ATP

Garin stunned by Rune at Serbia Open, Musetti progresses in Barcelona

By Sports Desk April 18, 2022

Cristian Garin was on the end of a shock thrashing by Denmark's Holger Rune in the first round of the Serbia Open on Monday.

The Chilean fifth seed, who was the highest-ranked player in action, is regarded as one of the ATP Tour's best on clay but hardly got a look-in as 18-year-old Rune emerged with an impressive 6-3 6-1 win.

Rune has risen to a career-high 72 in the ATP rankings and showed every sign that he will continue to climb over the season as he produced an aggressive performance that saw him take six of 17 break points.

Playing in only his fifth ATP Tour match on clay, Rune needed just an hour and 25 minutes to see off Garin – the winner of five tour-level titles on the surface – and set up a second-round clash with either Dusan Lajovic or Taro Daniel.

Sixth and seventh seeds Fabio Fognini and Miomir Kecmanovic avoided similar shocks, though their respective wins were wildly different.

Kecmanovic crushed veteran Richard Gasquet 6-0 6-3, while Fognini was forced to overturn a one-set deficit in his defeat of fellow Italian Marco Cecchinato 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-2.

No seeds were in action at the Barcelona Open, but Italian prospect Lorenzo Musetti enjoyed a hard-fought 7-5 7-5 defeat of Argentina's Sebastian Baez to seal his spot in the second round.

The 20-year-old is now 5-2 for the clay season and will go up against Dan Evans next. Joining Musetti in progressing is another promising youngster in Brandon Nakashima, who beat Nicolas Alvarez Varona 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 to tee up a clash with number two seed Casper Ruud.

Mackenzie McDonald, Elias Ymer, Kwon Soon-woo and Federico Coria were among the other victors, while retiring 2004 champion Tommy Robredo bowed out with a 6-1 6-1 loss to Bernabe Zapata Miralles.

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    The Olympic gold medallist hit 12 aces as she powered past this season's French Open and Wimbledon finalist in just over an hour in Riyadh.

    This was the winner-takes-all clash in Purple Group, with both players aiming to join world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals.

    The form player since Wimbledon with 29 wins from 34 matches - also including titles in Palermo and Tokyo, plus a run to the final in Wuhan - Zheng quickly asserted her authority on proceedings.

    The 22-year-old scored five breaks of serve on the way to becoming the youngest semi-finalist on her WTA Finals debut since Petra Kvitova in 2011.

    "Finally, I showed off some tennis I really want to play," she said. "Of course, when you enter the match, you are nervous, but at the same time, you feel confidence because you know your level. And I know how capable I am.

    "I remember in 2022, my serve was quite strong. I don't know why but, suddenly in 2023, my serve started to drop. In this tournament and the rest of this half-year, it is the first time I've felt like the serve is starting to come back."

    Beating two top-10 players in the same tournament for the first time, Zheng is the first Chinese player to achieve the feat since Li Na (four) at this event 11 years ago.

    The seventh seed also follows in the footsteps of Na and Kimiko Date in 1994 as one of three players representing an Asian country to reach the last four at the WTA Finals. 

    Sabalenka's place in the semi-finals was already secured, rendering her 6-4 3-6 6-1 defeat by Elena Rybakina academic, though ending a seven-match winning streak.

    Having shared the two meetings this season in Brisbane and Madrid, the players took a close set each here, but it was one-way traffic in the decider.

    In the final match of her first tournament since withdrawing from the US Open with a back injury, Rybakina did not face a single break point in the final set, while winning all 12 points on her first serve, to bow out with victory.

    Though academic, it was an historic victory for the Kazahstani, who became the first player representing an Asian country to defeat the world number one at the WTA Finals.

    Rybakina is also the fourth player to achieve six or more wins over the WTA's number one across a two-season span, after Tracy Austin (1979-80), Venus Williams (1999-00) and Lindsay Davenport (2000-01).

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    Gauff earned her first triumph over Swiatek since the 2023 Cincinnati Open, emerging a 6-3 6-4 victor to reach the final four of the competition in Riyadh. 

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    In Tuesday's other match, Barbora Krejcikova ended Jessica Pegula's hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals of the tournament with a straight-sets triumph. 

    The Wimbledon champion needed just 69 minutes to secure a 6-3 6-3 victory, serving 11 aces throughout the contest compared to Pegula's one. 

    World number 13 Krejcikova became the lowest-ranked player to win a match at the WTA Finals since Magdalena Maleeva (ranked 17th) defeated Daniela Hantuchova in 2002.

    The Czech will also have confidence of claiming the crown in Riyadh having won her previous events in Tallinn, Ostrava, Dubai and Wimbledon when beating an opponent in the WTA's top 10. 

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    The 37-year-old, who lost to Jannik Sinner in the Shanghai Masters in his last competitive appearance, is sat on 99 ATP Tour-level titles, and his wait for a 100th victory will now roll into 2025.

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    Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz have all qualified for the tournament.

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