Tennis News

Roger Federer moves into the top seed but will have it far from easy against an in-form Nick Kyrgios or Daniel Gimeno-Traver. Kyrgios had done very little on clay but made his first final while Federer comes in off a title at the new Istanbul tournament, defeating Pablo Cuevas for the trophy. Federer is a three times winner of the Madrid Masters tournament, although the first of those came when the event was played on an indoor hard court.

John Isner is the seed projected to play Federer in round three but will need to see off Adrian Mannarino for the third time in four meetings first before facing the winner of Thomaz Bellucci and Jeremy Chardy. Bellucci qualified after winning a third set tiebreak against Federico Delbonis. Isner notably has a win over Federer on clay, in Davis Cup action in 2012.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will look to bounce back from a disastrous straight sets loss to Marcel Granollers in Barcelona when he takes on Lukas Rosol in round one. He is 2-0 against the Czech, without losing a set. The most recent of those was last year where Tsonga won 6-2 6-2 6-3 in Davis Cup play. Jack Sock or Pablo Andujar await the winner. Andujar followed up his surprise run to the Barcelona final by having to withdraw from Munich down 1-4 in the opening set of his second round match.

Tomas Berdych made the final the year of the disastrous blue clay experiment, losing in three sets to Federer. While he may still need to beat the Swiss and Rafael Nadal to get there, the withdrawal of Djokovic opens up a route to the final if he can compete at a high level. Estoril title winner Richard Gasquet is the likely first round opponent for the Czech who has a losing head to head against Gasquet, on clay and overall. He will look to even those up at 2-2 and 6-6 to move into the third round.

In losing to Fabio Fognini in Barcelona, Rafael Nadal saw the Italian add his name to a very small list of players who have defeated Nadal twice on clay – both of which came in the same year. Doubts remain over Nadal’s ability to compete at the very top level and with each bad loss, it feels like he is nearing closer to the end. However, it would take some effort from the rest of the draw to ensure he doesn’t at least make the final here. He has made it on five of the six occasions since Madrid became a clay event, with the one failure on blue clay. The early rounds of the draw don’t seem too troubling with Simone Bolelli and Bernard Tomic seemingly the best to offer in terms of denying him a quarter final spot.

Once he makes it there, there are plenty of tough outs for Nadal. Fognini is unseeded here but might fancy his chances against Grigor Dimitrov, given that the Bulgarian was defeated fairly easily against a handy clay player in Pablo Cuevas in Istanbul. Stanislas Wawrinka will be the expected quarter finalist though and if they meet, will face Nadal for the first time since the Australian Open final. It was there that Wawrinka ended a 12 match, 26 set losing streak against Nadal.

Kei Nishikori would likely have won this tournament last year had his body held up, but it didn’t and he would be forced to retire in the third set of the final against Nadal. The fourth seed will hope to complete the job this time and has a handy route to the final with both Federer and Nadal not a possible opponent until the final. While not playing Nadal, his route to the semis is laden with his countrymen. An opener against Ernests Gulbis or David Goffin doesn’t look as frightening as it would have done 6-9 months ago. Roberto Bautista-Agut has not beaten a top 10 player in his last 10 attempts and is a life time 3-16 against the top 10. Bautista-Agut begins against the wildcard of choice from the Romanian tournament owner, Marius Copil. Thanasi Kokkinakis is a potential round two opponent for Bautista-Agut. The young Australian is now an impressive 13-0 in qualifying matches on the ATP tour this year.

Istanbul finalist Pablo Cuevas will look to continue his good form but has a tough ask in round two should he defeat Albert Ramos. The Uruguayan is set to play David Ferrer, who made the semi finals last year. After a stunning start to the year, Ferrer has begun to slow down and disappointingly faltered to Pablo Andujar in the Barcelona semi final. Another of Ferrer’s five losses on the year was to Nishikori, who was a winner in straights at the Australian Open. Fernando Verdasco and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez will seek to make it an all-Spanish round three match with Ferrer but it is likely that Marin Cilic will make it there instead. The ninth seed needs a good run after a shock loss to Victor Estrella last time out in Barcelona.

With the bump up to second seed, Andy Murray could be set for one of his unlikely runs on the surface he finds less than preferable. However, weather issues in Munich have meant his bid for a first clay title have been delayed until Monday which disturbs his preparation coming into this event. That final is against Philipp Kohlschreiber, who could be his first opponent if the German extends his head to head over Alejandro Falla to 6-1 in round one. Gael Monfils remains as unpredictable as ever but should make it 4-0 against Viktor Troicki in his opener to move closer to a round three with Murray. They last met at Roland Garros last year in a bizarre match that ended 6-4 6-1 4-6 1-6 6-0 in Murray’s favour.

If Murray falls early, look for Milos Raonic to continue his rivalry with Kei Nishikori if they both make it as far as the semi final. However, Raonic has not played for a month since withdrawing from Monte Carlo and Juan Monaco will be a tough test to begin for the Canadian.  Feliciano Lopez rounds off the seeds – he is 2-3 against Raonic while a potential quarter final with Murray would appear to be one sided on paper, given Lopez is an ugly 0-10 against the No.2 seed.

