ATP Tour

First it was young Chun-hsin Tseng of Taipei who felled fourth seed Hugo Grenier of France in straight sets 6-1, 6-4 on centre court and minutes later qualifier Borna Gojo of Croatia sent third seed Australian Aleksandar Vukic home with a 7-5, 6-3 victory to advance to the quarterfinals of the Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger at the KSLTA Courts here on Wednesday.

Regarded as the best Portuguese player of all time, the former World No.28 Sousa, once again proved his mettle when he kept his cool despite an intense first two sets to win the third clinically. It was also Sousa's fourth ATP title in his career. He clinched his first singles title since 2018, beating Finnish youngster Emil Ruusuvuori 7-6(9), 4-6, 6-1 in a hard-fought summit clash here on Sunday.

In a late Friday match, Karatsev demonstrated why he arrived in Australia as an established member of the world's top-20, blasting 49 winners to reach his fourth ATP Tour final. Eleven months ago, the Russian was world No. 114 before bursting onto the scene at the 2021 Australian Open by becoming the first player in the Open Era to reach the semifinals on his Grand Slam main draw debut. He finally lost to Serbia's Novak Djokovic.

"It's already been a great week for me, big progress from anything I've done in the last year or so, to string four matches together like this and against top players in Basilashvili and Opelka," Murray said. "I'll go for 47 tomorrow. It's been a good week, I've played better with each match, so hopefully, I'll step it up again tomorrow." The former World No. 1 used his trademark returning prowess to effectively nullify the American's big serve and reach his first ATP Tour final since winning the title in Antwerp in 2019.

The Australian Border Force (ABF) had cancelled the visa of Voracova on January 6. The 38-year-old Voracova, who has already played in a warm-up tournament in Melbourne, has been detained in the same immigration hotel as Serbian world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. She is believed to have entered Australia last month with a vaccine exemption granted by Tennis Australia because she had recently contracted and recovered from Covid-19.

The reigning Australian Open champion on Monday won the legal battle in his bid to remain in Australia, with a court ordering his immediate release from immigration detention. The judge hearing the Serbian player's case ordered Djokovic be released and his passport and other travel documents returned to him, rekindling his chance to win a record 21st Grand Slam title at the upcoming Australian Open.

The 33-year-old Bautista has been flawless this edition, winning all four of his matches at No. 1 singles to lead the way for the two-time finalists. "It's a match that I will always remember. I think both of us could get the win today. He also really deserved a lot of good things. But this is our game, this is ten"is," Bautista said. "Today I was the one who got the win. I think I also deserved it. I did a lot of good things on the court."

Peers and Saville rose to the task throughout against the Italian duo, saving a set point on serve at 4-5 in the second set as they won the last nine points of the match to triumph after 84 minutes. Australia will next face reigning champion Russia on Tuesday, while Italy plays France, with both ties on Qudos Bank Arena.

The World No. 167 backed up his singles victory over Arthur Rinderknech by teaming with World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev to overcome Fabrice Martin and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-4, 6-4 in 76 minutes in the deciding doubles match to give Russia a winning start at the 16-team event.

Djokovic holds the record for staying at the top for the maximum number of weeks and is now said to be eyeing the record set by Germany's women's tennis legend Steffi who stayed at the top for 377 weeks as per WTA rankings.  Djokovic has finished year-end No. 1 for the record-breaking seventh time. He has moved past another legend Pete Sampras who held the record for six times.