Bautista Agut Defeats Ernests Gulbis to Reach Kremlin Cup Final

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

It’s been a banner year for Roberto Bautista Agut, winning the first two ATP World Tour titles of his career this summer. And, now he’s gunning for his third.

The 26-year-old Spanish tennis player reached his third final of the year after a 6-4, 6-4 victory over third seed Ernests Gulbis at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Saturday.

Bautista Agut, the tournament’s fifth seed, will meet second seed Marin Cilic in the championship match.

In the 15th position in the Emirates ATP Race To London, he claimed 75 percent of his service points and did not drop serve through 10 service games against Gulbis.

He broke the Latvian once in each set to close out the match in 82 minutes.

Bautista Agut improved to 1-3 in his his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Gulbis, who most recently prevailed in three sets in their fourth-round encounter at the BNP Paribas Open in March.

He previously won his first ATP title at the Topshelf Open in the Netherlands in June, and then followed it up with a championship win at the Mercedes Cup in Germany in July.

Nadal Crushes Andy Murray to Reach French Open Final

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Rafael Nadal is one win away from his record-extending ninth French Open title.

The 28-year-old Spanish tennis star, already an eight-time champion with a 65-1 career record at Roland Garros, needs just one more victory on the red clay to make him the first man to win five in a row and give him his 14th Grand Slam title — a tie in second place with Pete Sampras.

Nadal advanced to the final by soundly defeating Wimbledon champion Andy Murray 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 on Friday on Court Philippe Chatrier, the stadium Nadal calls his favorite place to play.

He jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, then broke early again in the second and third sets. Nadal had six break points in the entire match and converted each one.

Murray, meanwhile, didn’t even earn a single break point.

Nadal will next face Novak Djokovic, who defeated Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the first semifinal.

Nadal has beaten Djokovic at the French Open in all five of their previous meetings, starting with a quarterfinal victory in 2006. They also met in the semifinals in 2007, ’08 and ’13, and in the final in 2012.

The second-seeded Djokovic, however, has beaten Nadal the past four times they have played, including on clay in the final in Rome last month.

“I’m going to try to be aggressive because that is the only way I can win against him,” Djokovic said. “I know that, of course, this is the court he’s most dominant on. He has only lost one time in his career. This is where he plays his best.”

The winner on Sunday also will be ranked No. 1 on Monday. Nadal is currently at the top but needs to extend his French Open winning streak to 35 matches to stay there.

Besides his eight titles at the French Open, Nadal has also won twice at Wimbledon, twice at the U.S. Open and once at the Australian Open. Sampras won 14 major titles in his career but never the French Open. The record holder is Roger Federer with 17 Grand Slam titles. He won his 14th in Paris in 2009, the only French Open in which Nadal lost a match.

Delbonis Reaches Men’s Final at the Open de Nice

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Federico Delbonis is final-bound after taking down the hometown hero at Open de Nice…

The 23-year-old Argentine professional tennis player, the tournament’s seventh-seeded, ousted fourth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4.

“It was a pretty good match,” Delbonis said. “Gilles always fights and he showed it in the second set when he broke me. But I took control again.”

Delbonis, who beat top-seeded John Isner in the quarterfinals, will next face Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis, the tournament’s second seed in the championship match.

“The final will be very similar to the match against Isner. Ernests has a strong service. If I am focused, I will always have a chance.”

Delbonis is 1-1 in his previous tour finals. He lifted his first title in Sao Paolo in March, after losing in Hamburg last year.

Giraldo Upsets Nicolas Almagro to Reach Barcelona Open Final

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Santiago Giraldo is one step closer to earning his first career ATP title…

The 26-year-old Colombian professional tennis player, currently ranked No. 65 in the world, beat Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 7-5, 6-3 on Saturday to reach the Barcelona Open final.

Giraldo will face fourth-seeded Kei Nishikori after the Japanese player beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-2, 6-4 in the other semifinal on the red outdoor clay.

Almagro slumped to his first loss in six meetings with Giraldo, a day after one of his biggest wins when he upset eight-time winner Rafael Nadal at the Real Club de Tenis.

“Yesterday’s game doesn’t serve as an excuse,” Almagro said. “Giraldo grazed perfection today, above all in the first set, and I couldn’t find the answer.”

The unseeded Giraldo will be playing for his first career title on Sunday after he saved six of seven break points and finished the match with an emphatic ace.

“I have always dreamed of reaching the top spots of the ATP ranking and tomorrow is a first step,” Giraldo said. “But I am staying calm. I will keep to my routine and tomorrow will be a day to enjoy and play the best tennis I can.”

Giraldo prevailed in a match that featured several long rallies by proving more precise with his long groundstrokes.

