Dimitrov wins ATP
Grigor Dimitrov claimed the biggest title of his career at the season-ending ATP Finals on Sunday in London, prevailing on his fifth match point to beat David Goffin of Belgium 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. The sixth-seeded
Bulgarian won in 2 hours, 30 minutes, 15 seconds for the longest final since the tournament returned to a three-set format in 2008. Dimitrov won all five of his matches at the O2 Arena to become the first player to win the elite tournament on debut since 1998, when Alex Corretja of Spain triumphed in Hanover. Goffin saved three match points on his own serve, but Dimitrov kept his cool, taking the second opportunity on his own delivery to close it out. By reaching the final, Dimitrov had already secured a career-high No. 3-ranking to end the year. Goffin also moves up to a career-best No. 7. The final lasted more than 11 minutes longer than Roger Federer took to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2011. It was a nervous start as both players failed to hold serve in the opening three games before Goffin settled down to control the opener
as Dimitrov struggled with his timing. However, Dimitrov fought his way back into the set. He leveled in the eighth game before breaking once more in the 12th to snatch the set in which Goffin hit eight more winners. Dimitrov’s confidence carried into the second set, where he brought up the first break point in the sixth game, only for Goffin to produce a stunning cross-court backhand winner to save it. The momentum back with him, Goffin broke the following game for a 4-3 lead and calmly closed out the set.
Segura dies at 96 Pancho Segura, who rose from poverty to win six U.S. Pro singles and doubles championships and was one of the world’s greatest tennis players in the 1950s, has died. He was 96. Segura died Saturday from complications of Parkinson’s disease at his home at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., his son, Spencer Segura, said Sunday. In the 1940s and 1950s, Segura went from amateur to barnstorming pro and then honored coach, whose students included Jimmy Connors. “Sad day — lost my friend-coach- and mentor,” Connors posted on Twitter on Sunday. Francisco Olegario Segura was born into poverty in Ecuador. Childhood rickets bowed his legs. Too weak for soccer, he took to tennis while working as a ball boy at a club in Guayaquil. Segura went on to win the NCAA singles championship three years in a row, from 1943 to 1945. From there he moved to the amateur circuit. He repeatedly made it to U.S. National finals and reached the third round at Wimbledon in the 1940s. He also won the U.S. Clay Court Championship in 1944 and the U.S. Indoor title in 1946.