Staged at the Tennis Club de Genève at the Parc des Eaux-Vives, the oldest and largest tennis club in Switzerland, the Geneva Open is one of three Swiss events on the ATP Tour.

The tournament would have been held this week if not for the Tour suspension due to coronavirus.

ATPTour.com looks at five things to know about the ATP 250-level tournament.

1) A Star Studded Honour Roll
Alexander Zverev is the latest star to add his name to an impressive honour roll at the ATP 250 event. Previous champions include Bjorn Borg (1981), Mats Wilander (1982-’83), Henri Leconte (1986), Thomas Muster (1991) and Stan Wawrinka (2016-’17).

Wilander also features in the list of doubles champions. Other doubles titlists include Sergio Casal/Emilio Sanchez (1985), Sergi Bruguera/Marc Rosset (1991), Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah (2015), Jean-Julien Rojer/Horia Tecau (2017) and Oliver Marach/Mate Pavic (2018-’19).

2) Swiss Success
Since the tournament began in 1980, four editions of the event have been won by Swiss players. Claudio Mezzadri became the first home champion in 1987, capturing the only ATP Tour singles title of his career with a straight-sets victory against Tomas Smid. Two years later, Marc Rosset joined the club, beating Guillermo Perez-Roldan to capture his maiden ATP Tour trophy.

In 2016, Wawrinka beat Marin Cilic to become the third Swiss player to take the title in Geneva. The three-time Grand Slam champion returned the following year to become only the second player in tournament history to win back-to-back titles in the city, following in the footsteps of 1982-’83 champion Wilander.

3) 2015 Return
After a 14-year absence, Geneva returned to the ATP Tour in 2015. The event featured Top 10 stars Wawrinka and Marin Cilic.

Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci ended a three-year title drought, beating Marcos Baghdatis, Denis Istomin, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Santiago Giraldo and Joao Sousa to take the trophy. It is the most recent ATP Tour trophy of four-time tour-level titlist Bellucci’s career.

4) An Epic 2019 Final
From match point saves to rain delays, last year’s final was packed with drama.

One month after failing to convert match point against Nicolas Jarry at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Zverev saved two match points against the Chilean to take the Geneva trophy 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(8).

Zverev arrived in Geneva with a 6-8 record in his previous eight tournaments, searching for form. The top seed also survived three-set matches against Hugo Dellien and Federico Delbonis en route to his first title since the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals.

5) Final Preparation For Roland Garros
Held the week before Roland Garros, alongside the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon, the Geneva Open provides ATP Tour stars with a final opportunity to prepare for the clay-court Grand Slam championship.

Since the tournament returned to the ATP Tour in 2015, Geneva winners have followed their title runs with quarter-final or better performances at Roland Garros on three occasions. Two-time winner Wawrinka reached the semi-finals in 2016 and finished as runner-up in 2017, while 2019 champion Zverev reached the quarter-finals in Paris last year.

It says much for the character of Roberto Bautista Agut that some of his greatest moments in recent years accompanied an inner turmoil that enveloped his family for too long. There was resilience when his mother, Ester, a manager of a clothing store in Castellón de la Plana, passed away in May 2018, shortly prior to Roland Garros, which the Spaniard contested. Then, there was another glimmer of his spirit, when he returned to national colours for the 2019 Davis Cup Finals, one day after the funeral of his father, Joaquin, who suffered an accident at home four years earlier and, subsequently, needed a great deal of care. He not only beat Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime in Madrid, three days after his father’s death, but his unexpected return set the tone for Spain’s sixth triumph in the international team competition.

“I felt stressed 24 hours per day for four years,” Bautista Agut told ATPTour.com. “It was very difficult. Many times, when I was by my father’s side, I found that it was difficult and stressful, and I needed to stay away for a while. I’d seen my father in intensive care for six months and a further five months at the Institut Guttmann in Barcelona, witnessing tetraplegic babies and 15-year-old kids, who were in motorbike accidents, and were in the same situation as my father. But, whenever I left home to go to tournaments, I felt that my father needed me. Both of us wanted to support each other, it was a reciprocal feeling. I was fortunate to be able to say goodbye in the last minutes of my father’s life.”