17-time Grand Slam great Roger Federer is through to another final in 2015, his first on clay this season, at the inaugural TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open. He will complete his first-time campaign in Turkey against Pablo Cuevas, who also had a solid week in the Mediterranean. This marks the first time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour.

Federer secured his spot in the final of the tournament when he rallied from a set down to defeat Diego Schwartzman 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. He struck six aces and secured three break point to close out the match in one hour and 55 minutes. Overall, it was a valiant effort against an inspired opponent.

“I think what was important in the third set was to keep working hard,” said Federer. “I needed to put in a lot of effort to stay with Diego.

“Cuevas is playing very, very well… I think it’s going to be a tough match. Cuevas has obviously played a lot on clay.”

In one of the bigger surprises of the day, Pablo Cuevas thrashed Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets to oust the Bulgarian and secure his spot in the final of the tournament. He managed to secure five of six break points to close out the match 6-2, 6-4 in 65 minutes.

“I come from a small country, and I’m used to having the crowd against me,” said Cuevas. “Playing Roger tomorrow will be like playing Roger in his hometown.”

This is the first 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. The Grand Slam great is poised to secure another title for his collection but will need to topple a player who is a perfect 3-0 in ATP World Tour finals.

While he may have preferred some time off to watch the boxing superfight on Saturday, Andy Murray instead fended off two separate opponents that afternoon to secure a spot in his first clay court final. The Briton will come up against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber, whom he has met on three previous occasions, including once this season already. Murray leads the head-to-head series 2-1.

The British No. 1 advanced to the final on Saturday following two separate matches that he was forced to contest back-to-back following a rain delay that washed away Friday play. First, he rallied to defeated Lukas Rosol 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 before beating Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.

“It was a tough, long day,” reflected Murray. “The first match was tough and in the second one there were some long rallies but I managed to serve quite well. Winning matches helps on any surface in building confidence and this was my first week of play since (Roland Garros) last year. It’s been 11 months since I’ve played on the surface. With each match I’ll feel a little more comfortable. Tomorrow will be a tough one. Hopefully we can both recover well and play a good match.”
The German was also forced to play two matches on Saturday. First, he beat David Goffin 2-6, 6-3 6-4 and followed up by rallying back against Gerald Melzer 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

This is just the fourth time these two competitors will cross paths on the tour, and will not be an easy contest for the British No. 1. He has been dealt no favours against his German adversary, who holds a win over Murray back in 2010 on this same surface. While Murray is capable of overcoming the tough battle, he will need to play a clean match-up and remain focused for what could be a long, grueling battle.

While Andy Murray may be busy at the BMW Munich Open this week, he will still find the time to focus some attention on Saturday for the ‘Fight of the Century’ between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

An avid boxing fan himself, Murray showed a keen interest in the fight and was unable to come to a quick decision with regards to a prediction.

“Well, it’s a tough one to predict,” Murray said with a smile. “I would say that Mayweather, for me, would be the favorite. I think he’s a more consistent performer. And also in Vegas, that’s his hometown. He’s spoken a little bit about how much he means to the economy of the city. So, yeah, if it goes to the scorecards, I would think it would be tough for Pacquiao to win.”

While many fans and pundits have suggested that Pacquiao’s route to victory requires him to KO Mayweather in the first four rounds of the fight, Murray believes the smart bet still lies on the undefeated Mayweather.

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“I think Pacquiao has a very good chance of winning,” Murray said. “If I was betting, I’d probably bet for Mayweather.”

In all scenarios, the British No. 1 is still believes the fight is a once-in-a-generation spectacle, even though he will not be able to watch it himself.

“The fight, that should be a great fight, a great spectacle,” Murray said. “Everyone is talking about it. Everyone has been waiting, you know, for a few years for it to happen. I would have loved to have gone to watch it, but I’m going to be playing a tournament that week so I won’t be able to, unfortunately.”

Transcription taken from Tennisnow.com

Yet to begin his clay court season, Andy Murray took some time off to get married to longtime girlfriend Kim Sears. Now happily hitched, Murray will step onto the courts in Munich as a rejuvenated spirit looking to capitalize on the opportunities ahead. He most recently reached the semi-final stage in Indian Wells and the final in Miami, both times losing to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. It will be interesting to see if Murray’s strong performances on hard courts can transition onto clay, where he has historically played well, albeit inconsistently.

In another interesting note, Murray has already gotten some practice on this court, as he, along with Jean-Julien Rojer, eliminated third seeds Raven Klaasen and Lukas Rosol 7-5, 6-2 in an entertaining doubles action.

His first challenge in Munich will be Mischa Zverev, who defeated Jan-Lennard Struff in three sets to secure his spot in the second round. He beat his fellow countryman 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-4 in a match where he struck four aces, won 61 percent of his first service points, and saved seven break points to finish it off in two hours and four minutes.

This marks the first time that these two competitors will cross paths on the ATP World Tour. Murray is undoubtedly the more experienced competitor and will look to impose his dominance on his German adversary en route to a straight sets victory before reaching the quarter-final round. It will mark Murray’s first clay court appearance of the season but that should not stop him from completing a reasonably straightforward encounter.