Ferrer Fires Away Drop Shot Reply Madrid 2016
Ferrer Fires Away Drop Shot Reply Madrid 2016
May052016
ATPWorldTour.com previews Thursday’s third-round action at the Mutua Madrid Open
Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, who have combined to win 12 of the last 13 ATP Masters 1000 titles, headline the Mutua Madrid Open third round Thursday. All three former Madrid champions are scheduled to play on Manolo Santana, with Murray meeting No. 16 seed Gilles Simon in the first match at 12 pm. Murray is 3-0 against Simon in Madrid with two wins on clay and another in the 2008 final, which marked the last hard-court match at the event.
In the following men’s match, World No. 1 Djokovic looks to break his tie with Dominic Thiem for the most wins on tour this season. The Serb is 29-2 entering his encounter with No. 15 seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who is also in the Top 5 with 22 victories in 2016. Men’s play concludes on Manolo Santana when Nadal meets Sam Querrey. Nadal has won 11 straight matches overall and 15 in a row against Americans. The four-time champion is undefeated against active American players (19-0) and Americans on clay (12-0), though Querrey won a set in all three of their matches.
MOST WINS ON ATP WORLD TOUR IN 2016
1T Novak Djokovic 29
1T Dominic Thiem 29
3 Kei Nishikori 24
4 Rafael Nadal 23
5T Roberto Bautista Agut 22
5T Milos Raonic 22
Bold: Playing in Madrid third round on Thursday
A pair of matches between Top 10 players highlights the schedule on Arantxa Sanchez. Eighth-ranked Tomas Berdych has lost seven of his last eight matches against others in the Top 10. His opponent, ninth-ranked David Ferrer, has lost seven straight. In the other Top-10 match-up, World No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga meets Milos Raonic, who replaced Richard Gasquet at No. 10 in this week’s Emirates ATP Rankings. Now No. 12, Gasquet takes a surprising 6-0 FedEx ATP Head 2 Head record into his match against sixth-ranked Kei Nishikori on Estadio 3.
Seven of the Top 8 doubles seeds are also in action on Wednesday, led by Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. The Frenchmen are bidding to become the first doubles team or singles player to sweep the first four ATP Masters 1000 titles. Mahut is also one of four men who could be the doubles World No. 1 on May 9 along with current No. 1 Jamie Murray, No. 2 Marcelo Melo and No. 5 Horia Tecau.
Defending champion Andy Murray reached the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open with an impressive 6-4 6-2 win over 16th seed Gilles Simon of France.
Second seed Murray, 28, broke Simon for the first time to take the opening set as part of a five-game winning run.
He then broke three times in the second set to complete victory in one hour, 38 minutes.
Britain’s Murray will play either Czech Tomas Berdych or Spaniard David Ferrer in the last eight.
Murray’s serve was never broken and the power and variety of his ground strokes was too much for Simon, 31.
“It’s always difficult to get the balance right against him because the better you hit the ball, the faster it comes back against him,” Murray said.
“He uses the pace very well so I knew I needed to be patient and use variety, but also when the chance is there, go for it. Sometimes he makes players rush, but today I didn’t have that problem. It was good from start to finish.”
World number one Novak Djokovic, who won in Madrid in 2011, plays Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut later on Thursday.
Four-time winner Rafael Nadal, who lost to Murray is last year’s final, plays Sam Querrey of the United States in the evening session.
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After attending the Champions League semi-final the night before, Djokovic & Nadal turn their focus to quarter-final spots Thursday in Madrid
Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, who have combined to win 12 of the last 13 ATP Masters 1000 titles, headline the Mutua Madrid Open third round Thursday. All three former Madrid champions are scheduled to play on Manolo Santana, with Murray meeting No. 16 seed Gilles Simon in the first match at 12 pm. Murray is 3-0 against Simon in Madrid with two wins on clay and another in the 2008 final, which marked the last hard-court match at the event.
In the following men’s match, World No. 1 Djokovic looks to break his tie with Dominic Thiem for the most wins on tour this season. The Serb is 29-2 entering his encounter with No. 15 seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who is also in the Top 5 with 22 victories in 2016. Men’s play concludes on Manolo Santana when Nadal meets Sam Querrey. Nadal has won 11 straight matches overall and 15 in a row against Americans. The four-time champion is undefeated against active American players (19-0) and Americans on clay (12-0), though Querrey won a set in all three of their matches.
