ATP World Tour stars, including Jeremy Chardy and Benjamin Becker, enjoy a cocktail welcome reception at the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur.
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Top seed Tomas Berdych enjoyed a winning start on his Shenzhen Open debut, dismissing Austin Krajicek 7-5, 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals.
The Czech is looking to bounce back from a second-round exit last week in St. Petersburg (l. to Bolelli) and boost his bid to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals with a strong showing in Shenzhen. Berdych is attempting to secure his place at the season finale in London for the sixth year in a row.
Berdych set a quarter-final clash with countryman Jiri Vesely as he fired 11 aces and converted three of his nine break points to beat Krajicek in one hour and 33 minutes. The 30-year-old Berdych, who is looking to win his first ATP World Tour title of the season this week, will face Vesely for the first time at tour level.
Sixth seed Vesely ended the campaign of Chinese teenager Zhizhen Zhang with a 6-2, 6-3 victory. The Czech, who is 543 places higher in the Emirates ATP Rankings than Zhang, lost just 10 points on serve as he claimed victory in 62 minutes. Vesely will contest his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since April, when he went on to finish runner-up in Bucharest (l. to Garcia-Lopez).
Third seed Tommy Robredo also opened his campaign with a 7-5, 6-3 victory, beating Japanese qualifier Hiroki Moriya in 73 minutes.
The Spaniard finished runner-up in heart-wrenching style last year in Shenzhen, squandering five match points against Andy Murray in the title match. Robredo is coming off a quarter-final showing in St. Petersburg (l. to Raonic) and improved to a 23-18 match record on the season.
Robredo goes on to face Simone Bolelli, who reached his seventh ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season as he beat eighth seed Victor Estrella Burgos. The Italian was leading 6-4, 4-0 when Estrella Burgos retired from their match due to an upper back injury.
Seventh seed Nick Kyrgios surged into the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday as he dismissed Japan’s Tatsuma Ito 6-3, 6-2.
The Australian, whose mother is Malaysian, wrapped up victory in 55 minutes, firing 12 aces and winning 75 per cent of his service points. The 20-year-old Canberra native is through to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since April, when he went on to reach his first final in Estoril (l. to Gasquet).
“I feel good,” said Kyrgios. “I came out pretty strong in this match. In his first service game I made every return and got the break, so I was comfortable from the get-go and thought I played well today.”
Kyrgios goes on to challenge third seed Ivo Karlovic, who struck 18 aces as he battled past Nikoloz Basilashvili in one hour and 47 minutes. The Croat is inching ever closer to overtaking Goran Ivanisevic’s record ATP World Tour aces tally of 10,237. Karlovic currently trails his countryman by 48 aces.
“It’s going to be tough,” said Kyrgios, looking ahead to the Karlovic clash. “Whenever you play Ivo it’s going to be tough. His serve is the best in the game. I know what I’ve got to do to look after my serve and I know I’m going to have a chance somewhere, so I’ve got to be ready.”
Benjamin Becker is through to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season after upsetting sixth seed Jeremy Chardy 5-7, 6-1, 7-5.
The German claimed his 10th tour-level win of the season as he prevailed in two hours and six minutes, withstanding 13 aces and breaking his French opponent four times. The 34-year-old Becker is through to the quarter-finals at this ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tournament for the second year in a row (l. to Gulbis in 2014).
“It was a good level,” said Becker. “We had a great end to the first set. He played well to break me. I couldn’t have done anything better, so I just tried to hang in there and had a good start to the second set. The third set was a toss-up. I won the important points, broke him at 5-5 and was able to serve it out.”
Last week’s St. Petersburg Open runner-up Joao Sousa could be Becker’s quarter-final opponent. Three days after losing to Milos Raonic in the final in Russia, the Portuguese rebounded to beat qualifier Michal Przysiezny 6-2, 6-2 in just over one hour. In the second round, Sousa will face fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov, who is playing his first match since a surprise second-round exit to Mikhail Kukushkin at the US Open.
“It was a tough first round after a long trip. So I’m really happy with this victory today and the way I played,” said Sousa. “Mentally and physically I felt very good, so I’m really happy to be in the second round.”
Qualifier Mischa Zverev set a second-round contest with second seed Feliciano Lopez after battling past Rajeev Ram 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3 in one hour and 49 minutes.
Vienna – Linz – Wuhan – Beijing – Hong Kong – Shanghai – Tianjin – Tokyo – Luxembourg – Moscow – Singapore – Valencia – Stockholm – Basel – Tashkent
Hot on the heels of claiming his fourth ATP Challenger Tour title of the season in Kaohsiung, Taiwan at the weekend, Hyeon Chung reached the second round of the Shenzhen Open in China with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over local wild card Di Wu.
Playing at a career-high No. 58 in the Emirates ATP Rankings this week, the 19-year-old Chung swept to victory in 52 minutes, converting five of his six break points.
The Korean goes on to face seventh seed Aljaz Bedene, who notched his 15th tour-level win of the season as he defeated Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-4.
