ATP Challenger

Jurgen Melzer rolls back the years, ends Edward Corrie’s run in Budapest

Published

7 years ago

12/02/2017

Jurgen Melzer is playing well this week, and is into the Budapest final (Zimbio.com)

Former Top Ten player Jurgen Melzer may have to play second fiddle to his now higher-ranked brother Gerald, but the elder Melzer brother can at least boast an appearance in a singles final this week.

That appearance comes at Challenger level, as Melzer defeated unlikely lucky loser semi-finalist Edward Corrie of Great Britain 64 76 in Budapest. Melzer had had a far tougher run to the semis than Corrie, forced to defeat the likes of sixth seed Norbert Gombos and third seed Marius Copil, whilst Corrie had rather fortuitously managed to avoid facing any seeds, instead settling for defeating the vanquishers of seeds, including Yannik Reuter and Yannick Maden.

The match was decided by a single break advantage in the first set, and then a close second set, as Corrie kept things close with the former Roland Garros semi-finalist, but ultimately could not cope with the Austrian’s consistency and power.

Melzer will face unseeded Martin Fucsovics in the final. The Hungarian Fuscovics in unseeded, but no stranger to deep runs at Challengers, having picked up two titles at this level in 2013. He is often seeded at these types of events, but a slow start to the year saw his ranking drop to far to earn that right at this event. He accounted for eighth seeded Italian Luca Vanni in the quarters. His semi final opponent was eighteen year-old Norwegian prodigy Casper Ruud, who had knocked out fellow NetGen Finals hopeful Duckhee Lee in the first-round, and followed that up with impressive wins over Mirza Basic and Alexey Vatutin, simply could not cope with Fucsovics, failing to win a single game.

Despite the loss, Ruud is still a contender for the NextGen ATP finals, and will likely gain a number of points when he moves to his favoured clay surface.

Melzer’s form and history as a Top 100 player must make him the favourite for the title, though his veteran status and the fact that Fucsovics had such an easy win in the semis might mean the Hungarian is fresher.

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ATP Challenger

Danielle Collins beats Caroline Garcia to reach the second semifinal of her career in Miami

Published

2 months ago

27/03/2024

sampaolo

Danielle Collins beat Caroline Garcia 6-3 6-2 in 80 minutes to reach her second semifinal at the Miami Open. Collins became the first qualifier to reach the semifinal in the history of this tournament.

Collins achieved her third win against a seeded player in five matches over the past seven days.

Collins dropped just 11 points in nine service games against Garcia and hit 22 winners to Garcia’s 12.

Collins earned a break in the eighth game and held serve to seal the first set 6-3. The US player broke serve in the third game of the second set and never looked back to close out the match in 1 hout and 19 minutes.

Collins has extended her record to 4-0 in her head-to-head matches against Garcia and has not lost a set to her French opponent.

Collins set up a semifinal match against the winner of Wednesday night’s match between Jessica Pegula and Elena Alexandrova, who beat world number one player Iga Swiatek in the fourth round.

Collins won two WTA titles in Palermo and San José in 2021 but she has not reached a WTA Tour level final since losing to Ashleigh Barty in Melbourne in 2022.

“I think Caroline Garcia comes out here and fights her butt off. She hits some really strong shots. I don’t think the set scores are a reflection of how close the match really is”, said Collins.

Garcia beat Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff to reach the quarter finals in Miami for the first time in her career. The French player was troubled by an injury to her right shoulder and received treatment early in the second set.

ATP Challenger

Dominic Thiem To Return At Marbella Challenger, Joins Wawrinka In Stacked Field

Dominic Thiem will be joining Stan Wawrinka in making his return to action at the Marbella challenger next week.

Published

2 years ago

24/03/2022

Tony Fairbairn

Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem (@SK_Tennis - Twitter)

Dominic Thiem will finally make his return to the ATP tour at the Marbella challenger next week.

The Austrian hasn’t played a tennis match since retiring at the grass court event in Mallorca last June due to a wrist injury.

Despite being scheduled to play at the Australian Open and at the Indian Wells-Miami swing, Thiem had to postpone his return as he wasn’t quite ready to compete in matches.

However now Thiem has decided to return as he will begin his clay court swing next week at the Marbella Challenger.

The former Roland Garros finalist took to Instagram to announce the news as he looks to climb back up the rankings.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dominic Thiem (@domithiem)

The world number 50 will face tough competition with former Roland Garros champion Stan Wawrinka also making his comeback at the event in Spain next week.

At the blockbuster event there will also be the likes of Holger Rune, Pablo Cuevas, Jaume Munar and Lucas Pouille competing.

The winner of the event will receive 125 ranking points but much more importantly for Thiem and Wawrinka much needed match practice ahead of a busy European clay-court swing.

Thiem will be the top seed while Wawrinka will be unseeded with their being a possibility of the two heavyweights meeting in the opening round.

Play will start on Monday with Jaume Munar being the defending champion.

ATP Challenger

Roberto Bautista Agut reaches his second career final in Doha

Published

3 years ago

12/03/2021

sampaolo

Roberto Bautista Agut reached the second final of his career at the Qatar Exxon Mobil with a 6-3 6-3 win over defending champion Andrey Rublev.

Bautista Agut broke serve in the fourth game with a forehand winner to open up a 3-1 lead and held on his next service games to close out the first set 6-3 after 29 minutes.

The Spaniard started the second set with an early break. Rublev broke straight back in the second game and won his next two service games to take a 3-2 lead. Bautista Agut saved two break points to hold serve before getting two consecutive breaks to claim the second set 6-3.

Rublev was playing his first match this week after two walkovers. The Russian player claimed the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam last week.

“It was very difficult to play tennis today, with the windy conditions, but I put a lot of pressure on his second serve and played really good tennis. I played a long match yesterday against Dominic Thiem, but I felt fresh and I had a lot of power on the court. This is one of my favourite tournaments. I played one of my best matches here in Qatar two years ago, and I hope I can win one more match tomorrow”, said Bautista Agut.

Bautista Agut set up a final against Nikoloz Basilashvili, who beat Taylor Fritz 7-6 (7-3) 6-1.

Basilashvili, who beat Roger Federer in the quarter final, rallied from one break down to win the tie-break of the first set 7-3. The Georgian player broke twice in the second and sixth games to close out the second set 6-1. “To reach the final means a lot. I am playing well and I am relaxed. It’s great to play in front of a crowd and a nice atmosphere”, said Basilshvili.