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John Isner and Ryan Harrison Will Face Off in Second Straight ATP Atlanta Final
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

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John Isner will aim for a 5th Atlanta Open title when he faces off with Ryan Harrison, the opponent he defeated in the 2017 final. On semifinal Saturday in Atlanta both semifinals went the distance as Isner defeated Matt Ebden, and Harrison overcame Cam Norrie.

In the first singles match of the day it too Isner 2 hours to put away Ebden as the Australian put up a valiant fight. Isner won 6-4 6-7 6-1 firing 26 aces on a day where his inconsistency gave Ebden some openings but it still wasn’t enough for the underdog. In the opening set Ebden was broken in his second service game as Isner got off to a good start. Ebden generated one break point chance and could have gotten back on serve but Isner erased it and then served out two more service games to take a one set lead.

In the second set Ebden again went down an early break. Under significant pressure against the home favorite it looked as if he might throw in the towle, but instead Isner slipped and got broken to keep things on serve. Ebden held his nerve in every service game to force a tiebreak from there. In that tiebreak Isner surrendered a 3-1 minibreak lead to lose the tiebreak 8-6. Ebden saved a match point on his serve in the tiebreak.

The third set saw Isner shut the door though, Ebden’s resistance wilted after he was broken for 2-0 and then failed to take a break point chance to get things back on serve. Ebden was broken one more time and then Isner served his way into the final at 15.

In the night match Harrison struggled against Norrie at the start but recovered his form to win 2-6 6-3 6-2 in almost 2 hours. Harrison was steady on serve despite the poor start as Norrie’s game fell to pieces in sets 2 and 3. Harrison was erratic in the opener, he was broken in the opening game, then once more late in the set as Norrie had no comparable pressure on his own serve.

In the second set Norrie had a chance to go up a set and a break but Harrison wiped away two break point chances. He seized the momentum from there, breaking Norrie and then serving things out to force a third set. Norrie was broken twice in the final set, including in the opening game as the third was one way traffic.

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Harrison will also contest the doubles final. Along with his partner Rajeev Ram he’ll take on Nick Monroe and J.P. Smith in the final. Harrison/Ram defeated Raja/Skupski in straights while Monroe/Smith edged Arneodo/Chardy in a third set super tiebreak.

John Isner Reaches 9th Straight ATP Atlanta Semifinal
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

John Isner reached his 9th straight BB&T Atlanta Open semifinal, extending his streak of having never lost before the semifinals since the Atlanta Open began in 2010. Isner got past Mischa Zverev in the quarterfinals 7-5 4-6 6-1 in an hour and a half. The American #1 fired 21 aces and won all but two of his first serve points against the German veteran.

The opening set was a relatively swift one, Isner made a late push to break in the final game of the set, generating three break point chances and finally securing the set. Set 2 saw Zverev take advantage of his one and only opening in the match as he broke Isner for a 3-2 lead and was rock solid on serve to force a third set. Things went off the rails for Zverev though from there, Isner broke open a 5-0 lead and closed out the third set losing just three points on serve.

Isner is now slated to face Australia’s Matt Ebden in the semifinals. In the one routine match of the day Ebden took advantage of a discombobulated Marcos Baghdatis to ease into the semis 6-3 6-2. Baghdatis played a poor match similar to the ones that has characterized his late career decline. He won just 38% of his second serve points and generated just one break point chance that Ebden saved in the contest. Ebden broke for 2-0, and snuffed out a break point chance in the final game of the first set to take it 6-3. Baghdatis again surrendered an immediate break in the second set and under constant pressure from the clean hitting Ebden he was broken once more to allow Ebden an easy win.

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Ryan Harrison and Cam Norrie face off in the other semifinal. Norrie upset Nick Kyrgios as Kyrgios retired to a chorus of boos down 7-5 3-0 in nearly an hour. Kyrgios struggled throughout the match and played surprisingly passively throughout the contest, eventually giving up as he loomed doomed to defeat against the fast rising Norrie. Norrie was steady on serving erasing the three break point chances he faced as things slipped away from Kyrgios after he failed to break in a pair of games where he had an opportunity in the opening set. After being broken twice in the match (first at 5-6 and second at 0-1) he shook hands with the umpire and walked off the court.

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Ryan Harrison didn’t have it so easy against next gen star Hyeon Chung. Harrison dropped the first set 7-6 and had to comeback for a 6-7 6-2 7-6 victory in a match that was decided by the slightest of margins. Harrison kept hope alive of defending his finalist points from last year after a two and a half hour war where his superior serve made all the difference. Harrison wasn’t broken in the match, saving 5 chances that Chung generated, and he won 83% of his first sere points.