The emotional finale, in November last year, capped the best season of his career, that included six of his friends flying from his pre-planned stag-do — booked six months earlier — in Ibiza to sit on Centre Court and watch him play in the semi-finals of The Championships. Bautista Agut may be straight-faced on the court, belying emotion, but you know it’s there in his mind, accompanied by occasional fist pumps and screams of ‘¡Vamos!’. To beat him, as Novak Djokovic did in the Wimbledon semi-finals, is often a grind: a quest of patience and determination, as his demeanour is so controlled that there’s little chance an opponent can get a mental edge. His strokes are compact, so little can go wrong.

“I’ve been through very difficult times, it’s been a really tough experience,” says Bautista Agut, who has maintained his place in the Top 20 of the FedEx ATP Rankings for much of the past four years. “They have taught me a lot about life. Tennis helped me to have a free mind, as I was very focused on my job as much as I could, so to not be thinking all the time about the problems I had back home. Tennis has been my escape, my help to deal with everything that happened in the best possible way.”

Ana, whom he married five months ago, his dogs and horses have all provided the softly spoken Bautista Agut much-needed support to recovery. “Ana has helped me a lot,” says the 31-year-old. “Right after starting our relationship my dad had his accident. Ana has always been by my side and supported me. She gave me a bigger perspective and our wedding day was incredible. I’d never imagined how a wedding could be; but being together with all the people we love made it very special. It was an unforgettable moment and one of the best parties of my life.

“We have some animals: dogs, horses and all live together… We love them. Maybe I love them more, but Ana has to accept it! We live in calm, together at home. I have been traveling for a long time [Bautista Agut turned pro in 2005] and I’ve spent a lot of time in hotels, so when I’m at home I relax.”

In the space of 10 days in November 2019, when Bautista Agut rose to a career-high World No. 9, he experienced the very best and lowest moments of his life: the passing of his father, helping Spain capture the Davis Cup and, six days later, his wedding to Ana. For all of the Spaniard’s steely on-court resilience, those three chapters provided an intimate snapshot of a player who is held in very high esteem on the ATP Tour.

The highlight this year has been Bautista Agut going 6-0 at the inaugural ATP Cup and helping his beloved country reach the final (l. to Team Serbia). And for all of his nine ATP Tour titles, with a high-point being the ATP 500-level Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in March 2018, and his 11 victories over Top 10 opponents, what he needs now is an element of good fortune.

Having served as an alternate at last year’s Nitto ATP Finals, Bautista Agut has his sights set on competing at the season finale, the 50-year anniversary this year at The O2 in London, or, once the tournament moves to Turin in 2021. “It is one of the goals I would like to achieve before retiring,” he says. “I know how difficult it is, I know that I have been very close some seasons. It’s not something I’m obsessed about, but it remains a goal I’d like to achieve some day.

“What keeps me motivated is my competitiveness. I’m very competitive both as an athlete and person. I’m always trying to improve and win, adding minor details to my game, because it’s a feeling I love. I’m also aware of my main strengths and the foundations of my game, one should never lose them. I fought all my life to play in a Davis Cup final, so to return after a few days away and have the support of [captain] Sergi Bruguera and the whole team, made my decision easy. I work a lot at home, I keep a very healthy lifestyle. I give my all for the sport, working hard and keeping healthy to compete at a very high level and live the best moments of my career.”

Few would begrudge ‘RBA’ anything.

Stan Wawrinka was borne in Lausanne, Switzerland, about an hour’s drive from Geneva. So, it’s only fitting that the Swiss star has enjoyed a love affair with the city’s ATP 250 tennis tournament.

