Thiago Seyboth Wildis celebrating the biggest win of his career…
The 23-year-old Brazilian professional tennis player, a qualifier at this year’s French Open, stunned World No. 2 Daniil Medvedevon Tuesday in a five-set thriller at Roland Garros.
Making his debut in Paris, Seyboth Wild showed little sign of nerves on Court Philippe Chatrier, swinging freely throughout the four-hour, 15-minute clash to upset the second seed 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“I have watched Daniil play for my entire junior career, up until today. Playing on this court against this kind of player and beating him is a dream come true,” Seyboth Wild said. “Walking on court I just wanted to get to the net as much as possible and use my forehand against his and it worked pretty well.”
The World No. 172 logged 69 winners and recovered from squandering two set points in the second-set tie-break, raising his level again in the latter stages of the first-round clash to seal his maiden main-draw major win.
Seyboth Wild, who has won two ATP Challenger Tour titles this year, was competing in his first tour-level match this season.
He’ll look to back up his dream win against Medvedev when he plays Guido Pella in the second round.
“It was pretty tough. I started cramping in the second set. I did my best and tried to play my best tennis and it worked,” Seyboth Wild said. “I am really happy with the way I played.”
Medvedev arrived in Paris off the back of winning his first clay-court title in Rome and would have been hoping for a comfortable start to his title quest at the clay-court major. Seyboth Wild had other ideas, though.
The Brazilian was locked in from the first ball, hitting through Medvedev with his baseline power. The 23-year-old played fearless tennis throughout, won 69 per cent (38/55) of net points and held his nerve in a tense deciding set, closing out victory on serve with a destructive forehand winner. Seyboth Wild raised his arms in delight following his stunning victory, soaking in the applause from the packed crowd.
Medvedev, who holds a 39-6 record on the season, was chasing his second major title. The 2021 US Open champion has won an ATP Tour-leading five trophies in 2023, including ATP Masters 1000 crowns in Miami and Rome.
The 27-year-old is first in the ATP Live Race To Turin but can now be overtaken by Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovicand Stefanos Tsitsipas in Paris.
Rafael Nadal is headed back to the court next month…
The 34-year-old Spanish tennis star is set to return for the ATP Cup, the season-opening men’s team tennis event, starting February 1, but the United States will be missing because of a change in format that has halved the field.
Nadal, last year’s runner-up, will be joined in the tournament by last year’s ATP Cup champion Novak Djokovic. His Spanish team includes Roberto Bautista Agut, Marcel Granollers and Pablo Carreno Busta.
Diego Schwartzman, Guido Pella, Horacio Zeballos and Maximo Gonzalez will represent Argentina in this year’s tournament, while Alex de Minaur will play for Australia and Steven Diez will represent Canada.
The inaugural event last year featured 24 teams and was played in three Australian cities, with Djokovic’s Serbia team beating Nadal and Spain in the final at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena.
The February 1-5 second edition will involve 12 teams and be played entirely at Melbourne Park amid COVID-19 restrictions, along with WTA and ATP tournaments, in the week leading into the Australian Open.
The draw will be held on January 20, with teams divided into four groups. The winner of each round-robin group will advance to the semifinals.
Qualification for the ATP Cup was based on the ranking of each country’s top player, with Australia included on a wild-card entry. Other competing countries include Austria, Russia, Greece, Germany, Argentina, Italy, Japan, France and Canada.
All players arriving in Melbourne for the Australian Open will be required to quarantine for 14 days before the delayed start of the season’s first major. The Australian Open is usually staged in the last two weeks of January, but it has been pushed back to February 8-21 because of travel and other restrictions in place for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Qualifying for the men’s singles draw will take place in Doha, Qatar, and for the women’s in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, both running January 10-13.
As with other sports, the international tennis calendar was disrupted in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, including the postponement of the French Open‘s start from May to September, and the cancellation of Wimbledon for the first time since World War II.
The 31-year-old Spanish tennis player recovered from a third-set lapse at Wimbledon on Wednesday to book a place in his first Grand Slam championship semifinal.
Bautista Agut, the No. 23 seed, lost his first set, but won 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 over Guido Pella, the No. 26 seed, in three hours and eight minutes on No. 1 Courtat the All England Club.
“I think I played a great tournament,” said Bautista Agut. “I was playing very good in the first week of the tournament. And today, it was a very difficult match. Guido Pella is a good opponent, has won really good matches this week [and] he was really tough to beat… I’m very happy.”
Bautista Agut is the sixth Spanish man to reach the semifinals at The Championships, following in the footsteps of Manuel Alonso-Areyzaga (1921), Manuel Santana (1963, 1966), Andres Gimeno(1970), Manuel Orantes (1972) and Rafael Nadal(2006-08, 2010-11, 2018).
Bautista Agut will now prepare to meet ATPWorld No. 1 and four-time champion Novak Djokovicon Friday for a place in the Wimbledon final.
By improving to a 28-11 match record in 2019 with a place in the Wimbledon semi-finals, Bautista Agut moves up to seventh position in the ATP Race To London for one of eight spots at the prestigious ATP Finals, to be held at The O2in London from 10-17 November.
Guido Pella’s remarkable run at the All England Clubcontinues…
The 29-year-old Argentine tennis player outlasted former Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic in five strenuous sets.
