bet-at-home Open: DAY 6 MEDIA NOTES Saturday, August 1, 2015 Hamburg Sports & Entertainment, Hamburg, Germany | July 27 – August 2, 2015 Draw: S-32, D-16 | Prize Money: €1,507,960| Surface: Outdoor Clay ATP Info: Tournament Info: ATP PR & Marketing: www.ATPWorldTour.com www.bet-at-home-open.com Martin Dagahs: [email protected] @ATPWorldTour @Am_Rothenbaum #BAHO2015 Nanette Duxin: [email protected] facebook.com/ATPWorldTour facebook.com/TennisAmRothenbaum Press Room: +49 40 524724101 THREE SEEDS AND A QUALIFIER REACH SEMI-FINALS Day 6: Three seeds and a qualifier are in the semi-finals on Saturday at the bet-at-home Open. The first semi-final is a second time meeting between the Italian / No. 8 seed Fabio Fognini and French qualifier Lucas Pouille, who is appearing in his second career ATP World Tour semi-final. Fognini, the 2013 champion, looks to even his head-to-head (0-1) against the 21-year-old Frenchman. The second semi-final is the 7th meeting between the 2008 champion / top seed Rafael Nadal and Italian / No. 4 seed Andreas Seppi, Nadal leads the head-to-head series 5-1 (3-0 on clay) and Seppi’s lone victory came in 2008 on indoor hard courts in Rotterdam. First and Last Time: o Rafael Nadal is looking to become the first Spaniard to earn the title here since he won in 2008 o If Andreas Seppi and Fabio Fognini reach the final it will be the first time in the Open Era that two Italians have reached the Hamburg final. The last all-Italian final on the ATP World Tour came in Florence in 1988 (Narducci d. C. Panatta). The last time two players from the same country reached the final here was in 1998 when Spaniard Albert Costa defeated Alex Corretja. o The last Frenchman to reach the finals here was Gilles Simon in , in 2010. He who defeated Nicolas Almagro for the title Rafa Continues Quest: Nadal improved to 24-6 match record on clay this season with a 63 62 win over Pablo Cuevas on Friday. He captured 46th career clay title in Buenos Aires in February (d. Monaco). Nadal is looking to extend his streak of having won at least one European clay court title every year since 2004 when he captured his maiden ATP World Tour crown in Sopot. Outside Top 50 Winners (8): Qualifier Pouille, who is currently No. 85 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is attempting to become the 7th or 8th qualifier to reach an ATP World Tour final this year and the 9th or 10th outside the Top 50 to win a title. (Note: Qualifier Denis Kudla, who No. 94 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, and Gilles Muller, who is No. 52 are playing in Atlanta). Here are the outside the Top 50 winners: Ranking Rajeev Ram, Newport No. 161 Nicolas Mahut (Q), ‘s-Hertogenbosch No. 97 Denis Istomin, Nottingham No. 92 Viktor Troicki (Q), Sydney No. 92 Victor Estrella Burgos, Quito No. 73 Jiri Vesely (Q), Auckland No. 63 Benoit Paire, Bastad No. 62 Thomaz Bellucci, Geneva No. 60 Note: Qualifiers are 3-3 in finals this year. Finalists: Aljaz Bedene (Chennai), Mikhail Kukushkin (Sydney), Luca Vanni (Sao Paulo). bet-at-home Open Day 6 – Saturday, August 1, 2015 Page 2 of 5 www.ATPWorldTour.com First-Time ATP Winners: Pouille is also attempting to become the 7th first-time winner on the ATP World Tour. Last Sunday, Frenchman Benoit Paire became the 6th first-time winner on the ATP World Tour this year after defeating Tommy Robredo in the Bastad final . Three of the first time winners were born in the 1990s: Age Tournament Jiri Vesely 21 Auckland Dominic Thiem 21 Nice Victor Estrella Burgos 34 Quito Denis Istomin 28 Nottingham Jack Sock 22 Houston Benoit Paire 26 Bastad Looking Ahead: Pouille is the only semi-finalist who has not reached or won an ATP World Tour title. Here is a look at all four players career records in ATP World Tour finals: Player Career Finals Record Nadal 66-29 (46-8 on clay) Seppi 3-5 (1-1 on clay) Fognini 3-6 (3-5 on clay) Pouille 0-0 (0-0 on clay) SATURDAY FEDEX ATP HEAD 2 HEADS – In Order of Play Center Court (8) Fabio Fognini (ITA) vs (Q) Lucas Pouille (FRA) Pouille Leads 1-0 14 ATP Masters 1000 Paris (France) Hard R32 Lucas Pouille 7-6(5) 7-6(7) A glance at the semi-finalists this week: Fognini Pouille Aces 3 6 1st Serve percentage 67% 60% 1st Serve points won 71% 68% 2nd Serve points won 44% 63% (No. 2) Service games won 32 of 39, 82% 26 of 30, 87% Break points saved 14 of 21, 67% 8 of 12, 67% Break