Wawrinka made his first ATP Tour final at home in 2005, when he advanced to the Gstaad final. But it took him 11 years to make another championship match in Switzerland, and that came at the 2016 Geneva Open.

Then 31, Wawrinka arrived in Geneva searching for form. He had lost three of his previous four matches entering the tournament.

But the home favourite, who was World No. 4, lost only six games in his first two matches against strong clay-court players Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Pablo Carreno Busta, respectively, and he didn’t look back. After outlasting Lukas Rosol in a three-set semi-final, Wawrinka defeated then-World No. 11 Marin Cilic 6-4, 7-6(11) to capture his first ATP Tour trophy in Switzerland.

“It’s a dream come true to be able to win a title in Switzerland, after all these tournaments,” Wawrinka said. “To be able to do it here in Geneva, in the event’s second year, is something special. The fans were great. They made a lot of noise today.”

The stands at the Tennis Club de Geneve Eaux-Vives were completely packed. When Cilic missed a final backhand long, everyone rose to their feet in celebration after their man won a hard-fought final.

“Marin is a great player,” Wawrinka said. “He really ramped up the pressure toward the end, with those set points, so it was nice to be able to finish off the match.”

Wawrinka wasted little time winning another tour-level title in Switzerland, retaining his trophy the following year in Geneva.

Once again, the Swiss arrived at the tournament having lost three of his previous four matches. But Wawrinka was inspired by his home fans and one extremely special fan: his daughter, Alexia. He beat Mischa Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

“I’m extremely happy to win my second title in Switzerland. It means a lot to me,” Wawrinka said. “This is the first time that my daughter is in the stadium when I won a title, and that makes it even more special.”

Did You Know?
Wawrinka also enjoyed success in Geneva on the ATP Challenger Tour. He earned two of his six titles at that level in Geneva, triumphing in 2003 and 2004.

Former World No. 1 Andy Murray and Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford excel at tennis and football, respectively, and both men compete on the world’s biggest stages. But according to the two stars, the pressure they face isn’t quite the same.

“One of the nice things about an individual sport is that the outcome of the match is solely reliant on you, so if you go out and have a great performance, the chances are that you win,” Murray told Rashford. “In a team sport, you might play badly and the rest of your team plays great, and you still win. That’s where I feel like in the individual sport it puts quite a lot of pressure on. You put quite a lot of pressure on yourself to perform. But I guess in a team sport as well, you don’t want to let your fans down, you don’t want to let your teammates down as well.”

Growing up, Murray greatly enjoyed playing team sports, including football. The Scot enjoyed the camaraderie of competing with his friends, and he remains a massive football fan. 

“I did love that and I still just love the team competitions in tennis a lot, but it is quite different because the losses as well that you have are maybe tougher because you don’t have really a group of people around you that are dealing with the same thing,” Murray said. “There are pros and cons I think to both, but I love the fact that in tennis if you put in the work yourself you solely can influence the outcome of the match. You don’t need to rely on other players as well.”

With that said, there are moments for Rashford on the pitch when all the pressure falls squarely on him, or another individual on the club.

“I think the moment of a penalty is the one time where a footballer’s mindset is in the similar mindset to what you just spoke about,” Rashford said. “It’s just you against the keeper, and if you take a good penalty, you’re going to score and ultimately win the game for your team.

“With tennis, you’re doing that all the time against one opponent. I’d probably say you’re in more of a rhythm of doing that, so I’d probably say the penalty is more difficult, purely because there aren’t that many of them that come about in games.”

Murray is used to the pressure of trying to serve out a match, or save break points. But when a football player has to take a crucial penalty, it is a completely different pace compared to the rest of the match.

“I think as well [that is] one of the things that I would imagine… is unbelievably difficult. Because if you got a penalty at the end of a Champions League final, there would be a good few minutes before you’d actually take it,” Murray said. “There’s a really big build up to it, like the suspense to it which is probably a lot of what creates that pressure and drama. If someone got fouled and immediately ten seconds later you just went up and took the penalty, it would probably be a lot easier. But you have a lot of time to think as well when you have the penalties and that’s one of the things that must be very tough.”