A pair of matches between Top 10 players highlights the schedule on Arantxa Sanchez. Eighth-ranked Tomas Berdych has lost seven of his past eight matches against others in the Top 10. His opponent, ninth-ranked David Ferrer, has lost seven straight. In the other Top-10 match-up, World No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga meets Milos Raonic, who replaced Richard Gasquet at No. 10 in this week’s Emirates ATP Rankings. Now No. 12, Gasquet takes a surprising 6-0 FedEx ATP Head 2 Head record into his match against sixth-ranked Kei Nishikori on Estadio 3.
Seven of the Top 8 doubles seeds are also in action on Wednesday, led by Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. The Frenchmen are bidding to become the first doubles team or singles player to sweep the first four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles. Mahut is also one of four men who could be the doubles World No. 1 on May 9 along with current No. 1 Jamie Murray, No. 2 Marcelo Melo and No. 5 Horia Tecau.
BMW Open by FWU AG doubles champions also advance on Wednesday
Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo snuck past the World No. 10 doubles team on Wednesday to become the first team to advance to the quarter-finals at the Mutua Madrid Open.
The No. 4 seeds beat American Rajeev Ram and South African Raven Klaasen 5-7, 6-3, 10-8. Dodig/Melo earned one mini-break and didn’t drop a point on serve during the match tie-break. The team will face Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi or No. 8 seeds Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock. Huey/Mirnyi swept Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-4.
In first-round action, the Polish team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski won 6-1, 5-7, 11-9 against Fabio Fognini and Viktor Troicki. Henri Kontinen and John Peers, BMW Open by FWU AG champions on Sunday, beat Alexandr Dolgopolov and Bernard Tomic. The Fin and Aussie won 6-3, 3-6, 10-3.
30 year old wins 80 per cent of first-serve points in the win
Pablo Cuevas produced more tough clay-court tennis on Wednesday to outlast Gael Monfils and achieve his best result at the Mutua Madrid Open. The World No. 27 beat the confident Monfils 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(4) in two hours and 29 minutes to move into the third round. Cuevas, whose previous best in Madrid was a second-round showing, will face Australian Nick Kyrgios, who beat Stan Wawrinka earlier Wednesday.
Service breaks were at a premium during the second-round contest. Cuevas earned two, Monfils, just one. But neither player relented in the third set. In the final tie-break, Cuevas earned a mini-break at 4-3 and later served out the match.
The Uruguayan had never beaten Monfils before Wednesday, falling in all four previous contests. But he’s had plenty of other success, including two clay-court titles this season, the Brasil Open and the Rio Open presented by Claro. In Rio de Janeiro, Cuevas beat Nadal in three sets en route to the title.
The 30 year old lost to Kyrgios during their only previous meeting, earlier this year at the Australian Open. Monfils, who made the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, fell to 8-2 on clay this season with the loss. Cuevas improved to 15-3 on the red dirt.
It hasn’t all been about tennis for players this week. ATPWorldTour.com provides a recap of the highlights.
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Mutua Madrid Open – Madrid, Spain
Spanish tennis legends Manolo Santana, the tournament director, Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, and Manuel Orantes were honoured in an on-court ceremony Tuesday, commemorating their inscription into the tournament’s Hall of Fame. The event was attended by Rafael Nadal, International Tennis Hall of Fame CEO Todd Martin and Spanish greats, including Albert Costa, Alberto Berasategui and Alex Corretja.
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga paid homage to the history of the game by taking a tour of the Hall of Fame. View Photos
With the help of Rafael Nadal, Feliciano Lopez and Marat Safin, €55,000 was raised to help Syrian refugees through UNHCR (The UN agency for refugees), CEAR (Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid), UNICEF and Mensajeros de la Paz. In a fun hour of exhibition tennis, two teams of tennis stars and celebrities entertained the fans on Court Manolo Santana. Read & Watch
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic joined an illustrious group of recipients, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Pele, Johan Cruyff, Lionel Messi, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps in receiving the prestigious Marca Leyenda (Marca Legend) award. Read
With help from a host of spectators and ATP World Tour stars Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Mutua Madrid Open made history on Sunday morning by setting a new Guinness World Record for the most people bouncing tennis balls on racquets at the same time for 10 seconds. Read & Watch
Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco joined Genie Bouchard for a cooking class on site, while Juan Monaco helped out with the draw ceremony. Watch Video/View Photo
Novak Djokovic, Boris Becker, Manolo Santana, Teymuraz Gabashvili, Pablo Cuevas, Joao Sousa and Bruno Soares attended the Players’ Party at Platea Market in Madrid. Watch Video
Taylor Fritz enjoyed a visit to the home of Real Madrid, Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (View Photo) and returned on Wednesday to watch the Champions League semi-final (View Photo)
A few players even tried their hand at paddle tennis at Caja Magica, including Sam Querrey (View Photo), Djokovic and his younger brother Marko Djokovic (View Photo).