Tennis News

Following two consecutive title wins on clay, which included his maiden title on the surface, as well as his first Masters 1000 title on clay, Andy Murray extended that streak with an opening round win in Rome to set up yet another ambitious campaign on the red dust. Murray will next come up against David Goffin, whom he has faced once previously on the professional tour. Murray leads the head-to-head series 1-0.

British No. 1 Andy Murray has been in such remarkable form over the past month on clay that he is officially one of the favourites to watch out for at the French Open, which is quite a surprise to say, even though he reached the semi-final stage of the Grand Slam event last season. After compiling an undefeated 9-0 season over his past two tournaments on clay, including two title wins, Murray extended that undefeated streak to 10-0 on Wednesday when he defeated Jeremy Chardy in straight sets to move onto the third round in Rome. He struck six aces and saved two break points to beat the Frenchman 6-4, 6-3.

“My legs were a bit tired at the beginning,” said Murray. “But then I started to feel better after the first few games. For me, I felt like I played a really good match. He served big for the first set and a half. It was tough for me. But I hung in; I felt like I moved pretty well and I served well throughout the match. I was happy with the way I adjusted to the conditions. I felt like I moved well and made it difficult for him to win free points.”

Murray will next face David Goffin, who survived a rollercoaster encounter with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to escape in three sets. Goffin won 63% of his first service points and saved eight break points and a pair of match points to close out the encounter 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 in two hours and 31 minutes.

This is just the second time that Murray and Goffin will cross paths on the professional tour, with the Briton leading the head-to-head series 1-0. That sole meeting took place in the opening round of the Wimbledon Championships and ironically kick started an incredible win streak that brought Goffin into the public eye. While his win against Tsonga was an impressive one, he will need to work even harder to topple the in-form Murray.

Following a three-week extended break with no matches on the tour, Novak Djokovic scrapped by to reach the third round in Rome and maintain his quest to defend the title. His campaign will continue on Thursday, where he is scheduled to meet Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci for the third time on the ATP World Tour. All their previous meetings took place on clay, including one in Rome five years ago. The Djokovic vs Bellucci Head to Head stands at 2-0.

After lifting the Monte Carlo title and extending his win streak to 19 consecutive matches, Novak Djokovic found himself struggling on court against Nicolas Almagro in his opening match in Rome. While the contest lastesd over two hours, Djokovic was able to recover from a second set slump to win the match 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3. Even the break he converted in the final set came off a net cord at while up 4-3 on Almagro’s serve and his ace count was matched by his Spanish adversary (11).

“At the end of the day it’s a win after three weeks with no official match,” said Djokovic. “In the important moments today, I did feel a little bit uncomfortable. Maybe that’s due to a lack of competitive play in the past couple of weeks. But I won against a quality player, who knows how to play on the big stage. All in all, it was a great test. Before coming to the court, I was aware he was going to present a great challenge.

Djokovic will come up against Thomaz Bellucci, who reached the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia following a three-set victory against Roberto Bautista Agut. He struck six aces, won 78% of his first service points and saved three break points to rally back to victory 1-6, 6-1, 6-4. It was an impressive win for the Brazilian and sets up his encounter with Djokovic.

This marks the third time that Djokovic and Bellucci will meet on the professional tour but also the first time in nearly four years. Djokovic leads the series 2-0, both on clay, including one at this very event five years ago. While Djokovic did not look his best in his first match, he will have likely shaken off the rust and will be prepared to advance to the quarter-final in straight sets.

Following her first loss since 2014 in Madrid, Serena Williams returned to her winning ways in Rome this week and will now look to further her campaign ahead of the French Open. Williams will next encounter fellow American Christina McHale, whom she has never faced previously on the professional tour, and whom she should hold a significant edge against.

In her first match since having her 27-match win streak snapped in the semi-final stage of last week’s Madrid Open, Serena Williams was back on court on Tuesday, where she won her match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets to advance to the following round of the tournament. The American struck 25 winners to win the match 6-1, 6-3. It needed little fuss, as Williams swatted away all attempts to throttle her and closed out the affair in one hour and two minutes of court time.

“I love Rome. I always love coming to Rome,” the American said. “I have always liked playing in Europe in general. It’s always been a special place for me, and I am always sad when I leave.”

Williams will next encounter her fellow countrywoman Christina McHale, who set up the encounter against the world No. 1 with a straight sets win against Sara Errani. She struck four aces, won 72% of her first service points and converted five breaks of serve to win the match 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 34 minutes. The upset win may give McHale the necessary momentum to believe in herself against the dominant Williams.

