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ATP Firsts: Mischa Zverev

  • Posted: Sep 23, 2017

ATP Firsts: Mischa Zverev

From playing imaginary matches with Andre Agassi to getting Daniel Nestor’s autograph

Germany’s Mischa Zverev, who faces countryman Peter Gojowczyk in the semi-finals of the Moselle Open on Saturday, tells ATPWorldTour.com about his imaginary tennis matches with Andre Agassi and his most emotional moment on court.

First moment I realised I loved tennis?
Subconsciously, maybe when I was like zero years old and my Mom gave birth to me! I was always around tennis courts and I was always enjoying being around tennis courts. My Mom was telling me that when I was very little, when I was less than two years old, I would grab like a brush or something that had the shape of a tennis racquet and clear my room and play imaginary matches against Agassi, like five-set matches. I think that’s when I realised that I really liked tennis!

First coach and the most important lesson he/she taught me?
My Dad. The most important stroke he taught me was the volley and the most important lesson was: ‘If you make the right decisions on court, you’re going to get rewarded.’ So, no matter what you feel like doing, or if you’re nervous or up and down, just try to do the right thing.

First pinch-me moment on the ATP World Tour?
I don’t know… Because I feel like now I enjoy tennis more than I used to. The most recent and most special one was actually beating Isner from two sets to love down (in the 2017 Australian Open second round). That was so emotional because I’d been two sets to love down, match point down, break point down in the fourth. It was the most incredible match and the most emotional moment by far.

First time I was recognised?
I want to say it was a while back in France, because I feel like French people enjoy tennis. I think I was at an airport in Nice or something and the person who was checking my passport I think he recognised me. I want to say that was in 2009, or something like that. A while back. It was really surprising!

First time I travelled to a tournament abroad?
I was 11 or 12 years old. I don’t remember where we went, but it wasn’t a fun trip! Back then there was no wifi. I’m sure it was not a first class ticket. It was probably by car or by train for like 10 or 11 hours just reading a book.

First thing I bought with my prize money?
A house in Florida. That was the first big purchase. But I’m not giving out the address!

First autograph I got?
This might sound so funny, but I think I was in Hamburg and my club was the training facility for the Rothenbaum tournament. And the first guy whose autograph I got, and I asked ‘Who is it?’, was Daniel Nestor! He was ranked like 90th in singles back then and that was around 1997, or something like that. I don’t still have the autograph!

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Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber lose in Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo

  • Posted: Sep 23, 2017

World number one Garbine Muguruza lost 6-2 6-0 to Caroline Wozniacki in the Pan Pacific Open semi-finals in Tokyo.

Spain’s Muguruza, playing her first tournament since moving to the top of the rankings, was beaten in one hour by the Danish third seed.

“I felt my energy was a little bit low and I didn’t make the important shots,” Muguruza said. “I’m very disappointed.”

In the other semi-final, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat seventh seed Angelique Kerber 6-0 6-7 (4-7) 6-4.

Kerber lost the first eight games of the match in Tokyo and was 5-2 down in the second set.

But the German took the second set on a tie-break and raced into a 3-0 lead in the decider.

Russian world number 23 Pavlyuchenkova, though, recovered and achieved the decisive break in the seventh game before sealing victory and a place in Sunday’s final.

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Paire Saves 1 M.P. To Edge Goffin; Zverev Into SFs

  • Posted: Sep 22, 2017

Paire Saves 1 M.P. To Edge Goffin; Zverev Into SFs

Qualifier Gojowczyk advances to first tour-level semi-final

Benoit Paire won the match of the day at the Moselle Open on Friday, saving one match point to knock out 2014 champion and top-seeded Belgian David Goffin. The Frenchman dented Goffin’s hopes of making up ground in the Emirates ATP Race To London with a 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-6(7) victory over two hours and 25 minutes in Metz.

Paire recovered from a 2-4 deficit in the first set, prior to being broken by Goffin at 5-5 in the second set. Goffin took a 4-2 lead in the decider, then fought back from 3/5 down in the tie-break only to squander a match point at 6/5. It was Paire’s third win in four meetings over Goffin.

