Antwerp 2016
Antwerp 2016
Oct162016
Buenos Aires Challenger features all-Argentine final
If a player from Argentina is competing on clay in an ATP Challenger Tour event, they’re a likely candidate to be the last man standing.
Argentina has been the most dominant country when it comes to winning Challenger titles in 2016. Nine players have won a combined 15 singles titles this year, already up from 14 in 2015. Facundo Bagnis has a tour-leading five Challenger titles, followed by Guido Andreozzi (2), Horacio Zeballos (2), Nicolas Kicker, Carlos Berlocq, Leonardo Mayer, Agustin Velotti, Diego Schwartzman and Renzo Olivo. Six of these Challenger wins have come over the past two months.
That number is also guaranteed to increase on Sunday, with the $50,000 Challenger in Buenos Aires fittingly featuring an all-Argentine final between Olivo and Mayer.
“We have a lot of players at a very good level between No. 100 and No. 200 [in the Emirates ATP Rankings],” said Olivo. “Not everyone is playing Masters 1000 Series events, but it’s a level where there are a lot of us pushing each other in that direction.”
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With 15 Argentines ranked inside the Top 200 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, it’s common to see a brigade of players from the country competing at Challenger events and making deep runs in the draw. This is particularly true at clay-court events, which is the surface of choice among most Argentine players.
“In Buenos Aires, there are two clay courts for every hard court,” said Andreozzi. “We generally don’t practise on hard courts unless it’s to prepare for a specific tournament. We’re more accustomed to clay and our style is better suited to the surface.”
Luckily for this group of players, there are five consecutive weeks of South American clay-court Challengers ahead on the schedule. But beyond surface preference, Kicker said the reason Argentines have enjoyed so much success is due to their resilience that has helped them through plenty of tough matches.
“We live far from Europe and the United States, so we spend two months at a time away from home. It’s not always easy for us, so we are known for being fighters,” said Kicker. “When we’re on the court, we give everything that we have.”
British pair Naomi Broady and Heather Watson lost 6-3 6-1 to Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching in the doubles final of the Hong Kong Open.
Broady and Watson struggled to make an impact in their first final as a pair with the top seeds from Chinese Taipei winning in just over an hour.
It is the Chan siblings’ third trophy of the year.
Watson suffered a second-round singles defeat by Caroline Wozniacki, while Broady failed to get past round one.
The 26-year-old was beaten 6-2 6-2 by British top seed Johanna Konta.
“I want to thank my partner,” Broady, who reached the women’s doubles third round at Wimbledon with Watson this year, told BT Sport.
“We’ve been best friends since we were about nine years old so to arrive at a final together on the same side of the net is just awesome, and I really enjoyed playing with her.”
Britain’s Andy Murray beat Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets to win the Shanghai Masters and edge closer to Novak Djokovic in the world rankings.
The Scot recovered from a stutter in the first set to win 7-6 (7-1) 6-1 against the Spanish world number 19.
Bautista Agut beat Djokovic in the semi-finals, but Murray ultimately eased to his sixth title of the year.
The Scot, 29, is now 915 points behind the Serb, increasing his chances of finishing 2016 as world number one.
Murray, who also won the China Open on 9 October, has now won his past 23 sets over the two tournaments and the recent Davis Cup tie with Argentina.
It is the third time he has won the Shanghai Masters following his back-to-back victories in 2010 and 2011.
“In the last few months, I have won a lot of matches and made improvements,” Murray told Sky Sports. “I have been moving forward better and changed the direction of the ball better. I have also come up with some bigger serves when I have needed them.
“My goal wasn’t to finish number one at the end of this year but in the early parts of next year there is an opportunity – 900 points doesn’t seem like loads.
“But Novak will win matches. He is the best player in the world. I don’t think he has lost an indoor game in a long time.”
More to follow.
Americans controlled the match with their serves
John Isner and Jack Sock capped off the best week of their short-lived doubles team career by winning one of the game’s biggest titles on Sunday at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
The American duo won their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 team crown, defeating Henri Kontinen and John Peers 6-4, 6-4 in 62 minutes. Isner/Sock dominated with their serves, as they have all tournament long in the Chinese city. They won 78 per cent of their service points (40/51) and never faced a break point.
Returning serve, Isner/Sock were opportunistic. An Isner overhead handed them their first break for a 3-2 lead in the first set. They converted their second service break for a 4-3 advantage in the second set when an Isner forehand was too much for Kontinen to handle at the net.
The victory gives Sock his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 doubles crown and his seventh overall ATP World Tour doubles title. He and Canadian Vasek Pospisil took the BNP Paribas Open title last season at Indian Wells. Sock had been 0-3 in doubles finals this season. The 24 year old is the only player ranked in the Top 25 of both Emirates ATP Rankings – No. 25 in singles, No. 23 in doubles.