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Despite failing to break Harrison in the opening set Chung played a better tiebreak to get off to the best start. However Harrison instantly got himself back into the contest breaking Chung in the first game of set 2 and then taking another break to finish things 6-2. In the third set it looked like Chung would take the advantage as he had three break points in the 6th game, but Harrison won that long game and then almost broke Chung in the next one. Both players would serve their way into a tiebreak where minibreaks were the order of the day. Harrison took a 6-4 lead in the breaker and finally put things away 7-5 as Chung gave up the deciding point on his serve.

In doubles Arneodo/Chardy and Harrison/Ram advanced in straight sets as Bambridge/O’Mara and Bryan/Tiafoe went down in defeat.

Saturday features Isner vs. Ebden first up with Harrison vs. Norrie to follow. The doubles semifinals are Arneodo/Chardy vs Monroe/Smith and Raja/Skupski taking on Harrison/Ram. Isner and Harrison met in the final last year, while Ebden and Norrie are seeking the first ATP titles of their career. Ebden has one previous final on his resume, while Norrie has none.

Cam Norrie and Marcos Baghdatis Spring Upsets at BB&T Atlanta Open
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

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Four singles matches were completed on Thursday at the BB&T Atlanta Open as the quarterfinals were set for 2018. Cam Norrie sprung the upset of the day as the ATP #73 came back from a set down to upset the ATP #43 Jeremy Chardy 5-7 6-4 6-4 in a closely fought battle. Norrie was stronger on a serve in a match that featured few breaks. Chardy erased two break point chances early in the first then broke late to take a one set lead. Norrie finally broke Chardy in the second set then squared things up with a steady performance. In the third Chardy was broken right away and was unable to recover as the fast rising Brit showed the improvements in his game over the last few months.

Marcos Baghdatis has once again posted a good run of results in Atlanta. By a score of 7-5 6-1 Baghdatis crushed young gun American Frances Tiafoe who served up 9 double faults and had an awful serving day. Tiafoe got an early break in the first but things quickly unraveled for the young American. Baghdatis generated 13 break point chances and broke 5 times in the match.

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Australians Matt Ebden and Nick Kyrgios also reached the quarterfinals. Ebden was reliable under hot, fast conditions in the noon match as he defeated local favorite Donald Young 6-4 6-4. Ebden won all but 5 of his first serve points as he got late a break in the second set to close the match out and avoid having to spend more time on court than he had to.

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Kyrgios needed less than an hour to aggressively dismantle Noah Rubin 7-5 6-2. NK fired 15 aces and won over 80% of his points on serve as Rubin started well but quickly unraveled after surrendering a break in the last game of the first set. Kyrgios moved around the court with ease and was able to hit from attacking positions for most of the match.

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Raja/Skupski defeated Norrie and Taylor Fritz in the lone doubles match on the day.

The men’s quarterfinals in singles feature Ebden vs. Baghdatis, John Isner vs. Mischa Zverev, Norrie vs. Kyrgios, and Ryan Harrison vs. Hyeon Chung all taking place tomorrow.

The remaining doubles quarterfinals are Bryan/Tiafoe vs. Harrison/Ram and Arneodo/Chardy vs. Bambridge/O’Mara. Monroe/Smith and Raja/Skupski have already reached the semifinals.

Grass Court Season Concludes With ATP 250 @TennisHalloFame

Posted by Admin on July 15, 2018

Posted in: ATP, Newport, Steen Kirby. Tagged: 2018 ATP Newport, 2018 Dell Tech Open, Adrian Mannarino, Alex De Minaur, ATP Newport, ATP Newport Predictions, Dell Tech Open, Dell Tech Open Predictions, matt ebden, Mischa Zverev, Sergiy Stakhovsky. Leave a comment

Grass Court Season Concludes With ATP 250 Newport
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

The ATP 250 in Newport at the Tennis Hall of Fame concludes the grass court season and begins the North American summer of tennis. Here is your look at all the action.

Top Half:

Adrian Mannarino will begin against James Duckworth or Jordan Thompson, Mannarino is a great grass court player so he should beat Thompson and Gilles Muller to reach the semis. Muller’s path is Marcos Baghdatis, then Marcel Granollers or a qualifier. While Muller is usually good on grass, his poor form means Mannarino has a decided edge.

