Nishikori Discusses Verdasco Battle In Miami 2017
Nishikori Discusses Verdasco Battle In Miami 2017
Mar272017
Revisit the week that was on the ATP Challenger Tour as we applaud the achievements of those on the rise and look ahead to who’s in action in the week to come
A LOOK BACK
Jalisco Open (Guadalajara, Mexico): Mirza Basic of Bosnia & Herzegovina captured his first ATP Challenger Tour title since July 2015 (Recanati, Italy) by defeating #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 6-4. The 25 year old weathered a difficult draw to prevail, taking out top seed Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic in the quarter-finals and fourth seed Jason Jung of Taipei in the semi-finals.
The 17-year-old Shapovalov came into the final on a nine-match winning streak in Challengers, having won his maiden title last week on home soil in Drummondville. He also had a difficult path to the championship match, defeating good friend and fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil in the second-round and former Top 15 player Jerzy Janowicz in the semi-finals.
Quanzhou Open (Quanzhou, China): Sixth seed Thomas Fabbiano continued his love affair with China by defeating qualifier and fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini 7-6(5), 7-6(7) in the championship match. Fabbiano also finished runner-up this month in Zhuhai, where he won the tournament last year.
The 20-year-old Berrettini drops to 0-2 in Challenger finals after finishing runner-up last November on home soil in Andria. He stood at No. 883 in the Emirates ATP Rankings this past October, but is projected to move well inside the Top 300 on the following Monday.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID
Basic: “The last title I had was in July 2015, so I’m very happy to be back and making some wins. I really enjoyed my time here. I knew it was going to be a tough match because Denis is young and up-and-coming, but I think I was solid and more patient than him today.”
A LOOK AHEAD
There are two Challengers on the schedule this week, with the $75,000 event in Leon, Mexico, taking top billing as it returns for the for the 15th straight year. Estrella Burgos is the top seed once again and could face Shapovalov in the second-round. #NextGenATP Americans Ernesto Escobedo and Stefan Kozlov are the second and fourth seeds, respectively, while Pospisil is the third seed. Basic is in the draw and looks for another big week in Mexico.
The $50,000 tournament in St. Brieuc, France, is back for the 14th consecutive year. Gerald Melzer of Austria is the top seed and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine is the second seed. #NextGenATP player and local favourite Quentin Halys also competes this week as the fifth seed.
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Rafael Nadal becomes the 11th player in the Open Era to play 1000 ATP World Tour singles matches on Sunday when he faces …
Angelique Kerber will be finally looking to kickstart her year with a deep run in Miami. Back at the No.1 spot, she faces …
Britain’s Johanna Konta rediscovered her best form as she thrashed Pauline Parmentier of France in straight sets to reach round four at the Miami Open.
Konta, seeded 10th, took charge from midway through the first set to win 6-4 6-0 in 63 minutes.
She next faces American eighth seed Madison Keys or Lara Arruabarrena of Spain for a place in the last eight.
In the men’s doubles, Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares beat Paolo Lorenzi and Joao Sousa 6-0 6-3 in round two.
Angelique Kerber, Venus Williams and Rafael Nadal are among those in action later on Sunday.
Men’s third seed Milos Raonic of Canada withdrew ahead of his match against Jared Donaldson with a recurrence of a hamstring injury, saying: “It was not possible to compete today without putting myself at significant risk.”
Konta, 25, had struggled for form since reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals in January, and had needed two hours and 40 minutes to beat qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich in her opening match in Miami.
In less windy conditions on Sunday, the British number one found the rhythm on both serve and return that has seen her rise dramatically up the rankings in the last two years.
The first six games went with serve as Parmentier’s big serve kept her in touch, but when Konta converted her third break point for a 4-3 lead it sparked a brilliant burst of form from the Briton.
Konta dropped just five points in the second set, and only seven points on serve in the entire match, as she powered through.
She is now one win from at least matching last year’s run to the quarter-finals, where she lost to Victoria Azarenka.
The Spaniard currently holds an 821-178 ATP World Tour level singles record
View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups & vote for the players you think will win!
