Atp Finals: 3 Spots Up For Grabs In A Hot Autumn Of Tennis - UBITENNIS
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Atp Finals: 3 Spots Up For Grabs In A Hot Autumn Of Tennis

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TENNIS – The race for the ATP Finals is really heating up. Three players Djokovic, Federer and Nadal have already booked their berth for the end-of-season ATP Finals. Wawrinka is currently fourth in the ATP Ranking and can already plan in advance his second consecutive travel to the British capital. The other surprising Grand Slam champion Marin Cilic, has almost secured his ticket to London. The three remaining spots for the great season-finale are up for grabs. The race is wide open. Diego Sampaolo

It will be a hot autumn for tennis fans, as the race for London will be decided in the tournaments starting from the Asian Swing.

The Asian Swing starts this week with two ATP 250 Tournaments in Kuala Lumpur and Shenzhen. Next week features two ATP 500 in Beijing and Tokyo, followed by the Master 1000 in Shanghai. China will host tournaments in all three categories (250, 500 and Master 1000). After the Asian Swing the circuit will return to Europe with a series of Indoor tournaments (Stockholm, Vienna, Moscow, Valencia, Basel) before the last Master 1000 Tournament in Paris Bercy.

Kei Nishikori starts his Asian campaign this week in Kuala Lumpur in search for points for the ATP Finals after his first Grand Slam final at the US Open. It will be his fourth appearance in the Malaysian Open. Nishikori is also planning to play in Tokyo and Shanghai. The Florida-based player will be bidding to become the first Asian player in history to qualify for the ATP Finals. Nishikori has made a real breakthrough this year reaching his first Master 1000 final in Madrid (where he came close to beating Nadal but had to surrender to injury problems on his back). The Japanese player has reached his first ever Grand Slam final after overcoming very tough and long battles against Milos Raonic after a marathon five-set match in the fourth round that lasted until 2.30 in the night, Stan Wawrinka in the quarter final and Novak Djokovic in the semifinal. The question is to see how the injury-prone player has recovered from these efforts.

World Number 6 Nishikori leads the field at the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur where he will face Number 13 Ernests Gulbis, who won in Marseille and Nice and reached the semifinal in the Roland Garros and is just one match-win away from equalling his career best after winning 36 matches this year.

The Malaysian Open will also feature Joao Sousa who won this tournament last year after saving a match point against Julien Benneteau. Sousa finished runner-up this year in Bastad last July and in Metz last week where he lost against David Goffin.

Andy Murray has received a wild-card to play in Shenzhen this week and Beijing next week to look for points to stand a chance to qualify for London. The Scotsman will be looking to win his first tournament of the year in Shenzhen against a strong field featuring against David Ferrer, Richard Gasquet and Tommy Robredo.

It was a season of ups and downs for Murray following a back injury and his change to coach Amelie Mauresmo. Murray has accepted a late wild-card to play in Shenzhen and a win in the Chinese tournament could boost his confidence for the final part of the year after dropping to World Number 11 in the ATP Ranking. Ironically he reached his best result of this season on his less favourite clay surface at the Roland Garros where he qualified for the semifinal after two five-set matches against Phillip Kohlschreiber in the third round and in the quarter final against Gael Monfils. He reached the third round at the Queen’s and the quarter final at Wimbledon where he lost to Grigor Dimitrov. He reached three quarter finals in Toronto, Cincinnati and the US Open

Murray is looking to lift his first title since his Wimbledon triumph in 2013. He is currently ranked 11th with 3155 points, 355 points behind Tomas Berdych who is currently ranked eighth with 3510. In 2011 Murray won three tournaments in a row in the Asian Swing in Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai.

“I want to try and get some energy and get the winning feeling feeling back. That was the reason why I added this tournament to my schedule. You have to try and approach these tournaments wanting to win the event. I managed to do that once before a few years ago in Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai when I played three of the best weeks that I have ever played. I am not expecting to do that this time but I am going to try”, said Murray.

Murray has played well in the Chinese tournaments in the most recent years. In Shanghai he won two titles in 2010 and 2011 and lost against Novak Djokovic in 2012 after a fantastic final in which the Serbian player saved five match points in a second-set tie-break. At Flushing Meadows he lost to Novak Djokovic after beating Jo Wilfred Tsonga in the fourth round.

In the second week of the Asian Swing Murray will face a star-studded field at the China Open in Beijing which features Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal who makes his come-back from a wrist injury which has sidelined from the North-American hard-court season, US Open champion Marin Cilic and two strong contenders for ATP Finals points like Tomas Berdych and Grigor Dimitrov.

Djokovic will be looking to win his third consecutive title in the Chinese capital where he triumphed four times in the last five years.

