700 for his career. The Spaniard would join the likes of Djokovic and Nadal as the 13th player to reach 700 victories. Berdych is two wins from becoming the 25th player to earn 600 victories. His coach, Goran Ivanisevic, had 599 wins.
7) #NextGenATP Watch: No. 16 seed Alexander Zverev leads the Emirates ATP Race to Milan. Zverev is joined in the main draw this week by 21-year-old Rome native Matteo Berrettini, the top Italian in the Race to Milan. Fiera Milano hosts the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals November 7-11.
8) Wild Cards: Berrettini is one of four Italian wild cards, joining 32-year-old Andreas Seppi and 22-year-olds Gianluca Mager and Stefano Napolitano. Seppi is making his 12th Rome appearance.
9) Doubles Field: Four-time champions Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan and Daniel Nestor headline the doubles draw. The Bryans have not won a final since 2016 Rome (18 events), the longest drought of their 112-title run that began at 2001 Memphis. Nestor won his first Rome title 20 years ago.
10) First-Round Showdowns: Haas, 39, faces Ivo Karlovic, 38, in the oldest ATP match since Luis Ayala, 49, met Ricardo Cano, 30, at 1982 Vina del Mar. Ferrer seeks his 700th win against fellow 35-year-old Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, Berrettini makes his ATP debut against No. 1 Italian Fabio Fognini, Juan Martin del Potro meets No. 10 seed Grigor Dimitrov, and the highest-ranked unseeded players, No. 20 Nick Kyrgios and No. 21 Roberto Bautista Agut, go head to head.
Eighth seed Dominic Thiem reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final on Saturday at the Mutua Madrid Open, not facing a break point in defeating Pablo Cuevas in a physical 6-4, 6-4 match that ended after midnight.
“I feel great. It means a lot to play my first final at this level. These tournaments are so strong, so it’s amazing for me to go that far. I’m very happy at the moment,” said Thiem. “I will give everything tomorrow and hope I can play a good final.”
The Austrian will play Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s final after the Spaniard defeated Novak Djokovic earlier in the day. Nadal leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Thiem 3-1, with all four of their matches coming on clay. The four-time Madrid champion dropped just five games in defeating Thiem two weeks ago in the Barcelona final.
“I think he played a very good match in Barcelona. I played well also. If I’m at my best and he’s at his best on clay, he’s probably the better player. If you see his records on this surface, it’s just amazing,” said Thiem. “But tomorrow is a new day. I will try to improve the things I didn’t do that good in Barcelona and then we will see what happens.”
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Thiem evens his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Cuevas at 1-1, gaining revenge over a loss at Roland Garros in 2015. The 23-year-old Austrian had gone 0-4 in his previous Masters 1000 quarter-finals prior to this week, but broke the streak on Friday against lucky loser and #NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric.
Thiem has continued to excel on clay in 2017, winning the title this February in Rio de Janeiro (d. Carreno Busta) and finishing runner-up two weeks ago in Barcelona (l. Nadal). He improves to 14-2 this season on the red dirt. In addition to scoring his first victory over a World No. 1 against Andy Murray in the Barcelona semi-finals, he staged a miraculous comeback in Madrid by saving five match points to defeat 12th seed Grigor Dimitrov in their third-round battle.
Despite the loss, Cuevas can be pleased with reaching his first Masters 1000 semi-final. The 31-year-old Uruguayan won four consecutive three-set matches to make the final four. Cuevas also picked up the biggest win of his career by defeating Stan Wawrinka en route to a quarter-final finish in Monte-Carlo.
Thiem and Cuevas could face off again in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Cuevas opens up against a qualifier or lucky loser, while Thiem has an opening-round bye.
Although Cuevas stayed close in the scoreline throughout the first set with Thiem, the eighth seed comfortably held serve while Cuevas was often forced to deuce or saving break points. Thiem grabbed the lone break of the opening set at 2-2 with an overhead winner and maintained his slight lead to take the early advantage.
Both players remained even early in the second set, but Thiem played 15 points in his first three service games while Cuevas played 33. The long week caught up to Cuevas at 4-4 and he dropped serve after being unable to dig up a low approach from the Austrian. Thiem easily held in the next game to wrap up the match in one hour and 23 minutes.
Romanian Fed Cup captain Ilie Nastase’s presence at the Madrid Open trophy presentation ceremony was “irresponsible and unacceptable”, said the head of women’s tennis.
Nastase, 70, is under investigation by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) following his behaviour at last month’s Fed Cup tie with Britain.
However, Nastase shared the stage with Madrid champion Simona Halep on Sunday.
“He had no place on the court today,” said WTA chief Steve Simon.
Nastase, a former French and US Open champion, was ejected from the Fed Cup tie in Constanta after abusing British player Johanna Konta and captain Anne Keothavong.
The incident followed a derogatory remark from Nastase about 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams’ unborn child.
An ITF investigation was subsequently launched and Nastase has since been banned from the upcoming French Open and Wimbledon tournaments.
He was present on Sunday, however, to watch his Fed Cup team member Halep beat Kristina Mladenovic and win the title in Madrid – a tournament owned and run by fellow Romanian, Ion Tiriac.