Nishikori vs Verdasco | Raonic vs Donaldson | Nadal vs Kohlschreiber
DAY 5 PREVIEW: Third round action on Sunday at the Miami Open presented by Itau features No. 2 seed and last year’s finalist Kei Nishikori, No. 3 Milos Raonic, No. 5 and four-time finalist Rafael Nadal and No. 13 Jack Sock. They are the highest seeds of the six remaining in the bottom half of the draw. On Friday, seeds struggled in opening round matches with a 6-10 record. On Saturday, seeds in the top half of the draw compiled a 12-4 record. There are 15 countries represented in the third round with the U.S. leading the way with five players (most since 2011) followed by Argentina and France with four each and Germany and Spain with three each.
In the opening men’s match on Stadium, Nishikori squares off with No. 25 seed Fernando Verdasco for the fifth time (tied 2-2). Nishikori won the last meeting in five sets in the 3R at Roland Garros last year. Verdasco is trying to post his first Top 10 win of the season (0-4) and first since last June at the Queen’s Club in London where he beat No. 5 Wawrinka in 1R. Since 2014, Nishikori has won 13 of his past 15 Miami Open matches.
In the last day session match, Nadal brings a 13-1 career record against No. 26 Philipp Kohlschreiber, who defeated the Spaniard the only time on grass in 2012 Halle. This is Nadal’s 1,000th career ATP World Tour level singles match (821-178). He is the 11th player in the Open Era (since 1968) to reach this milestone. Kohlschreiber is trying to break an eight-match losing streak vs. Top 10 opponents since his win over No. 7 Berdych (ret.) in Davis Cup 1R tie in March 2016.
In the evening session, Sock looks for his second win against Jiri Vesely, the No. 2 player from the Czech Republic. Sock won the previous ATP World Tour meeting 6-2, 6-1 in the 2R of 2014 Memphis. Sock is off to a career-best 16-3 start and he is one of four players (Dimitrov, Federer, Tsonga) to capture two titles on the ATP World Tour this season.
On Grandstand, Raonic takes on #NextGenATP American qualifier Jared Donaldson, who lost the previous meeting 6-2, 6-3 on the Canadian’s home soil at ATP Masters 1000 Toronto last July. Raonic is playing his first tournament in a month since being sidelined with a right leg injury, which forced him to concede a walkover in the Delray Beach final (vs. Sock) on Feb. 26, then withdrew from Acapulco and Indian Wells. Donaldson is looking for his first career Top 10 win (0-3). In the next match on, Benoit Paire and surging Donald Young meet for the second time. Paire won the previous meeting on clay at 2012 Casablanca. Young is off to a 12-5 start this season and this is his best showing in eight appearances in Miami.
On Court 1, all three matches are between unseeded players as Federico Delbonis of Argentina takes on Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany for the first time on the ATP World Tour, followed by Nicolas Mahut of France vs. Guido Pella of Argentina in a first-time encounter. In the final match on, Frenchman Jeremy Chardy looks for his first win (0-2) against Italian Fabio Fognini, who won both previous meetings on clay.
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Karlovic, Goffin advance on Saturday
Nick Kyrgios continued his outstanding season on Saturday at the Miami Open presented by Itau, moving into the third-round with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Damir Dzumhur.
The 12th seed immediately went down a double break and trailed 0-3 in the opening set, but fought back to break Dzumhur three times and grab the early advantage. In a reversal of fortunes, Kyrgios went up 3-0 in the second set before eventually wrapping up the win in 63 minutes.
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Kyrgios, currently No. 16 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, moves to 11-3 in 2017. His consistent season includes a quarter-final showing at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells, where he defeated World No. 2 and three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth-round. He also defeated Djokovic en route to a semi-final showing in Acapulco (l. Querrey) and reached the final four in Montpellier (l. Tsonga).
Next up for Kyrgios is 17th seed Ivo Karlovic, who saved all four break points he faced to defeat Andrey Kuznetsov 7-6(4), 6-1. The Aussie leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-0.
Eighth seed David Goffin finished with a flourish to end the run of qualifier Darian King 7-5, 6-1. The Belgian won eight of the last nine games to move into the round of 32. Goffin is looking to match the success of his 2016 run in Miami, when he reached the semi-finals (l. Djokovic)
He’ll next play Diego Schwartzman, who continued his solid run in Miami by taking out 27th seed David Ferrer 6-2, 6-3. The Argentine remained in control throughout the match, breaking Ferrer five times to prevail in 76 minutes. Goffin and Schwartzman are even in their FedEx ATP Head2Head at 1-1.