David Ferrer’s determination to qualify for the season-ending ATP World Tour finals is such is he has opted to play in the Vienna Open for the first time in 10 years.
The 32-year-old top seed has decided to compete in the Austrian capital, like British No. 1 Andy Murray, as they search to accrue enough points to get in the top eight and grab a place in the finals next month.
Ferrer and Murray are ninth and 10th respectively in the race for London, with three spots remaining.
Canadian Milos Raonic — who is playing in the Kremlin Cup this week — is eighth, with Spain’s Ferrer just 35 points adrift of him and the Briton 95 in arrears.
Ferrer, who will play either Simone Bolelli or Tobias Kamke after he benefited from a first-round bye, said he would battle until the end to secure his place.
“Of course it is my goal, I’m fighting for [it],” said Ferrer, who played in Shanghai last week, losing to Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals. “It’s important for me. We don’t have too many tournaments. We have only three tournaments more to be in London.”
Murray, seeded second, springs into action in Vienna today against Canadian Vasek Pospisil.
Murray, who flew into Vienna on a private jet after receiving a wild-card entry, is due to compete in Valencia on another wild-card entry next week, as well as the Paris Masters.
Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Stanislas Wawrinka have already qualified for the finals, while another spot will go to Grand Slam winner Marin Cilic.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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