Nottingham School Reporters were given a tennis lesson by professionals Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak before quizzing the doubles pair on their careers.
The final round of qualifying has been pushed to Friday
Rain put a halt to play on Thursday, Day 4 of qualifying at Wimbledon. No matches were completed due to showers throughout the day, with 13 of 16 final-round qualifying matches not making it to court.
In an all-American battle, No. 6 seed Bjorn Fratangelo leads No. 22 seed Austin Krajicek, 6-3, 6-3, 3-1. Both players are aiming to make their main draw debuts at Wimbledon. Fratangelo broke into the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings this spring after a strong clay-court season that saw him reach the second round of Roland Garros and win the $50,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Savannah, Georgia.
Albano Olivetti of France is one set away from his Wimbledon main draw debut after surviving a pair of tight sets against British wild card Edward Corrie, 7-6(5), 7-6(4), 1-0. The 24-year-old Frenchman returned to the tour this January after 19 months out due to injury.
Franko Skugor of Croatia is in the lead, 4-6, 6-1, 4-2, against No. 12 seed Gerald Melzer of Austria. The 28-year-old is looking to make his Grand Slam main draw debut and had never reached the final round of qualifying at a Grand Slam prior to this week.
All final-round qualifying matches will be completed on Friday, with the feature match being a #NextGen battle between No. 12 seed Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan and No. 29 seed Quentin Halys of France.
Visit here for full results and updated draws.
Persistent rain has brought play to a close at the WTA event in Eastbourne, where Johanna Konta is set to play Ekaterina Makarova in the last eight.
Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska led 6-4 2-0 in her last-eight tie with Dominika Cibulkova when the poor weather hit.
There was a resumption at 18:40 BST but the rain returned an hour later with the score at 6-4 3-2 before event organisers suspended play for the day.
Earlier, Monica Puig beat Kristina Mladenovic to make the semi-finals.
The Puerto Rican won 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 6-3 and will play either Radwanska or Cibulkova in the last four.
The other quarter-final match is between Elena Vesnina and Karolina Pliskova, with the winner to play Konta or Makarova.
That match was also affected by rain on Thursday, with Pliskova racing into a 4-0 lead before the players were forced off.
Eighth seed continues strong grass run
Gilles Muller is on a roll. The Luxembourg native downed No. 4 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 6-4 at the Aegon Open Nottingham on Thursday to move into the semi-finals. It was Muller’s third quarter-final match on grass in as many week. The left-hander lost to Nicolas Mahut in the final of ‘s-Hertogenbosch two weeks ago and fell to Bernard Tomic at The Queen’s Club last week. Muller remains in contention to claim his first ATP World Tour title.
Muller only dropped three first-serve points in the 70-minute encounter and converted three of nine break point opportunities. Dolgopolov, who was playing in his first grass-court event of the year, punished Muller’s second serve (14/21 points won), but was on the receiving ends of 14 aces in the pair’s second FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Dolgopolov had won their previous match on hard court in Valencia four years ago.
In the semi-finals, Muller will take on second seed Pablo Cuevas, who saved a match point in beating Marcos Baghdatis 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(8). Cuevas was down 4-5, ad-out in the deciding set, but held serve and converted on his fifth match point in the deciding tie-break to advance. The Uruguayan is a match away from his first tour-level grass-court final. His previous six career ATP World Tour final appearances (5-1) have all come on clay.
Top seed Kevin Anderson was leading Steve Johnson 6-7(6), 7-5, 4-3 in their quarter-final match when play was halted due to darkness after two hours. Anderson unsuccessfully served for the first set at 5-4 before losing it in a tie-break. The South African forced a decider by breaking Johnson’s serve on the final point of the second set. The pair combined for 31 aces on Thursday – 21 for Anderson and 10 for Johnson.
