In Record Year, Nadal Bucks Top 10 Trend

Posted: May 04, 2017

In Record Year, Nadal Bucks Top 10 Trend

May032017

Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers shows how the Spaniard has started strong on serve this year

The Top 10 are under siege.

As a collective unit, they are not enjoying the same success this season as they did last year when attempting to win the opening point of their service games.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of the current Top 10 in the Emirates ATP Rankings uncovers an almost two percentage-point drop in the Top 10 forging ahead to 15/0 compared to falling behind 0/15 when serving.

In fact, eight of the current Top 10 players are performing worse during the opening point of their service games this year compared to last year. The standout is current World No. 5 Rafael Nadal, who has improved almost five percentage points in 2017 compared to 2016.

The 30-year-old Spaniard is 29-5 through the first four months of this season. The left-hander claimed his 10^th title at both the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters and the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell last month.

Read More: Nadal Wins 10th Barcelona Title

The only other player to be in positive numbers in 2017 compared to 2016 is No. 7 Kei Nishikori, who has improved by almost two percentage points.

Top 10 2017 vs. 2016: Percentage of Winning The Opening Point On Serve

Ranking	Player	2016	2017	Percentage-Point Change
5	Rafael Nadal	61.4%	66.2%	4.8
7	Kei Nishikori	66.4%	68.3%	1.9
8	Marin Cilic	69.2%	67.5%	-1.7
3	Stan Wawrinka	66.9%	65.1%	-1.8
9	Dominic Thiem	67.1%	64.5%	-2.6
1	Andy Murray	69.2%	66.5%	-2.7
10	David Goffin	64.8%	61.9%	-2.9
2	Novak Djokovic	70.5%	66.8%	-3.7
4	Roger Federer	73.0%	68.7%	-4.3
6	Milos Raonic	74.5%	68.0%	-6.5
–	AVERAGE	68.3%	66.4%	-1.9

The peak performer in the current Top 10 in 2017 is Roger Federer, who is winning the opening point of his service games nearly 69 per cent of the time, with Nishikori in second place at about 68 per cent.

Federer was actually at 73 per cent last season – second to only Milos Raonic, who was head and shoulders above the pack at 74.5 per cent. Nadal was the worst performer out of the current Top 10 during the 2016 season, winning the opening point of his service games only 61.4 per cent of the time.

Navigating from love-all to 15/0 is more challenging so far this season for the Top 10 – a small chink in their armour where opponents are enjoying increased success.

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Bautista Agut Survives Munich Scare

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#NextGenATP Zverev advances on Wednesday

Second seed Roberto Bautista Agut escaped from the brink of defeat on Wednesday at the BMW Open by FWU, rallying from 3-5 in the deciding set to reach the quarter-finals over Marius Copil 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-5.

The Romanian Copil captured the lone break of serve in the opening set at 2-2, but Bautista Agut came back from an early break down in the second set and dominated the tie-break to force a decider. Copil served for the match at 5-3 in the final set and came within two points of winning, but the Spaniard fought back to win the final four games and prevail in two hours and 28 minutes.

He improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Copil to 2-0 and looks to surpass his best Munich performance of a semi-final finish in 2015 (l. Murray).

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Awaiting him in the quarter-finals is German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, who delighted the home crowd with a 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-5 win over eighth seed Thomaz Bellucci. The 25-year-old German saved a match point with Bellucci serving for the contest at 5-4 in the final set before ultimately scoring the upset in two hours and 19 minutes.

Hanfmann, currently No. 273 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is making his ATP World Tour main draw debut this week. His best result this season prior to Munich was a quarter-final showing at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Bergamo.

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Joining him in the quarter-finals is seventh seed Jan-Lennard Struff, who prevailed in an all-German battle against Tommy Haas 6-4, 7-5. Struff rallied from 1-3 down in the second set to win the first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting between these players. Struff has been in fine form this clay season, reaching the quarter-finals in Marrakech and defeating Grigor Dimitrov en route to a third-round showing in Monte-Carlo.