On the same week as Beijing, the calender features another ATP 500 Tournament in Tokyo where Nishikori will be looking to win his second title in the home tournament in front of his home fans. The player coached by Michael Chang and Dante Bottini will face a very tough task against David Ferrer, Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Stan Wawrinka. The Tokyo tournament has been won by different players every single year since 1996 when Pete Sampras clinch his third title in the Japanese capital.

The third week of the Asian Swing will be highlighted by the Shanghai Master 1000 where Novak Djokovic won the last two editions in 2012 against Andy Murray and in 2013 against Juan Martin Del Potro. Federer will return to the court three weeks after leading Switzerland to the historic second Davis Cup final against Italy in Geneva. Federer said after Geneva that his two major goals for the end of the year are the Davis Cup final against France in Lille and the ATP Finals in London. The goal to win the first Davis Cup title in Swiss history could change his plans for the end of the year

Who are the favourite players to book a ticket for the O2 Arena? Nishikori is currently ranked sixth in the ATP Ranking with 3675 points with a slight lead over David Ferrer (3535), Tomas Berdych (3510 points), Milos Raonic (3440 points), Grigor Dimitrov (3335 points) and Andy Murray (3155 points) in what promises to be a close battle for just three berths for the ATP Finals in London.

Tomas Berdych is not in his best form as he showed last week in the Davis Cup semifinal in Paris against France where he lost in three sets against Richard Gasquet in what he described as “his worst Davis Cup match”.

David Ferrer lost the Cincinnati final against Federer but lost in the third round against Giles Simon in the US Open but he is an experienced player at this level and has still chances to qualify for London. The Spanish player will be trying to win for the fifth consecutive year and the sixth overall. He won in Buenos Aires earlier this year against Fabio Fognini and has clinched at least one title every year since 2010.

Grigor Dimitrov, a quarter finalist at the Australian Open and a semifinalist at Rome and Wimbledon, has still a good chance to qualify for his first ATP Finals. More recently he lost the semifinal against eventual winner Jo Wilfred Tsonga in the semifinal in Toronto but he lost in the second round against Jerzy Janowicz. At the US Open he lost against Gael Monfils in three close sets.

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Alcaraz Halts Sinner’s Winning Streak To Reach The Final In Indian Wells

Carlos Alcaraz earns the right to defend his title at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells fending off Jannik Sinner’s assault to his ATP no. 2 spot

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Jannik Sinner (left) and Carlos Alcaraz (right) - Indian Wells 2024 (photo Twitter X @BNPPARIBASOPEN)

All good things come to an end. Jannik Sinner was on a 19-match winning streak since his loss to Novak Djokovic in the final of the Nitto ATP Finals that included his first Grand Slam win in Australia last January, and appeared as the most in-form player at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the first Masters 1000 tournament of the season. But as he faced Carlos Alcaraz in an eagerly-awaited semifinal, he was unable to continue his quest for the third consecutive title of the season, succumbing to the Spaniard 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The match was a face-off for the no. 2 spot in the ATP ranking that Alcaraz will still occupy next Monday regardless of the result of Sunday’s final, and this is a much-needed confidence boost for him after a disappointing start of the season where he was handily beaten in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open by Zverev and did not win any tournament during the South American clay court swing where he was ousted by Nicolas Jarry in Buenos Aires and had to retire for an ankle injury at the Rio Open.

The match, originally scheduled for 1.30 pm Pacific Time, had to be suspended for over three hours after only three games because of an unusual downpour. As the match resumed, Sinner appeared once again the perfectly-tuned machine that had been crushing opponents with metronomic regularity for the past weeks while Alcaraz was struggling to keep up with his opponent’s pace from the baseline.

The first set was smooth sailing for the Italian who cruised to a comprehensive 6-1 in 27 minutes: Alcaraz was tentative from the baseline and could not find the right position to fire his screamers and change the tactical discourse of the match. “Then at the beginning of the second set, as I saw he was making a lot of mistakes, I tried to be as solid as possible when I should have kept pushing instead – Sinner said during his press conference – and that’s what cost me the match in the end”.

While serving at 1-2 in the second set, a few uncharacteristic forehand mistakes started to dot his thus far spotless game, and that cost him the break that sent Alcaraz flying to a 4-1 advantage. The Spaniard then found the confidence to change his return position and make Sinner work a lot more on his service games, as the Italian struggled to find a countermeasure to the tactical shift in the match: “I kept doing the same thing over and over again”, Sinner stressed, and forehand unforced errors started to pile up to reach the burdensome number of 27 at the end of the match.

Sinner had the chance to find his way back into the second set while Alcaraz was serving at 3-5, but Carlos cancelled his break point with a laser backhand down the line that had the 15,000-strong crowd cheering on their feet.

