****** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ******
* Nadal cruises closer to #1 with easy win in Beijing, but Djokovic answers with win of his own
* Ferrer struggles but knocks Pospisil out of Top Forty
* Berdych also advances to strengthen grip on #5
* Querrey dumps Youzhny out of Top Twenty
* Mayer loses to Gasquet, will lost Top Fifty spot
* Wawrinka beats Seppi, moves closer to London qualification — and status as Swiss #1
* Benneteau loses another Top Thirty chance
* Djokovic/Wawrinka surprise Bhupathi/Lindstedt in doubles; Fyrstenberg/Matkowski lose to Fognini/Seppi
* Del Potro edges Baghdatis, who will fall out of Top Fifty, in Tokyo
* Tipsarevic, Lopez also through in three sets
* Nishikori edges Melzer, earns enough that he will probably stay Top Twenty
* Anderson loses first match of comeback
* Roger-Vasselin ends Tursunov’s Top Thirty hopes
****** TODAY’S MEN’S NEWS ******
Beijing
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal fired the first shots in their struggle this week for the ATP top ranking held by the Serb, with top seed and three-time champion Djokovic beating Lukas Rosol 6-0, 6-3 in less than an hour. Nadal, who could claim the No. 1 spot by reaching the weekend final, kept pace with his defeat of Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo 6-2, 6-4 in 90 minutes.
Nadal knows he has a huge job this week, but does own ten titles including grand slams already this season. “My opponent (Djokovic) is unbelievable,” said the Spaniard. “If you are not able to keep improving your level, your chances to keep winning and keep being in the top positions of the rankings (are not going to be) big.” Nadal next plays German Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany; Djokovic aims for the quarter-finals against Spain’s Fernando Verdasco.
US Open semi-finalist Stanislas Wawrinka, seeded sixth, started with a defeat of Andreas Seppi 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 while London year-end contender and fifth seed Richard Gasquet defeated German Florian Mayer 6-3, 7-6(2). American John Isner scored a relatively rare win outside of the US – only his fourth of the season – by beating Wu Di of China 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3.
There were also opening victories for Russian Nikolay Davydenko, Australian Marinko Matosevic and Sam Querrey of the US, who beat Mikhail Youzhny 7-6(3), 6-3.
Tokyo
Top seed Juan Del Potro survived 17 aces from Marcos Baghdatis in a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win into the second round, with the Argentine who has not played for a month since an early US Open loss got back into tournament form, Del Potro last competed in New York, losing in five sets to Lleyton Hewitt in the second round.
Del Potro, 2008 runner-up, who lost in the first round in his next two appearances in the capital, said he is feeling fit again for a final push this season to a possible place in the World Tour Finals in London, “I had a month at home to heal and practice. I feel good with my fitness and my wrist is fine, I can serve at almost 100 per cent. This is a tough time of the season for us near the end of another long year.” The win in two hours sends Del Potro into a countryman battle with Carlos Berlocq, who earned his 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 defeat of Pablo Cuevas.
There was huge home excitement as defending champion Kei Nishikori dodged a bullet to pullout a comeback over Jurgen Melzer 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2 after the veteran Austrian served for the match but was unable to pull off the upset of the local hero, Melzer led a set and 5-2 but was broken as he tried to close it out. Nishikori leveled the sets at one apiece before dominating in the third to go through and face Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, who put Tatsuma Ito of Japan 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Horacio Zeballos earned a third Argentine win on the day by beating US qualifier Ryan Harrison 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Slovak lucky loser Lukas Lacko upset South African seventh seed Kevin Anderson 6-4, 7-6(2). Eduardo Roger-Vasselin of France beat Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Pole Michal Przysiezny stepped in when fourth seed Gilles Simon withdrew with a groin strain and won his first match over Marcel Granollers 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
