Tennis News

Karatsev Overwhelms Dogged Murray To Claim Third ATP Title

Aslan Karatsev dominated Andy Murray to claim his third ATP Tour title at the Sydney Tennis Classic on Saturday.

Karatsev defeated the former World No. 1 6-3, 6-2 to deny Murray a 43rd career title. The Russian has now won three of the four ATP Tour finals he has contested, with his sole defeat coming against Matteo Berrettini in Belgrade in 2021.

It was Karatsev’s first ATP Tour final on Australian soil, but not the first success the Russian had experienced Down Under. It was 12 months ago, at the 2021 Australian Open, that Karatsev exploded on to the scene, winning eight matches to come through qualifying and reach the semi-finals before losing to Novak Djokovic.

Since becoming the first player in the Open Era to make the semi-finals of a Grand Slam on his debut, Karatsev has established himself as a formidable force on the ATP Tour, reaching a career-high World No. 15 after winning his second ATP Tour title in Moscow. Currently ranked World No. 20, Karatsev reached the Sydney final via three-set thrillers against Lorenzo Sonego and Daniel Evans, but he was dominant from the beginning of his first career meeting against Murray.

Murray had been broken just twice in 45 service games in Sydney coming into the match, but his serve was under pressure from the start against Karatsev, who set the tone with a clean return winner off Murray’s first serve to bring up two break points in Murray’s first service game. Consolidating the ensuing break to love, Karatsev played a near-perfect first set, striking 14 winners against just four unforced errors. His formidable returning contributed to Murray’s struggles on serve and by the time the British player double-faulted twice to go down 3-6, he had landed only 48 per cent of first serves compared to Karatsev’s 72 per cent.

Karatsev’s fautless performance continued in the second set as he immediately broke Murray’s serve for the third time.

The crowd on the Ken Rosewall Arena were in full voice as the British player managed to get on the board for 1-3 with an ace, and some typically dogged defence from Murray saw him secure his first break points of the match in the next game. In a 13-minute game, Karatsev fended off five break points and some of Murray’s best tennis of the day to hold for 4-1. Even Karatsev’s first double fault on match point only momentarily delayed his victory.

Karatsev follows in the footsteps of compatriot Daniil Medvedev, who won the Sydney Tennis Classic in 2019. He finished the 91-minute match with a total of 29 winners and 14 unforced errors, having saved all five break points he faced.

“I’d like to congratulate Aslan on a fantastic week. I know he also arrived here late in Australia, he was recovering from COVID, so even more impressive to come back straight away and play at that level. Good job and all the best for the Aussie Open,” Murray said after receiving the runner-up trophy.

“I’d like to thank my team who are here for all of their help this week. It’s my first time back in the finals for three years, it’s been a long road to get back here but I couldn’t have done it without all of your help so thank you.

“… I’d also like to say thank you to everyone who put the event on, this is my first time in Sydney, you did a fantastic job. It’s not easy times just now to run events but I really enkoyed it so thanks so much to everyone for putting this event on.

“Finally, to all of you who came out to support tonight, what an amazing atmosphere to play in, thank you, it was so good. I’ve really missed playing in front of these sorts of crowds and these sorts of matches. Unfortunately the result didn’t go my way tonight but I’ll keep trying my best to come back and have more nights like this.”

After lifting the trophy, Karatsev said: “First of all, congrats to Andy. Big effort to come back, to play unbelievable this week. I want to congratulate also your team.

“Thank you very much to my team, we are doing an amazing job. Thank you very much to everybody here for coming to support, it was an unbelievable atmosphere in a difficult situation. It’s a difficult time to make this tournament happen, so thank you to everyone.”

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Australian Open: Emma Raducanu's preparation 'not ideal' after Covid-19 case

Britain’s Emma Raducanu says her limited preparation for the Australian Open after testing positive for coronavirus has been “far from ideal”.

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Medvedev Talks The Talk, Walks The Walk

Daniil Medvedev was just 17, part of a promising crop of Russian juniors with Safin- and Kafelnikov-infused dreams. The Muscovite was on his way to a title on clay in Berlin when an interviewer asked him if his generation — himself, Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov, Roman Safiullin, et al — had the stuff to make it to the top of the game.

Medvedev, ever confident, predicted that the group indeed did.

“We were strong in the juniors,” said Medvedev, two days ahead of the Australian Open, where last year he finished as a runner-up to nine-time champion Novak Djokovic. “You’ll probably find many interviews of guys who say this and it doesn’t happen. For us, it happened. The more Russians we see in the Top 10, Top 30, Top 100, the better. My words were right.”