“The only shadow cast on the day was Mr Nastase’s invitation to participate in the award ceremony,” said Simon, chief executive of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
“He is currently under a provisional suspension by the ITF for his prior offensive actions and we revoked his credentials at WTA events while the investigation is being completed.
“It was both irresponsible and unacceptable of the Madrid Open to bestow him an official role.
“The Madrid tournament is a Premier-level event and held to the highest standards of professional tennis and leadership which were not reflected today.”
Four-time champion Rafael Nadal ended a three-year, seven-match losing streak against Novak Djokovic to reach the final of the Madrid Open.
The Spaniard, 30, won 6-2 6-4 to claim his first victory over the Serb since the 2014 French Open final.
Nadal improved his record on clay this year to 14-0 and will face Austrian Dominic Thiem, who beat Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 6-4 6-4, in Sunday’s final.
Kristina Mladenovic plays Simona Halep in Saturday’s women’s final.
Nadal confirmed his return to form with a long-awaited win over Djokovic, his 24th in 50 career meetings.
“It is a great result,” he said. “To win against Novak by that score you have to be playing very well, otherwise it’s impossible.
“It was an important match for me. I lost a lot of times in a row. To break that means there are always nerves.
“The circumstances nowadays are completely different compared to those seven matches that occurred before.
“I think that the last two years perhaps haven’t been my best two years. For Novak, they were really good years.”
Djokovic, playing his first tournament since splitting with his long-time coaching team, won just four points in the opening four games as he fell 4-0 down to a rejuvenated Nadal.
There were more positive signs for the Serb in the second set as he recovered an early break of serve, punching his fist in delight, but Nadal would quickly re-establish the advantage.
The Spaniard came through a tense final game, fending off a break point before converting his third match point and closing on a fifth Madrid title.
“He deserved to win,” said Djokovic.
“It wasn’t a very high quality of tennis from my side. I made a lot of unforced errors.
“His quality was very high. He managed to do whatever he wanted really, especially in the first set.”
Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin ended Spain’s hopes of having a home doubles champion at the Mutua Madrid Open on Saturday. The sixth-seeded Frenchmen knocked out eighth seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez 6-2, 6-3 in 67 minutes to reach the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 doubles final.
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Lopez/Lopez were attempting to become the first Spanish team to win the Madrid title in the 16-year history of the tournament. Mahut/Roger-Vasselin will meet fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, who received a walkover into the doubles final when Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock withdrew because Kyrgios has a left hip injury.
Kubot/Melo have now reached three of the season’s four Masters 1000 doubles finals. They made the final at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (l. to Klaasen/Ram) and at the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Monroe/Sock). Kubot/Melo also reached the quarter-finals (l. to Lopez/Lopez) at last month’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, the season’s third Masters 1000 tournament.
Novak Djokovic is disappointed to lose his title at the Mutua Madrid Open, but was full of praise for Rafael Nadal after their semi-final match on Saturday.
The Serbian went in with a seven-match win streak against the Spaniard, but struggled to find answers to Nadal’s powerful baseline hitting in their 50th FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Djokovic admitted afterwards that it would have been difficult to oust Nadal even if he were in peak form.
“Rafa was obviously a better player today. He deserved to win. He was controlling the game from beginning to the end,” said Djokovic. “His quality was very high and he managed to do whatever he wanted, especially in the first set. He did get the better of me in most of the stats today, most of the shots.”
However, the second seed didn’t mince words about his own performance. He hit 13 unforced errors in the opening set and often sprayed standard rally shots into the net or long. Although his effort never betrayed him, Djokovic said his game often did today.
“I tried my best. It wasn’t a very high quality of tennis from my side. I made a lot of unforced errors, especially in the first set, said Djokovic, “I felt like I was playing well throughout the week. I could have played better today. But, again, I just had an opponent that was too good. It’s just one of these days where your opponent is playing better than you, and you have to be able to say “congratulations” and move on.
But despite the loss, Djokovic said there are positives to take as he heads to Rome for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where he has won four times (2008, 2011, 2014-2015) and finished runner-up three times (2009, 2012, 2016). The World No. 2 reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final and faced a player inside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since his opening event of the season in Doha. He believes having those experiences again will serve him well as he looks ahead to another difficult draw.
“It was really good to play in the semi-finals of a big event and to play against one of my top rivals. I haven’t had that feeling in months, so it’s great to feel that,” said Djokovic. “It was a positive week and a positive experience. I take more positives than negatives going into next week in Rome. As I go along, I hope to continue getting better and getting stronger.”
Romanian third seed Simona Halep retained her Madrid Open title with a three-set win over France’s Kristina Mladenovic in a gripping final.
Halep, playing her third Madrid final in four years, held off a Mladenovic fightback to win 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-2.
Mladenovic, seeded 17th, forced a deciding set despite appearing to struggle with a back injury.
Halep’s frustration was clear when she kicked her racquet into the path of a ball boy and received a code violation.
However, the world number eight came through to clinch victory after two hours and 43 minutes.
She has now won 22 of her last 25 matches on clay and will head into the French Open later this month as one of the favourites for the title.
In the doubles final, Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-Jan beat Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova 6-4 6-3.