******** THIS WEEK IN TENNIS ********
THIS WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Beijing (500/Hard). Defending Champion: Novak Djokovic
Tokyo (500/Hard). Defending Champion: Kei Nishikori
NEXT WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Shanghai
******** STATS AND FACTS ********
RANKINGS
Estimated ATP World Tour Rankings
As of October 1, 2013
Rank &
Prior…Player………..Points
1..(2) Nadal………….10905
2..(1) Djokovic……….10665
3..(3) Murray………….6895
4..(4) Ferrer………….6710
5..(5) Berdych…………4520
6..(6) Federer…………4515
7..(7) Del Potro……….4315
8..(9) Wawrinka………..3150
9..(8) Tsonga………….3115
10.(10) Gasquet…………3005
11.(11) Raonic………….2560
12.(12) Haas……………2265
13.(14) Simon…………..2095
14.(15) Janowicz………..2085
15.(16) Isner…………..2070
16.(17) Almagro…………1940
17.(19) Fognini…………1840
18.(18) Robredo…………1830
19.(13) Nishikori……….1795
20.(21) Anderson………..1775
21.(20) Youzhny…………1735
22.(22) Seppi…………..1555
23.(25) Kohlschreiber……1445
24.(23) Tipsarevic………1435
25.(26) Melzer………….1425
26.(27) Gulbis………….1381
27.(28) Paire…………..1380
28.(29) Dimitrov………..1375
29.(24) Lopez…………..1320
30.(31) Verdasco………..1235
**DRAWS
Beijing — Week of September 29
1 Djokovic
Rosol
Verdasco
Qualifier
Querrey
Youzhny
Seppi
6 Wawrinka
3 Ferrer
Pospisil
Matosevic
Benneteau
Tomic
Zhang (WC)
F Mayer
5 Gasquet
8 Isner
Wu (WC)
Dimitrov
Qualifier
Qualifier
Davydenko
Andujar
4 Berdych
7 Haas
Hewitt (WC)
Fognini
Robredo
Montanes
Kohlschreiner
Qualifier
2 Nadal
Tokyo — Week of September 29
1 del Potro
Baghdatis
Berlocq
Cuevas (PR)
Dolgopolov
Brands
Hanescu
8 Tipsarevic
4 Nishikori
Melzer
Lopez
Ito (WC)
Qualifier
Zeballos
Qualifier
6 Almagro
7 Anderson
Qualifier
Qualifier
Tursunov
Llodra
Chardy
Soeda (WC)
3 Raonic
5 Simon
Granollers
Nieminen
Monaco
Sugita (WC)
Dodig
Monfils
2 Tsonga
******** SCORES ********
TUESDAY
Beijing
Singles – Second Round
[4] T Berdych (CZE) d N Davydenko (RUS) W/O (right wrist)
Singles – First Round
[1] N Djokovic (SRB) d L Rosol (CZE) 60 63
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [Q] S Giraldo (COL) 62 64
[3] D Ferrer (ESP) d V Pospisil (CAN) 64 36 76(2)
[4] T Berdych (CZE) d P Andujar (ESP) 64 61
[5] R Gasquet (FRA) d F Mayer (GER) 63 76(2)
[6] S Wawrinka (SUI) d A Seppi (ITA) 46 63 64
[8] J Isner (USA) d [WC] D Wu (CHN) 57 76(4) 63
F Verdasco (ESP) d [Q] S Devvarman (IND) 76(6) 63
S Querrey (USA) d M Youzhny (RUS) 76(3) 63
M Matosevic (AUS) d J Benneteau (FRA) 76(5) 63
N Davydenko (RUS) d [Q] Y Lu (TPE) 76(3) 64
Doubles – First Round
N Djokovic (SRB) / S Wawrinka (SUI) d [2] M Bhupathi (IND) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 63 63
F Fognini (ITA) / A Seppi (ITA) d M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) 62 64
C Fleming (GBR) / J Marray (GBR) d P Kohlschreiber (GER) / M Youzhny (RUS) 76(8) 46 10-7
T Haas (GER) / F Mayer (GER) d [WC] M Gong (CHN) / Z Li (CHN) 75 36 10-8
Tokyo
Singles – First Round
[1] [WC] J del Potro (ARG) d M Baghdatis (CYP) 46 64 63
[4] K Nishikori (JPN) d J Melzer (AUT) 67(4) 75 62
[LL] L Lacko (SVK) d [7] K Anderson (RSA) 64 76(2)
[8] J Tipsarevic (SRB) d V Hanescu (ROU) 67(6) 61 64
C Berlocq (ARG) d [PR] P Cuevas (URU) 76(4) 62
F Lopez (ESP) d [WC] T Ito (JPN) 46 75 63
H Zeballos (ARG) d [Q] R Harrison (USA) 61 46 64
[Q] E Roger-Vasselin (FRA) d D Tursunov (RUS) 64 36 63
I Dodig (CRO) d [WC] Y Sugita (JPN) 63 61
*[LL] M Przysiezny (POL) d M Granollers (ESP) 16 63 64
*[LL] M Przysiezny (POL) replaced [5] G Simon (FRA) – (groin strain)
****** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ******
* All ten Beijing singles matches follow form
* Serena wins tense match with Schiavone; Lisicki trounces Venus
* No new Race qualifications or eliminations
* Bouchard fails to reach Top Thirty, Robson falls short of Top Forty
* Errani/Vinci struggle past Chan/Huber; Hsieh/Peng assure Istanbul spot with win over Goerges/Zahlavova Strycova
****** TODAY’S WOMEN’S NEWS ******
Beijing
The Williams sisters went in entirely different directions in the second round, with top seed Serena beating former fellow French Open winner Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-5 while Venus was humbled by Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 6-2.
