Archive: richard-evans
After beating Kevin Anderson 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the quarter finals of the Miami Open, Andy Murray found himself celebrating the 500th win of his career by cutting a huge cake at his press conference.
Emotion. If there was one word which summed up two weeks of intense, demanding and often brilliant tennis at the BNP Paribas Open that was it. Arms froze; hands shook, tears flowed and even the occasional scream could be heard from the sidelines as players tried to gather themselves and release the tension that was building up inside taught and tired bodies.
It is good to bury a piece of the past when it has not been good to you. With the help of some 14,000 people on a balmy night under a desert sky at Indian Wells, Serena Williams let go of 14 years of hurt and found love instead.
Indian Wells tennis has begun. It's absolutely gorgeous here. Geezer has been here a week already. Disco Dottie too... Southern Belle is hanging with Global Chick so they are almost here.
Lucie Safarova, the 28-year-old Czech lefthander, took full advantage of a weary opponent to claim the 6th, and most important, title of a long career when she defeated Viktoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-3 in the final of the Qatar Total Open.
It was the best match of the tournament and it was a first for Viktoria Azarenka. After four defeats out of four, Vika finally found a way to beat Venus Williams which she did in storming fashion after a disastrous start, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Venus Williams was taking a deserved day off at the Qatar Total Open, having a routine practice with hitting partners on a court adjacent to where little kids were playing mini-tennis with coaches dressed up as Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Donald Duck.
Apart from a strange, brief and eventually irrelevant period midway through the first set when his opponent won eight consecutive points, Novak Djokovic was rarely troubled as he retained his BNP Paribas Masters title here at Bercy with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Milos Raonic.
Novak Djokovic, looking like the world No 1 and Milos Roanic, who is starting to look as if he wants to challenge for that position, will face off in the final of the BNP Paribas Masters here on Sunday.
Milos Raonic, clinging on to the possibility of making the top eight for the ATP Finals in London, finally worked out a way to beat Roger Federer in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Masters here, winning a tight struggle 7-6, 7-5.
A little clarity emerged from the rubble of the Omnipalais here at Bercy as Andy Murray confirmed his place in the ATP Finals in London by eliminating one of the contenders, Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-3. It has been hard to find one’s way around this stadium this week as the whole place is under construction and work has only stopped for ten days...
“I felt fine,” said Andy Murray, having dispatched Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-4 as if it was perfectly normal to be playing one’s sixth consecutive tournament in six straight weeks. But what Murray has achieved during that barnstorming run that has made him all but certain of a place amongst the top eight at the ATP Finals in London is anything but normal.
A win in Zagreb; a final in Rotterdam and now another title at the Delray Beach Open for Marin Cilic – it’s been a three week streak that has made the popular Croat the hottest player on the ATP tour this year. He has now won 14 of his last 15 matches and 18 in all – more than any other player.
One of the best things about watching the galaxy of stars inter-act at the ATP Heritage dinner at the Waldorf Astoria just before the US Open was the degree to which the world No 1’s were in awe of each other.
Within minutes of the shock announcement that Andy Murray had chosen Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach, Andrei Chesnokov was having microphones stuck under his nose in the Players Lounge at Roland Garros.
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