Novak Djokovic holds on in Dubai, extends winning streak to 18 Nakashima tops Isner at Indian Wells minus Djokovic, Nadal Women’s tennis tour, WTA, in commercial partnership with CVC

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates. No. 1 Novak Djokovic beat Czech qualifier Tomas Machak 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (1) at the Dubai Championship in his first match since winning his 10th Australian Open title.

Djokovic’s first-round victory came a day after the 35-year-old Serb broke the record for the longest time spent at number one in the men’s and women’s professional tennis rankings.

Djokovic was a little rusty on his return from weeks off after overcoming a hamstring problem in Australia to win his record 22nd Grand Slam singles title. He was 4-1 up in the third set on Tuesday before 130th seed Mahak forced a tiebreak.

“He gave me all sorts of trouble, but I think when it mattered I found other equipment,” Djokovic said in an on-court interview. “I haven’t played much tennis (recently), so I hope that as the tournament goes on I can improve my level.”

Djokovic, who is next against Tallon Greekspur, is 13-0 this season and has extended his winning streak to 18 matches.

The presentation was made after Tuesday’s match to mark Djokovic’s 378th week in the ATP’s No. 1 spot, surpassing WTA’s No.

“As a boy growing up in Serbia, I dreamed of two things – to win Wimbledon and become No. 1 in the world. I was lucky enough to fulfill both of my childhood dreams several times,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, third-placed Daniil Medvedev beat Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-2 to extend his winning streak to 10 matches.

Fourth seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated Maxime Cressy 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3, while Botich van de Zandschulp beat No. 6 seeded Karen Khachanov 7-5, 6-2.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Brandon Nakashima capitalized on John Isner’s two double faults in an error-filled game to get the only serve break of the match to advance to the second round at the BNP Paribas Open 7-6 (7), a 6 win -3 in the All-American competition on Wednesday.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was in the stands as play began at the year’s first Masters 1000 tournament, the unified tournament for women and men.

Nakashima, a 21-year-old San Diego native, saved one set point to 37-year-old 2018 Wimbledon semi-finalist Isner en route to the first tie-break. And Nakashima, who won last year’s ATP Next Gen Finals, took a 4-2 lead in the second set after nearly an hour and a half, scoring four points in that game thanks to that pair of double faults and one right hand. Isner, who found the net and did not cross, and another who swam for a long time.

Overall, Isner, who was runner-up at Indian Wells in 2012, double-faulted seven times, which is part of his 25 unforced errors – 18 more than Nakashima. The next challenge for Nakashima, ranked 48th, is a tough one to take on 2022 US Open champion and former No. 1 Daniil Medvedev, who has a 14-match winning streak and has won the last three tournaments he has competed in.

That streak of success includes a win over Novak Djokovic, a 22-time Grand Slam champion who didn’t take the field in Indian Wells because he can’t travel to the United States as a foreign national who hasn’t been vaccinated against COVID-19. The player with whom Djokovic shares the record for most majors won, Rafael Nadal, is also not in the desert; he was ruled out after injuring his left hip flexor at the Australian Open.

Medvedev, like other seeded players, got a bye in the first round.

Gael Monfils, a 36-year-old two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist, was set to face Jordan Thompson for the first time since August on Wednesday night. Monfils has not played since last August due to a foot injury.

In another first-day battle, Evgeniya Rodina, a 34-year-old ranked 427th and played just one match at tour level in 2023, edged out 68th-placed Alize Cornet 6-2, 7-5; Wang Xinyu, ranked 67th, beat Eliza Mertens, ranked 37th, 6:3, 6:1; wild card Dayana Yastremska defeated Anna Bondar 6-3, 6-4; Alexandra Sasnovich defeated Kaya Kanepi 6-3, 7-6 (5); Anna Blinkova beat Ann Lee 6-1, 6-2; and 18-year-old Linda Noskova defeated Irina-Kamelia Bega 7-6(7), 6-1.

Shelby Rodgers won 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the All-America against wild-carded Cathy Wolynets; qualifying Lesya Tsurenko beat Zhu Lin 6-4, 6-3; and Camila Giorgi won 6-3, 6-3 against qualified Arantxa Rus.

In the men’s games, Marcos Giron, who won the NCAA singles title for UCLA, eliminated Alexander Kovacevich 6-3, 7-5; Hugo Humbert beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6:2, 7:6 (6); Jason Kubler beat Lorenzo Sonego 6–4, 7–6 (4); Oscar Otte defeated Laszlo Jere 6-3, 7-5

Wildcard Wu Yibin, whose Dallas title last month made him the first Chinese player to win the ATP singles trophy, defeated Jaume Munar 6-7(6), 6-0, 7-6(3) . ; qualifier Taro Daniel beat Roberto Carbales Baena 6-1, 7-5 to set up a meeting with 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini; qualifier Christian Garin defeated Daniel Galan 6-4, 6-2; and Australian Open quarter-finalist Jiri Leheka eliminated Arthur Rinderknech 7–6(4), 7–5.

The Women’s Professional Tennis Tour launched a business venture with CVC Capital Partners to increase the sport’s revenue, with an investment manager contributing $150 million for a 20% stake in what would be known as WTA Ventures LLC.

“Obviously the goal is to significantly grow women’s professional tennis. Grow our profile, its value, prize money,” said WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon. “This arrangement will certainly allow us to create more investment opportunities for our players and our tournaments.”

He said the new organization is completely separate from WTA Inc. from St. Petersburg, Florida, who will oversee the tour itself and will manage all commercial activities including broadcast rights, data, games, sponsorships, licensing and NFTs. .

“Hopefully we can get started with a larger audience and more engaged fans,” Simon said. “Then it will boost the asset value of each of those properties through audience growth.”

At the end of 2021, Simon announced that the WTA would suspend all of its tournaments, including the season-ending WTA Finals, which were held in China due to safety concerns for former player Peng Shuai, costing the tour millions of dollars. This ban on competition in China remains in place; Simon said a decision on where to host the WTA Finals this season would be made by the end of March.

He called the CVC investment “completely unrelated to any of these issues.”

Simon also said that the agreement, which was announced on Tuesday, “in no way prevents us from continuing negotiations with the ATP (men’s tennis tour) and possibly making a bigger deal with the ATP involved.”

CVC says on its website that it is a “global alternative investment manager” with over €137 billion ($145 billion) in assets under management.

He has worked with Formula One, European football leagues, rugby, volleyball and other sports.

The WTA-CVC partnership has been in the works for some time now, from initial concept to work to close the deal over the last 12 months.

“It’s been a long journey,” Simon said. – AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis And https://twitter.com/AP-Sports