Steve Johnson did not have a good grass court season, but back in the States he should get past a qualifier or Christian Harrison before running into Alex De Minaur, one of the breakthrough young guns this year and a player who did have a great grass season. De Minaur should eke past the big serving Ivo Karlovic, then defeat Dudi Sela or a qualifier, with De Minaur favored to emerge from this section.

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Bottom Half:

Mischa Zverev should ease past Donald Young/Vasek Pospisil and then defeat Denis Kudla after Kudla defeats Ruben Bemelmans and Ramkumar Ramanathan/qualifier. Zverev has won a title on grass this year and he has a great shot to do it again if he can get past a tough grass court player in Kudla.

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Matt Ebden faces Bjorn Fratangelo or Tim Smyczek then should run into Sergiy Stakhovsky in the quarters. Stako will face Jason Jung, coming off success on the challenger tour, then Nicolas Mahut or Ryan Harrison, with Harrison likely falling victim to a tough section full of good grass court players. Ebden vs. Zverev is my bottom half semifinal.

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Predictions

Semis
Mannarino d. De Minaur
Zverev d. Ebden

Any of these four players could emerge as champion on this surface, but Mannarino and Zverev should make the final with Zverev continuing his recent success to lift another title.

Final
Zverev d. Mannarino

Grass Court Season Kicks off With Libema Open 250 in the Netherlands
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

If you are tired of the red clay, you’re in for a treat starting Monday. The ATP grass court season begins with the 250 stop in the Netherlands that is a joint event with the WTA. Here is your look at the field with predictions for the week ahead.

Top Half:

The second round match between Frenchmen Adrian Mannarino and Jeremy Chardy looks to be a great one. Chardy has to defeat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez first to get there. I’ll go with Mannarino to find his form back on a faster surface and reach the quarters. At that stage Italy’s Andreas Seppi should be his opponent. Seppi will need to edge Mackenzie McDonald and Vasek Pospisil or Alex Bolt to get that far. Mannarino is my pick to reach the semis.

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Matt Ebden is my dark horse pick this week. Pierre-Hugues Herbert comes off a doubles final in Paris and Gilles Muller is struggling (his round 1 and 2 opponents). Presuming he beats Muller he should defeat fellow journeyman Yuichi Sugita in the quarters. Sugita gets Nikoloz Basilashvili in round 1 (he struggles on grass), with Marius Copil or Aljaz Bedene to follow, both beatable opponents.

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Bottom Half:

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Tournament favorite Richard Gasquet draws Evgeny Donskoy or qualifier Franko Skugor in round 2. Gasquet should win and also defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarters. The Greek opens with local wild card Tallon Griekspoor, Malek Jaziri or Max Purcell will follow.

Ivo Karlovic vs. Robin Haase looks like a crucial round 1 match. I’ll back the struggling veteran Karlovic to win that and also defeat Marcos Baghdatis or Bernard Tomic to reach the quarters. Tomic has a great chance in theory, but he’s far from consistent these days. Look for Karlvoic to face Daniil Medvedev in the quarters. Medvedev is good on grass and should upset Fernando Verdasco in round 2 after defeating Yuki Bhambri in round 1. I’ll back Karlovic to reach the semis.

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Predictions

Semis
Mannarino d. Ebden
Gasquet d. Karlovic

Mannarino beating Gasquet would be an upset but I’m not convinced Gasquet’s entirely fit and Mannarino is the type of player who badly needs points at the faster court tournaments like this.

Final
Mannarino d. Gasquet

Veterans Ferrer and Isner, Young Gun Rublev Claim ATP Titles
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

ATP Bastad

David Ferrer grinded his way to his first ATP title in two years, claiming a third career Bastad title 6-4 6-4 over Alexandr Dolgopolov, who also sorely needed the ranking boost gained from reaching an ATP final, even at the 250 level. Ferrer’s record turned positive this year overall after wins against Federico Delbonis, Dustin Brown, Henri Laaksonen and Fernando Verdasco, as since reaching the third round of Wimbledon he’s looking much better in terms of form.

Dolgopolov also went above .500 this season overall, he defeated Leonardo Mayer, Horacio Zeballos, Karen Khachanov, and Andrey Kuznetsov, looking healthy in the process.

Julian Knowle and Philipp Petzschner defeated Sander Arends and Matwe Middelkoop in the doubles final.

ATP Newport

Overall, John Isner would have preferred more from his grass court season, but the 32 year old won Newport, and in the process gained his first ATP title in two years. His victims at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships were Sam Groth, Dennis Novikov, Bjorn Fratangelo, and surprise finalist Matt Ebden 6-3 7-6.

