Improve your children’s tennis skills with these drills used by Andy Murray as part of the LTA’s Tennis for Kids campaign.
| Aegon Championships, Queen’s Club |
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| Date: 19-25 June – comprehensive live coverage across BBC television, radio and online |
World number one Andy Murray will defend his title at next month’s Aegon Championships as six of world’s top 10 men descend on Queen’s Club in London.
The Briton has won the traditional Wimbledon warm-up event five times.
The tournament will also feature last year’s beaten finalist Milos Raonic, 2012 champion Marin Cilic and 2008 winner Rafael Nadal.
Stan Wawrinka and David Goffin are also scheduled to play in the event which takes place from 19-25 June.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, Nick Kyrgios and Juan Martin del Potro will also take part.
Tournament director Stephen Farrow said: “The player entry list for the Aegon Championships is strong every year and we already knew we were in for a great line-up, but with Cilic and Goffin adding their names to make it six of the world’s top 10, this is going to be the best yet.”
Andy Murray v Marius Copil in the Madrid Open round of 32 will be live on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra on Tuesday from 15:00 BST.
Eugenie Bouchard says the support she received off the court inspired her to victory over Maria Sharapova – an opponent she called a “cheat” – at the Madrid Open.
View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups Tuesday at the Mutua Madrid Open & vote for who you think will win!
A Zverev v Verdasco | M Zverev v Coric | Robredo v Almagro
View Tuesday schedule, featuring top seed Andy Murray against Marius Copil, and check back later for preview notes.
In an all-French battle, Gilles Simon saved two match points to win a back-and-forth contest against Gael Monfils 0-6, 6-0, 7-6(0) on Monday at the Mutua Madrid Open. Simon erased the match points while serving at 2-5 in the third set.
The 32-year-old Simon will next meet Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, who defeated #NextGenATP American qualifier Ernesto Escobedo 6-4, 6-4 in 74 minutes. Simon and Lopez have split their previous four FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, but this will be their first encounter on clay.
Lopez, 35, is the only player to have appeared in all 16 editions of his hometown ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament and is a four-time quarter-finalist in Madrid.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to work for it but ultimately prevailed in a marathon first-round match against Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5 that lasted two hours and 50 minutes. Tsonga saved all six break points and converted his only break point against Kuznetsov in the third set.
The 10th-seeded Frenchman improved to 3-0 against Kuznetsov in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The win is also Tsonga’s first since 26 February, when he captured the Marseille crown, and his first since he welcomed his son Shugar on 18 March.
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The 32 year old will meet Spaniard David Ferrer in the second round. Ferrer came back from a set and 1-3 down to prevail against Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-4 in two hours and 31 minutes. The 35-year-old Ferrer is now one match win away from celebrating his 700th match win.
“I’m very proud of my career. But that figure is a very big figure. It’s something quite big to achieve, very difficult to achieve for a tennis player,” Ferrer said. “Fortunately, I’ve been lucky. I have had a long career. I still have a lot of time ahead of me. I’ve won a lot of matches and that makes me very happy. I’ve been very happy playing tennis.”
Revisit the week that was on the ATP Challenger Tour as we applaud the achievements of those on the rise and look ahead to who’s in action in the week to come
LOOK BACK
St. Joseph’s/ Candler Savannah Challenger (Georgia, U.S.A): Tennys Sandgren capped a memorable week with his third ATP Challenger Tour title. The American ousted second seed Henri Laaksonen and countryman Tommy Paul in third set tie-breaks en route to the final. On Sunday he defeated Joao Pedro Sorgi, a Challenger final debutant, with a commanding 6-4, 6-3 performance.
Sandgren, who also won the Tempe, U.S.A, Challenger in February, rises up 20 positions to a career-high No. 114 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. The 25 year old has enjoyed a stellar four weeks on the clay, including a run to the final at the $100,000 Challenger event in Sarasota (l. Tiafoe). As a reward, Sandgren clinched the USTA’s Roland Garros wild card and will feature in his first Grand Slam main draw later this month.
Prosperita Open 2017 (Ostrava, Czech Republic): Stefano Travaglia lifted a maiden ATP Challenger Tour title with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 triumph over fellow Italian Marco Cecchinato. A year ago Travaglia was outside the Top 500 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, but has risen to a career-high No. 165. The 25 year old defied his ranking to defeat fifth seed Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, fourth seed Roberto Carballes Baena and second seed Adam Pavlasek to become the seventh first-time title winner of 2017.
