ATP Lyon - DRAW: Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov seek title
Lyon, the third largest city in France, had staged an ATP tournament on indoor courts between 1987-2009, with John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Ivan Ljubicic, Andy Roddick and Robin Soderling among the champions. That tournament had switched to Montpellier in 2011 and Lyon returned to the circuit in 2017 with the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon on clay courts, placed in the week before the Roland Garros. This is the last chance for all the players in the draw to raise their game and travel to Paris with the best possible form and it gathers solid field that will fight for the crown.
Tomas Berdych, John Isner and Milos Raonic had to withdraw before the event, leaving Nikoloz Basilashvili as the top seed. The Georgian was off to a slow start of the season and will try to change that here in Lyon, facing Mikhail Kukushkin, Bernard Tomic, Dusan Lajovic or a former champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who will play one of the best first-round matches. The young Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime lead the second quarter, having to beat John Millman, Pablo Andujar, Steve Johnson, Maritn Klizan, Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Jeremy Chardy to reach the semis, the first since Miami where he lost to Isner in two tie breaks.
Denis Shapovalov and Hubert Hurkacz lead the third quarter, hoping to past an in-form Pablo Cuevas, Benoit Paire, Mackenzie McDonald, Ugo Humbert and Cameron Norrie, with the young Canadian hoping to raise his level on clay this spring and revive some of his magic from Madrid last year. Shapovalov asked for a late wild card and so did Richard Gasquet who lost early in Madrid and Rome, looking to play more matches before Paris after skipping the first part of the season due to a surgery. Taylor Fritz, Corentin Moutet, Reilly Opelka and Roberto Bautista Agut share the bottom quarter with the Frenchman and it should be interesting who will prevail from there and stay in the title chase.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2EuV6Gz
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