Paire, who is 0-4 in semi-finals this year, next meets World No. 64 Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, who defeated Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 7-5, 6-3 after saving the four break points he faced. The 25-year-old claimed his 24th match win of the year, which is double the number of victories he’d had in his career before this season.

Mischa Zverev will attempt to reach the Moselle Open final for the second time on Saturday when he plays fellow German and qualifier Peter Gojowczyk. No German has ever captured the title at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament – Philipp Kohlschreiber finished runner-up in 2009 (l. to Monfils)

Fifth seed Zverev fought past big-serving lucky loser Kenny de Schepper 7-5, 7-6(4) in one hour and 31 minutes. Seven years ago, Zverev qualified en route to his first ATP World Tour title match (l. to Simon).

Gojowczyk, currently No. 95 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, recorded his second straight win (also 2017 Wimbledon) over Romania’s Marius Copil 6-2, 6-4 in 56 minutes. He won the first four games of the pair’s second meeting for his 10th tour-level match win of 2017.

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Mirnyi Denied Milestone Doubles Win
Wesley Koolhof and Artem Sitak denied Max Mirnyi the 750th match win of his career when ‘The Beast’ partnered Philipp Oswald. Koolhof and Sitak won 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 in 74 minutes for a place in their second team final (2017 BB&T Atlanta Open, l. to Bryans).

They will challenge a French pair, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Paire or third seeds Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who will contest their semi-final on Saturday.

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Garbine Muguruza beats Caroline Garcia in Pan Pacific Open, Karolina Pliskova out

  • Posted: Sep 22, 2017

Spain’s Garbine Muguruza tightened her grip on the world number one ranking with victory over Caroline Garcia in Tokyo, after Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova lost to Angelique Kerber.

Muguruza saw off French ninth seed Garcia 6-2 6-4 to reach the semi-finals, where she will face Danish third seed Caroline Wozniacki.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Kerber beat world number four Pliskova 7-6 (7-5) 7-5.

Pliskova could have moved within 100 points of Muguruza this week.

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World number two Simona Halep and number three Elina Svitolina are not playing this week, meaning Muguruza now has the chance to strengthen her position at the top of the rankings, which she secured for the first time last week.

“To achieve this dream I’ve had since I was a child gives me a lot of confidence,” said Muguruza.

“It’s a boost of motivation to hold this position – because I think it’s the best.”

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Kerber, who has slipped back to 14th in the world since winning last year’s Australian and US Open titles, faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the last four.

The Russian beat Czech Barbora Strycova 5-7 6-3 6-1.

“Right now there’s no pressure on me at all,” said Kerber. “I’ve had a few ups and downs this year but I know I can still beat the best players in the world. I showed today I can play like I did last year.”

Wozniacki went through after Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova was forced to retire with a right thigh injury while trailing 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 3-1.

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Bautista Agut Eyes St. Petersburg Title; Dzumhur On Form

  • Posted: Sep 22, 2017

Bautista Agut Eyes St. Petersburg Title; Dzumhur On Form

Tsonga and Fognini compete later on day five

Roberto Bautista Agut reached the St. Petersburg Open semi-finals for the third successive year on Friday by sweeping past seventh seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-1, 6-2 in 72 minutes. “The score looks easy, but the match wasn’t,” said Bautista Agut. “Viktor is always tough to beat, a very good fighter and serves well.”

The top-seeded Spaniard raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set, then recovered from a 0-2 deficit in the second set en route to extending his perfect FedEx ATP Head2Head record to 4-0 against Troicki, who is now 20-22 on the year.

Bautista Agut, who has already won two ATP World Tour hard-court titles this year at the Aircel Chennai Open in January (d. Medvedev) and the Winston-Salem Open in August (d. Dzumhur), is currently No. 15 in the Emirates ATP Race To London. He will next play Italian third seed and 2012 finalist Fabio Fognini or Lithuanian lucky loser Ricardas Berankis.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur, the player Bautista Agut beat in the Winston-Salem final, continued his fine run of form. The 25 year old recovered from 0-2 in the deciding set to beat first-time ATP World Tour quarter-finalist Liam Broady, a British qualifier, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in one hour and 52 minutes.