Next up for him is third seed and #NextGenATP German Alexander Zverev, who defeated Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-4. The battle was a rematch of their quarter-final this February in Montpellier, which saw Zverev prevail in three sets. The German, who reached the semi-finals last year in Munich, improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Chardy to 3-0.

DOUBLES

Third seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah are the first team to reach the semi-finals after a 6-2, 6-4 win over Italians Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi.

In first-round doubles action, top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic needed just 56 minutes to defeat Dino Marcan and Tristan-Samuel Weissborn 6-3, 6-2. They’ll play last week’s champions in Budapest, Brian Baker and Nikola Mektic, who moved past Julian Knowle and Alexander Peya 7-5, 4-6, 10-5.

Fourth seeds Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos eased past French duo Julien Benneteau and Jonathan Eysseric 6-3, 6-4. Next up for them is Mikhail Kukushkin and Sergiy Stakhovsky, who defeated Nenad Zimonjic and Mischa Zverev 6-4, 7-5.

German wild cards Gero Kretschmer and Alexander Satschko scored the upset of the day over second seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi 7-6(2), 6-1, and will play the French duo of Chardy and Fabrice Martin.

Carreno Busta Snaps Streak In Estoril

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Spaniard going for his first clay-court crown

Top seed Pablo Carreno Busta earned his first win against countryman Tommy Robredo, moving into the Millennium Estoril Open quarter-finals with a 7-6(5), 7-5 victory on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old Carreno Busta hadn’t won a set and was 0-3 against the 35-year-old Robredo during their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. But all three of their past match-ups took place in 2014, and Carreno Busta has leaped in the Emirates ATP Rankings since their most recent contest, a quarter-final at Umag in 2014.

At the time, Carreno Busta was ranked No. 57 and hadn’t reached an ATP World Tour final. Nearly three years later, though, the 6’2” Spaniard is ranked No. 21, has reached five finals and won two ATP World Tour titles (Moscow 2016; Winston-Salem 2016).

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Carreno Busta, an Estoril semi-finalist in 2015 and a finalist in 2016, will face another veteran countryman in the last eight: defending champion Nicolas Almagro, who dropped only two points on his first serve (20/22) to beat Portugal’s Gastao Elias 6-1, 6-2. Almagro improves to 9-1 in Estoril.

Second seed Richard Gasquet won his first tour-level match since February, advancing to the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory against Argentine Carlos Berlocq. Gasquet, the 2015 Estoril champion, underwent appendicitis surgery in March and lost in his return last week at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.

The Frenchman improved to 5-0 against Berlocq in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The 30-year-old Gasquet will next meet South African Kevin Anderson, who outlasted Portuguese qualifier Joao Domingues 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 in two hours and 24 minutes.

Fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro received some sad news and had to withdraw from the tournament to head back to Argentina. “I received the news of the death of my grandfather, and I need to go to my family to be with them during this hard time and say goodbye with them. Thank you Estoril, I will see you soon,” del Potro said in a statement.

.@delpotrojuan .@delpotrojuan is on his way to Argentina after his grandfather passed away today. He wants to stay with his family in this tough moment.

— Jorge Viale (@jorgeviale) May 3, 2017

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Cilic, Tomic Reach Istanbul QFs

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Top seed Raonic in action later

Second seed Marin Cilic enjoyed a winning debut at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open on Wednesday as he dismissed Damir Dzumhur 6-3, 6-2 in 70 minutes.

The Croatian opened his clay-court swing with a quarter-final showing in Monte-Carlo two weeks ago (l. to Ramos-Vinolas) and is bidding to win his second title on the dirt this week, five years on from his Umag triumph.

Cilic goes on to face eighth seed Steve Darcis, who made short work of Jiri Vesely with a 6-2, 6-1 victory in 52 minutes.

Sixth seed Bernard Tomic booked his quarter-final spot with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Rogerio Dutra Silva.

