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de Minaur back in action in Spain

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Screen shot from Alex de Minaur match

Australia’s Alex de Minaur is 2-0 in a return to competitive tennis, although it is only in exhibition matches.

After bunkering down in Alicante, Spain during the quarantine period de Minaur is competing at the Region of Valencia Tennis Challenge.

World No. 26 de Minaur defeated Pablo Andujar 6-2, 6-3 on Friday and followed that up with a win over Pablo Carreno Busta 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday.

He will next face world No.12 Roberto Bautista Agut on Sunday. Both players are undefeated in the round-robin format.

The matches are being played on clay courts with an umpire and ball kids. The line judges are not being used to limit the number of people involved.

Against world No. 25 Carreno Busta the Australian was up 4-2 before getting pegged back. de Minaur broke for 6-5 and served out the first set.

In the second set de Minaur got one break of serve and that was enough to seal the match.

The 21-year-old Australian last played at the ATP 500 in Acapulco when he lost in the first round against Miomir Kecmanovic from Serbia. It was the Australian’s first match back from an injury he sustained during the ATP Cup.

Tennis is suspended through to July 31 but is that being overly ambitious

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The ATP and WTA have announced the suspension of tournaments through to the end of July.

The WTA said, “”We regret this is the case but will continue to be guided by medical experts for when it is safe and possible to return to WTA competition. We continue to monitor the situation closely and are hopeful to be back on the court as soon as possible.”

“Due to continued uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, we regret to announce our decision to extend the suspension of the Tour,” said Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman. “Just like tennis fans, players and tournament hosts all over the world, we share in the disappointment the Tour continues to be affected in this way. We continue to assess all of our options in an effort to resume the Tour as soon as it is safe to do so, including the feasibility of rescheduling events later in the season. As ever, the health and well-being of the tennis community and wider public remains our top priority in every decision we make.”

The August date to commence tennis could be wishful thinking. With the aviation industry pretty much at a complete standstill it will be difficult to get players to tournaments.

Australia is talking about have their borders closed into 2021. Tennis Australia are looking at many different scenarios in order to be able to hold the Australian Open in 2021.

With tennis not being played now for several months the governing bodies of world tennis have come together to raise in excess of USD $6 million to create a Player Relief Program to assist players who are particularly affected by the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Program will target around 800 ATP/WTA singles and doubles players that are in need of financial support.

At this stage the US Open is set to go ahead although it could be at an alternative venue and the French Open is scheduled to run from Sunday, 20 September – Sunday 4 October.

ATP and WTA announce an extension of the COVID-19 suspension

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Amended 5 April

ATP and WTA Tours until July 13, 2020 and Wimbledon cancelled.

We have seen sport around the world closed down due to the coronavirus. Tennis being one of the first of the big sports to close things down after Indian Wells was cancelled.

Below is a photo from the last tournament actually played in Canberra. The smoke that enveloped the city saw a Challenger tournament moved to Bendigo in January of this year and just days out from the 2020 clay court tournaments the coronavirus suspension saw the Canberra clay court tournaments postponed.

Canberra, Australia – 31 March 2019: ACT Clay Court International #2 women’s final – Olivia Rogowska and Priscilla Hon on centre court in Canberra. (Photo by Rob Keating http://robiciatennis.com )

Below is the text from an update from the ATP. At the end of the message they had a dig at the French Open organisers after they had rescheduled their tournament without consulting other key stakeholders.

After careful consideration, and due to the continuing outbreak of COVID-19, all ATP and WTA tournaments tin the Spring clay-court swing will not be held as scheduled.  This includes the combined ATP/WTA tournaments in Madrid and Rome, along with the WTA events in Strasbourg and Rabat and ATP events in Munich, Estoril, Geneva and Lyon. 

The professional tennis season is now suspended through 7 June 2020, including the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour. At this time, tournaments taking place from 8 June 2020 onwards are still planning to go ahead as per the published schedule. 

In parallel, the FedEx ATP Rankings and WTA Rankings will be frozen throughout this period and until further notice.

The challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to professional tennis demand greater collaboration than ever from everyone in the tennis community in order for the sport to move forward collectively in the best interest of players, tournaments and fans. 

We are assessing all options related to preserving and maximising the tennis calendar based on various return dates for the Tours, which remains an unknown at this time. We are committed to working through these matters with our player and tournament members, and the other governing bodies, in the weeks and months ahead.

Now is not a time to act unilaterally, but in unison. All decisions related to the impact of the coronavirus require appropriate consultation and review with the stakeholders in the game, a view that is shared by ATP, WTA, ITF, AELTC, Tennis Australia, and USTA.