“It definitely feels great to be in the semi-finals – another great week for me,” said Dzumhur. “It was a tough match, but at the end I pulled out some good shots and defended well.”

When asked what the key to his run of form was, Dzumhur – 25-7 at all levels since 19 June – admitted, “I wasn’t playing badly at all, but I couldn’t find what was missing in my game. When I came to the hard courts of Los Cabos, I felt so much more confident than before. I feel that confidence came from practising a lot and after a few good wins, I am playing my best tennis in the past five weeks.” He is through to his third tour-level semi-final of the season.

Dzumhur will next play eighth seed Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany on Saturday. Struff denied second-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga his 30th match win of the year after the German recovered from a set and 1-3 deficit to triumph 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 49 minutes. Tsonga, who has recorded 30+ victories from 2008-16, dropped to 29-11 on the season after his first loss in four meetings against Struff.

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Liam Broady: Briton's run at St Petersburg Open ends at quarter-finals stage

  • Posted: Sep 22, 2017

Liam Broady’s excellent run at the St Petersburg Open came to an end with a 6-3 2-6 6-4 quarter-final defeat by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur.

The world number 242, ranked 187 places below his opponent, broke twice in the second set to level the match.

Broady, 23, had an early break in the decider but Dzumhur fought back and then saved three break points in the ninth game.

Dzumhur then broke the British number seven in the 10th game to seal victory.

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Broady went through two rounds of qualifying before he defeated Latvian Ernests Gulbis in round one.

He went on to beat fourth seed and world number 31 Adrian Mannarino to reach the quarter-finals.

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Laver Cup 2017: Europe v The World – results & standings

  • Posted: Sep 22, 2017

The inaugural Laver Cup takes place in Prague, Czech Republic from September 22-24.

The three-day tournament sees a selected European side face a World team and includes some of the world’s best male tennis players including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Marin Cilic and Nick Krygios.

Strategy and tactics from the team captains play an important role in the Laver Cup, with a unique line-up card exchange and scoring system.

On Thursday, Team Europe captain Bjorn Borg and Team World captain John McEnroe submit their line-up cards for Friday’s matches to the referee in a blind exchange, with match-ups revealed at a special on-court ceremony. This will determine the schedule for the first day’s play.

For days two and three, one captain will submit his card blind in the morning for the opposing captain to review before selecting his players. This will determine the schedule for the second and third day’s play. Team Europe captain Borg will choose which day to seize the home advantage and submit his playing line-up after reviewing Team World’s selection.

Crucially each match on Friday is worth one point, two points per match are up for grabs on Saturday, and three points for each match on Sunday, making the final day the likely decider.

The first team to reach 13 points will win the inaugural Laver Cup, with a doubles decider played if the scores are tied at 12-all.

Team Europe Team World
Team captain: Bjorn Borg (Swe) Team captain: John McEnroe (US)
Rafael Nadal (Spa) Jack Sock (US)
Roger Federer (Swi) Nick Krygios (Aus)
Marin Cilic (Cro) John Isner (US)
Dominic Thiem (Aut) Sam Querrey (US)
Alexander Zverev (Ger) Frances Tiafoe (US)
Tomas Berdych (Cze) Denis Shapovalov (Can)

Team Europe 1-0 Team World

Matches

Friday, 22 September

Afternoon session

Marin Cilic beats Frances Taifoe 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-0)

Dominic Thiem v John Isner

Evening session

Alexander Zverev v Denis Shapovalov (18:00 BST)

Tomas Berdych & Rafael Nadal v Nick Kyrgios & Jack Sock

Saturday, 23 September

Afternoon session

Singles – Match 5 (12:00 BST)

Singles – Match 6

Evening session

Singles – Match 7 (18:00 BST)

Doubles – Match 8

Sunday, 24 September

Afternoon session

Singles – Match 9 (11:00 BST)

Singles – Match 10

Singles – Match 11 (19:00 BST)

Doubles – Match 12

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