Editor’s Note: ATPTour.com is resurfacing features to bring fans closer to their favourite players during the current suspension in tournament play. This story was originally published on 5 November 2019.

Bathroom breaks don’t come any more star-powered, or momentous, than the one Alexander Zverev took in Geneva this year. As well as stars, there were asterisks, as it was a colourful intervention backstage at the Laver Cup.

Walking from the court to the locker-room, Zverev was accompanied by two of his Team Europe colleagues, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who between them have qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals 32 times. That was 39 Grand Slam titles’ worth of emotional intelligence that Zverev was listening to during that interlude. If the language was spicy, then that only demonstrated the strength of feeling, with Federer telling Zverev that he wanted to see him pumping his fist, or shouting “C’mon”, every time he won a point. And when Zverev lost a point, he should “take it like a man”. Nadal chipped in: “No more negative face.”

Any account of how Zverev has made it back to the Nitto ATP Finals – where last year, aged just 21, he became the youngest champion in a decade – must surely start with what happened in Geneva.

“I yelled at him all the way to the locker-room, in the locker-room, and on the way back,” Federer has disclosed. Going on a bathroom break can turn your night, your season, perhaps even your career around – just consider Andy Murray, who, before the fifth set of his 2012 US Open final against Novak Djokovic, locked himself in a loo, stared into the mirror and gave himself a pep-talk that changed British tennis history.

Up until the Laver Cup in September, Zverev hadn’t been at all satisfied with the tennis he had been playing this year. He felt as though he had lacked belief and had played too defensively. He had been too down on himself and had been doubting his own talent. But it seems as though Federer and Nadal’s words refreshed Zverev’s mindset, as he played with conviction and an aggressive edge during the Asian swing, reaching the semi-finals in Beijing and the final at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, where his run included a three-setter against Federer in the last eight, having had match points to beat the Swiss in straight sets.

If anyone was in any doubt that this was a rebooted Zverev, he screamed out at the end: “This is my [expletive] time.” You could forgive Zverev’s language, just as you could excuse Federer’s in Geneva. “I told him at the net that he showed great character and that he had been strong, and that he didn’t show any frustrations or too much negativity,” Federer has said. And if you’re not going to listen to the twin force of Federer and Nadal, then who exactly will you listen to?

But it would be remiss not to mention the others who have helped Zverev stay strong. While Zverev’s player-coach partnership with Ivan Lendl came to an end in the summer, the German is still coached by his father, his brother Mischa is also a professional tennis player (they won a doubles title in Acapulco this season), and his mother travels the tennis road. “It is obviously great to have your family around, you never really get homesick. You never really have the urgency to go home like other players maybe do,” Zverev said. “It is obviously great to have the close ones that know you the best and to always have them around.”

Just as important has been Zverev’s dog. “My dog always keeps me in a good mood. He is the easiest dog to travel with – you get him on a 16-hour flight and he sleeps. He doesn’t bark, he doesn’t walk around, he doesn’t do anything.”

Even when he went through a rough patch, Zverev tried to stay positive. After all, his season wasn’t as disappointing as some were making it out to be. He was still competing at the biggest tournaments in the world, and he won a title at the clay-court event in Geneva in the spring. As he remarked in August: “You can see things with the glass half empty or half full. It has not been the best year for me. For me, the year can also get better. It’s not all as bad as everybody thinks it is.”

When beating Federer in Shanghai, one of Zverev’s first thoughts was of this court in Greenwich, and the ‘Race to London’. This is the third year in a row that Zverev is among the world’s leading eight players at The O2. Zverev’s astonishing tennis here last November brought him the biggest title of his career to date – with his victories over Federer and Djokovic in his last two matches, he became the first player since Andre Agassi in 1990 to defeat the top two seeds in the semi-final and final. Plenty of history was made that day, with Zverev also the youngest champion since a 20-year-old Djokovic won the tournament in 2008, and the first German winner since Boris Becker in 1995.

