Tennis News

Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau are back to top form at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. After losing their first three matches of 2019, they reached the final in Rotterdam on Saturday by outlasting Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 3-6, 6-2, 10-7.

Awaiting them in the championship match are Jeremy Chardy and Henri Kontinen, who also rallied from a set down to defeat fourth seeds Marcel Granollers and Nikola Mektic 6-7(3), 6-4, 10-6.

Shortly after completing their grueling singles semi-final at the Argentina Open, Diego Schwartzman and Dominic Thiem returned to Court Guillermo Vilas and recorded a 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 semi-final win over Spaniards Jaume Munar and Albert Ramos-Vinolas. They’ll play top seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina for the title. Thiem and Schwartzman are both looking for their first ATP Tour doubles title.

At the New York Open, German pair Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies reached their first ATP Tour final by defeating fourth seeds Robert Lindstedt and Tim Puetz 6-2, 6-4. Next up for them is the winner of the other semi-final featuring French duo Adrian Mannarino and Hugo Nys against Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan.

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Get the details on the biggest week of Brayden Schnur’s career as the World No. 154 in the ATP Rankings goes from qualifying alternate to his first ATP Tour final at the New York Open.

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Brayden Schnur’s best week ever got even better on Saturday at the New York Open. Having never won an ATP Tour main draw match before this week, the Canadian qualifier saved five set points in the opening set against sixth seed Sam Querrey and reached the final with a 7-6(7), 4-6, 6-3 victory over the American.

Schnur, the final alternate into the qualifying draw, saved two match points in his second-round win over third seed Steve Johnson and won the longest match of the tournament in his quarter-final against Paolo Lorenzi (2 hr, 39 min). Currently at a career-high No. 154 in the ATP Rankings, he'll crack the Top 100 on Monday if he takes the title.

The Canadian erased four set points on his serve at 4-5 in the first set and another at 5-6. Schnur couldn’t convert on set point opportunities in the tie-break at 6/5 and 7/6, but a pair of forehand errors from Querrey at 7/7 gave him the early advantage.

The qualifier had a break point opportunity to lead 4-0 in the second set, but the occasion appeared to overwhelm him and his shots began landing shorter. Querrey took advantage to level the match, but Schnur regrouped with an early break to lead 2-0 in the deciding set. The slight advantage was all he needed. Schnur converted on his first match point with a strong serve and closed the contest after one hour and 54 minutes.

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Schnur will take on the winner of the all-American clash between top seed John Isner and Reilly Opelka. He has not faced either player before.

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More than 20 months after reaching his 28th tour-level final at Roland Garros in 2017, Stan Wawrinka defeated Kei Nishikori 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament to move into his 29th championship match on Saturday.

“This is a big relief for me,” said Wawrinka. “It’s my first final since the [knee] surgery, so to show I can still play at this level against the top players is very important for me.”

The 33-year-old, who required two left knee surgeries in August 2017, landed 35 winners, including eight aces, to triumph after two hours and 13 minutes. Wawrinka will be aiming to capture his second title in Rotterdam after beating Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych in back-to-back matches to lift the trophy in 2015.

“When you come back from a surgery like that, you need to be patient with yourself. You look to start to win matches and gain confidence,” said Wawrinka. “I think my level is there physically and tennis-wise. If I stay focused and do the right things, I think I’m going to get back to a good place.”

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The three-time Grand Slam champion will meet Gael Monfils in Sunday's final. Wawrinka leads Monfils 3-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, but the pair have met just once in the past eight years, at 2017 Roland Garros, with the Swiss triumphing in straight sets.  

"We practise together a lot and we’re really close friends," said Wawrinka. "We’ve said it would be nice to play against each other in a final, so tomorrow will be special for both of us."

Wawrinka raced into a 2-0 lead at the Ahoy Rotterdam, claiming the opening break of the match with a crafty short return and a well-struck forehand passing shot down the line. The Swiss soon doubled his advantage, dominating rallies with his forehand before moving up the court to rush his opponent into errors. Despite surrendering one break of serve, Wawrinka broke for a third time with his ninth winner, an angled crosscourt backhand, to take the opening set after 37 minutes.

Nishikori responded emphatically in the second set, moving into a 4-0 lead of his own after finding success attacking Wawrinka's backhand in crucial moments. Wawrinka held firm, recovering one of the two breaks after finding further success bringing Nishikori to the net off his

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