World No.1 and former champion Serena Williams has withdrawn from this year's Mutua Madrid Open.
The tournament announced on Friday morning that Williams was suffering from flu, ruling her out from returning to the tournament she won in 2012 and 2013.
"Unfortunately, I have to withdraw from Madrid because I've been battling the flu and I'm not at 100%. I look forward to returning soon," Williams said.
In her absence, Agnieszka Radwanska has been elevated to No.1 seed and at Friday's draw was paired with former French Open semifinalist Dominika Cibulkova.
Williams, who is the defending French Open champion, is now scheduled to open her clay court campaign at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in May.
source:http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/5530868/title/serena-withdraws-from-madrid
Alexander Zverev continued to build on a career-best 2016 season by defeating top seed David Goffin 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the BMW Open by FWU AG on Friday. Zverev, currently ranked a career-best No. 49 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, secured the win in two hours and 22 minutes to move into his fourth ATP World Tour semi-finals.
“He’s been playing really well in the past months, making the semi-finals of two [ATP World Tour] Masters 1000 events, so it was nice to win,” Zverev said.
The German set the tone early in the match, landing 71 per cent of first serves and breaking Goffin twice en route to winning the opening set. The Belgian, who won the pair’s lone previous meeting at the Mons Challenger in 2014, survived seven aces in the second set and pushed the match to a decider. The 19 year old then showed his mettle, only losing three points on serve the rest of the way.
Standing between Zverev and his first ATP World Tour final is third seed Dominic Thiem, who saw off Ivan Dodig 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and 12 minutes. Thiem fired eight aces and landed 65 per cent of first serves in the pair’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. The 22 year old, No. 15 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is now tied with Novak Djokovic for most tour-level wins on the season (28-7). He is now 12-2 on clay in 2016.
“I’m really looking forward to [facing Thiem],” Zverev said. “We spend a lot of time off the court together. It will be the first of many [matches] for us.”
Philipp Kohlschreiber snapped a six-match losing streak against Juan Martin del Potro with a 6-4, 6-1 quarter-final win. The German saved both break points faced and broke the Argentine four times in the 80-minute encounter. His semi-final opponent will be fifth seed Fabio Fognini, who edged Lucky Loser Jozef Kovalik 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in two hours.
source:http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/goffin-thiem-del-potro-munich-2016-friday
For now at least, Nick Kyrgios holds the upper hand against his fellow #NextGen star Borna Coric. In their first tour-level meeting on Friday, Kyrgios served freely and blasted forehands to breeze past Coric 6-4, 6-4 and move into the semi-finals of the Millennium Estoril Open.
The 21-year-old Aussie hit 10 aces and won 82 per cent of his service points. Kyrgios also never faced a break point in the one-hour and nine-minute match. Coric, meanwhile, had to work to hold the entire contest, erasing six of eight break points faced. Coric, No. 40 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, was trying to go 4-0 in quarter-finals this season but will have to wait until his second meeting with Kyrgios to even their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry.
The two had met twice before on the ITF Junior Circuit, with Krygios winning both contests. Now the World No. 20 advances to his fourth semi-final of the season, where he'll face Nicolas Almagro. The Spaniard knocked off No. 7 seed Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-4, 7-6(5). "I'm not going to think about it too much," Kyrgios said of his semi-final match. "I know what he's doing to do, and I know what I have to do to win."
Almagro, a former World No. 9, improved to 4-0 against Mayer, No. 46 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. The 30 year old pressured Mayer's serve all match, converting three of his 11 break points.
Benoit Paire remained undefeated in ATP World Tour quarter-finals this year. The Frenchman dispatched Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6(2), 6-2 on Friday. Garcia-Lopez was trying to reach his second consecutive semi-final, after reaching the final four last week at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest. Paire, now 4-0 in quarter-finals this year, controlled the match with his first serve, winning almost 80 per cent of those points.
In the semi-finals, Paire will face another Spaniard: Pablo Carreno Busta, who beat No. 1 seed Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-4. The No. 8 seed hit five aces and won 70 per cent of his second-serve points. In the first set, Carreno Busta erased both break points faced and converted his only break point against the World No. 18. During the second set, Carreno Busta didn't face a break point and broke Simon once more. “He was always able to play the right shot at the right moment,” Simon said.
source:http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/simon-kyrgios-coric-estoril-2016-friday