Awaiting the winner will be seventh seed Andreas Seppi, who rallied to beat Dudi Sela 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Sela converted his lone break point of the match to win the first set, but succumbed in two hours and two minutes. Seppi is now 2-0 against Sela in grass-court meetings, having downed the Israeli in three sets in Nottingham eight years ago.
Top Doubles Seeds Move On
Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo overcame a late challenge from Robert Lindstedt and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi to move into the semi-finals 6-3, 6-7(4), 10-5 in 85 minutes. Dodig/Melo saved five of six break points faced and struck eight aces. They will next face Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin.
Already into the final are Dominic Inglot and Daniel Nestor, who beat Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky 7-6(4), 6-4. The 43-year-old Nestor has 88 career tour-level titles, but will play for his first alongside Inglot.
| Wimbledon on the BBC |
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| Venue: All-England Club Dates: 27 June-10 July |
| Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC Radio and BBC Sport website with further comprehensive coverage on Red Button, Connected TVs and app. Click for more details |
Play has been abandoned for the day at the final round of Wimbledon qualifying in Roehampton because of rain.
Britain’s world number 358 Edward Corrie is hoping to book his place in the main draw for the first time but trails France’s Albano Olivetti, ranked 791, 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) 0-1.
Fellow Britons Marcus Ellis and Harriet Dart will play on Friday, with play starting at 11:00 BST.
The main draw for Wimbledon will take place on Friday at 10:00.
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| Wimbledon on the BBC |
|---|
| Venue: All-England Club Dates: 27 June-10 July |
| Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC Radio and BBC Sport website with further comprehensive coverage on Red Button, Connected TVs and app. More details |
Andy Murray’s reunion with coach Ivan Lendl will help perfect the mental game required for another Wimbledon title challenge, says his mother Judy Murray.
Britain’s world number two, 29, won Wimbledon, the US Open and Olympic gold with Lendl from 2012 to 2014.
“One of the big things Ivan helped Andy with when they worked together the last time was the ability to set his focus when he got distracted,” said the former Great Britain Fed Cup captain.
“It’s good to have him back.”
She added: “When you get into the critical moments there are so many good players that you can’t afford to have momentary lapses in concentration.
“As a player, Lendl was remembered for the poker face, the relentlessness, just that focus that he was on a mission and nothing would distract him. I think he helped Andy a lot with that the last time.”
Meanwhile, John McEnroe believes Wimbledon, which begins on Monday, represents Murray’s best chance of beating Novak Djokovic to a major title.
The Serb has already beaten Murray in the Australian and French Open finals this year, and has only lost two of their last 15 meetings.
“In ways he’s getting closer. I think he’s best suited on grass and just has the crowd more on his side here at Wimbledon,” seven-time Grand Slam winner McEnroe said.
“So I think that’s his best chance. Not that he can’t beat Djokovic at the US Open, he beat him in Rome not long ago, but his record has recently not been good.
“Murray is a great player, there’s no question about it. But at the moment there’s no question that the level Novak is at is something that you rarely, if ever, see.”
| Wimbledon on the BBC |
|---|
| Venue: All-England Club Dates: 27 June-10 July |
| Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC Radio and BBC Sport website with further comprehensive coverage on Red Button, Connected TVs and app. Click for more details |
Two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka has been ruled out of Wimbledon with a knee injury, the tournament organisers have announced.
Azarenka, 26, was seeded sixth for the tournament which begins on Monday.
The two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist has not played since retiring from her first-round match against Italian Karin Knapp at last month’s French Open.
The Belarusian’s withdrawal means five-time champion Venus Williams will move up into the top eight seeds.
It also means Britain’s number one Johanna Konta moves up to 16th seed – meaning she will not face a higher-seeded player until round four, should she progress.
Azarenka, who won the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013, has been plagued by foot injuries in recent years.
She won bronze in the women’s singles and gold in the mixed doubles at the London 2012 Olympics and her withdrawal comes just six weeks before the start of Rio 2016.
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