Djokovic Wins 700th Match
Djokovic Wins 700th Match
Feb242016
Serb through to quarter-final clash with Feliciano Lopez
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic notched his 700th tour-level win in style on Wednesday night as he defeated Malek Jaziri 6-1, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
The Serb cruised to victory in 65 minutes, before he was presented on court with a commemorative cake to celebrate his achievement. He is only the 12th player in the Open Era (since 1968) to hit the 700 singles victories mark.
Read #Nole700 Tribute
The 28-year-old Djokovic is a four-time champion at this ATP World Tour 500 hard-court tournament and is looking to reclaim the title he won in 2009 (d. Ferrer), 2010 (d. Youzhny), 2011 (d. Federer) and 2013 (d. Berdych).
The Belgrade native goes on to face Feliciano Lopez, who was a 6-3, 7-6(7) winner over Lukas Rosol. Djokovic is unbeaten in his seven previous meetings with the left-handed Spaniard, who himself is a two-time finalist in Dubai. Lopez finished runner-up in 2004 (l. to Federer) and 2008 (l. to Roddick).
There were 246 alerts of suspicious betting on matches in 2015, including three at Grand Slams, the head of the Tennis Integrity Unit has told MPs.
Nigel Willerton described the increase from 91 in 2014 – and just 14 two years earlier – as “obviously concerning”.
He also said he had not seen a list of 16 players flagged as suspicious.
Tennis authorities are conducting an independent anti-corruption review after a BBC/BuzzFeed News investigation into suspected illegal betting.
The investigation found that the 16 players, who have all ranked in the top 50, were repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) over suspicions they have thrown matches, but were allowed to continue competing.
Willerton also told a culture, media and sport select committee that the TIU does not have a betting analyst seven years after a review said it should have one.
He said tennis had “without a doubt” been damaged by the revelations of the investigation, but that the sport was not “hiding behind any shell”.
At the hearing, Willerton and Chris Kermode – the head of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) – revealed that:
Willerton’s revelation that he was not aware of the identities of the 16 players was described by the committee’s chair Jesse Norman as “extraordinary”.
“I was not in place at the time,” Willerton said. “The director in charge at the time would have looked at the material and decided if it warranted further investigation. Clearly he didn’t. There’s been no further investigation on the previous material.”
But Norman told him: “I’d have ‘Wanted’ posters up in the office.”
Norman also told Willerton that the TIU budget “does seem extraordinarily low, relative to the 120,000 matches that you need to preserve the integrity of”.
Willerton said he had requested an increase.
“We have six staff [including] three investigators,” he said. “I’ve secured funding for the addition of two further staff, one investigator and one analyst. I do think that’s adequate at this point in time.”
Willerton said he was hopeful that the independent review would recommend a greater degree of independence for the TIU from the sport’s governing bodies.
But he denied he was currently compromised by what Norman called the “tacit interest to protect the sport by ignoring embarrassing truths”.
Willerton said: “I have a free rein to go and capture anyone who is guilty of corruption in tennis. My job is to catch the cheats.”
Kermode said the ATP was trying to keep the TIU “as independent as possible”, but added: “It’s never going to be 100% independent because we’re paying for it.”
British number two Heather Watson was knocked out of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel after a 4-6 6-0 7-6 (7-1) first-round loss to Christina McHale.
Watson, 23, was beaten on a tie-break in the third set, despite a stunning comeback in the second.
World number 83 Watson also lost in the first round of the Australian Open last month – her most recent tournament.
British number one Johanna Konta progressed and will face Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the next round.
Bedene reaches second round in Acapulco
British number two Aljaz Bedene reached the second round of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco after Ivo Karlovic was forced to retire.
The world number 54 progressed against Karlovic with the score at 6-4 1-2 when the big-serving Croatian withdrew.
Bedene, 26, has exited in the first round of the last three tournaments in Brazil, Australia and New Zealand
He will face Dutchman Robin Haase – ranked world number 62 – in the next round on Wednesday at 23:00 GMT.