Indian Wells tournament called off due to coronavirus fears

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One coronavirus case has sent the cards crashing in Indian Wells. The WTA Premier Mandatory and ATP Masters 1000 tournaments have been called off. The Indian Wells tournament is seen as one of the biggest tournaments outside of the Grand Slams.

The Riverside County Public Health Department has declared a public health emergency for the Coachella Valley after a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) locally.

“There is too great a risk, at this time, to the public health of the Riverside County area in holding a large gathering of this size,” said Dr. David Agus, Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California. “It is not in the public interest of fans, players and neighboring areas for this tournament to proceed. We all have to join together to protect the community from the coronavirus outbreak.”

“We appreciate the proactive stance tournament organizers are taking to ensure public health and safety,” said Martin Massiello, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Eisenhower Health.

“We are very disappointed that the tournament will not take place, but the health and safety of the local community, fans, players, volunteers, sponsors, employees, vendors, and everyone involved with the event is of paramount importance,” said Tournament Director Tommy Haas. “We are prepared to hold the tournament on another date and will explore options.”

It remains to be seen what will happen with the Miami Open which is due to start on 25 March.

As of Saturday, 16 Florida residents have tested positive for COVID-19, including five Florida cases that have been repatriated from elsewhere and a non-Florida resident, according to Florida’s Department of Health website.

“We’re past the point of containment,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration during the first two years of President Trump’s administration, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“We have to implement broad mitigation strategies. The next two weeks are really going to change the complexion in this country. We’ll get through this, but it’s going to be a hard period. We’re looking at two months, probably, of difficulty,” Gottlieb said.

Australia books a Davis Cup finals spot

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Australia faced Brazil without their top two ranked singles players in a Davis Cup final qualifying tie.

Jordan Thompson and John Millman stepped up to fill the places of Alex de Minaur and Nick Kyrgios after both were unavailable due to injury.

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Thompson got the Aussies off to a perfect start when he defeated Brazil’s top ranked player Thiago Monteiro 6-4, 6-4. Monteiro is ranked at no. 82 and Thompson sits at no. 63.

“It’s massive,” Thompson said of his victory. “I didn’t want to be sending Johnny (Millman) out there 0-1 down. It’s the perfect start being 1-0 up.”

“He told me to put returns in. Any return is a good return. Scoreboard pressure,” Thompson said of the advice captain Lleyton Hewitt shared during a tight opening set.

“You have to listen to that because Lleyton’s been out there.”

Next up it was world no. 43 John Millman facing world no. 113 Thiago Seyboth Wild.

The 19-year-old Brazilian took the first set and Millman was down a set and a break, with Seyboth Wild serving for the tie, before staging a remarkable comeback in the second set tiebreaker and the final set to claim a 4-6 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 win.

After his fightback win Millman said, “I used the bench, the team, I soaked up the experience of Lleyton and Roachy especially and I’m just happy I got through. That’s what Davis Cup is about. It’s never giving up, and I think that’s the Australian way.

“To be honest with you, at the start of the match I was a little shell-shocked. He came out of the blocks on debut, obviously a lot of confidence from last week, but he was playing an amazing match.

“When you’re staring at the brink of defeat you can either go out quietly or you can give it everything. I knew that if I could just turn it around and just give myself that extra chance I could get the win.”

Day Two Action

On day two the doubles rubber was first up on the Adelaide centre court.

Experienced Australian doubles player John Peers teamed up with James Duckworth who was making his Davis Cup debut. They faced Brazil’s Marcelo Demoliner and Felipe Meligeni Rodrigues Alves who took the match 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(6).

The Australian’s were twice two points from sealing their spot in the finals but the Brazilians held their nerve to take the win.

Millman this time was facing Monteiro with the chance to seal the qualifying spot.

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As he did in his first match Millman found himself a set down after dropping the tie-breaker. Both players had dropped serve once in the opening set. They would not get broken again.

Millman fought back to win the second set in a tie-break to setup a deciding set.

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In the third set tie-breaker Millman jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Monteiro came back to 4-3. Millman surged again to claim the match and with that book Australia’s spot in the Davis Cup finals.

Millman won the match 6-7(6), 7-6(3), 7-6(3).

“That is what Davis Cup tennis is all about,” Australia’s captain Lleyton Hewitt said.

“Johnny had to come out here and back up what he did yesterday – and what a performance.

“That is going to go down as one of the great weekends in his career.”