And plenty more history would be made this week, should Zverev retain his title. Winning this tournament is an astounding achievement, but becoming a multiple champion brings a real elevation in status. Murray only won this title once. Agassi just has one title. Jimmy Connors and Stefan Edberg also won this tournament just the once. Zverev can this week move above those champions on the leaderboard. If he does, he might care to think back to that bathroom break in Geneva.

And if Zverev shows plenty of positive emotion this week, and avoids what Nadal calls “negative face”, you’ll know why.

After hosting an indoor hard-court tournament from 1987 to 2009, Lyon returned to the ATP Tour in 2017 with a new clay-court event: the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon.

The tournament, one of five French ATP Tour events, would have been held this week if not for the Tour suspension due to coronavirus.

ATPTour.com looks at five things to know about the ATP 250-level tournament.

1) French Finalists
In each edition of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon, a French player has reached the final.

In 2017, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga survived two three-set matches before overcoming Tomas Berdych in straight sets to lift the trophy. Last year, Benoit Paire defeated #NextGenATP Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime en route to the title.

In 2018, Gilles Simon fell in three sets to Dominic Thiem in the championship match.

2) A Stellar Debut
The first edition of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon featured Top 20 stars Milos Raonic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych and Nick Kyrgios. The draw also included French hopes Simon and Paire, as well as Juan Martin del Potro and Borna Coric.

The top three seeds — Raonic, Tsonga and Berdych — advanced to the semi-finals. Tsonga and Berdych contested the championship match in what proved to be their 13th and final ATP Head2Head clash (Berdych leads 8-5), with Tsonga prevailing 7-6(2), 7-5.

3) Fantastic Felix
Three months after reaching his maiden ATP Tour final at the Rio Open presented by Claro, Felix Auger-Aliassime made an impressive debut in Lyon. After a straight-sets win against John Millman, the #NextGenATP Canadian earned back-to-back three-set victories against Steve Johnson and Nikoloz Basilashvili to reach the final. The 18-year-old was unable to capture his maiden ATP Tour title, as Paire claimed the trophy after 80 minutes.

4) Doubles Drama
In 2018, Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock captured their first title as a team in dramatic fashion. The Australian-American duo did not drop a set en route to the final, where they faced Roman Jebavy and Matwe Middelkoop.

Kyrgios and Sock, who entered the contest with a 10-2 team record, trailed 8/9 in the Match Tie-break before claiming three straight points to earn the title. It was Kyrgios’ first ATP Tour doubles crown and Sock’s third trophy, with as many different partners, that season.

5) The Final Preparation For Roland Garros
Held the week before Roland Garros, alongside the Geneva Open, the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon provides ATP Tour stars with a final opportunity to prepare for the clay-court Grand Slam championship.

In the past two years, Lyon champions have reached the Round of 16 or better at Roland Garros. Dominic Thiem advanced to the championship match in 2018, while last year’s champion Benoit Paire reached the fourth round in Paris.

Feliciano Lopez made time for his fans on Saturday by holding a Twitter Q&A on the ATP Tour’s official Spanish Twitter account. The 38-year-old, No. 56 in the ATP FedEx Rankings, answered questions about his future, serving as tournament director of the Mutua Madrid Open and his secret to staying at the top for so many years. 

Can you definitely confirm that you will not be retiring anytime soon? | @phillippa62
I wasn’t planning on retiring in the short term. I’ve played the past few years as if each of them were my last and I’ve normally evaluated how things have gone at the end of the season. Based on that, I’ve decided whether or not to play another year. That’s worked well for me in recent years. It’s been a good way of focussing my goals during that time. Now, with this break we’re suffering due to the coronavirus, my plans have changed. The idea is to be able to play next year.