Sixth seed Jiri Vesely also overcame Chinese opposition, dismissing Ze Zhang 6-3, 6-2, but two home players did advance as qualifier Zhizhen Zhang beat Go Soeda 6-4, 6-4 and wild card Yan Bai overcame qualifier Takuto Niki 6-1, 7-5.
Fifth seed Adrian Mannarino cruised to a 6-0, 6-3 victory over fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille while eighth seed Victor Estrella Burgos also advanced, battling past Matthew Ebden 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4. Estrella Burgos will next face Simone Bolelli, who beat Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-2, 7-6(2).
Lukas Rosol set a clash with fourth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez as he defeated Denis Istomin 7-6(4), 6-4. Meanwhile, third seed and 2014 runner-up Tommy Robredo will open his campaign against Hiroki Moriya after the qualifier beat Ricardas Berankis 6-4, 6-3.
Sixth seed Jeremy Chardy battled past rising German star Alexander Zverev 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday to reach the second round of the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur.
The Frenchman advanced in one hour and 50 minutes in the pair’s first meeting, breaking his 18-year-old opponent four times and winning almost half of his return points (45 per cent) as he rallied from a 6-3, 3-1 deficit. Chardy, making his debut at this ATP World Tour 250 hard court tournament, is playing for the first time since reaching the US Open fourth round (l. to Cilic).
“I was a little bit unlucky to be down I think, but he was playing very good,” said Chardy. “It was my first match after the US Open, so it’s always tough to find your rhythm. But I knew I could come back because I was feeling the ball well and I was mentally strong. I’m really happy with this win.”
Eighth seed Vasek Pospisil cruised into the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama. The Canadian, who was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon earlier in the year (l. to Murray), fired nine aces and won 75 per cent of his service points as he claimed his 19th win of the season.
Pospisil goes on to face Marcos Baghdatis for a place in the quarter-finals. Baghdatis finished strongly to defeat wild card Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1.
Top seed David Ferrer will face Radek Stepanek in his opening match after the Czech veteran defeated qualifier Yuichi Sugita 7-6(6), 6-0. Ferrer leads the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series 7-3.
World No. 84 Radu Albot upset fifth seed Viktor Troicki, beating the Serb 6-2, 7-6(5). The 25-year-old Moldovan claimed his eighth tour-level win of the season as he set a second-round clash with Mikhail Kukushkin, who dismissed Malaysian wild card Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, 6-2.
Tatsuma Ito will face Nick Kyrgios in the second round after beating Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 7-6(3).
Vienna – Linz – Wuhan – Beijing – Hong Kong – Shanghai – Tianjin – Tokyo – Luxembourg – Moscow – Singapore – Valencia – Stockholm – Basel – Tashkent
Marin Cilic celebrated his 27th birthday on Monday as he prepares to make his debut at the Shenzhen Open.
The second seed will open his campaign later in the week against John Millman. Millman was leading Ernests Gulbis 7-6(7), 2-0 when the Latvian retired from their first-round match on Monday due to a wrist injury. It will be Cilic’s first meeting with the No. 75-ranked Millman, who notched his third tour-level win of the season.
American Austin Krajicek set a second-round clash with top seed Tomas Berdych as he claimed a 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-1 victory over James Duckworth. Krajicek trailed 2-4 in the tie-break, but finished strongly to prevail in two hours and 28 minutes.
Australia’s Matthew Ebden, China’s Zhizhen Zhang and Japan’s Takuto Niki and Hiroki Moriya all came through the final round of qualifying to earn main draw berths in the second edition of this ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tournament.
Inglot Notches 100th Win
Dominic Inglot claimed his 100th tour-level win as he and partner Robert Lindstedt reached the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Victor Estrella Burgos and Nicholas Monroe.
The British/Swedish duo have compiled a 9-1 record in their past three tournaments, lifting their first team trophy in Winston-Salem (d. Butorac/Lipsky) and reaching the US Open semi-finals (l. to Dodig/Melo).
Seventh seed Nick Kyrgios made a winning return to action as he advanced to the second round of the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
The seventh-seeded Australian, who was playing his first match since a first-round exit against Andy Murray at the US Open, advanced when Santiago Giraldo retired ill from their match. Kyrgios had been leading 6-1, 2-1.
“I think it was a really good performance,” said Kyrgios. “I haven’t played a lot of matches in the past couple of weeks. I’ve been doing a lot of hard work back home and I feel as if it showed today. It’s my first ever win in Kuala Lumpur, so it’s really special.”
Kyrgios, whose mother, Norlaila, is Malaysian, claimed his 19th win of the season. The 20 year old reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open at the start of the year (l. to Murray) and reached his first ATP World Tour final in Estoril (l. to Gasquet).
Last year’s quarter-finalist Benjamin Becker defeated Sam Groth 6-1, 7-6(6). The 34-year-old German withstood 17 aces to break Groth twice in the 74-minute contest. Becker goes on to face sixth seed Jeremy Chardy or Alexander Zverev.
“It’s always really tough to play Sam; he has such a big serve,” said Becker. “It’s tough to play your game. It’s all about neutralising his serve. I did well in the first set. In the second he served much better. I just tried to hang in there, take care of my service games and wait for the chance. He had chances in the tie-break, but I played some good points in the end and that’s how I won.”
