Rafael Nadal pulls out of Swiss Indoors Basel with knee injury

Posted: Oct 17, 2017

World number one Rafael Nadal has pulled out of next week’s Swiss Indoors Basel tournament with a knee injury.

The Spaniard, 31, says he is suffering from an “over-stressing of the knee”, and has been advised by his doctor to take time off.

He says he was carrying the injury when he played in Sunday’s Shanghai Masters final, where he lost to Roger Federer.

“It is time for some rest,” said Nadal, who has won six titles this season and played 75 matches.

His absence gives Switzerland’s Federer the chance to make up ground in the battle for the world number one position.

Nadal’s return to the top of the rankings in August was the first time he had been there since 2014, having had a series of knee and wrist injuries.

Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova has been knocked out of the Kremlin Cup in the first round.

The 30-year-old Russian was beaten 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 by Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova in her fifth match in seven days.

It was the former world number one’s first Tour appearance in Moscow in a decade and came after she won the Tianjin Open on Sunday.

The win in China was her first title since serving a 15-month doping ban and lifted her 29 places in the world rankings to 57th.

Sharapova was picked as a wildcard for the Kremlin Cup, which was her eighth event since returning to the Tour in April.

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Watson reaches Luxembourg Open second round

Posted: Oct 17, 2017

Britain’s Heather Watson beat Yanina Wickmayer 6-2 6-1 in just 64 minutes to reach the Luxembourg Open second round.

It was the 25-year-old’s first main-draw tournament win since Wimbledon.

Watson, ranked 81 in the world, converted all four of her break points and won more than half the points on her opponent’s serve.

She will next face Estonian third seed Anett Kontaveit, who beat her when the pair met in April’s Biel Bienne Open.

British number three Naomi Broady also reached the second round, after qualifying as a ‘lucky loser’.

She beat sixth seed Tatjana Maria 6-2 6-2, losing just five points on serve.

The world number 49 is Broady’s first top-100 scalp since June.

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Fognini Leads Seeds Into Stockholm Second Round

Posted: Oct 17, 2017

Fognini Leads Seeds Into Stockholm Second Round

Oct172017

Former champion Baghdatis competes during night session

Three seeds — No. 6 Fabio Fognini, No. 7 Yuichi Sugita and No. 8 Fernando Verdasco — all got off to winning starts on Tuesday at the Intrum Stockholm Open.

Italian Fognini, who picked up the Gstaad crown (d. Hanfmann) in July, opened his bid for a sixth ATP World Tour title by beating Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 7-5, 6-1 in 73 minutes. He now faces Argentine Leonardo Mayer or wild card Elias Ymer of Sweden.

Japan’s Sugita lived to fight another day, withstanding 15 aces in a dramatic 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan over one hour and 56 minutes. Istomin won the first five games of the pair’s third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting, then recovered from 3-5 in the third set before squandering a 4/2 advantage in the tie-break. Sugita goes onto meet Slovakian Norbert Gombos or 2009 titlist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.

Spaniard Verdasco, runner-up at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (l. to Murray) in February, lost just one of his first service points (27/28) to record his fourth straight win in eight meetings (5-3) against Robin Haase 6-3, 6-1 in 47 minutes. He awaits the winner of Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko and lucky loser Jurgen Zopp of Estonia.

Elsewhere, France’s Jeremy Chardy set up a second-round encounter against third-seeded American Jack Sock after he hit 12 aces — and lost six of his first service points (27/33) — to beat Alessandro Giannessi of Italy in 72 minutes. He also beat Giannessi a few weeks ago at the Shenzhen Open 7-6(6), 6-4 in the first round.

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