What do you miss the most about tennis now that there are no tournaments? | @ClaudiaMillan07
The thing that keeps me excited about continuing to play tennis is being able to remain competitive. That adrenaline from the competition is what I have missed most during these times. Obviously my training, daily work, everything that has been cut off suddenly from one day to the next is hard to accept. But I’ve also had other positive things during these difficult times like being able to be at home with my wife and also enjoy that time with her.

When will the next virtual PlayStation tournament be? | @AziendaITF
I have no idea when the next tournament will be. Our tournament [in Madrid] was successful in every way. Before we started on that project, the organisers were a little nervous because it was the first time a virtual tennis event would be held. There were a lot of things, purely technical like internet connections in different countries, that were out of our hands. So we were a little more nervous than normal.

Despite the difficulties, it was a huge success and the players approached it with great enthusiasm. I think it was important for the world of tennis and specifically for us. Once again, we showed that our tournament has a tremendous capacity to innovate and reinvent ourselves during difficult times like the ones we are currently going through. It was a success in every sense and we are delighted.

If one thing has defined your career, it’s been your consistency. Your Grand Slam participation record still stands. What is your secret to staying at the top? | @icacharron
There are two very important things. One is the fact that I haven’t had significant injuries in my career. Physical fitness is something you have to work on from when you’re very young. I also have good genetics that have helped me not get injured, to be able to handle the stresses of work and so many years playing professional tennis. I think my style of play and technique have helped reduce wear and tear on my body as I am not making a huge effort on every shot in every match.

Then it’s looking after myself a lot, eating well, resting… In short, being professional and committed to your profession. This has been more important in recent years. When you’re young, sometimes you don’t pay too much attention to certain details which can make a difference, even though they’re small. In recent years, I’ve paid a lot of attention to nutrition and training my body to be more prepared when I face players who are often at least 10 or 15 years younger. It’s a very big challenge for me.

How do you cope with people asking you for autographs or photos when you’ve just lost a match or when you want to concentrate on an important match? | @leonor47142133
It depends on the match. There are times when you go out in a rage and you’re not in the mood, but that’s where we have to make an effort. I find it very difficult to say no to children when they approach in any situation. I think it makes more sense to respect someone’s privacy before they play a match than afterwards, sometimes even if I have lost.

Would you like to try Blind Tennis? Would you put on a blindfold and play with me? | @raulblindtennis
Yes, I would give it a go. But you’d be the clear favourite. I imagine that I would be disastrous at it. The only time I’ve tried to play with my eyes covered was recently in Singapore, where we are trying to build a tennis academy. I went out with a blindfold and it was a disaster. I managed to serve and hit the ball on the fourth or fifth attempt. I can only congratulate all of you that play the adapted version of the sport and send you my best.

Your favourite players are all at home, but they’re finding plenty of ways to pass the time. From Andy Murray’s birthday feast to David Goffin’s barbeque, ATPTour.com looks at how the world’s best players are keeping busy.

Murray enjoyed the home version of an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet to celebrate turning 33.

 

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Thanks for all the birthday messages! ? During these tough times I was very grateful to get to do 3 of my favourite things today.. 1. Spend time with my family ?‍?‍? 2. Play tennis with my big bro @jamie__murray ? 3. Smoke a bunch of sushi rolls ? Hope you are all doing ok? #birthday #family #tennis #health #sushi

A post shared by Andy Murray (@andymurray) on May 15, 2020 at 12:38pm PDT

David Goffin fired up the barbeque.

 

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Barbecue time ?? #meatlover #bbq #saltbae

A post shared by David Goffin (@david__goffin) on May 3, 2020 at 7:11am PDT

Cristian Garin reflected on his winning his first ATP 500 title this February in Rio de Janeiro.

 

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Una del baúl.

A post shared by Cristian Garin (@garincris) on May 13, 2020 at 2:05pm PDT

Jan-Lennard Struff enjoyed a bike ride with his one-year-old son.

