Viktor Troicki made the most of his return to tennis after serving a one-year ban as the Serb defeated Austria’s Dominic Thiem 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 on Monday in the first round of the Swiss Open.
Troicki took down eighth seed Thiem, tipped as a name of the future, with the win helping to boost the Serb’s confidence after being granted a wildcard entry after seeing his ranking plummet following his suspension.
Troicki, now 847th in the world, received a 12-month ban for delaying a mandatory blood test at Monte Carlo in April last year by a day, saying he felt ill. Despite having blood drawn a day later, he was banned for a year.
Photo: EPA
“It was very emotional, very strange for me,” Troicki said. “I want to thank the organizers for this wildcard, which means a lot to me. This past year was the toughest of my life.”
Argentine fifth seed Federico Delbonis began with a victory on a day where play was delayed by rain, beating German Dustin Brown 6-3, 6-3.
Argentine Juan Monaco put out Victor Hanescu 6-4, 7-5, while Kazakh Andrey Golubev advanced over Spain’s Inigo Cervantes 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
ATLANTA OPEN
AFP, ATLANTA, Georgia
Israel’s Dudi Sela and the US’ Sam Querrey advanced to the second round of the ATP Atlanta Open with victories on Monday, while French third seed Gael Monfils withdrew from the event.
Sela ousted the US’ Donald Young 6-3, 6-0, while Querrey blasted 20 aces in eliminating countryman Steve Johnson 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 in the US$568,000 hardcourt event, an early warm-up tournament for the US Open.
CROATIA OPEN
AP, UMAG, Croatia
Pablo Carreno Busta saved two match points to defeat Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 and reach the second round of the Croatia Open on Monday.
Lorenzi won the first set and got an early break in the second, but the 57th-ranked Carreno Busta then won six straight games to level. The Italian broke again in the third set and led 5-3, before his Spanish opponent rallied to win the match.
Croatia’s Borna Coric upset seventh-seeded Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-2, 6-4 for his first ever ATP-level victory.
“It was one of the best matches I have ever played,” the 17-year-old Coric said. “I still don’t know what happened, I served so well.”
Fabio Fognini is the top-seeded player, followed by Tommy Robredo and Marin Cilic. They all have first-round byes.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but