Fognini Boosts London Bid With Basel Victory

Fifth-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini continued to make his case for a maiden appearance at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals, cruising past his opening test on Tuesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel against #NextGenATP Aussie Alexei Popyrin 6-2, 6-4.

Fognini racked up nine break points and converted five, in addition to winning 74 per cent of his first-serve points (29/39) to advance in one hour and 18 minutes. He’ll play a Serbian in the next round, either Stockholm runner-up Filip Krajinovic or Laslo Djere.

Pick that one out 😅

🇮🇹 @fabiofogna at his absolute best 🔥

🎥: @TennisTV | #SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/XJpS6RCvJS

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 22, 2019

Fognini is currently 11th in the ATP Race to London with 2,235 points and trails eighth-placed Italian Matteo Berrettini by 290 points. The winner in Basel will pick up an additional 500 points and that could catapult him into one of the two remaining qualifying spots up for grabs. Berrettini is competing this week at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

Fourth-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut also looks to clinch a debut appearance at The O2 in London from 10-17 November. He’ll close out Tuesday’s action against Romanian Marius Copil, last year’s runner-up at this event.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/31DR2w4