“It’s my second time being in a clay-court quarter-final,” said Tomic. “It’s a very good thing for me. This time last year I was ranked 17, 18 in the world and couldn’t win a clay-court match. It’s good progress for me. I’m happy that I’m playing well, especially in Istanbul.”

'Wimbledon qualifying could cope with Sharapova'

Posted: May 03, 2017

Wimbledon qualifying could cope with the levels of interest should Maria Sharapova take part in the Roehampton tournament, the All England Club says.

The Russian returned from a 15-month doping ban last month and could yet qualify directly or receive a wildcard when they are confirmed on 20 June.

Wimbledon’s qualifying event will be ticketed for the first time this year.

All England Club chief Richard Lewis is “absolutely confident” Roehampton could cope with Sharapova’s presence.

“We’re used to organising events where there’s a lot of pressure on our facilities, so it would be nothing unusual for us,” he told BBC Sport.

Sharapova likely to get wildcard – Murray

Lewis said Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, has not yet requested a wildcard and there have been no discussions, either formal or informal, with her or her team.

Former world number one Sharapova, 30, reached the semi-finals in Stuttgart on her return to action last month.

As a result she is currently ranked 262nd – but she needs to be closer to the top 100 to qualify directly for the main draw at Wimbledon, or the top 200 for the qualifying tournament.

She has wildcards at this month’s events in Madrid and Rome, where she can pick up more points before the Wimbledon main draw entry deadline of 22 May and the qualifying deadline of 5 June.

Wimbledon’s qualifying tournament takes place from 26 to 29 June at the Bank of England Sports Grounds, and until this year has been an unticketed event with limited media facilities.

This year there will be 1,000 tickets for sale at £5 each, with proceeds going to the Wimbledon Foundation, along with video coverage of one court, inflatable covers on two courts and an improved player lounge.

Asked whether the changes were made with Sharapova’s possible presence in mind, Lewis said: “I know it does seem very convenient timing but it is actually unrelated, genuinely unrelated, and we know that qualifying needs to continue to be improved, just like we improve facilities here at the Championships. It’s part of an ongoing process.”

Sharapova was initially banned by the International Tennis Federation for two years after testing positive for heart disease drug meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open.

It was later reduced to 15 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who found that she was not an “intentional doper”.

The issue of whether the French Open and Wimbledon, as Grand Slam events, should offer wildcards to a player returning from a doping ban has divided opinion.

Andy Murray and Caroline Wozniacki have been among those opposed to her receiving wildcards, while Venus Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova were among the more supportive players.

The French federation will make its decision known on 16 May, while Wimbledon’s Tennis Committee meets to discuss who will receive wildcards on 20 June.

The committee will be made up of former British number one Tim Henman, three club members including club chairman Philip Brook, Debbie Jevans and Richard Stoakes, tournament referee Andrew Jarrett and two LTA members, Martin Corrie and Cathy Sabin.

“Wildcards are what they say that they are,” Lewis added.

“There’s a wide range of criteria that any tournament would consider and from our point of view it could be playing record, it could be whether they are British or not.

“And to pre-empt the next question, who knows what they will consider on the 20 June? That’s a matter for the committee and not something we can speculate on at this stage.”

Analysis

Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent

Improvements to the Roehampton site have been on the All England Club’s agenda for a while, but I think it would be fair to say progress was given an extra sense of urgency by the possible appearance of Sharapova and all those her presence would attract.

The 2004 champion could well play herself into the main draw by reaching the semi-finals in either Madrid or Rome, which allowed Richard Lewis to answer questions about wildcards as purely hypothetical for now.

Past Wimbledon form and success in tournaments leading up to the championships, especially those on grass, are factors the committee will consider. Sharapova will score highly in at least one of those categories, and Lewis also told me that views expressed by some other players are not likely to prove relevant.

But he would not be drawn on how much weight Sharapova’s anti-doping violation would carry. That is the crux of the matter, and very much down to the seven people who will file into the All England Club on Tuesday, 20 June.

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