“I always believed,” Millman said.

“The body was a little sore; the emotion levels were perhaps a little bit down at times – it’s tough to be up the whole time.

“But that is when you have really got to use your bench and use the experience that is Lleyton Hewitt and Tony Roche … they dragged me up when I was nearly down.”

After the qualifying ties here is the full list of teams that will lineup for the finals held in Madrid on 23-29 November.

Automatic qualification

Spain (defending champion)
Canada (2019 runner up)
Great Britain (2019 semi-finalist)
Russia (2019 semi-finalist)
France (2020 wild card)
Serbia (2020 wild card)

Qualifiers (12 nations winning their Qualifier ties on 6-7 March)

Australia
Austria
Colombia
Croatia
Czech Republic
Ecuador
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Kazakhstan
Sweden
USA

Spain moves past Australia to setup final showdown against Serbia

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After Serbia had defeated Russia in the first semifinal at the ATP Cup it was Australia vs Spain fighting to be the second team to advance to the final.

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Nick Kyrgios faced world no. 10 Roberto Bautista Agut in the opening singles and pushed the Spaniard in the opening game but from there he struggled in the first set.

The world no. 29 Australian was broken twice in the first by the consistent Spaniard who made just two unforced errors in the opening set.

Kyrgios was broken early in the second set and had a few chances to hit back however Bautista Agut held firm to give Spain the opening match.

World no. 1 Rafael Nadal was defeated by David Goffin in the quarter-final and found himself down an early break against Australia’s no. 1 player Alex de Minaur.

The pair had met twice previously with Nadal winning convincingly at the 2019 Australian Open and at Wimbledon in 2018.

This time de Minaur was able to out hustle Nadal and he also managed to hit a lot more winners that his opponent to take the opening set.

Games went with serve in the second set until the 12th game where Nadal was able to break de Minaur to take the set 7-5.

Nadal raced to a 4-0 lead in the deciding set before wrapping up the match and sending Spain into the final. Nadal taking the match 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Australia defeats Great Britain in a thriller to advance to the ATP Cup semifinals

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Nick Kyrgios got Australia off to a flying start in the first ATP Cup quarterfinal against Brisbane. He defeated world no. 52 Cameron Norrie 6-2, 6-2.

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Next up it was the no. 1s match between Australia’s Alex de Minaur and Britain’s Dan Evans. This match was one of the best of the tournament so far.

Both players were hitting the ball cleanly from the start but it was de Minaur that took an early lead after breaking Evans in the second game after hitting a down the line winner to bring up a break point. He consolidated the break to lead 3-0.

Evans held serve then broke the Australian to get back on serve. Both players then held serve to see the first set decided in a tiebreak.

Things did not start well for de Minaur as he lost the first point after an air-swing when attempting an overhead. Evans would take the opening set after winning the tiebreak 7-4.

de Minaur again broke early in the second set to lead 2-1 and advantage that he held onto to level the match at one set all.

In the deciding third set it was Evans that won the first break of serve to lead 2-0.

de Minaur broke back at 2-4 and again the players found themselves in a tiebreak after Evans failed to convert a few match points. The Brit finally did secure the win to send the tie into a live doubles match.

In the doubles match Australia’s captain decided to pair up the singles players instead of using the doubles specialists John Peers and Chris Guccione.

The Australian’s got off to an early lead with the first break of the match however de Minaur was not able to hold serve in the first set and the Brits took the opening set 6-4.

In the second set the Australians held serve and then broke to again hold an early lead however Kyrgios was broken for the first time at 3-1 to get things back on serve.

The Australians quickly broke again this time breaking Salisbury to lead 4-2. They held serve from there to take the second set 6-3 and send the match into a super tiebreak. It would turn out to be an epic moment.

Australia took the early lead with a mini break and were looking likely to secure the win when at 8-6 de Minaur was serving. The Brits however pounced at the net to smash a winner and get things back on serve.

Kyrgios brought up the first match point when he hit a down the line winner past Salisbury. The Brits would save that and then hold their own match point at 11-10.

This was perhaps when they should have claimed victory. With de Minaur serving Murray had hit a reflex volley at Kyrgios and he scooped the ball just over the net. Murray was right on the net with the open court at his mercy, he would however lift his backhand long over the baseline to give the Aussies a reprieve.

The Aussies again held match point after a great backhand smash from Kyrgios took the score to 11-12 with Murray serving to stay alive. He handled the pressure to level the scores.

An overhead error from Salisbury gave the Australian’s another match point at 13-12 but the Brits again stayed cool. They had a match point at 14-15 with the Australians to serve.

