Sydney (AFP) – The United States beat Canada and defending champions Russia beat France in the ATP Cup on Sunday, and the Americans went down a much easier path.
Sydney (AFP) – The United States beat Canada and defending champions Russia beat France in the ATP Cup on Sunday, and the Americans went down a much easier path.
John Isner and Taylor Fritz beat their Canadian opponents in the singles and went on to decide the doubles match for a 3-0 victory.
Isner beat Brayden Schnur 6-1 6-4 in 66 minutes to give the Americans an early lead. Schnur was a late replacement for Denis Shapovalov, who withdrew from Sunday’s opener due to exhaustion. The Canadian is recovering from COVID-19 at a tournament recently held in the Middle East.
Then Fritz came out of a set to defeat 11th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-7 (6) 6-4 6-4 and win the match before the Americans won the double 6-4 6-4 . Auger Eliassim and Shapovalov.
Meanwhile, Russia needed the crucial doubles match to beat France.
Romain Svilolin beat Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 before 35th seed Ugo Humbert equalized the match with a 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7 loss. -6 (2). On the n ° 2 Daniel Medvedev.
But Medvedev and Savulin returned to defeat new doubles rivals – Fabrice Martin and Edward Roger Vaslin – 6-4, 6-4.
The night’s two games were a decisive doubles after Great Britain and Italy quickly took the lead.
Daniel Evans defeated German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-1 6-2 while Italian Yannick Sener defeated Australian Max Purcell 6-1 6-3.
But German world number 3 Alexander Zverev beat Cameron Norris 7-6 (2) 6-1 and Australian Alex de Minaur beat Italy’s Matteo Berrettini 6-3 7-6 (4) to send both matches to a duo.
In doubles, Britons Norris and Jimmy Murray tied 6-3 6-4 against Germans Zverev and Kevin Kravitz. Later, local candidates John Pearce and Luke Savile managed to postpone the Italy-Brettini and Simon Bolelli matches 6-3, 7-5.
Isner saved the only breaking point he faced against his Canadian opponent.
“I was surprised at how well I’m doing here,” Isner said during his interview on the pitch. “You always work hard in the offseason, but you don’t really know what could happen in that first game of the year. “
Isner broke twice in the first set and used his powerful serve to gain the advantage. The American hit 10 aces and won 46% of his return points.
“In fact, I really like this field. It’s not very fast, which is my favorite. It gives me some time to hit my really big shots. It helps me a lot, ”Isner said.
On Saturday’s matchday one, Argentina and Spain managed to win 3-0 against Georgia and Chile, respectively. Serbia, despite playing without seed 1 Novak Djokovic, beat Norway 2-1 and Poland took advantage of Stefanos Tsitsipas’ absence due to a singles injury to defeat Greece 2 -1.
The 16 teams are split into four groups, with the winners of each group advancing to the semi-finals on January 7 and 8. The final match is scheduled to take place on January 9.
___
More information on AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Associated press
–