The third set ran away very quickly from the Italian, who started touching repeatedly the back of his left leg around his knee. Sinner got broken again during the third game, and while going for a last-ditch attempt to recover a short volley by Alcaraz he tumbled to the ground slightly injuring his right elbow and arm. From there onwards it was just more mistakes by Sinner and a clinical execution by Alcaraz on how to take home a match.

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“It Feels Great’ – Novak Djokovic Marks Indian Wells Return With Milestone Win

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Novak Djokovic - Indian Wells 2024 (foto Ubitennis)

Novak Djokovic says he still has a ‘great feeling’ in Indian Wells after playing his first match at the event for five years. 

The world No.1 battled to a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, win over Aleksandar Vukic in what was his first taste of competitive tennis since losing in the semi-finals of the Australian Open. It was a far from smooth encounter for Djokovic, who hit 23 winners and won 83% of his first service points. In the second set, he was broken twice with the second of those occurring when he was serving at 5-6. Nevertheless, he battled back in the decider to win. 

This year is the first time Djokovic has been able to play in the Masters 1000 event since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the 2020 tournament was cancelled, he was unable to play the next three editions due to restrictions placed on unvaccinated foreign visitors to America. Despite the absence, the five-time champion states that his love for the event is as strong as ever.

“It feels great to come back with the win. It’s been five years and the great feeling is still there. I enjoyed myself very much. Beautiful stadium. Great atmosphere.” Djokovic said during his press conference. 
“I was a bit nervous at the beginning. I haven’t played a match in more than five weeks. I thought the start was good. Then I think he upped his game.
“I probably lost a little bit of the momentum. We got into the third set, I thought the level of the tennis was pretty good in the third. Great points. He made me produce some really important points in games in order to prevail in this match. I’m glad that I was pushed, as well, which is important.”

Djokovic’s latest victory is his 400th in a Masters 1000 tournament. He is only the second player in history to have reached this milestone since the tournament category was introduced in 1990. The first to do so was Rafael Nadal who currently has 406 wins to his name. 

He could create more history in Indian Wells should the Serbian go on to claim the title this year. If he does, he would become the first man to have won it for a sixth time. Although Djokovic is refusing to get too far ahead of himself. 

“I would love to,” he said of trying to claim a sixth title. “Obviously there is still a long way to get to the title match, but it’s a good start.’
“I know I can always produce better tennis. Obviously very self-critical, and I think some extent it’s also important because then it puts you in the right mindset of wanting to work more and being engaged in the process of improving on a daily basis, or trying to perfect your game and right the wrongs that you’ve done in a previous match or previous practice session.
“So that’s what I’m going to keep doing and hopefully building my game as this tournament is played over 10 to 14 days, so it allows you to have the practice days also between matches, which then allows you to work on certain specifics in the game.”

Djokovic will play Italy’s Luca Nardi in the next round. 

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Carlos Alcaraz Brushes Aside Injury Doubts To Reach Indian Wells Third Round

Carlos Alcaraz is into the third round at Indian Wells after a three set win over Matteo Arnaldi.

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(@BNPPARIBASOPEN - Twitter)

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame injury doubts to edge past Matteo Arnaldi 6-7(5) 6-0 6-1 at Indian Wells.

The world number two had to endure an aggressive opening set from the in-form Italian to reach the third round.

After a tight opening set, Alcaraz raced through the last two sets as he set up a third round showdown with Felix Auger-Aliassime.

The Spaniard had entered this match with injury doubts after retiring from his match with Thiago Monteiro in Rio De Janeiro.

However Alcaraz was very pleased with how his ankle held up as he moved on in California, “Honestly it surprised me. I felt great, moving normally without thinking about it,” Alcaraz told the ATP website.

“It was a really good match to realise that I am better than I thought. I think I played great tennis because of that. I had to change just a few things. I made a few mistakes in the first set… I had to put in more first serves in the second and third set, and I think that was a big key to improving my level a little bit, to be in the rallies — long rallies as well, to get the rhythm, and I’m really happy to get it at the end.

“But right now I’m getting better and feeling really, really well. But I think I have to get a good rhythm step by step. I think that’s the big difference between last year and this one. This [is a] really special tournament for me. I want to do it well. This is the first match playing high intensity and I didn’t know how it’s going respond, the ankle.

“I have to deal with it, but I didn’t deal with the nerves very well in the first set, moving differently, hitting the ball differently. My game is playing aggressive all the time. And try to stay calm and wait for my chances.

“When you get nervous, you don’t think about it. You don’t hit the ball as good as you want. You don’t move as good as you want. I think that’s the big difference.”

Alcaraz will hope for a good week this week as he defends the Indian Wells title as he aims to win a first title since Wimbledon this week.

Next for the Spaniard will be Felix Auger-Aliassime, who defeated Constant Lestienne in straight sets.

Auger-Aliassime currently leads the head-to-head 3-1 but Alcaraz won their last meeting in Indian Wells last year.

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