Challenger Circuit: Clay rehearsal for Ward and Edmund as they try to impress ahead of Davis Cup Final - UBITENNIS
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Challenger Circuit: Clay rehearsal for Ward and Edmund as they try to impress ahead of Davis Cup Final

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Can James Ward convince Leon Smith he deserves to play as the second singles player in the Davis Cup Final?

Yes the main season may be all but over, with only the Davis Cup and ATP World Tour Finals for the very top players to look forward to, but that does not mean that some very high class tennis is still going on.

 

The Challenger Circuit is a place where young players trying to climb the rankings play, old-timers trying to stay in the big-time, and even top players trying to recover ranking points after long-term injury. This week sees James Ward and Kyle Edmund try and gain some clay court action ahead of the Davis Cup Final against Belgium. Find out below where they’re playing and who they might come up against.

Events this week, selected ties, and predictions:

Bratislava, Slovakia: Lukaz Rosol is the top seed, but the draw also features the likes of veterans  Mikhail Youzhny, Radek Stepanek, and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Young players to keep a look out for: Elias Ymer, Mikael Ymer, (they’re brothers) and Andrey Rublev. Blockbuster match-up : Stepanek vs (7) E. Ymer (Wednesday)

 

Mouilleron le Captif, France: If a Grand Slam were to be played on current ranking, Benoit Paire would be seeded (23). As it is, he’s playing a Challenger in France, where he’s the top seed. In fact all eight seeds are ranked in the top 100, with Adrian Mannarino, Lucas Pouille, Sergiy Stakhovsky, and  Marcel Granollers, very familiar names. Pouille will be looking to regain points dropped in Paris. Look out for: Karen Khachanov and Maxime Hamou.

There was an early win for second seed Mannarino, as he defeated Jonathan Eysseric 6-2, 7-6. Jan Mertl and Maxime Janvier join Mannarino in Rd 2 as other opening day victors.

 

Oritesi, Italy: Just the top two seeds ranked in the Top 100 here, in Ricardas Berankis and Evgeny Donskoy, but that doesn’t make for a less intriguing tournament! Third seed Rajeev Ram is still trying to ensure direct entry into next years Australian Open, and a good result here would aid that quest. Also, see if former Top 30 player Dmitry Tursunov can make an impact as a wildcard after battling injury the last few years. Look out for: Salvatore Caruso, who is a young Italian trying to climb the rankings.

Aldin Setkic caused the first shock of the tournament, defeating the flamboyant Dustin Brown, who was the fourth seed, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. No such problems for seventh seed Mirza Basic, who progressed after three sets against Yannick Jankovits.

 

Buenos Aires, Argentina: Clay runs just about all year either on the main tour and/or the Challenger circuit. This is good news for recognisable names such as Federico Delbonis, Diego Schwartzmann, and Guido Pella, who all excel on the red stuff. The real news in Buenos Aires though, is the presence of James Ward and Kyle Edmund, both trying to impress Leon Smith to back-up Andy Murray in Belgium. Edmund is the fifth seed, and starts with a clay veteran in Andre Ghem, whilst Ward has been handed a favourable tie against lucky loser Hugo Dellien, but could face Rogerio Dutra Silva in Rd 2. Should Edmund win, his opponent is already known, as Renzo Olivo defeated Tomas Lipovsek Puches 7-5, 6-2.

Potential shock: (1) Federico Delbonis vs Gastao Elias: Elias is a tough competitor on clay, and a nightmare first round match-up for Delbonis. There may be more than 80 places between them in ranking, but Elias has won two-from-two against Delbonis in the past, including an encounter on clay.

 

Kobe, Japan: Australia and Japan dominate this draw, with John Millman and Matthew Ebden the top two seeds. I’m predicting an early-ish exit for Ebden, who’s best results have come on grass. Perhaps the quarter-finals if he faces Konstantin Kravchuk or young Aussie Omar Jasika.

Look out for: Teenagers Omar Jasika and Duckhee Lee (Lee already won his 1st Rd match convincingly 6-3, 6-1 against Japanese wildcard Sho Katayama).

