Australian bad boy Bernard Tomic shrugged off his Miami arrest and banishment from the Davis Cup team to successfully defend his ATP Tour title in Bogota.
Tomic was accused of hitting “rock bottom” by Tennis Australia high performance chief Pat Rafter after being charged for resisting arrest and trespass in relation to a noisy hotel room party he hosted earlier this month.
However, the negative attention does not appear to have affected the controversial 22-year-old’s tennis.
Photo: AFP
He battled past Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 in Sunday’s final of the Claro Open to join Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic as the only players born in the 1990s to win three ATP Tour titles.
“It’s been a very good year,” Tomic said on the ATP Web site. “I started at No. 70 [in the world rankings] and am now close to No. 20. It’s been a good seven months. I’ll try to play well the next three months and have the chance to be in the top 15.”
Tomic, whose ranking has improved to 25 from 29, was kicked out of the Davis Cup team after a tirade against Tennis Australia officials at Wimbledon.
Photo: AFP
Australia won their quarter-final tie against Kazakhstan without him, but want him back in the side for the semi-final against Britain in September.
Tennis Australia offered peace talks with Tomic to facilitate that, but he rejected the overture last week and said the feud would continue as long as the governing body declined to fund his sister’s development.
Sara Tomic plays mostly second-tier ITF tournaments, but Tennis Australia cut her funding, citing the uncooperative attitude of her father.
Bernard Tomic slammed the decision at Wimbledon and publicly criticized a number of Australian officials in an extraordinary outburst.
CROATIA OPEN
AP, UMAG, Croatia
Dominic Thiem of Austria beat Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-4, 6-1 to win the Croatia Open on Sunday.
Thiem became the first Austrian to win the title since Thomas Muster in 1995. After defeating top seed Gael Monfils of France in the semi-finals he stunned Sousa in just 61 minutes.
It was his second career title after victory in the Open de Nice in May in front of the watching world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
“Today was [a] very special day. We were watched by world No. 1 Novak Djokovic,” Thiem said. “Usually he is the one who entertains us with great tennis and today we turned it around.”
“This tournament is really special for me. I played many times here as a junior and dreamed that one day I will be able to play here in full stadium at night,” he said.
Both players held serve until the seventh game of the first set, when a series of astonishing drop shots from Thiem eventually led to him breaking Sousa. He then won seven of the next eight games, with Sousa powerless to stop his opponent.
Thiem made only 11 unforced errors, compared with 26 by Sousa. Thiem hit 27 winners, Sousa 16.
The Austrian’s only low point came when he was serving for the match at 5-0. Three unforced errors saw him lose his serve, but by that point he had already established a comfortable lead and eventually closed out the match.
“I am very disappointed, but Dominic played very well today... he deserved to win,” Sousa said.
It was their third career meeting and Thiem now leads 3-0.
Djokovic, who is in Croatia on a vacation after winning the title at Wimbledon, also said Umag “holds a special place in my heart.”
He last played the tournament in 2006.
“I came in the name of all distant memories... now that I’m here as a spectator in a shirt, I’m starting to get nostalgic,” Djokovic said. “I’m drawn by the tennis, the racket is calling to me. Before I finish my career I’ll definitely come back and play another tournament in Umag.”
SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, Sweden
Benoit Paire of France won his first ATP Tour title on Sunday after beating Spain’s Tommy Robredo 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 at the Swedish Open.
He beat the favorite, two-time champion after first saving two set points in the first-set tiebreak, which he eventually won in 56 minutes on a cool, blustery day.
The Frenchman broke Robredo’s serve to lead 4-2 in the second and after winning the next two games he secured his maiden title at Bastad.
“I wanted to try to play my game all the time. I said: ‘It’s windy today, but I have to stay focused and to be aggressive like I was during all the tournament,’” he said in an interview. “That’s why I think I won today... I wanted [the title] a lot.”
Paire reached the final after beating defending champion Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday.
In the other semi-final, the 33-year-old Spaniard beat 18-year-old German Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4 and was looking for his third victory on his 15th appearance in Bastad, after winning in 2006 and 2008.
Paire was the first Frenchman to win the title since 1981.
Taiwan’s Lee Hao-yu on Friday went 0-for-3 in his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, becoming the 19th Taiwan-born player to reach the big leagues. The Tigers ultimately lost 1-0 in 10 innings, ending their six-game winning streak. The 23-year-old started at third base and batted eighth for Detroit. He was promoted from Triple-A Toledo ahead of the four-game series against the Red Sox at the latter’s home stadium, replacing injured utility player Zach McKinstry. “Being right-handed, and given our schedule, I think six of the next 12 games are going to
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Matheus Cunha on Saturday fired Manchester United toward the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 win at Chelsea, while Tottenham Hotspur remain in the relegation zone after twice blowing the lead to draw with Brighton & Hove Albion. Chelsea failed to take advantage of a United defense ravaged by injury and suspension as a fourth straight league defeat for the Blues left their Champions League hopes in ruins. United have missed out on the riches of Europe’s elite competition for the past two seasons, but are closing in on a return thanks to an upturn in fortunes under interim manager
A new NZ$683 million (US$404 million) stadium that was a symbol of Christchurch’s struggle to rebuild after a deadly earthquake struck the New Zealand city is to host its first match tomorrow in front of a sellout crowd. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed 185 people in February 2011 and toppled or damaged buildings, including the city’s old Lancaster Park. The stadium, which hosted international rugby and cricket, and was home to the Canterbury Crusaders, was badly damaged and never reopened. It was bulldozed in 2019 and turned into sports fields, leaving the Crusaders without a permanent home. Government funding for a new stadium was
RSS