Japan’s Yuichi Sugita and Yasutaka Uchiyama, Germany’s Mischa Zverev and Poland’s Michal Przysiezny all advanced through the final round of qualifying.
Six weeks remain in the Emirates ATP Race To London and Milos Raonic is eager to cap a tumultuous season with a berth in the season finale.
The 24 year old hoisted his seventh ATP World Tour trophy on the hard courts of St. Petersburg on Sunday and, with four of eight singles berths remaining, is hoping to continue his push to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for a second straight season. He became the first player born in the 1990s to compete at The O2 last year.
“It was very special, a great experience,” Raonic told ATPWorldTour.com. “I wish I would have done better and stayed healthy in that moment, but it’s something I want to give myself another shot and another go at it.”
Winning the St. Petersburg Open brings the Canadian an additional 250 points in the Emirates ATP Race To London, which sees him pass Marin Cilic into 12th position. Having missed more than a month of action after undergoing foot surgery in May, Raonic is making significant strides in returning to top form.
“It would be special, especially with the difficulties I’ve faced this year with my health and missing a lot of big events. Playing a part of the year with a kind of hindrance, it would be special and something that will require a lot of winning in what’s left of the year. I believe I can do it.”
David Ferrer, top seed this week in Kuala Lumpur, currently occupies the eighth and final qualification spot with 3,005 points, but is hotly pursued by a host of contenders, including Richard Gasquet, Kevin Anderson, John Isner and Raonic. All are less than 1,000 points behind the Spaniard. Last week’s Metz finalists Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon also kept alive their outside chances of qualifying.
“I’m really happy to win here in Metz and stay in the Race,” Tsonga said. “I’m still in the running. I hope I will continue to play like this to try to qualify. For the moment, I’m just thinking about my level and hope to produce good tennis.”
Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka have already qualified in the Emirates ATP Race To London and No. 5 Tomas Berdych is next in line. The consistent Czech has reached the quarter-finals at 11 of 16 tournaments entered this year, reaching the final at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, as well as in Rotterdam and Doha. With valuable points up for grabs, Berdych is the top seed this week in Shenzhen and seeking to further boost his bid. A semi-finalist at the season finale in 2011, he has qualified in each of the past five years.
Berdych will be looking over his shoulder in the coming weeks, with Kei Nishikori and Rafael Nadal hotly pursuing the Czech. Currently in the sixth and seventh positions, they are less than 200 points back. Champion in Memphis, Barcelona and Washington, Nishikori reached the London semi-finals on debut last year. Nadal, who missed the 2014 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals following an appendectomy, is a two-time finalist (2011, ’13).
Djokovic was the first to earn a place in the elite eight-man field after reaching the Roland Garros semi-finals. Bidding to become the first player in history to capture four successive Barclays ATP World Tour Finals singles titles, he has maintained his stranglehold on the top spot ever since. The 28 year old will make his ninth straight appearance, having emerged victorious in 2008 and 2012-’14. Champion at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open and ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo and Rome, Djokovic leads the way with 12,785 points.
In second position is Murray, who punched his ticket for an eighth straight year. A titlist at the Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Montreal, as well as in Munich and Queen’s Club, the Scot owns a 770-point lead over Federer. The most successful player to compete at the season finale, the Swiss has triumphed on six occasions (2000-’01, 2003-’04, 2006-’07) and boasts a 48-11 record. Federer is a five-time champion on the ATP World Tour this year.
Federer’s compatriot Wawrinka reached the semi-finals the past two years and will look to go one step further after punching his ticket at the US Open. The Swiss is 3-0 in tour-level finals in 2015, winning on the hard courts of Chennai and Rotterdam, while capturing his second Grand Slam crown at Roland Garros. Wawrinka has already surpassed his match win total from a year ago, improving to 41-13 with a semi-final run at the US Open.
The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals has welcomed more than 1.5 million fans to The O2 arena over the past six years, establishing itself as the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world since moving to London in 2009. Tickets to the tournament, which takes place from 15-22 November, can be purchased at: www.BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals.com.
Barclays ATP World Tour Finals – The Contenders
Based on the calendar-year Emirates ATP Race To London standings as of Sunday, 27 September 2015. The top eight eligible players will qualify.
| Player | YTD Points |
In Action This Week? |
| (1) Novak Djokovic | 12,785 | No |
| (2) Andy Murray | 7,510 | No |
| (3) Roger Federer | 6,740 | No |
| (4) Stan Wawrinka | 5,505 | No |
| (5) Tomas Berdych | 3,805 | Shenzhen |
| (6) Kei Nishikori | 3,770 | No |
| (7) Rafael Nadal | 3,715 | No |
| (8) David Ferrer | 3,005 | Kuala Lumpur |
| (9) Richard Gasquet | 2,355 | No |
| (10) Kevin Anderson | 2,205 | No |
| (11) John Isner | 2,180 | No |
| (12) Milos Raonic | 2,080 | No |