American to become youngest in Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings
Rising teenager Taylor Fritz will make his Top 100 debut in the Emirates ATP Rankings after upsetting No. 8 seed Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the opening round of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel event in Acapulco on Tuesday. The victory marked the 18-year-old American qualifier’s second Top 30 win in two weeks, having defeated 29th-ranked countryman Steve Johnson en route to his first ATP World Tour final in Memphis last week.
“Yeah, it feels amazing to have that consistency, to show I didn’t just do it that one time, to come back and do it again,” Fritz said. “I felt like the first set I played a really great game in the very first game to break. He has a really big first serve and I made a lot of solid returns that game and kind of caught him a little off guard. I was able to serve well enough to hold serve throughout the set.
“Second set, I definitely had my chances to break but didn’t come up on the big points. He did … And the third set, I played about the best game I possibly good to get the early break. I played a lot of good shots.”
Fritz withstood 12 aces from the Frenchman but was more effective on break points, landing four of his five opportunities. He will face Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominic Republic next, a player 17 years his senior.
Fritz will surpass fellow 18 year old, Alexander Zverev, as the youngest player in the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings by six months.
“It’s amazing. I’ve wanted to be a tennis player my whole life,” he said. “Being in the Top 100 puts things in perspective. I’m here and I only want to keep going up. This is a huge milestone for me.”
Fritz’s countryman, fellow qualifier Ryan Harrison, also pulled off an upset in his first-round clash, taking down No. 3 seed Marin Cilic 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in one hour and 46 minutes. Harrison clinched four of his five break point opportunities to see off the World No. 12. Cilic led the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0 and was coming off a runner-up appearance in Marseille where he fell to Nick Kyrgios.
Russian Dimitry Tursunov had a narrow 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over Sam Groth in just under two hours. The 33 year old withstood 24 aces from the Australian, but managed to break four times.
He will next meet fourth seed Dominic Thiem, who posted a 7-6(3), 6-3 win over Bosnian Damir Dzumhur. The Austrian, making his tournament debut, broke on five of 16 opportunities in the one-hour, 37-minute clash.
Alexandr Dolgopolov edged past Steve Johnson 7-5, 7-6(4) in one hour and 24 minutes. The Ukrainian had lost his only prior FedEx Head2Head meeting with the American but landed 11 aces and saved all five break points he faced to reach the second round. Dolgopolov awaits the winner of top seed David Ferrer and Australian John Millman next.
Brit Aljaz Bedene advanced 6-4, 1-2 after Croat Ivo Karlovic retired at the 48-minute mark. Bedene will face Robin Haase in the second round.
World No. 3 practises for first time since knee surgery
Roger Federer has ventured back onto the practice courts for the first time since undergoing right knee surgery just three weeks ago. The Swiss great tweeted the image of an indoor hit-out, stating that he had “rarely felt so happy to be back on a practice court”.
Rarely felt so happy being back on a practice court ? pic.twitter.com/2BJTqLqhTW
— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) February 23, 2016
Federer went under the knife in Switzerland for arthroscopic knee surgery on February 3, to repair a torn meniscus that occurred the day after his Australian Open semi-final loss to Novak Djokovic, according to his agent Tony Godsick. He was forced to withdraw from the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in Dubai.
Federer fans were quick to wish Federer well after he made his social media post.
“Roger, we always feel pure happiness in our hearts seeing you back on any kind of court. Keep practising, champ, we miss you so much,” Veronika Tuckova said.
“Roger not seeing you on a tennis court is like seeing a fish out of water,” Elton Engstrom said.
“Keep on getting stronger, recover fully, king of the tennis court! You don’t just play tennis Mr Federer, you are tennis!” Elizabeth Butler said.
“Happy that you are back on the practice court. Keep practising, we just love to see you out there competing and making tennis such an awesome sport to watch,” Rita Gaitskell.