Chinese fans breathed a sigh of relief as national sports heroine and fourth seed Li Na advanced over Serb Bojana Jovanovski with the loss of just one game. British interest ended early with the loss of Laura Robson to German seventh seed Angelique Kerber 6-1, 6-2. Former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, the sixth seed, beat Romanian Monica Niculescu 6-3, 6-1 while former Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova advanced over Varvara Lepchenko 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.
American Sloane Stephens reversed last week’s loss in Tokyo against Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard with a 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 result. Italian tenth seed Roberta Vinci defeated Zhang Shuai of China 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 and Spain’s Suarez Navarro stopped Lauren Davis of the US 6-4, 6-2.
******** THIS WEEK IN TENNIS ********
THIS WEEK ON THE WTA:
Beijing (Premier Mandatory/Hard). Defending Champion: Victoria Azarenka
NEXT WEEK ON THE WTA:
Linz (International/Indoor Hard). Defending Champion: Victoria Azarenka
Osaka (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Heather Watson
************ STATS AND FACTS ************
**RANKINGS
Estimated WTA Rankings As of September 30, 2013
Rank &
Prior
Rank….Name…………..Points
1 (1) SWILLIAMS 12400*
2 (2) AZARENKA 8485
3 (3) Sharapova 6941
4 (4) ARADWANSKA 5825*
5 (5) LI 5255*
6 (6) ERRANI 4435*
7 (7) KVITOVA 4005*
8 (8) WOZNIACKI 3735*
9 (9) KERBER 3535*
10 (11) JANKOVIC 3240*
11 (12) VINCI 3195*
12 (13) STEPHENS 3185*
13 (10) Bartoli 3172
14 (16) LISICKI 2830*
15 (18) KIRILENKO 2755*
16 (14) IVANOVIC 2715*
17 (17) HALEP 2685
18 (15) SUAREZ NAVARRO 2665*
19 (19) FLIPKENS 2601
20 (20) STOSUR 2445
21 (21) CIRSTEA 2170
22 (25) KUZNETSOVA 2143*
23 (23) CIBULKOVA 2126
24 (22) Makarova 2066
25 (24) VESNINA 1960
26 (26) Hampton 1851
27 (27) CORNET 1790
28 (30) KANEPI 1751
29 (28) PAVLYUCHENKOVA 1750
30 (29) PENNETTA 1735
**DRAWS
Beijing — Week of September 29
1 S Williams
16 Halep
11 Stephens
6 Wozniacki
3 A Radwanska
14 Ivanovic
10 Vinci
7 Kerber
5 Errani
9 Kvitova
13 Lisicki
4 Li
8 Jankovic
12 Suarez Navarro
15 Stosur
2 Azarenka
STATUS OF SEEDS:
1 S Williams
2 Azarenka
3 A Radwanska
4 Li
5 Errani
6 Wozniacki
7 Kerber
8 Jankovic
9 Kvitova
10 Vinci
11 Stephens
12 Suarez Navarro
13 Lisicki
14 Ivanovic
15 Stosur………..lost 1R (Safarova)
16 Halep…………lost 1R (U Radwanska)
******** SCORES ********
TUESDAY
Beijing
Singles – Second Round
(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. (WC) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 64 75
(4) Li Na (CHN) d. Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) 60 61
(6) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. Monica Niculescu (ROU) 63 61
(7) Angelique Kerber (GER) d. Laura Robson (GBR) 61 62
(9) Petra Kvitova (CZE) d. Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 26 62 60
(10) Roberta Vinci (ITA) d. (WC) Zhang Shuai (CHN) 36 63 61
(11) Sloane Stephens (USA) d. (Q) Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) 61 16 64
(12) Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) d. (Q) Lauren Davis (USA) 64 62
(13) Sabine Lisicki (GER) d. (WC) Venus Williams (USA) 61 62
Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. Urszula Radwanska (POL) 64 64
Doubles – Second Round
(1) Errani/Vinci (ITA/ITA) d. Chan/Huber (TPE/USA) 64 67(4) 108 (Match TB)
(2) Hsieh/Peng (TPE/CHN) d. Goerges/Zahlavova Strycova (GER/CZE) 63 64
Dushevina/Parra Santonja (RUS/ESP) d. (4) Jankovic/Srebotnik (SRB/SLO) 64 67(4) 106 (Match TB)
(6) Kops-Jones/Spears (USA/USA) d. King/Voskoboeva (USA/KAZ) 63 62
Mladenovic/Pennetta (FRA/ITA) d. Soler-Espinosa/Suárez Navarro (ESP/ESP) 63 61
Hantuchova/Raymond (SVK/USA) d. Lisicki/Medina Garrigues (GER/ESP) 63 64
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