Ebden, a 29 year old qualifier, reached his first ever ATP final, Rajeev Ram, Lukas Lacko, Tobias Kamke, and Peter Gojowczky were the players he defeated en route, as Newport has a habit of generating interesting upsets. Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi and Rajeev Ram beat Matt Reid and J.P. Smith in the doubles final.

ATP Umag

Andrey Rublev was much more than a lucky loser in Umag, he now wears the title of champion, as he won his maiden ATP title over Paolo Lorenzi 6-4 6-2. Rublev defeated Carlos Berlocq, Andrej Martin, Fabio Fognini, and Ivan Dodig as well last week. Lorenzi beat Aljaz Bedene, Jiri Vesely, and Alessandro Giannessi, it was his second ATP final this season, although he’s lost both.

Guillermo Durán and Andres Molteni defeated Tomislav Draganja and Marin Draganja in the doubles final.

Matt Ebden, Hiroki Moriya Shine During Shenzhen Qualifying

Posted by Admin on September 28, 2015

Posted in: Adam Addicott, ATP, Shenzen. Tagged: 2015, ATP World Tour, australian open, china, Hiroki Moriya, japan, matt ebden, qualifying, Shenzhen, Takuto Niki. Leave a comment

Matt Ebden, Hiroki Moriya Shine During Shenzhen Qualifying
Adam Addicott, Tennis Atlantic

Matt Ebden

Matt Ebden

The Shenzhen Open is the first out of three Chinese ATP tournaments which will take place over the next month. Headlined by Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic, the ATP 250 tournament is a golden opportunity for the lower ranked players to grab some crucial ranking points during the final part of the 2015 season.

In the qualifying tournament world No.133 Matthew Ebden headed the field after Austin Krajicek was moved to the main draw following Richard Gasquet’s withdrawal. In his first match Ebden played little known American Nicholas Alexander Reyes. 20-year-old Reyes has won 5 main draw matches in his career and is ranked over 1000 places below Ebden at 1494th. Despite the enormous rankings gap, the match was a much closer encounter as the Australian took the match 6-3, 7-6 (1). In the final round he played New Zealand’s Michael Venus. Venus defeated sixth seed Lee Duck-hee in the second round after saving a match point during a second set tie-break. Venus was unable to reproduce another upset as Ebden cruised to take the match 6-2, 6-2. Ebden has claimed one Challenger title this year which was at the Aegon Surbiton Trophy in June.

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The only other seeded player to successfully qualify for the main draw was Japanese 5th seed Hiroki Moriya. Moriya defeated 19-year-old Xia Haitong in his opening match (6-1,6-3) to set up an encounter with France’s Johan Tatlot. Tatlot reached world No.5 in the junior rankings last year and is currently ranked 359th in the world. Tatlor stunned third seed Chen Ti in the second round by winning 6-4,1-6,6-4. Moriya experienced a tough start to the match as he trailed 2-4 before taking five out of the next six games to take the first set. In the second set the world No.219 broke in the penultimate game of the match to win 7-5, 6-3, after eighty minutes. Moriya is yet to win a title this year and has a 2015 main draw win-loss of 9-22.

Out of the seven Chinese entrants into the qualifying draw, only one was successful. 18-year-old Zhang Zhizhen produced one of the best wins in his career by beating 4th seed Luke Saville to reach the final stage of qualifying. In the final he played Sergey Betov from Belarus. Betov is currently ranked 73rd in the doubles rankings after claiming four titles on the Challenger circuit this year. The home player was too powerful for Betov as the 18-year-old booked his place in the main draw with a 6-2, 6-3 win. Earlier this year Zhezhen claimed his first Futures title at a F10 event in France.

Finally, Takuto Niki enjoyed a milestone competition to reach the main draw. The 27-year-old beat China’s Chen Long in the first round to face 8th seed Mikhail Elgin in the second round. 33-year-old Elgin has won four Future titles this year. Despite being the underdog, Miki stunned the eight seed by winning 6-4, 7-5. The Japanese player was able to continue his winning momentum by defeating China’s Sun Fajing in the final round. He will now play in the main draw of an ATP event for the first time in his career.

The main draw matches:

Matthew Ebden (AUS) v Víctor Estrella Burgos (DOM) – This will be the second time that the two players have met and the first since 2012. In their first encounter Ebden took the match 6-3, 6-2.

Hiroki Moriya (JPA) v Ricardas Berankis (LTU) – First meeting.

Takuto Niki (JPA) v Bai Yan (CHN) – First meeting.

Zhang Zhizhen (CHN) v Go Soeda (JPA) – First meeting.