Thiem’s bid to pass Federer thwarted
JANEIRO: World No 4 Dominic Thiem of Austria missed a chance to reach a career-best third in the ATP rankings with a Rio Open quarter-final loss Saturday to Italy’s Gianluca Mager.
Mager, a 128th-ranked qualifier playing in only his eighth career tour-level match, defeated 2017 Rio champion Thiem 7-6(4), 7-5 in a match that was halted on Friday by rain.
Had Thiem reached the semifinals, he would have overtaken Roger Federer for third in Monday’s ATP rankings. Thiem was down a set and a break when rain stopped the match Friday.
Mager served for the match in the ninth game of the second set but Thiem broke to pull level at 5-5, only to have the Italian claim the final two games and the match after one hour and 55 minutes on the court on Saturday.
DJOKOVIC URGES DAVIS, ATP CUPS TO MERGE
DUBAI: Novak Djokovic on Sunday called on the rival ATP and Davis Cups to combine in order to survive as he prepared for the Dubai Championships.
Djokovic, who recently won his eighth Australian Open title and led Serbia to the ATP Cup trophy last month, made his plea prior to starting this week as top seed at the Aviation Club.
“In my opinion, they have to merge,” the world No 1 said of the two competitions, which are held less than two months apart at the end of one season and the start of the next and he believes should become “one super cup”.
“That’s necessary because for me personally it will be very difficult to play every single year both competitions, so I’m going to have to choose,” said the 32-year-old, president of the ATP Player Council.
TSITSIPAS DEFENDS MARSEILLE CROWN
MARSEILLE:STEFANOS Tsitsipas successfully defended his Marseille title on Sunday with a straightforward victory over Canadian teenager Felix Auger-aliassime.
Greek star Tsitsipas eased to a 6-3, 6-4 win to leave Auger-aliassime still waiting for his maiden ATP title after his fifth consecutive final defeat.
Tsitsipas, who had arrived in southern France with a 3-4 losing record this season, enjoyed an emphatic return to form as he clinched his fifth ATP trophy.
Auger-aliassime would have been confident of ending his wait for success after two wins from his three previous meetings with Tsitsipas, but has still failed to win a set in his five Tour finals.