Murray finally had a serve with match point at 16-15 but de Minaur jumped on the return to hit a down the line winner to keep the Aussies alive. A high backhand return that Kyrgios guided down the tram lines saw the Australians serving at 17-16 for the win.

Kyrgios served and Salisbury hit long but a review of the serve was called for before the win could be confirmed. The ball had landed on the service live so it was a win for the Aussies to cap off an amazing tie.

The Australians took the match 3-6, 6-3, (18-16) and await the winner of the quarterfinal between Spain and Belgium.

Australia takes another step toward the ATP Cup quarterfinals after despatching Canada

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At the end of last season Canada got the better of Australia at the Davis Cup finals winning their quarter-final clash. The two countries again faced off, this time at the ATP Cup in Brisbane.
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Both teams had won their opening ties on Friday 3-0.
First up we saw John Millman sub in for Nick Kyrgios who reportedly had a back issue.

Millman faced Felix Auger-Aliassime and took that match 6-4, 6-2.

Next is was the battle of the no. 1 players. Alex de Minaur facing Denis Shapovalov.

Both players had caused upsets in their opening matches with de Minaur defeating world no. 7 Alexander Zverev of Germany and Shapovalov defeating world no. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.

In the opening set it was one that both players had break point opportunities but they were not able to convert. de Minaur saved seven with Shapovalov fighting off two.

In the tie-breaker it was de Minaur that held the first set point but he was not able to convert. Shapovalov would quickly move to a set point which he converted when serving wide.

In the second set de Minaur broke first only to see Shapavalov hit back quickly. de Minaur was able to fight off a few break points early in the set to not fall behind. Both players traded breaks before de Minaur got a crucial third break.

In the third set de Minaur got better as the set progressed to march on to a 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-2 victory to seal the tie for Australia.

Kyrgios and de Minaur get Australia a winning start at the ATP Cup

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Australia’s Nick Kyrgios and Alex de Minaur has won their singles matches against Jan-Lennard Struff and Alexander Zverev to claim their Group F tie against Germany.

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Kyrgios got started with a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory over world no. 35 Struff.

Zverev looked on track to level the tie after taking the first set and being up a break in the second set before the Australian fought back to win 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-2.

This was the first upset at the ATP Cup with the world no. 7 going down to the world no. 18.

A few double faults from Zverev at crucial times probably cost Germany the match. That combined with de Minaur’s hustle.

Canberra Challenger tournament transferred to Bendigo

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Canberra since early December 2019 has mostly been mostly shrouded in a cloud of smoke which drifts in from the bushfires burning to the east and south.

The air quality measurements have recently been the worst out of cities around the world. With adverse conditions forecast on Saturday it was decided to send the APIS Canberra International to Bendigo.

The Canberra tournament was set to be the most exciting in the short history of the tournament. The tournament was boosted to an ATP Challenger 125 event with $162,480 in total prize money and eight players in the men’s top-100 were set to launch their Australian Open preparations in Canberra

Tennis ACT CEO Kim Kachel explained the decision was made after much consideration and consultation with the local authorities.

“The health of players, fans, volunteers, staff and stakeholders is our biggest priority at all times,” Kachel said.

Canberra – 4 November: Apis Canberra International ITF $60,000 women’s singles trophy presentation. Zoe Hives (left) the 2018 champion with the runnerup Olivia Rogowska, Dan Bisa President of Tennis ACT, Anthony Honeyman from the Apis Group and Kim Kachel CEO of Tennis ACT. (Photo by Rob Keating – http://robiciatennis.com) #ApisCBRIntl #protour.

“Unfortunately, the best advice from the weather and fire experts is that the conditions over the next few days mean it is unlikely there would be any play. With conditions too unpredictable the decision was made to relocate at the earliest available opportunity.

“We want to thank the team at the Bendigo Tennis Association for helping us stage this event.

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said the unprecedented decision to relocate the tournament was a result of acting on the most up-to-date and accurate information available.

“We have been closely monitoring the bushfire situation in the region and particularly NSW, SA and Victoria and are receiving daily updates from the local experts and authorities,” Tiley said.

“We know how important the tournament is for players preparing to play at the Australian Open and the decision to move the tournament from Canberra to Bendigo has been made to ensure they can still compete.

“We will continue to monitor the situation across the country and ensure we have the most accurate information to make any decisions about play.

“Our thoughts are with all those communities affected by the devastation caused by bushfires across Australia and further announcements regarding fundraising opportunities will be made shortly.”