 

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What a beautiful day ? Family time ❤️ You guys had a great day?

A post shared by Jan-Lennard Struff (@jl_struff) on May 6, 2020 at 10:39am PDT

Marin Cilic showed that his newborn son could be a future powerhouse.

 

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The sweetest defeat ?. I still want a rematch though ??

A post shared by Marin Čilić (@marincilic) on May 3, 2020 at 8:36am PDT

Kevin Anderson sharpened his guitar skills.

Today’s music with Keira ? pic.twitter.com/7K8sAkm34g

— Kevin Anderson (@KAndersonATP) May 14, 2020

Richard Gasquet spent some quality time with his dog.

 

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Dernier jour ! Long mais content d’avoir pu passer du temps en famille ! ? #34. Bon deconfinement à tous !!

A post shared by Richard Gasquet (@richardgasquet34) on May 10, 2020 at 7:09am PDT

Jamie Murray offered his fans a simple and fun upper body workout to do from home.

 

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Superset: 3 x 8-10 Reps Face Pulls T Bands High Row Ext Rot Press Rest 60-90secs Superset: 3 x 10 reps Single Arm DB Chest Press Incline DB Row Rest 60-90secs Superset: 3 x 10 reps DB Bent Over Reverse Flies Seated DB Single Arm Shoulder Press Rest 60-90secs Superset: 3 sets DB Front Raise into Side Raise x 8 reps Bicep 21s (7x7x7) Rest 60-90secs #stayhome #stayactive #stayhealthy #fitness #gym #upperbodyworkout #shoulders #back #health #wellbeing #strength #strengthtraining #tennisathome #dumbbells #weighttraining #weights

A post shared by Jamie Murray (@jamie__murray) on May 14, 2020 at 3:31pm PDT

Marius Copil bonded with his three-month-old son, Arthur.

 

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Nu ai cum să înțelegi dacă nu ai copil, spuneau ei. Acum le dau dreptate. ? #fericire

A post shared by Marius Copil ? (@marius_copil) on May 11, 2020 at 7:18am PDT

On 9 May 2004, Carlos Moya won the third and final ATP Masters 1000 title of his career at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, beating David Nalbandian 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in the championship match at the Foro Italico. On the 16th anniversary of that moment, the former World No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings reflected on his dream week in Italy and a title that had evaded him until then.

“I hadn’t done well in Rome,” Moyà told ATPTour.com. “I don’t know why. I loved the tournament and I really liked playing there, but I hadn’t had great results. Of the tournaments on clay, with Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Paris, it was the one I had the least success at.

“It was the same in Cincinnati. I couldn’t win a match and suddenly I won the tournament, but that one made more sense. Historically, I had done better at the other clay-court tournaments, so I can’t see why it shouldn’t have been the same there.”

Moya overcame Alberto Martin and Ivan Ljubicic in the first two rounds without great difficulty. The Spaniard then met then Ivo Karlovic, No. 70 in the rankings. Moya’s 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory over the Croatian took him to the quarter-finals and made him a clear contender for the title.

“Karlovic was always a tough opponent,” Moya said. “It was the only time we played on clay. I’d always beaten him on hard courts, but with closer results. He was an uncomfortable opponent. Karlovic forces you not to make any mistakes because if you relax he might take the set, and I was well known for the odd lapse in concentration. Sometimes I would get back into the game and win, but on other occasions it would cost me the match.

“[But] little by little, things came together that year. Before, when I went to a tournament, I wasn’t thinking about winning it. I was thinking about surviving the first few days and seeing how I felt so that I could find my game from the quarter-finals.”

After beating Andrei Pavel and Mariano Zabaleta in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively, Moya squared off against Nalbandian in the championship match. The Spaniard played flawlessly to break his opponent six times en route to taking the title.

