Djokovic aces Isner in Shanghai Osaka giving up US citizenship to play for Japan in Tokyo 2020: Media
TOO GOOD Defending champion enters quarter-finals despite American’s 1,000th ace of the season
SHANGHAI: John Isner served his 1,000th ace of the season but it wasn’t enough to stop defending champion Novak Djokovic from moving into the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals with a 7-5, 6-3 win on Thursday.
Top seeded Djokovic is on a 24-0 sets winning streak in Asia dating back to last year’s Shanghai Masters. He won his inaugural appearance at the Japan Open last week without losing a set.
Isner’s nine aces against Djokovic took him to 1,007 for the year, reaching the milestone for the sixth season overall.
Third seeded Daniil Medvedev continued his quest to reach a sixth consecutive ATP tour final after beating Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil 7-6 (7), 7-5 in their Round of 16 match.
“I start to feel different even if I try to stay the same,” said Medvedev, who added that other players “start to talk to you differently”.
The 248th ranked Pospisil lost his bid to become the third qualifier ever to make the Shanghai quarter-finals.
Pospisil failed to capitalise on five set points in the first set, including two chances in the tiebreaker.
Medvedev’s frustration got the better of him when Pospisil led 4-2, 40-30 in the first set, which led to him smashing his racket repeatedly i nto t he ground at the baseline.
“I usually don’t like to do it, to break the rackets, because it’s never beautiful,” Medvedev said. “But it’s true that sometimes it maybe can help to get some emotions out and get also the stress out.”
Third seeded Medvedev, who reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open in September, leads the tour this year with 56 victories. He next plays 10th seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy in the quarter-finals. “I think (he’s) the worst player I can play at the moment,” Fognini said of Medvedev. “He’s really dangerous.”
Fognini beat seventh seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-3, 7-5. Khachanov had won their first career meeting in three sets at the China Open quarter-finals in Beijing. “I’m happy because I was losing to him last week and I was playing really good also,” 10th seeded Fognini said.
The 11th seeded Matteo Berrettini of Italy outlasted No 8 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-6 (5), 6-4.
GAUFF IN FIRST WTA QUARTER-FINAL
LINZ: Coco Gauff reached her first WTA quarter-final when Kateryna Kozlova retired during the third set of their second round at the Upper Austria Ladies.
Gauff trailed by a set and a break but was on the verge of a comeback when Kozlova retired with the American teenager leading 4-6, 6-4, 2-0.
At 15 years and 214 days, Gauff became the youngest player to reach a WTA quarter-final since January 2005 when Sesil Karatancheva did it at 15 years and 153 days.
“It’s a good accomplishment, and hopefully I can continue to push that to the semi-finals,” Gauff said. “I guess that I’m used to being the youngest to do a lot of things, and I hope that I can continue to do that and enjoy my youth years, because as everyone tells me, it doesn’t last long.”
Gauff is playing in her first tournament since losing to Naomi Osaka in the third round of the US Open and only made the main draw in Linz as a “lucky loser” after losing in qualifying. She beat Stefanie Voegele in straight sets in her opening match on Tuesday at the indoor tournament.
“I just want to continue to use these matches to improve. My dad told me he saw improvements even since the U.S. Open,” Gauff said. “Right now, it’s all about matches for me, and getting more matches under my belt, as much as possible. I feel fresh and eager to do well.”
Gauff had her major breakthrough at Wimbledon this year where she reached the fourth round, but had never won a tourlevel match indoors before this week.
Top-seeded Kiki Bertens advanced to the second round by beating Masaki Doi of Japan 6-4, 7-5 while No 8 Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated Kristyna Pliskova 3-6, 6-0, 6-1. TOKYO: Tennis star Naomi Osaka has decided to choose Japanese over American nationality with an eye on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, public broadcaster NHK reported on Thursday.
Osaka, who has a Japanese mother and a Haitian father, told NHK she has completed an administrative step to obtain Japanese citizenship ahead of her birthday next week.
Japanese law stipulates that a Japanese with more than one nationality must choose one before turning 22 years old.
“It gives me a special feeling to try to go to the Olympics to represent Japan,” the two-time Grand Slam champion told the broadcaster in an interview in Tokyo.
“I’ll be able to put more of my emotion into it by playing for the pride of the country,” she said, according to the article published in Japanese on the NHK website.
Osaka added she wants to aim for the gold although she is also worried as expectations will be high. The young tennis sensation is a household name in Japan, where her every move is followed feverishly by local media, particularly when she is in the country of her mother’s birth.
She is the face of several leading Japanese brands, including the carrier ANA, and “Naomichan”—as she is affectionately known—was the main attraction at last month’s Pan Pacific Open in Osaka, which she won.
But she has faced controversies over her dual heritage in a nation that is fairly racially homogeneous, as well as scrutiny for her imperfect Japanese language skills—though others insist they add to her charm.
Mixed-race children can often face prejudice in Japan, although attitudes among younger generations are changing.
Osaka became the first Japanese to win a Grand Slam last year after beating Serena Williams at the US Open.