Pouille, Bautista Agut Face Off for 2Nd Title of the Year in Dubai
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS: DAY 6 MEDIA NOTES Saturday, 3 March 2018 The Aviation Club | Dubai, UAE | 26 February-3 March 2018 Draw: S-32, D-16 | Prize Money: $2,623,485 | Surface: Outdoor Hard ATP World Tour Info Tournament Info ATP PR & Marketing ATPWorldTour.com Dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com/ Mark Epps: [email protected] Twitter: @ATPWorldTour @ddftennis Press Room:[email protected] Facebook: @ATPWorldTour facebook.com/ddftennis TV & Radio: TennisTV.com POUILLE, BAUTISTA AGUT FACE OFF FOR 2ND TITLE OF THE YEAR IN DUBAI • A busy week at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships will close with a championship match between No. 2 seed Lucas Pouille of France and No. 3 seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain. The victor will claim his second ATP World Tour singles title of 2018. Additionally, a win for Pouille is projected to put him into the Top 10 of the ATP World Tour singles rankings for the first time in his career. • Pouille has now reached his second final in as many weeks, and, indeed, he was only a couple of games away from coming into Dubai with two titles on the season already in hand. However, Pouille fell to Karen Khachanov in the Marseille final last week, with the Russian prevailing 7-5 in the final set. The arduous final did not end well for the Frenchman, but he still came to Dubai undeterred. This week, after eliminating former Top 10 player Ernests Gulbis in the first round, Pouille exacted revenge on Khachanov in the second round with a three-set win over the Russian. A come-from-behind win over No. 8 seed Yuichi Sugita in the quarter-finals was followed by a two-hour and 19-minute semi-final win over Filip Krajinovic. Pouille defeated Krajinovic for the second time in two weeks, this time in a final-set tiebreak. The Frenchman served 16 of his tournament- leading 44 aces to nudge him over the line in the semi-final, which was the second-longest match of the event. Pouille is now into his third final of the year, looking for his sixth career title, and his second of 2018 after triumphing at Montpellier. Moreover, if Pouille does win the title, he is projected to make his Top 10 debut, one week after turning 24 years old. • Bautista Agut is also attempting to clinch a second ATP World Tour singles title of the year, after winning at Auckland in January. Between Auckland and Dubai, however, Bautista Agut hit a rough patch, and went winless in three matches. After 20 straight Grand Slam events where he won at least one match, the Spaniard fell in the first round of the Australian Open to compatriot Fernando Verdasco in straight sets. Bautista Agut then dropped a Davis Cup match against Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie despite leading two sets to none, and then fell in his opening match at Marseille to Julien Benneteau. But the World No. 23 is back in fine form this week, surviving the longest match of the tournament against Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the second round (2 hours and 21 minutes), and using that momentum to claim straight-set wins over Borna Coric in the quarter-finals and Malek Jaziri in the semi-finals. Bautista Agut is now going for the eighth ATP World Tour singles title of his career, hoping to bookend that minor losing streak with a pair of trophies. • Defending champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau have returned to the Dubai final, aiming for their 17th doubles title as a pairing. They will square off against the wild card team of Jamie Cerretani and Leander Paes, who are making their ATP World Tour debut as a team. Although Rojer and Tecau have achieved tremendous results as partners over the last five years, Cerretani and Paes have also already served notice that they can succeed together, backing up their ATP Challenger Tour title at Newport Beach, CA, USA from last month with their first Tour-level final in only their second event as a duo. 44-year-old Paes has also proven that he can win this event, having claimed the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title 20 years ago, in 1998 (with Mahesh Bhupathi), and 15 years ago, in 2003 (with David Rikl). ATP RANKING POINTS AND PRIZE MONEY Dubai Duty Free Tennis Champion Finalist Championships Ranking Points 500 300 Singles Prize Money ($) 565,530 277,255 Doubles Prize Money ($) 170,270 83,360 For the latest stats, facts and figures about the ATP World Tour, follow @ATPMediaInfo on Twitter. Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Day 6 – Saturday, 3 March 2018 Page 2 of 3 www.ATPWorldTour.com INFOSYS ATP SCORES & STATS Dubai Duty Free Tennis [3] Roberto [2] Lucas Pouille Championships Bautista Agut Aces 11 44 1st-Serve Percentage 65% (173 of 267) 57% (211 of 368) 1st-Serve Points Won 75% (130 of 173) 80% (168 of 211) 2nd-Serve Points Won 60% (56 of 94) 48% (75 of 157) Service Games Won 89% (41 of 46) 89% (48 of 54) Break Points Saved 72% (13 of 18) 77% (20 of 26) 1st-Serve Return Points Won 34% (65 of 187) 25% (47 of 187) 2nd-Serve Return Points Won 54% (61 of 113) 54% (74 of 136) Return Games Won 30% (13 of 43) 23% (12 of 53) Break Points Converted 34% (13 of 38) 55% (12 of 22) BOLD: Leads all 32 players at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. FEDEX ATP HEAD2HEADS: SINGLES AND DOUBLES FINALS CENTRE COURT [3] Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) vs [2] Lucas Pouille (FRA) Bautista Agut Leads 2-1 15 St. Petersburg (Russia) Hard QF Roberto Bautista Agut 6-2 6-3 15 Moscow (Russia) Hard QF Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4 6-2 16 US Open (U.S.A.) Hard R32 Lucas Pouille 3-6 7-5 2-6 7-5 6-1 Bautista Agut Summary: 2018 Highlights: W (1): Auckland (d. del Potro); F (1): Dubai YTD W-L: 9-4 YTD Titles: 1 / Career Titles: 7 Date of Birth: 14 April 1988 (29) ATP Ranking: 23 Dubai W-L (Best Result): 10-5 (2018 Finalist) • Tournament Note: Reached 2nd final of season with SF victory over wild card Jaziri, who had eliminated No. 1 seed Dimitrov in 1R; first time in Dubai SF with wins over F. Mayer, Herbert, and Coric; won at least one match in Dubai each year from 2013 to the present, but had only gone beyond 2R once before this year (QF in 2016). • Captured 2nd Auckland title and 7th ATP World Tour title overall (d. Del Potro) in January. • Notched 3rd straight loss in Marseille last week (l. to Benneteau 2R after 1R bye). • Fell to countryman Verdasco in Australian Open 1R, snapping 20-match win streak in Grand Slam 1R. • Lost to Norrie from 2 sets up at Davis Cup tie in Marbella vs. GBR. • Also lost opening match at Pune (l. to eventual champion Simon in 2R following 1R bye). • In 2017, captured 5th and 6th ATP titles respectively at Chennai (d. Medvedev) and Winston-Salem (d. Dzumhur). • Achieved career-high ATP Ranking of No. 13 on 17 October 2016. Pouille Summary: 2018 Highlights: W (1): Montpellier (d. Gasquet); F (2): Marseille (l. Khachanov); Dubai YTD W-L: 11-3 YTD Titles: 1 / Career Titles: 5 Date of Birth: 23 February 1994 (24) ATP Ranking: 15 Dubai W-L (Best Result): 7-3 (2018 Finalist) For the latest stats, facts and figures about the ATP World Tour, follow @ATPMediaInfo on Twitter. Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Day 6 – Saturday, 3 March 2018 Page 3 of 3 www.ATPWorldTour.com • Tournament Note: Entered 2nd final in last two weeks with SF victory over Krajinovic (also def. Krajinovic last week in Marseille QF); reached SF for 2nd straight year with victories over qualifier Gulbis, Khachanov (avenged last week’s loss in Marseille final), and No. 8 seed Sugita; broke through last year with SF run (def. Donskoy in QF, l. to No. 1 Murray) after qualifying for main draw but falling in 1R in both 2015 and 2016. • Captured his fifth career ATP World Tour title earlier this month by claiming the Montpellier crown (d. Gasquet). • Reached Marseille final for 2nd straight year, but fell to Khachanov 5-7 in 3rd set; dropped to 5-3 in ATP World Tour singles finals in his career; was first loss in France during February of 2018 (7-0 previously). • Fell to 0-5 lifetime at Australian Open with 5th straight 1R loss at event (l. to Bemelmans). • Lost to Rublev in 1R at Rotterdam. • Only player to win titles on 3 surfaces in 2017, highlighted by biggest title of career at Vienna (d. Tsonga). • In 2017, saved 1 MP to beat Struff in 2R en route to 1st grass-court title at Stuttgart (d. Lopez). • Last year, also saved 2 MPs to beat Vesely in 2R en route to 1st clay-court title at Budapest (d. Bedene). • Achieved career-high No. 13 in ATP Rankings on 8 May 2017. DOUBLES FINAL [WC] Jamie Cerretani (USA)/Leander Paes (IND) vs First Meeting [2] Jean-Julien Rojer (NED)/Horia Tecau (ROU) • Cerretani and Paes have teamed up on the ATP World Tour for the first time at Dubai. Their career ATP World Tour win-loss record stands at 3-0 after their three main draw wins here. • Last month, in their first (and only prior) event together, they won the ATP Challenger Tour event in Newport Beach, CA, USA as the No. 2 seeds, defeating Treat Huey and Denis Kudla in the final in straight sets.