Elias Ymer In Ethiopia 2017
Elias Ymer In Ethiopia 2017
May022017
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has returned to the practice court as she continues her comeback from a career-threatening hand injury.
The 27-year-old Czech suffered damage to tendons and nerves in her left hand when she was stabbed by an intruder at her home in Prostejov in December.
She posted a photo of her playing in Monaco on social media.
“I hope this picture makes you as happy as it makes me,” the world number 15 wrote.
“I’m back on the tennis court, hitting with some proper balls.”
Kvitova was initially expected to be out for at least six months, but last month said she has a “chance” of making the French Open, starting on 28 May.
She announced she has submitted her entry for Roland Garros, but may not be ready to play.
British number two Kyle Edmund is out of the Millennium Estoril Open after losing to qualifier Joao Domingues.
Domingues, the world number 242, fought back from 5-2 down in the third set and saved two match points before eventually beating the 22-year-old seventh seed 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-2).
The victory is the 23-year-old’s first on the ATP World Tour.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Aljaz Bedene beat Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics in the first round of the Istanbul Open.
The 27-year-old won 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-4, just two days after losing to Lucas Pouille in the Hungarian Open final.
The British number four will play top seed Milos Raonic for a place in the quarter-finals.
Sixth seed Bernard Tomic won nearly 75 per cent of his service points to secure his fourth victory of the season on Monday, beating lucky loser Mohamed Safwat of Egypt 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in just under two hours at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open.
Tomic improved to 2-1 on clay this year and will face Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva, who needed more than two hours to defeat Italian qualifier Riccardo Bellotti 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-0.
Czech Jiri Vesely earned his first victory against Spaniard Marcel Granollers 7-5, 2-6, 6-4. Granollers had led their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0. Vesely will next face eighth seed Steve Darcis of Belgium, who dismissed Israeli Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-4.
Russian Mikhail Youzhny also moved into the second round in Turkey, fending off Turkish wild card Cem Ilkel 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Tommy Robredo celebrated his 35th birthday with an opening win and an on-court cake presentation on Monday at the Millennium Estoril Open. The Spaniard won 84 per cent of his first-serve points to get past Russian Evgeny Donskoy, the only man to beat Roger Federer this season, 6-3, 6-2. Robredo will next face top seed and countryman Pablo Carreno Busta.
South African Kevin Anderson won his third clay-court match of the season, beating Italian qualifier Salvatore Caruso 6-2, 6-3 in 74 minutes.
Two home hopefuls also advanced on day one in Estoril. Gastao Elias outlasted Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and 16 minutes. Portuguese wild card Frederico Ferreira Silva advanced past Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-2, 6-2 and will next play fourth seed David Ferrer.
It might sound off at first, but Juan Martin del Potro is feeling at home this week as he returns to Portugal for an ATP World Tour event for the fourth time. Del Potro, who hails from Tandil, Argentina, said Estoril, the host site of this week’s Millennium Estoril Open, reminds him of his hometown in eastern Argentina.
“I feel like I’m at home,” del Potro said. “I’m enjoying being in Portugal a lot.”
The 28-year-old del Potro has certainly played like a man comfortable in his environment during his three trips to Portugal. Del Potro has gone 10-1, a stretch that includes two titles (2011, 2012). He has won nine consecutive matches and 17 straight sets in the European coastal country.
“Estoril has been a great place for me. I have great memories from this tournament. It’s something different for me, it’s now in a different stadium. But it’s still great for all the players, and I’m so happy to be back,” said del Potro, who last played in Portugal in 2012. “Every time when I start in Portugal, then I have a great season on clay. That means something good to me and something I’ll try to repeat.”
In 2012, after winning his second Estoril title, del Potro reached the semi-finals in Madrid, the round of 16 in Rome and the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
This year’s Estoril tournament will mark del Potro’s fifth tournament of 2017 and his season debut on clay. The 6’6” right-hander has gone 6-4 this season, and Estoril will be his first tournament since the Miami Open presented by Itau in March, when he lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in the third round.
All four of del Potro’s losses this season have come against Top 6 opponents. The fifth-seeded del Potro opens against Japan’s Yuichi Sugita on Tuesday.
“I’m feeling good. I’m feeling ready to start the clay season and hopefully I can enjoy good results,” he said. “I have a lot of fans here and the people with me are very nice, and I’m so happy to show my tennis to them.”
Tommy Haas began his Munich swan song with his 21st victory in the Germany city, beating Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Monday at the BMW Open by FWU. The 39-year-old Haas, who’s playing in the Munich tournament for the 12th and final time, didn’t face a break point in the final two sets and dropped only one point on serve (20/21) in the decider.
“I’m very excited to be back here after many years, on my last run in Munich,” said Haas, who last played in Munich in 2014. “It was a tough start for me. I think Sergiy played extremely well in the beginning, mixing it up and really letting me guess most of the time what’s going to happen. It took me a while to find my game, and I was happy to turn it around.”
The 2013 Munich champion will meet seventh seed and countryman Jan-Lennard Struff in the second round. Struff dismissed German wild card Daniel Masur 6-3, 6-4. Ten Germans entered the main draw of the ATP World Tour 250 tournament.
Eighth seed Thomaz Bellucci, a finalist in Houston last month, saved all three break points to beat Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-2 in 77 minutes. The Brazilian will next play German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, who, playing in his first tour-level match, beat Austrian Gerald Melzer 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.
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A career breakthrough vaulted Croatian Borna Coric up the Emirates ATP Race To Milan standings in April, and now the 20-year-old right-hander is close to challenging #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev for the lead in the race to qualify for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 7-11 November in Milan.
On 3 April, Coric was in eighth place in the Race, 380 points behind Zverev. But a week later, the Zagreb native compiled the best week of his career at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech.
Coric won five consecutive matches in Morocco to celebrate his first ATP World Tour title, saving five match points in the final to beat German Philipp Kohlschreiber 5-7, 7-6(3), 7-5 in two hours and 38 minutes. Along the way, Coric prevailed past two other Top 40 players, including then-World No. 24 Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain and Argentine Diego Schwartzman, who reached a new career high of No. 34 in the Emirates ATP Rankings last month.
Coric became the third player from the current #NextGenATP contingent to lift an ATP World Tour trophy, joining Zverev (St. Petersburg 2016 & Montpellier 2017) and Russian Karen Khachanov (Chengdu 2016).
“It’s an awesome feeling. I didn’t know what to expect when I came here, and I wasn’t in the best shape. But I’ve been working very hard the past three or four months, and now it’s paying off,” Coric told ATPWorldTour.com. “I was focused in all the matches and didn’t lose my calm. I just played very well and served very well and that made it much easier for me.”
The next week, Coric struggled at the season’s first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament on clay, the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, falling to French veteran Jeremy Chardy in three sets. Last week, at the inaugural Gazprom Hungarian Open in Budapest, Coric also dropped his opener, losing to Czech left-hander Jiri Vesely.
But Coric is now in second place in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan. He has 435 points, 265 points behind Race leader Zverev, who has 700 points.
Coric said qualifying for the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan remains one of his top goals for the season. “For sure it is,” he said. “I’m not sure if it will happen or not, but that’s a goal for sure. I need to continue to work hard.”
Read More: #NextGenATP Race Leader Zverev Has Massive March