Blockbuster match-up: John Millman vs Duckhee Lee Rd 2 (Wednesday)

 

Knoxville, USA: The American Challengers have scarcely seen such competitiveness in recent years, but the likes of Taylor Fritz, Stefan Kozlov Jared Donaldson, Tommy Paul, Noah Rubin, Francis Tiafoe make the likes of Ryan Harrison and Bjorn Fratangelo look like veterans in comparison. A true goldmine of potential future talent this week, and that’s without discussing seeds Malek Jaziri, and Austin Krajicek.  Potential shocks (and there are truly too many to mention here): (1) Jaziri vs Kozlov,(Jaziri lost in Rd 1 of Charlottesville last week) and (3) Smyczek vs Paul.

Look out for: Noah Rubin – flown a bit under the radar compared to the likes of Fritz and co, but leapt up more than two hundred places in the rankings last week by winning Charlottesville Challenger (def. Paul). He starts with a tough match against second see Austin Krajicek.

 

 

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Danil Medvedev sets up all-Russian semifinal against Karen Khachanov in Miami

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Danil Medvedev edged US qualifier Christopher Eubanks 6-3 7-5 in a rain disrupted match to reach the semifinals at the Miami Open for the first time. 

 

Medvedev has reached the semifinals at a fifth consecutive ATP tournament after winning three consecutive titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai and reaching the final in Indian Wells. Medvedev has won 22 of his past 23 matches. 

Medvedev saved break points in the fourth game. The match was delayed by rain for half an hour. As the match resumed Medvedev reeled off the next four games to close out the first set 6-3.

Medvedev broke serve in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead. Eubanks broke straight back for 3-4. Medvedev broke again in the 12th game as Eubanks mishit a return on the third match point. 

“I did not play my best tennis before the rain delay. The rain helped go out and have more energy. It helped me and I only played better and better, apart from one bad game on my serve, but it happens”, said Medvedev. 

Medvedev set up a semifinal clash against his compatrion Karen Khachanov, who edged past Francisco Cerundolo 6-3 6-2. Khachanov reached his first ATP Masters semifinal since 2019. 

Cerundolo earned the first break of the match in the fifth game of the first set, but Medvedev broke straight back in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3. Khachanov broke for the second time in the eighth game to close out the first set 6-3. 

Khachanov broke twice in the first and fifth games to win the second set 6-2. Cerundolo won just four of 18 points and made 22 unforced errors. Khachanov hit 22 winners to Cerundolo’s 19.

Cerundolo entered this match with a 8-1 record at the Miami Open after reaching the semifinal in last year’s edition. 

Khachanov has moved up to 11th in the ATP Live Ranking and will return to the top 10 if he wins the title. He reached the semifinal at the Australian Open last September. 

“At the end of the day it was a question of finding rhythm. At the beginning, it was pretty windy and I could not where the wind was coming through. I then started to hit through the ball more and I felt better and better. After I broke him back I felt I was on a good rise and felt that I could not miss. That is good feeling to have during a match”, said Khachanov. 

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World Tennis Conference 3: The high-level training for tennis coaches is back

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The third edition of the world conference for tennis coaches, organized by GPTCA and Segal Institute, with ATP as institutional sponsor, will be held from 30th of March to 2nd of April. Many big names in the world of tennis are among the speakers, including Toni Nadal, Sergi Bruguera, Brad Gilbert, Gilles Cervara, Magnus Norman and Vincenzo Santopadre. And also Ubitennis.

 

Published by Ubitennis.com on 21 March  2023, translated by Massimo Volpati

A well-established high-level training for tennis coaches, teachers and instructors. We are talking about the World Tennis Conference (WTC), the online conference for tennis coaches from all over the world, now at its third edition, which will be held from 30th March to 2nd April 2023. The organization is managed by GPTCA – Global Professional Tennis Coach Association, the world association of tennis coaches recognized by ATP which deals with the training and updating of tennis coaches at an international level, and by SI – Segal Institute, an organization that provides advice and services in the field of tennis. The high quality of the event is confirmed by the presence, for the third consecutive year, of ATP as institutional sponsor, which together with GPTCA certifies the conference as a professional development event for coaches.

World Tennis Conference is designed for tennis coaches from all over the world with the aim of providing, in four intense days of training in e-learning mode, the most exhaustive possible picture of the knowledge, skills and competences that a tennis coach should develop. This edition will feature for the first time the  “NextGen Tennis Coaches programme”. This is an initiative that wants to support the entry of young people into the coaching profession world. This year twelve young coaches, aged not over 30, will be offered a free participation in the event.