Pella, competing in his first-ever fourth round match at a Grand Slam, bounced back from two-sets down to eliminate the Canadian 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), 8-6.
Pella will meet Roberto Bautista-Agutin the quarterfinals. It will be his first career Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance.
Former World No. 3, Raonic had a remarkable beginning in the first set. He didn’t drop a single point on his first serves and he broke and consolidated for a 4-1 lead in the opening set. A similar form of tennis continued in the second set and Raonic moved one set closer to a place in the quarterfinal.
However, the clay-courter, Pella produced some magnificent grass court tennis and kept his quarterfinal hopes alive.
Guido Pella is making a habit of big-name upsets at Wimbledon…
The 29-year-old Argentine professional tennis player beat 2018 runner-up Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(4) on Centre Court on Friday afternoon. Twelve months ago, Pella had never won a grass-court match in his career, but edged past 2017 finalist Marin Cilic on No. 1 Court en route to the third round.
Pella, whose fastest serve clocked 124 miles per hour in comparison to 136 from Anderson, played with great variety and kept his fourth-seeded South African opponent on the move for victory in two hours and 34 minutes.
He’s now through to the fourth round of a Grand Slamchampionship for the first time in his career, where he’ll play 2016 finalist Milos Raonic, the No. 15 seed from Canada, on Monday.
“I haven’t played him,” said Raonic. “It’s going to be tough. He played well here last year, beating Marin, obviously getting a good win today, and even in his last match over [Andreas]Seppi, who has always played well on grass…. He’s been on tour for a long time, and I don’t know if he’s been to this stage of a Grand Slam. But to beat Kevin here, that’s a job very well done.”
Pella twice came within one point of a set and 4-1 lead, before Anderson worked his way back to 3-3 in the second set. But Anderson, contesting just his fourth tournament of 2019 as a result of a right elbow injury, struggled on second serve and in controlling his backhand.
Pella clinched the first set with a break when Anderson hit a forehand into the net; the second set turned once more in his favour when Anderson failed to cleanly run down and strike back a well-placed lob, while clinical play in the third set tie-break sent Pella on his way to a 26th match win this season.
In the penultimate point of the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting, No. 26 seed Pella dropped to the floor fist-pumping after winning a 17-stroke rally at close quarters with a forehand volley. The same shot, coupled with good anticipation, helped him seconds later to a memorable victory.
Both players have won ATP Tour titles this year: Anderson at the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune (d. Karlovic) and Pella at the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo (d. Garin). Anderson returned from his injury at the Fever-Tree Championships last month for the first time since Miami. Pella is tied with Rafael Nadalfor most clay-court match wins this year (21).
Opelka saved eight break points to Raonic’s three prior to the first set tie-break, which the Canadian wrapped up when Opelka made a forehand error. Opelka’s challenge quickly faltered. He hit three double faults at 2-3 in the second set, then committed three groundstroke errors at 2-5 to hand Raonic a commanding lead. Opelka won just six points in the third set.
“I thought it was good. I did the things I wanted to do. When it was important, I played as well as I could have,” said Raonic. “All the break points I had in the first set, he did his part in making sure I had really no chance other than one. Maybe I would have taken back that attempt of a lob and tried to go through him, but other than that I don’t think I hesitated much or made many poor decisions out there.”
The 28-year-old Argentine tennis player has claimed his first professional title at the Brazil Open.
Pella, the tournament’s third seed, beat Chile’s Christian Garin 7-5, 6-3 in an all-South American final on Sunday to claim his maiden title.
The last time an Argentine player lifted the trophy was Federico Delbonis five years ago.
It was only the second meeting of the two finalists. The previous occasion saw Pella win in the second round of last year’s Argentina Open.
He’d previously been a runner-up four times, at the Rio Open in 2016, the Bavarian Championships in 2017, and the Croatia Open Umag and the Cordoba Open in 2018.
The 28-year-old Argentine tennis player advanced by beating Rio Open champion Laslo Djere of Serbia 7-6 (10), 7-6 (1) at the clay-court event Saturday.
He’ll next face Christian Garinof Chile in Sunday’s final.
Garin eliminated Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4.
The only time the two have previously met was last year in the second round of the Argentina Open. Pella won 6-3, 7-6 (3) on that occasion.
Rafael Nadal has joined an elite team of tennis stars…
The 30-year-old Spanish tennis star celebrated his 1,000th tour level match by beating German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber in a topsy-turvy, come-from-behind victory at the Miami Open.
Nadal is safely through to the fourth round, despite failing to win a game in a stunning first set. Luckily, he recovered to prevail 0-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Kohlschreiber was unstoppable in the early stages and romped through the opening set in just 21 minutes.
It was the first time Nadal had failed to win a game in the first set of an ATP Tour encounter since 2008.
But the fifth seed was undaunted and fought back in determined fashion to claim the 822nd win of his illustrious career and a last-16 tmatch against France’s Nicolas Mahut, who beat Guido Pella 6-4 6-3.
Nadal joins an 11-strong group headed by Jimmy Connors (1,535) to have played at least 1,000 matches on tour.
“One thousand matches is a lot of matches,” said Nadal afterwards. “Obviously that’s good news, because that says I am having a long career.
“During a lot of years, I heard that I’m going to have a short career, so it’s something important for me.
“I remember the first match very well because it was at home in Mallorca. It was my first victory on the ATP and was a great feeling.”