The first set was heading for a tiebreaker until Giraldo snatched it away by breaking Almagro’s last service game when he swatted a forehand return by the feet of the last year’s finalist.

Almagro got an early break in the second set, but Giraldo won it right back and took control as Almagro’s nerves frayed with the match slipping away.

“He believed more in his tennis, in how he had to play, and he barely made any mistakes,” Almagro said. “I committed errors when I could have gone in front. That was the key.”

Nadal Defeats Ernests Gulbis to Reach Qatar Open Semifinals

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Rafael Nadal is the last seed standing in the Middle East…

The 27-year-old Spanish tennis star, the top seed at the Qatar Open, beat seventh-seeded Ernests Gulbis 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals on Thursday to earn the distinction as the tournament’s last remaining seed.

Nadal, who is often tested by the 24th-ranked Gulbis, has yet to lose a match to the Latvian in seven played.

This rain-delayed match marked only the second time Nadal has defeated Gulbis in straight sets. The other time was also in Doha, in the 2011 quarterfinals.

Nadal finally broke Gulbis in the 11th game when the latter sent a drop shot wide. Nadal needed five set points to close out the first set in the next game.

Gulbis raced to 3-0 in the second set but couldn’t hold on to the advantage. He had three points for 4-1 but ended up losing serve.

Nadal broke with a stunning backhand cross-court that creased the line in the seventh game to take a permanent lead. He closed the match with a breathtaking backhand volley winner.

“I’m happy to win against Ernests,” Nadal said. “If you are not playing well it’s very, very difficult. He’s able to hit winners from every part on the court.”

Nadal is set to play German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk. The 162nd-ranked Gojowczyk defeated fellow German qualifier Dustin Brown 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) to reach his first career tour semifinal.

Before this week, Gojowczyk had only one ATP tour-level match win, at the 2013 US Open.

The other semi will pit Florian Mayer of Germany against Gael Monfils of France.

Ferrer Reached Title Match at Stockholm Open

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Spain’s Stockholm Open slump is officially over, thanks to David Ferrer.

The 31-year-old Spanish tennis star defeated fifth-seeded Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Saturday to reach the Stockholm Open final.

With the win, Ferrer becomes the first Spaniard in 37 years to reach the tournament’s title match.

He will face seventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who defeated wild card Benoit Paire of France 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, in Sunday’s title match.

Ferrer, the tournament’s top seed, will be going for his third title of the year and his first since February.

García-López Reaches St. Petersburg Open Final

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo García-López is one step closer to a third ATP title…

The 30-year-old Spanish tennis player defeated Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-1, 6-1 to reach the finals at the St. Petersburg Open.

Garcia-Lopez, currently ranked No. 74 in the world, won six consecutive games in the first set and broke his opponent twice in the second before sealing the win on his second match point.

Garcia-Lopez, who was runner-up in Bucharest and Rome in April, is looking for his third career title.

He last won in 2010 in Bangkok.

Garcia-Lopez faces sixth-seeded Ernests Gulbis in the final.

Nadal Defeats Federer in First Real Comeback Test

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

In a battle of two injured titans, Rafael Nadal has come away with a big win…

The 26-year-old Spanish tenista downed rival Roger Federer 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells to record the biggest win so far in his comeback to the ATP Tour.

The 29th meeting in one of the greatest rivalries in tennis history didn’t live up to the hype, as Federer struggled throughout Thursday night’s contest with a back injury that limited his normally fluid movement.

Nadal, the world No. 5, played aggressively from the get-go and earned his first break point with Federer serving at 2-2 in the first set. Although he missed out on that opportunity, Nadal converted another chance two games later and never looked back.

“I played a fantastic first set, in my opinion. The second set was strange,” Nadal said in the post-match press conference. “The second set, I think Roger didn’t fight as usual. He probably had some problems and he didn’t feel enough comfortable to keep fighting.”

“Both of us tried to play our best. I played much better than yesterday (a three-set victory Wednesday night over Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis). My movements today were much, much better than yesterday, so I’m very happy for that, especially after a long match yesterday, to be able to compete well the next day,” said Nadal.

Federer, meanwhile, said the injury was no worse than in his round-of-16 match Wednesday against countryman Stanislas Wawrinka, which he pulled out 7-5 in the third set.

“(It was the) same as against Stan. I mean, I could play,” Federer said. “I’m happy to be out there and able to compete. But it’s obviously a small issue.”

Nadal, who was forced to pull out of last year’s 2012 London Games and U.S. Open and this year’s Australian Open, started his comeback early last month at a small clay-court event in Viña de Mar, Chile, losing in the final there to Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos.

But he hasn’t lost a match since, winning two other Latin American clay-court events in Sao Paulo and Acapulco, Mexico, and making a smooth transition to hard courts with three match victories so far in Indian Wells.

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