The names of the speakers featured at WTC 2023 well illustrate the commitment of GPTCA and Segal Institute to making the conference a key reference event for the training of professional tennis coaches. In fact, 68 speakers – mainly tennis coaches, physical trainers, mental coaches and top-level sports scientists – will take the floor on the virtual stage of WTC.

By sharing their experiences and skills, they will highlight the fundamental aspects required for obtaining excellent tennis performances. Just to mention but a few: famous coaches such as Toni Nadal and Alberto Castellani, Grand Slam champions such as Sergi Bruguera and Pat Cash, as well as former top ten players such as Brad Gilbert, Jimmy Arias, Magnus Norman, Rainer Schuttler and Tommy Haas.

And speaking about current top players coaches, as well as Toni Nadal (who currently is following Auger-Aliassime), WTC 2023 will host Sergi Bruguera (since last year with Zverev), Vincenzo Santopadre (Berrettini’s lifelong coach),  Gilles Cervara, Daniil Medvedev’s coach, Frederic Fontang, head coach of Aliassime, and Michael Russell, Taylor Fritz’s coach. And last but not least, when it comes to excellent performances, the physical trainer of Novak Djokovic: Marco Panichi.

The conference aims to train coaches at 360 degrees, thus also dealing with the skills a coach should develop outside the canonical technical, tactical, physical and mental areas, in order to be able to support his player even more effectively and better organize his manifold activities. Hence the focus on relations with media and  external communication, Topics which, were already discussed during the first edition.

This time also Ubitennis will take part in the virtual stage of WTC. In fact, the Live Panel “Communications Training” will see among the Special Speakers our Director Ubaldo Scanagatta, with his decades of experience as a journalist, reporter and correspondent at over 160 Grand Slams, but also former director of the ATP tournament in Florence, from 1974 to 1979, and our collaborator Ilvio Vidovich, member of the Scientific Committee and press officer of ISMC  (International Sports Mental Coach Association).

The event will take place on the CoachTube e-learning platform. Further information is available on the event website https://worldtennisconference.com/.

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Draw of the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage announced in Malaga

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The Draw of the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage took place in Malaga on Wednesday afternoon. 

 

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has confirmed the host nations for the 2023 Davis Cup Finals Group Stage. 

The Unipol Arena in Bologna (Italy) and the Pabellon Municipal Fuente de San Luis in Valencia will return as host venues after staging successful events in 2022. 

Host team Italy will take on defending champions Canada, who won the Davis Cup Trophy for the first time in history beating Australia. The Group A will also feature Sweden and Chile. 

Italy features a potential strong team that includes Jannik Sinner, who reaches the Indian Wells and Miami Open semifinals and the Rotterdam final this year, and 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini. 

Felix Auger Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov helped Canada beat Australia in the final in Malaga last November. 

“In 2022 our unbelievable run in Malaga was a dream come true, and I am extremely proud of what the team and our country managed to accomplish. As we get set the launch our title defence, we expect the pressure to be on us, and we can’t wait to prove to the world that we truly belong at the top. Back-to-back champions has a nice ring to it, and we will do everything we can to keep the Davis Cup in Canada”, said Canadian Davis Cup captain Frank Dancevic.  

Spain will fight for a spot in the knock-out stage against Serbia, Czech Republic and South Korea in Group C in Valencia. The draw set up a possible match-up between the top two players Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, who won the US Open in 2022 and the Australian Open in 2023. Spain beat Serbia in last year’s group stage, when neither Rafa Nadal nor Novak Djokovic took part

Manchester will host Davis Cup matches for the first time since July 1994, when Great Britain took on Romania at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club. The O2 Arena in Manchester will host the Group B which features Great Britain, last year’s finalists Australia, France and Switzerland. 

Croatia will be Group Stage host nation. The venue will be announced soon. Two-time Davis Cup champion Croatia will play against the USA, the Netherlands and Finland. The Finals Group Stage takes place on 12-17 September 2023. The top two teams from each group will reach the Final 8 knock-out stage at the Palacio de Deportes José Maria Martin Carpena in Malaga. On 21-26 November 2023.

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