ATP World Tour Uncovered 2017 Season Preview
ATP World Tour Uncovered 2017 Season Preview
Jan032017
Benoit Paire lost just three of his first service points (23/26) to beat Konstantin Kravchuk 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday at the Aircel Chennai Open. The fifth-seeded Frenchman next faces home hope Yuki Bhambri, a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Indian compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan.
Seventh seed Mikhail Youzhny, who lifted the trophy in 2008 (d. Nadal), proved too strong for wild card Saketh Myneni, 6-4, 6-3. He will next face Renzo Olivo, a 7-6(3), 6-2 victor over wild card Casper Ruud.
Yen-Hsun Lu, the eighth seed, topped Radu Albot 6-2, 6-1 to set a second-round meeting with NextGen’s Daniil Medvedev. Aljaz Bedene, who reached his first ATP World Tour final as a qualifier in Chennai two years ago (l. to Wawrinka), will play fourth seed Martin Klizan after he saved all five break points he faced in recording his third straight win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
In doubles, James Cerretani and Philipp Oswald upset top seeds Jonathan Erlich and Scott Lipsky 6-4, 1-6, 10-8 to reach the quarter-finals.
Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal competes during the night session
Sixth seed Lucas Pouille recovered from a disastrous start to get the better of his French compatriot Gilles Simon for the first time on Tuesday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. Roger Federer’s training partner during the off-season, who is currently No. 15 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, edged past Simon 7-6(6), 7-6(4) in two hours and six minutes.
Pouille was down 0-5 in first set against Simon and worried that he might be headed for a repeat of the 6-0, 6-1 loss to Simon in Miami last year. But he rallied en route to claiming his first win in three career meetings. Pouille saved two sets points in the first set at 2-5, 30/40 and at 5/6 in the tie-break, and another two set points at 4-5 in the second set.
“I used what happened in Miami as inspiration to fight back,” said Pouille. “I tried to stay focused, to be solid, more consistent, a little more aggressive and things turned out better.”
In other first-round matches, wild card Sam Groth delighted the local crowd with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 win over Pierre-Hugues Herbert. The Aussie held serve to stay in the match at 4-5 in the deciding set. Groth improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Herbert to 2-0, with the other win also coming in Brisbane in 2014.
“It’s been a while since I had a tour-level win. After last year it was nice to start the year with a win, that’s for sure,” said Groth, who struggled with injuries throughout 2016. “Foot feels good, body feels good, had a full off-season. I felt like I was moving better today than I probably moved for the whole of last year.”
Next up for the big server is fourth seed Dominic Thiem. The Austrian, currently No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-0, with both straight-set performances coming this past season in Miami and Stuttgart.
Qualifier and #NextGen star Jared Donaldson recorded an impressive 6-4, 6-4 win over veteran Gilles Muller. The 20-year-old American won 82 per cent of his first serve points and wrapped up victory in just 75 minutes. His reward is a tough second-round battle against third seed Kei Nishikori.
Viktor Troicki advanced on Tuesday with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over qualifier and #NextGen star Yoshihito Nishioka. Next up for the Serbian is second seed Stan Wawrinka. The Swiss star leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 6-0, including two victories this past season at Roland Garros and St. Petersburg.
Spanish star goes on to face Mischa Zverev
Rafael Nadal returned to the ATP World Tour for the first time in two-and-a-half months to beat 2012 finalist Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday night at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. The Spanish superstar, who is making his debut at the ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tournament, will next face Mischa Zverev in the second round.
It was a battle between one of the ATP World Tour’s heaviest top-spinners, Nadal, versus one of flattest hitters, Dolgopolov, who gained the first break in the third game. Nadal responded by winning four straight games to wrap up the 36-minute opener and broke Dolgopolov in the fifth and ninth games of the second set. Dolgopolov had won the pair’s previous two meetings at the 2014 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and at the 2015 Aegon Championships in London.
Zverev, who rose 121 spots to a 2016 year-end No. 51 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, overcame qualifier Alex De Minaur 6-3, 6-3 in 68 minutes during the evening session.
British number four Aljaz Bedene reached the second round of the Chennai Open with a 6-3 6-3 win over Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
The 27-year-old needed just one hour and 15 minutes to beat the unseeded Spaniard.
Bedene, who reached round three of the French Open last year, hit seven aces against the former world number 23.
He will next play Slovakia’s Martin Klizan, ranked 66 places above Bedene in the world rankings at 35.
British number one Johanna Konta recovered from a slow start to reach the quarter-finals of the Shenzhen Open in China.
The world number 10 lost the first set to American Vania King, ranked 77th and trailed 3-1 in the second.
But she regained her composure to beat her opponent 1-6 6-3 6-2.
Konta, who is the third seed at the event, will face either Kristyna Pliskova or qualifier Kai-Chen Chang in the last eight.
World number two Serena Williams made a successful return after almost four months out as she won her first-round match at the ASB Classic in Auckland.
The 35-year-old, who last week announced her engagement, defeated France’s Pauline Parmentier 6-3 6-4.
Williams had been on the sidelines with shoulder and knee problems since the US Open semi-finals in September.
“You always feel rusty for your first match,” she said. “But mentally I knew how to get it back and get in there.”
Williams had to wait an extra day to make her first appearance of 2017 after rain forced the postponement of her first-round match on Monday.
She took 74 minutes to beat the world number 69, serving eight aces, including one on match point, but also four double-faults in the swirling wind.
“It was so windy out there,” she added. “You really have to be ready to move your feet, so I went to what my coach told me and I was like ‘you know how to play in the wind, you’ve done it many times before’ so I just tried to adjust to it.”
Williams will next face compatriot Madison Brengle, the world number 74.