points converted 14 of 31, 45% 11 of 18, 61% Fognini FastFacts: 2015 Highlights: F: Rio de Janeiro (l Ferrer); QF(3): Sao Paulo (l Giraldo); Barcelona (l Andujar); Umag (l Sousa) YTD W-L: 19-16 (18-10 on clay) YTD Titles: 0 /Career Titles: 3 Date of Birth: May 24, 1987 Emirates ATP Ranking: 32 Hamburg W-L (Best Result-Year): 13-5 (Winner 2013) The 28-year-old Italian defeated Aljaz Bedene 64 75 to reach the SF. He knocked off Albert Ramos-Vinolas 62 36 63 to reach the QF. Advanced to the 2R with a 63 67(5) 64 win over Jeremy Chardy on Tuesday. The 2013 champion (d. Delbonis) is playing here for the sixth time. Has a 13-5 tournament record Appearing in second ATP World Tour SF of the year (1-0), first since Rio in February. Snapped Nadal’s 52-match winning streak in clay-court semi-finals with a 16 62 75 win at Rio de Janeiro. He fell to Ferrer in the final Looking to reach his 10th career ATP World Tour final (3-6 record, 3-5 on clay) bet-at-home Open Day 6 – Saturday, August 1, 2015 Page 3 of 5 www.ATPWorldTour.com On April 23, beat Nadal in third round at Barcelona; his 6th Top 10 win and second over a member of the Top 5 (also Nadal at 2015 Rio de Janeiro). He became the third player to beat Nadal on clay at least two times in a row (also Gaudio and Djokovic) On May 13, defeated Grigor Dimitrov 76(9) 46 60 in the second round at ATP Masters 1000 Rome for his 200th career win Won his first Grand Slam doubles title (w/Bolelli) at the Australian Open (d. Herbert-Mahut). It was their ninth time they teamed up in a major championship as a team. They were the first all-Italian pairing to win a Grand Slam doubles title since Pietrangeli and Sirola lifted the 1959 Roland Garros crown Pouille FastFacts: 2015 Highlights: SF: Auckland (l Mannarino) YTD W-L: 9-8 (5-3 on clay) YTD Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Date of Birth: February 23, 1994 Emirates ATP Ranking: 85 Hamburg W-L (Best Result-Year): 3-0 (QF 2015) The 21-year-old French qualifier, the youngest player and lowest-ranked (No. 85) remaining, advanced to his 2nd career ATP World Tour SF with a 63 62 win over countryman Benoit Paire on Friday. Advanced to the QF with a 61 75 win over No. 6 seed Juan Monaco. Knocked off Spanish qualifier Inigo Cervantes 76(2) 64 in his tournament debut on Monday Appearing in second career ATP World Tour SF. As a lucky loser reached first career ATP World Tour SF at Auckland (l. to Mannarino) in second week of season In Grand Slam play (0-3 record), fell in 1R at Australian Open (l. to Monfils), Roland Garros (l. to Simon) and Wimbledon (l. to Anderson) In only ATP Masters 1000 event reached 2R at Monte Carlo (d. Thiem, l. to Nadal) (1-WC) Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs (4) Andreas Seppi (ITA) Nadal Leads 5-1 05 ITA vs. ESP WG PO (Italy) Clay RR Rafael Nadal 6-1 6-2 5-7 6-4 06 ESP v. ITA WG PO (Spain) Clay RR Rafael Nadal 6-0 6-4 6-3 08 Rotterdam (Netherlands) Hard R16 Andreas Seppi 3-6 6-3 6-4 09 ATP Masters 1000 Rome (Italy) Clay R32 Rafael Nadal 6-2 6-3 09 ATP Masters 1000 Cincinnati (U.S.A.) Hard R32 Rafael Nadal 7-6(4) 7-6(3) 14 ATP Masters 1000 Monte Carlo (Monaco) Clay R16 Rafael Nadal 6-1 6-3 A glance at the semi-finalists this week: Nadal Seppi Aces 2 10 (No. 7) 1st Serve percentage 76% 9No. 2) 62% 1st Serve points won 64% 73% 2nd Serve points won 52% 60% (No. 3) Service games won 23 of 30, 77% 21 of 23, 91% (No. 3) Break points saved 11 of 18, 61% 4 of 6, 67% Break points converted 16 of 35, 46% 7 of 14, 50% Nadal FastFacts: 2015 Highlights: W(2): Buenos Aires (d Monaco); Stuttgart (d Troicki); F: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid (l Murray); SF(2): Rio de Janeiro (l Fognini); ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte Carlo (l Djokovic); QF(4): Australian Open (l Berdych); ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells (l Raonic); ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome (l Wawrinka); Roland Garros (l Djokovic) YTD W-L: 37-12 (24-6 on clay) YTD Titles: 2 / Career Titles: 66 Date of Birth: June 3, 1986 Emirates 2015 ATP Ranking: 10 Hamburg W-L (Best Result-Year): 14-2 (Winner 2008) bet-at-home Open Day 6 – Saturday, August 1, 2015 Page 4 of 5 www.ATPWorldTour.com The 29-year-old Spaniard opened with a 36 61 61 win over countryman Fernando Verdasco on Tuesday and followed with a 64 76(2) win over Jiri Vesely on Thursday.