“It was definitely cool that it happened.”

It almost didn’t. Medvedev says that it wasn’t until 2017 that he truly committed himself to a future in tennis.

“There were some years in my junior career where I was still not sure if I was going to become professional or not, so I was doing more school stuff, university stuff, maybe practising less,” said Medvedev, who drew Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen in the opening round in Melbourne.

“Then I started thinking more about tennis. I was young, so I could do other stuff that would disturb me reaching my top potential. I think it was when I was 21 and I started working with Gilles [Cervara] full-time that I decided to be more concerned about my tennis career, to be more into it… I kind of made a deal with myself that if it didn’t work out, maybe I wouldn’t do it anymore. But it did work.”

Now 25, Medvedev is a major singles champion, having halted Novak Djokovic’s calendar-year Slam quest at the US Open in 2021. The World No. 2 — the first player not named Djokovic, Nadal, Federer or Murray to occupy the spot since 2005 — says his achievement in Flushing Meadows paid dividends far beyond the $2.5 million in prize money.

“It gave me a lot of confidence, I want to say, in my life and in my tennis life,” he said.

“Now I feel like I know even more what I can do, how I can play, what I have to do to play like this. Of course, tennis is about ups and downs. We never know what’s going to happen. But I’m feeling much more confident than last year in terms of knowing my game, what I’m capable of.”

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Australian Open: Novak Djokovic not bigger than Grand Slam – Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal says the Australian Open will be “great” with or without Novak Djokovic as the world number one’s visa drama remains unresolved.

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Where Does Medvedev Play Most Of His Points? The Answer Might Surprise You

What is the most abundant rally length in tennis?

For example, do players play more four-shot rallies, eight-shot rallies, or 13-shot rallies in their matches? The mathematical term is the mode, and it sheds light on the most misunderstood element of our sport.

Case in point: Daniil Medvedev at the 2021 Australian Open.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Medvedev’s 2021 Australian Open campaign, during which he reached the final, shows exactly where the Russian played the vast majority of his points. The eye test finds Medvedev deep in the court to return serve and hitting backhands cross court ad nauseam to wear down opponents. It feels like he is part man, part machine as he patrols the baseline with his ungainly and unbreakable groundstrokes. Visually, you could easily form an opinion that Medvedev is a glorified grinder and plays more six, seven or eight-shot rallies than anything else. The eye test is wrong. Dead wrong.

Medvedev plays more one-shot rallies than any other, and it’s not even close.

Rally length in tennis is predicated on the ball hitting the court, not the strings. A serve lands in and the return is missed long. That’s a rally length of one (one ball in the court) even though the ball was struck twice.

Medvedev played 28.5 per cent (349/1226) of total points as a one-shot rally in Melbourne in 2021 through seven matches. That includes all the points where he served the ball in and it was either an ace or a return error, and likewise for his opponent. The next highest total was a three-shot rally, at 14.4 per cent (176). What’s eye-opening is that a one-shot rally occurs twice as much as a three-shot rally (28.5% to 14.4%). The curve is steep at the start of the point.

A three-shot rally occurs more than a two-shot rally due to the halo effect of the serve. It’s important to note that odd-numbered rallies can only be won by the server and even-numbered rallies can only be won by the returner. The graph below shows how our sport is incredibly front-end loaded when it comes to rally length.

Medvedev played considerably more one-shot rallies in Melbourne last year than any other. He also thrives on them. Medvedev won 62.8 per cent (219/349) of points where only one ball landed in the court. He also won 56.3 per cent (72/128) of two-shot rallies as well. He lost the three-shot rally length (43.2%) but dominated the four-shot rally length (66.7%).

The longest rally Medvedev played at the 2021 Australian Open was 43 shots against Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals. Rublev won it when Medvedev missed a forehand with both players standing at the back of the court. Medvedev played 26 points where the rally went 20 shots or longer last year. He only won 11 of them (42%). On the other end of the spectrum, he played 743 points when the rally was one, two, three or four shots. He won 57 per cent (427) of this huge slice of the competitive pie.

Long rallies are typically more spectacular and stick in our mind, even though there are very few of them. Short rallies tend to be directed to our short-term memory, and are somehow quickly forgotten. It takes a stats sheet to uncover how our sport is truly organised.

2021 Australian Open: Daniil Medvedev Rally Length Played

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Novak Djokovic: Tennis star detained ahead of deportation appeal

The tennis star will hear on Sunday whether he can stay in the country and compete unvaccinated.

