Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun completed the first part of a double shift at the Aegon Open in Nottingham, England, yesterday after his first-round match was held up by rain on Monday evening.
World No. 61 Lu was leading 6-4, 4-2 when the match was suspended on Monday, but he returned to the Nottingham Tennis Centre grass courts yesterday morning and sealed a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans inside 10 minutes.
Lu saved four of five break-point chances and converted three of six to wrap up the match in 1 hour, 14 minutes on Court Three, winning 67 of the 121 points contested.
Lu was due to return to Court One later yesterday to play his second-round match against world No. 27 Andreas Seppi of Italy, who as the 15th seed received a bye in the first round of the final warm-up tournament ahead of Wimbledon, which starts on Monday next week.
Aljaz Bedene warmed up for his first Wimbledon since switching nationality to British by beating Diego Schwartzman in one of just five completed first-round matches on Monday.
Slovenia-born Bedene, who was granted British citizenship in March, won 6-1, 6-7(5/7), 6-2 against his Argentine opponent and was due to play eighth seed Adrian Mannarino of France in the second round yesterday.
Santiago Giraldo of Colombia won 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 against Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria, while Simone Bolelli, Malek Jaziri and Dudi Sela were all straight-sets winners before rain washed out play.
The top seeds were due on court yesterday, with David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez and Gilles Simon all starting their title challenges. Ferrer was set to play Marcos Baghdatis in the headline match.
Carlos Alcaraz on Monday powered into the French Open second round with a resounding win to start his title defense, while world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and three-time defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek also progressed at Roland Garros. Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz struck 31 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri and is to face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in round two. Alcaraz is now on an eight-match winning streak at the French Open and also took Olympic silver at Roland Garros last year, losing the final to Novak Djokovic. “The first round is never
SSC Napoli coach Antonio Conte has dragged the team back from disaster and restored them to the top of Italian Serie A, but his future at the Scudetto winners is in doubt even after a triumphant season. The fiery 55-year-old has exceeded preseason expectations and bolstered his reputation as a serial winner by guiding Napoli to their fourth Scudetto, and second in three seasons. However, he might well be on his way in the summer after just one season at the helm as his charged relationship with Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has simmered throughout the campaign. Conte has said
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