Auger-Aliassime pulls out win over Krajinovic in Rome

Associated PressMay 9, 2021, 3:02 PM EDT

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ROME — Felix Auger-Aliassime “dug deep” to pull out a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4 win over Filip Krajinovic in the first round of the Italian Open.

Auger-Aliassime wasted an opportunity to close the match out when he served for the second set at 5-4. In the third set, he placed bags of ice around his neck and on his legs to cool himself down amid warm conditions at the Foro Italico.

He finally closed it out after nearly 3 hours for his first win in Rome, having lost in the first round the last two years.

“You’ve got to believe and be resilient at times,” the Canadian said. “I wanted to win badly, so I dug deep and I found a way.”

Since he hired Toni Nadal as a coach, Auger-Aliassime has had first-round losses at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Madrid Open and reached the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open.

Auger-Aliassime will next face Diego Schwartzman, a finalist when last year’s Rome tournament was held in September.

Also, 11th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta beat Laslo Djere 4-6, 6-3, 6-1; 12th-seeded David Goffin defeated Italian wild card Salvatore Caruso 6-4, 6-1; and Reilly Opelka eliminated Richard Gasquet 6-1, 7-5 to end a six-match losing streak.

Dodig, Krajicek win French Open men’s doubles title, a year after squandering match points in final

Associated PressJun 10, 2023, 4:44 PM EDT

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A year after squandering three match points in the final, fourth-seeded Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Austin Krajicek of the United States won the men’s doubles title at the French Open on Saturday by beating unseeded Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-4, 6-1.

Unlike last year’s tension-filled final, this one was never in doubt as the Croat-American duo broke the Belgians four times, saved all three break points they faced and wrapped up the win in 1 hour, 20 minutes.

It was the 38-year-old Dodig’s third major title in men’s doubles, after winning here in 2015 and at the Australian Open in 2021 – with different partners. But it was a first Grand Slam trophy for the 32-year-old Krajicek, a former top-100 ranked singles player.

Gille and Vliegen were playing together in their first major final.

Last year, Dodig and Krajicek lost to Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer after having three championship points in the second set.

At French Open, Francisco Cerundolo is mad at chair umpire over Holger Rune’s double-bounce

Associated PressJun 5, 2023, 8:49 PM EDT

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PARIS – Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina was devastated about losing his French Open fourth-round match to Holger Rune of Denmark in a fifth-set tiebreaker Monday. He also was mad at chair umpire Kader Nouni for missing a double-bounce of the ball on a point that was awarded to Rune early in his 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) victory.

They were tied at a set apiece and on serve at 2-1 for the No. 6-seeded Rune early in the third at Court Suzanne Lenglen when the point of contention happened. Cerundolo, who was serving at deuce, hit a forehand that skidded low at the baseline and quickly bounced a second time – which normally would have meant that the point was his.

But Rune went ahead and got his racket on the ball, sending it back over the net. At about the same time, No. 23 seed Cerundolo was saying “sorry” to apologize for the odd way his forehand made the ball skim across the clay. Nouni was not immediately aware of the double-bounce, thought the ball was still in play and called Cerundolo for hindrance for talking during a point. That meant Rune got the point, and when he won the next one, too, he had a service break.

“It was unbelievable, because it was a clear double-bounce. I was mad at the umpire because he has to see it,” Cerundolo said. “It’s his fault.”

In tennis, electronic line-calling is used at many tournaments to make line calls, but replays are not used to check things like double-bounces or whether a point should be lost because a player touches the net, which is not allowed.

And while Cerundolo put the onus on the official, he also thought Rune could have ceded the point because of the double-bounce.

“For sure, I wish he would have done that, because it was a big moment,” Cerundolo said.

Rune, who moved into a matchup against No. 4 Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals, said he saw a replay after the following point, and “saw it was a double bounce. But the point already happened, and he called the score. So I felt sorry.”

But, Rune added: “This is tennis. This is sports. Some umpires, they make mistakes. Some for me; some for him. That’s life.”