Isner hadn’t played in a doubles final since the 2012 BNP Paribas Open. His last doubles title came when he was playing with compatriot Sam Querrey in 2011 at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Rome. The 6’10” Isner has now won four ATP World Tour doubles titles. The champions will split 1,000 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and $323,100.
Kontinen/Peers were looking to further bolster their place in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London by winning their fourth title of the season. The Finnish/Australian pairing are currently in seventh place, 245 points ahead of eighth-placed Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi. The top eight doubles teams at the end of the season will qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held 13-20 Nov. at The O2 in London.
Kontinen/Peers had been 3-0 in ATP World Tour doubles finals this season, snagging trophies in Brisbane, Munich and Hamburg. They will receive 600 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and $158,190.
“None of this would be possible without the lovely volunteers,” says Naqi Hiader Rizvi.
He is just one of the many visually impaired tennis players benefitting from people helping put on their regular sessions in Finsbury Park in London.
Jessica Bavington, who started volunteering in the role about six years ago, is one of those.
“I was just absolutely fascinated by how it was even possible that someone could play tennis with potentially someone who’s blind,” she said. “It was just profoundly inspiring.
“Some people will see barriers in volunteering and actually there are not that many.”
Do you know a local sports volunteer who deserves some much-needed recognition?
Nominate your local BBC Unsung Hero here – but hurry as entries close on Sunday, 23 October!
The 2016 Visually Impaired and Blind National Tennis Championships take place at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton on 15-16 October.
Former World No. 3 prevailed at home in 2000
Despite retiring seven years ago, Guillermo Coria is still in peak physical shape. Watching him walk, there’s little difference between the 34-year-old Coria today and the 18-year-old teenager who won four consecutives Challenger titles to make his debut inside the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings in November 2000.
The former World No. 3 still vividly remembers winning the ATP Challenger Tour title that month in his hometown of Buenos Aires. Facing former World No. 8 Alberto Berasategui in the final, Coria delighted the local crowd by prevailing in a deciding set. He said the match, and in his time overall in Challengers, was pivotal in setting him up for the outstanding ATP World Tour career he went on to have.
“I owe everything to Challengers. Having a circuit of Challenger tournaments in South America was so fundamental for me,” said Coria, speaking from this week’s $50,000 event in Buenos Aires. “Alberto had so much experience, but I had the whole crowd on my side. Winning a tournament at home against a player at that level gives you so much motivation for what can happen next. When I played the final of the Argentina Open against Carlos Moya, I was ready because the Challenger there had given me experience in handling that type of pressure.”
Coria made an appearance this Thursday at the Challenger in Buenos Aires to give a kids’ clinic and observe some of the rising stars in South American tennis. From his own experience, both the tournament venues in Buenos Aires and the city itself have all the ingredients to spur on the best tennis from players.
“The stadium was always full. Even as a Challenger, it always felt like an ATP World Tour event,” said Coria. “Having those experiences gives you a lot of confidence and helps you grow as a player.”
The 34-year-old Coria is confident that the growing brigade of Argentine players in Challengers will also continue to benefit from those experiences. Argentina has produced nine Challenger winners this year that have combined to win 15 singles titles.
“It’s very impressive, but I think this trend will continue and having Argentina in the Davis Cup final this year will only help that further,” said Coria. “Argentine tennis is very strong now and these group of players deserve it. They haven’t been handed anything and have had to fight for it all.”
Croatian/Brazilian team secure their spot for fourth straight year
Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo are the fifth team to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals following the completion of sign-in on-site at the If Stockholm Open, the European Open in Antwerp and the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow.
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The Croatian/Brazilian duo will return to The O2 for a fourth successive appearance. They have an 8-5 record at the year-end championships, finishing runners-up in 2014 (l. to Bryans) and reaching the semi-finals in 2013 (l. to Marrero/Verdasco) and 2015 (l. to Bopanna/Mergea).
Dodig and Melo, who did not compete in Shanghai this week while Dodig played an ATP Challenger Tour singles event in Tashkent, have put together another stellar season and are fourth in the year-to-date standings.
A semi-final showing at Roland Garros kick started a strong summer for the duo. They went on to reach their first final of the season in Nottingham (l. to Inglot/Nestor) and won back-to-back ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in Toronto (d. Murray/Soares) and Cincinnati (d. Rojer/Tecau).
Three places remain up for grabs in the elite eight-team field. There are three weeks left of the regular season, which will decide the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London. Sixth-placed Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram are next in line to qualify.