Gimcheon Challenger (Gimcheon, South Korea): There was another Italian success after Thomas Fabbiano lifted his fourth Challenger title with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Teymuraz Gabashvili. The Rome resident, champion in Quanzhou, China, in March, is the seventh player to win multiple titles this campaign and rises 27 positions to World No. 133.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID
Tennys Sandgren: “My game has pretty much stayed the same, but mentally I’ve made some adjustments, so I’m always giving myself a chance by competing hard,” said the Savannah champion. “I was relaxed going into the final, I had seen every aspect of tennis possible this week, I’ve had some of the craziest matches of my career back-to-back here this week. It’s great I could pull these victories out and gain this experience. It’s only going to serve me well at the French Open.”
A LOOK AHEAD
Four tournaments fill a busy billing this week. Malek Jaziri tops the field at the €127,000 Challenger event in Aix en Provence, France. The fourth edition of the clay tournament features a host of #NextGenATP players, with Sarasota champion Frances Tiafoe leading the charge.
Also on the red clay, the €64,000 Challenger in Rome welcomes Jiri Vesely as top seed. Alexander Bublik and Michael Mmoh lead the #NextGenATP contingent alongside wild cards for Stefanos Tsitsipas and Italian Gianluigi Quinzi.
World No. 56 Yen-Hsun Lu is the top-ranked player at the $100,000 hard court Challenger event in Seoul, South Korea. Meanwhile, two-time champion (2013, 2015) Teymuraz Gabashvili joins a strong field at the $75,000 tournament in Karshi, Uzbekistan.
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ATP CHALLENGER TOUR ON TWITTER: The ATP Challenger Tour has launched a dedicated Twitter account for the latest news and information about players and events. Follow @ATPChallengerTour at twitter.com/ATPChallengerTour.
Eugenie Bouchard outlasted Maria Sharapova – the woman she called a “cheat” – in a marathon three-setter to reach round three of the Madrid Open.
Bouchard criticised Sharapova as she made her comeback from a drugs ban at the Stuttgart Open, her only previous tournament after 15 months out.
The Canadian finally came through a brutal encounter 7-5 2-6 6-4 after almost three hours on court.
She will play top seed Angelique Kerber in the third round.
Kerber is set to replace Serena Williams as world number one after reaching the last 16 on the clay of the Spanish capital.
The Bouchard-Sharapova contest was always likely to be fiercely contested after a public exchange of views.
Speaking after Sharapova made her return from a ban for the use of meldonium, Bouchard said: “She’s a cheater and I don’t think a cheater in any sport should be allowed to play again.
“I think from the WTA it sends the wrong message to young kids: cheat and we’ll welcome you back with open arms.
“I don’t think that’s right and she’s not someone I can say I look up to any more.”
When Bouchard’s comments were put to her, Sharapova said that she was “way above” responding.
Though there was no apparent frostiness between them as they entered the court and knocked up, what followed was a fluctuating and full-blooded encounter in which both players refused to give ground.
With breaks exchanged in the first set, Bouchard looked to have blown a huge chance in the 11th game when she missed a forehand into open court with Sharapova stranded.
But the former Wimbledon finalist, now down to number 60 in the world, recovered to take her fourth break point at the end of a 12-minute game and served out to win a first set that last for 70 minutes.
Sharapova, though, found an extra gear in the next stanza, winning four straight games to take the second set as mistakes crept into Bouchard’s game.
The decider was a sapping affair, with each player coming from 0-40 down to avoid being broken – in Sharapova’s case, the Russian did it in successive service games.
A third save from 0-40 was too big an ask for Sharapova, but even then it was not decisive for Bouchard, who surrendered her serve in the next game.
But, from 40-15 up, Sharapova was broken and, in the next game, Bouchard took her second match point for her first victory over the five-time Grand Slam champion at the fifth time of asking.
After two hours and 51 minutes, the players exchanged the briefest of handshakes at the net.
For Bouchard, this represents her biggest win and best run at a tournament since reaching the semi-finals in Sydney in January, while Sharapova still has work to do secure a place in Wimbledon qualifying.
Andy Murray will look to breathe some life into his poor 2017 so far, with the World No.1 taking on wildcard Marius Copil in…