”Nalbandian is my friend and he was back then too,” Moya said. ”I watched some of that match the other day when they were showing it on television. David was also a player who would get distracted at times. I remember the break in the first set came through mistakes that he didn’t normally make. It was better to meet him in the early rounds because he tended to play his best tennis in finals, but I grew into the game and played a very good match.

“The Masters 1000 [titles] are highly coveted. For Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, they are valuable, but it’s a little different. For those that have none, it’s the greatest thing.”

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have played 40 times across 16 years in their legendary ATP Head2Head rivalry. But still today, 14 years on, their clash in the championship of the 2006 Internazionali BNL d’Italia remains one of their most memorable.

It was only the pair’s sixth meeting, but it was clear that Federer and Nadal were tennis’ titans. Federer first earned the No. 1 FedEx ATP Ranking more than two years before their Foro Italico battle, and Nadal took World No. 2 in July 2005. He held a 1,290-point buffer ahead of World No. 3 David Nalbandian the week of 2006 Rome.

Nadal had already proven to have at least some kryptonite to counter Federer’s aggressive, free-flowing game, winning four of their first five matches. The ever-improving lefty won 2005 Roland Garros — including a semi-final victory against Federer — and beat the Swiss to triumph at the 2006 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in four sets.

“I think I’m actually going to improve a lot by playing more against him, and I already feel like I have since he’s been around,” Federer said after his defeat in Monte Carlo. “The more I play him, the more I’ll also figure out his game and the easier it’s going to get for me. Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I really believe it.”

Uncovered: The Legendary Rivalry – Nadal vs. Federer

Federer got his chance to prove it on 14 May 2006, competing against Nadal on a hot Rome afternoon. He went for his shots, and was unafraid of being passed at the net, winning 64 of 84 net points.

The Swiss was in a winning position while leading 6-5 in the fifth set. Nadal hit his first double fault of the match to give Federer two championship points.

Triumph appeared even closer when Federer worked his way to neutral in the rally on his first opportunity, smacking a forehand down the middle of the court. However, he missed long.

“The first one I was more disappointed about because I was in a good position, and I didn’t want to go for the outright winner at all,” Federer said. “I just tried to play solid and with a lot of spin to his backhand, and long. I just couldn’t get quite over it in time, so that was a pity. I guess the first match point that cost me the match.”

Federer still had another chance, and he went for broke on the run with a missile-like forehand down the line, missing well wide.

“I think the second one was definitely rushed. I tried to hit a winner. Why not? I already had one match point, so I thought I might as well go for it a little bit,” Federer said. “I didn’t try to totally hit a winner, but tried to play aggressively and I was a little late on it.”

“I was lucky that when he had match points,” Nadal said. “He made a mistake with two forehands, one which was quite simple for him.”

The Best Of Roger vs. Rafa On Clay:

Federer also led 5/3 in the deciding tie-break. He missed a mid-court forehand that would have given him three consecutive match points. Instead, Nadal won four straight points and fell to his back after clinching his second Rome title with a 6-7(0), 7-6(5), 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5) win.

“I have won, but I could have lost. I’ve been down many times,” Nadal said. “For sure I played very well, but it was a very tough match. It was complicated.”

The clash remains the longest of their rivalry, lasting five hours and five minutes. Of the 40 matches they have played, it was the only one clinched in a deciding-set tie-break, and the only one in which the winner saved match point. Federer won 179 points to Nadal’s 174, marking the only occasion in their rivalry that the loser won more total points.

“It was very close from [the] start until the finish. The result obviously reflects that, too,” Federer said. “I came back well and in the end I should have won. He caught me right on the finish line… That’s all I could do, fight hard and try and play as well as I could. It was a pity in the end.”

Did You Know?
Nadal also beat Federer in their other Rome clash, which came in 2013. The Spaniard triumphed 6-1, 6-3. Nadal now owns a record nine titles at the Foro Italico, while Federer has never triumphed at the ATP Masters 1000 event.