This is just the first time that Williams and McHale will cross paths on the professional tour, and while it could make for an entertaining berth, Williams has proven to be far ahead of the majority of the WTA talent that she comes up against. Unless she is far from her best, this should end in straight sets.

Roger Federer faced a competitive start to his bid for a first Masters 1000 title win in Rome but managed to reach the third round of the tournament, where he will now face Kevin Anderson. The two will battle for a place in the quarter-final round of this pivotal French Open warm-up event. This is the third time they meet on the professional tour, with Federer leading the head-to-had series 2-0.

In a performance that resembled his 2014 Rome opener in no way, Federer worked his way past Paolo Cuevas to reach the third round of the tournament. He defeated Cuevas 7-6(3), 6-4 to set up an intriguing third round encounter with Kevin Anderson. Federer struck eight aces, and faced no break points en route to the victory.

“I know I’m not the favourite, like maybe I was in other years, but who cares really,” said Federer. “I’m happy I won my first round match. That was my focus, especially after last week and last year here, both matches I lost with match points. So I’m happy to get the victory tonight.”

Kevin Anderson’s opening round match on Tuesday lasted a total of 16 minutes, as Philipp Kohlschreiber retired down 0-3 in his second round match against the South African. During that short time, Anderson hit four aces and won all eight of his first service points.

This marks the third time they meet on the professional tour, with Federer winning their first encounter 6-4, 6-4 in Paris last year and the second encounter earlier this year at Indian Wells. Federer has the advantage in experience and court savvy but will need to remain focused to ensure that he does not fall to the big serves of Anderson.
 

After a surprisingly flat conclusion to his quest for yet another Madrid Masters 1000 title, Rafael Nadal will look to salvage his clay court warm-up period with a solid showing at the Rome Masters event – the final buildup ahead of Roland Garros. The Spaniard will begin his campaign against Marsel Ilhan, whom he has never faced previously on the professional tour.

In one of the more surprising finals in recent memory, Andy Murray defeated Rafael Nadal in straight sets to lift the Mutua Madrid Open title on Sunday. It was Murray’s second win at this event but his first since the tournament moved to clay. Nadal, who commit far too many unforced errors for comfort, dropped to 8-3 on clay this season and has also dropped outside of the Top 5 for the first time since 2005.

While he is now ranked No. 7 on the tour, Nadal is confident that he will work his way back up and could still be a significant force at this year’s French Open.

“I’ve played a couple good matches [this week], especially yesterday’s match,” said Nadal. “It’s one of the best matches I have played in a long time. So I cannot leave Madrid not happy. I have leave happy and just delete what happened today. I will just stay with the good things that happened this week, and there are a lot of them, more good than bad. I will try to recover in Rome the feelings. I think I’ve made a step forward and I’m playing better. My game is better.”

Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan followed up on his wins against Gianluca Mager and Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the qualifying stage with a straight sets victory against Adrian Mannarino in the opening round of the main draw. He beat the Frenchman 6-4, 6-1 in a match that saw him strike three aces and save all six of the break points he faced during the match.

This is scheduled to be the first time that Nadal and Ilhan cross paths on the professional tour. While opportunities like this are where youngsters play as though they have nothing to lose, it will likely be Nadal who puts his best foot forward in an attempt to mitigate the desperation he is approaching.

Eugenie Bouchard will look to trek on in her turbulent 2015 season when she begins her campaign in Rome. The 21-year-old will begin her quest in Italy against a fellow 21-year-old in Zarina Diyas. The two have never faced each other in professional competition, which adds to the intrigue of this coming encounter.

In Madrid, the Canadian darling was part of a bizarre trend of seeds falling in the early stages of the tournament. Bouchard continued her disappointing trend with yet another first round loss, this time to Barbora Strycova. The Canadian was up 6-0 but still lost the match in baffling fashion, 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 to Strycova.

She moved to 6-8 on the professional tour this season and is yet to emerge as a legitimate threat at any event this season.

That was not the only disturbing trend emerging from the Bouchard camp, as she was also a part of some controversy at the Fed Cup, where she refused to shake her opponent’s hand and went on to lose the match the following day.

“It’s nothing personal towards her, I just don’t believe in wishing my opponent good luck before the match,” Bouchard told Romanian media. “After we play [Saturday] I will shake her hand, no matter what happens.”

The Canadian will attempt to revere her fortunes when she comes up against Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas. She defeated Tsvetana Pironkova in straight sets, 7-5, 6- to advance to her first meeting against Bouchard. She won 57% of her first service points and saved 7/10 break points to close out the match in one hour and 26 minutes.

This is the first time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour and could make for an interesting contest. Given that Bouchard is far from her best at the moment, it would not be surprising to see her give away another lead in the match and lose in bizarre fashion.