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Koolhof/Skupski Continue Hot Start To 2022, Reach Adelaide Final

Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and Briton Neal Skupski reached their second ATP Tour final in as many weeks by defeating second seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-1 on Friday in the semi-finals of the Adelaide International 2.

Third seeds Koolhof and Skupski triumphed at the Melbourne Summer Set tournament last week (d. Nedovyesov/Qureshi), but their opponents also came into the match in good form. The second-seeded Croatian-Brazilian pairing of Dodig and Melo had reached the final in Adelaide last week (l. to Bopanna/Ramanathan), but they were unable to replicate that performance this week at the same venue.

Koolhof and Skupski will meet Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar in the final. The Uruguayan-Ecuadorian pairing both finished 2021 with career high ATP Doubles Rankings, and the sixth seeds have started 2022 brightly, too. They beat the eighth seeds Tomislav Brkic and Nikola Cacic 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-6 in the second semi-final.

Bolelli/Fognini Recreate Top 10 Days to Reach Sydney Final
Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini, the 2015 Australian Open champions, reached the Sydney Tennis Classic final on Friday, defeating sixth-seeded Germans Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies 6-4, 6-2.

All four players have been Top 10 in the world in doubles, but the constant pressure Bolelli and Fognini were able to put on their opponents’ serves was key. The Italians converted four of 10 break points on their way to victory.

In the other semi-final, Australian John Peers and Slovakia’s Filip Polasek defeated all-Australian duo Alexei Popyrin and Matt Reid 7-6(2), 6-3.

Third seeds Peers and Polasek, saved the only break point of the first set before winning the tie-break. They had too much for the unseeded Aussie pair in the second set, however, and Peers and Polasek can now look forward to the support of the home crowd when they take on Bolelli and Fognini on Saturday.

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Netflix To Produce Groundbreaking Tennis Documentary Series

Get ready for access to professional tennis like you’ve never seen before.

For the first time, fans will be able to share in a year in the life of some of the world’s best tennis players as they journey around the world, seeking to win on the sport’s biggest stages.   

Netflix has teamed up with the ATP Tour, ATP Media, WTA Tour and four Grand Slam Tournaments beginning with the 2022 season at the Australian Open to bring this unique immersive documentary series to the screen.

The series will offer an unfiltered look at life inside the competitive sport of professional tennis through the perspective of the players and their teams, in the same spirit as Formula 1: Drive to Survive and the recently announced project featuring golf’s PGA Tour. 

Through a historic collaboration that will take cameras behind the scenes of the two tours, the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, the series will also be the first sports programme of its kind to provide an equal platform to the men’s and women’s competitors of the sport, in keeping with the equal stage they share throughout the year. 

“We are excited to continue bolstering our lineup of sports programming with this behind-the-scenes documentary series,” said Brandon Riegg, Netflix Vice President of Unscripted and Documentary Series. “Tennis is beloved all over the world, with high-stakes tournaments hopping across continents and athletes hailing from countless countries. Through this historic partnership with the four Grand Slam tournaments, the ATP Tour, WTA Tour, and ATP Media, the series will be packed with rare access and rich personal stories that are sure to draw in longtime fans and new audiences alike.” 

The series is produced by Box to Box Films (Formula 1: Drive to Survive) with James Gay Rees and Paul Martin as serving as Executive Producers. Filming is underway now at the Australian Open.

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Andy Murray v Aslan Karatsev: BBC to show Sydney Tennis Classic final

The BBC will show Andy Murray’s first ATP final in three years on Saturday as he faces Aslan Karatsev.

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Kyrgios' Trick Shot Masterclass

Australia’s Nick Kyrgios has produced moments of on-court brilliance throughout his career that have brought fans to their feet across the world. From eye-catching tweeners to underarm serves, the 26-year-old produces an entertaining brand of tennis that has earned him wins against Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Luckily, having joined TopCourt, Kyrgios is on hand to share his tips on how to execute his stunning shots, while also discussing the triumphs and struggles he has faced playing the sport.

Technique: Kyrgios focuses on moving away from looking at the foundation shots such as the forehand and backhand, but rather shows you how to master a few of the trick shots he uses such as the tweener and a variety of drop shots. The six-time tour-level titlist demonstrates the need to have good touch and feel for the ball when out on court.

Drills: The Australian demonstrates the ‘3 Spot Run Around Forehand’ drill, where he shares his tips on how to be aggressive on the stroke and the importance of implementing good footwork if you want success on the shot. Kyrgios explains the difference between all three forehands regarding the trajectory and spin of the ball and how you can use the shot to control the point.

Follow Kyrgios’ Tutorials at TopCourt.com

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