Star-studded field enters Erste Bank Open
ONE of the most star-studded fields outside a Grand Slam will enter the Erste Bank Open in Vienna with only Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev and the injured Roger Federer as the key omissions from the tournament. World number one Novak Djokovic and US Open winner Dominic Thiem are the top two seeds in a huge […]
Round of 32 at Cologne and Antwerp begin with close affairs
THE ATP 250 Rounds of 32 began at the European Open in Antwerp, Belgium and the second straight tournament in Cologne, Germany, with plenty of action across the two competitions. At Cologne, just one of the two seeds heads through to the Round of 16, with ninth seed Marin Cilic unable to maintain control against American Steve […]
2020 European Open preview: Seven top 20 players set for Antwerp
SEVEN top 20 ATP Tour players will descend on Antwerp for the 2020 European Open which starts on Monday. The ATP 250 event is a hard court event and will see a stacked lineup, with 44th ranked Albert Ramos-Vinolas the lowest ranked direct acceptance, whilst Matteo Berrettini (8th) will head in as the top seed. […]
Seeds downed in Round of 16 at Cologne and Sardinia
JUST one seed across the two ATP 250 tournaments in Sardinia and Cologne survived the first day of Round of 16 action, with three seeds falling at Sardinia and one at Cologne. It was also not a successful outing for the homegrown players on court, with no Italian or German talents winning through to the […]
Carballes Baena topples Shapovalov in five to clinch third round spot
ROBERTO Carballes Baena has won an epic battle over top 10 player and ninth seed, Denis Shapovalov to book his spot in the third round at Roland Garros. The Spanish world number 101 backed up his shellacking of Steve Johnson in the first round – dropping just two games – to overcome Shapovalov in a […]
Hamburg finalists fight back from two-set deficits to stage remarkable first round wins
STEFANOS Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev are lucky to survive the first round of the French Open after slow starts almost cost the Hamburg European Open finalists. A tight turnaround between the ATP500 event and the Grand Slam meant some soreness for the talented top 15 players, but neither would have expected to go two sets […]
2020 ATP Roland Garros preview: Can Nadal win number 13?
RAFAEL Nadal is always the nominal favourite at Roland Garros, probably because he has only lost three matches there in his entire career, of which one was via retirement. The King of Clay will be keen to bounce back from a shock loss to Diego Schwartzman in Rome to really put a stamp on his […]
Garin and Ruud end giant-killers runs
CRISTIAN Garin and Casper Ruud have both continued their strong form on clay with impressive three-set wins over in-form opponents. The up and coming talents joined other stars in the future, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev in the semi-finals of the Hamburg European Open. Garin ended the run of lucky loser, Alexander Bublik in a […]
Quarter finalists locked in as Tsitsipas the sole seed in bottom half
IN a day that was far from predictable with a couple of upsets knocking top 20 players out of the Hamburg European Open, Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas provided some normality to the draw with a straight sets win over Uruguayan qualifier Pablo Cuevas. Tsitsipas won 7-5 6-4 to advance through to the quarter finals, one […]
Lucky loser Bublik making the most of his second chance
KAZAHKSTAN’S Alexander Bublik would be thankful that Rome Masters finalist, Diego Schwartzman opted to pull out of the Hamburg European Open. The world number 56 suffered defeat in qualifying and looked to miss the final lead-up tournament to Roland Garros. That was until the seventh seeded Argentinian decided rest was more of a priority after […]
