Tennis season winding down
The women are in Singapore for the WTA season-ending WTA Finals, while the men are in Europe for two 500-level tournaments holding simultaneously in Basel Switzerland and Vienna Austria.
The eight women finalists are competing in two groups for the round-robin stage, from, which the semi-finalists will emerge. The top ranked men selected, in which of the two events to compete.
Roger Federer is seeded first in the Basel indoor arena and is seeking his ninth title on home ground. He is followed by Germany’s Alexander Zverev.
The third seed is Croatia’s Marin Cilic who already dispatched Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6/4; 6/2 in the first round. The other seeds are successively Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, America’s Jack Sock, Italy’s Marco Cecchinatto, Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut. While Roger is scheduled to face Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic is the first round, Alexei Popyrin defeated fellow Aussie Mathew Ebden, 7/6; 6/4.
Dominic Thiem heads the pack in Vienna and will take on Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans. The second seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa survived a first round threat to defeat Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvilli, 4/6; 7/6 (6); 6/3. The other seeded players are Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, America’s John Isner, Japan’s Kei Nishikori, Borna Coric of Serbia, Fabio Fognini of Italy and British star Kyle Edmund. Boric rallied from a close first set before defeating Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6/7 (5), 6/0; 6/4.
It was good cheers for the home country when the Wild Card entrant Jurgen Melzer defeated Canada’s Milos Raonic 7/6 (5); 7/5. Spain’s Fernando Verdasco defeated French Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6/7 (6); 6/3; 6/4. Fatigue could not be ruled out as the Frenchman had battled through Qualifying tournament in which he defeated British Cameron Norrie in a marathon final match that ended 4/6; 7/6(4); 7/5.
However, Norrie was picked as the Lucky Loser and is battling John Isner. The fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori defeated American Frances Tiafoe 7/6 (3) 5/7; 6/2.
In the Round robin matches at the Singapore WTA Finals, top seeded Angelique Kerber lost to Netherlands’ Kiki Bertens 1/6; 6/3; 6/4 . American Sloane Stephens defeated a fellow US Open titlist, Naomi Osaka of Japan 7/5; 4/6; 6/1 and Caroline Wozniacki prevailed over Petra Kvitova 7/5; 3/6; 6/2.