A first-time meeting between Simona Halep and Alison Riske is scheduled to take place on Wednesday afternoon in Rome. Halep, who is coming off a disappointing week in Madrid, will look to rebound successfully in her final warm-up event ahead of the French Open.

Following an excellent start to her 2015 season, which included title wins in Dubai and Indian Wells, and most recently reached the semi-final stage in Miami, Simona Halep was dealt a significant blow on Sunday when she was ousted from the Madrid Open in her opening round match.

Faced with the inconsistent game of French No. 1 Alize Cornet, many assumed that Halep would be victorious en route to the second round of the tournament. However, the Romanian played an off-colour match and eventually surrendered the contest and allowed Cornet to close out the affair 7-6(6), 6-3.

“I learned many things from this match, like that I have to be relaxed when I’m defending big points. So I will forget this tournament – the tournament is lost. I have nothing to do but to look ahead now.”

“I had some problems last week in Madrid, but I’m feeling happy with my game again now,” she said. “I am hoping to have some more matches on clay – I still need some matches to reach my highest level. I’ll need to fight this week, because right now I’m a little bit far away from where I want to be.

Halep will begin her campaign against USA’s Alison Riske. The American reached the second round of the tournament with a straight sets win against Varvara Lepchenko. She won 74% of her first service points, saved three break points and converted four others to secure the 6-4, 6-3 win in one hour and 32 minutes.

This is just the first time that Halep and Riske cross paths on the professional circuit. Although this could serve as another surprising upset, Halep will likely be wary of her previous mistakes and will work on keeping her anxiety at bay while on court.

Following a less-than-stellar week in Madrid, 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer will look to reverse his recent misfortunes and complete his French Open warm-up in successful fashion. He will begin his 2015 Rome Masters 1000 event campaign against Pablo Cuevas, whom he met in the final of the Istanbul final just two weeks ago. This is just the second time that these two competitors will meet on the professional tour, with Federer leading the head-to-head series 1-0.

Just days after he won his 85th title on the tour, the former four-time champion in Madrid suffered a tight three-set loss to rising Aussie star Nick Kyrgios. In what turned out to be an enthralling encounter on the tour, Kyrgios was able to save several match points to eventually snatch the deciding points in the third set tiebreak. He won the contest 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 7-6(12).

Although Federer was far from his worst, he admitted that he was simply unable to return Nick’s monster first serves.

“My problem was I couldn’t return his first serve,” said Federer, who won 18 of 85 first serve return points. [It] was just a horrible performance on the return. “As the match went on it got so bad that I just couldn’t get into decent positions on the return, so it made it very difficult to get any sort of rhythm after that.”

Federer will next come up against Pablo Cuevas, who secured his spot in the second round of the tournament with a straight sets win against Paolo Lorenzi. He struck five aces, won 81% of his first service points and faced no break points en route to the 6-3, 6-2 win in one hour and 17 minutes.

This is the second t time that these two competitors will meet on the professional tour, yet it is still one that will likely favour the vastly more experienced Federer. He was able to deny Cuevas a fourth ATP World Tour title by handing him his first defeat in a tournament final and will be keen to add to that en route to the third round in Rome.

The top player on the ATP World Tour took the week off in Madrid, a decision that will allow him to be a significant force in Rome. Novak Djokovic will begin his campaign against Nicolas Almagro, whom he has faced on three previous occasions on the professional circuit. The Serb leads the head-to-head series 3-0.

Djokovic, who already has a clay court Masters 1000 title to his name this season, has a 30-2 record so far this season and appears to be near-unstoppable on the tour. Most recently at the Monte Carlo event, Djokovic overcame a determined Tomas Berdych in three sets to lift his third Masters 1000 title of the season. He won the match 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in a contest that was interrupted by a rain delay midway through the second set. Djokovic eventually won the match in two hours and 43 minutes to extend his winning streak to 17 consecutive matches.

“I want to build a platform to get off and perform well,” Djokovic admitted at the Foro Italico Saturday. “At this level you need freshness of mind and also fresh legs in order to perform well to overcome the challenges of long and exhausting matches on this surface. I hope my decision to skip Madrid will positively effect this week and Roland Garros. We’ll see.

“I have done things in the right way over the past couple of weeks. My whole team is here – both coaches – so we are taking it really seriously and we hope to have a good result.”

Spain’s Nicolas Almagro began his week in Rome with a straight sets victory against Italy’s Luca Vanni. He struck seven aces, won 88% of his first service points and saved all three of the break points he faced en route to a 6-4, 6-3 win in one hour and 18 minutes.

This marks the first time in three years that Djokovic and Almagro will meet on the professional tour. Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 3-0, including a clay court victory at this event seven years ago.