Almost 5,000 tennis fans got together at the Center Court of the Real Club Tenis Barcelona for the Peugeot Tennis Clinic on Sunday. During one hour, Nicolas Almagro, Pablo Carreno Busta and Paula Badosa hit balls with 40 kids from different clubs all over Catalonia, as well as 12 players from the Spanish Special Olympics delegation.
That’s for sure the kind of event we’d like to see more often. A few pictures from the clinic:
The Kooyong exhibition is traditionally played the week prior to the Australian Open. Past winners include Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Lleyton Hewitt… This year, the draw is a mix of veteran players (Lopez, Almagro, Baghdatis…) and young guns to watch (Edmund, Zverev, Chung…). Thanks to Brian, enjoy a few pictures of today’s matches:
The @KooyongClassic is in full swing here in Melbourne! What a great day to be here! #KooyongClassic ?☀️? pic.twitter.com/G0Lgbh26T7
— Brian Peel (@Brian_Peel) January 12, 2016
Kei Nishikori defeated Santiago Giraldo 6-2 6-2 to win the title. He became the first non-Spanish player to win the tournament since Gaston Gaudio in 2002.
3-time defending champion and number one seed Rafael Nadal lost to Nicolas Almagro in the quarterfinals. It was his first loss in Barcelona since 2002.
Rafael Nadal captured his 8th Barcelona title, his fourth of the year by beating Nicolas Almagro 6-4 6-3.
Li Na and Maria Sharapova secure their spot in the semifinals with victories over Agnieszka Radwanska and Elena Makarova.
Nicolas Almagro leads by two sets to love, serves three times for the match, but falls to David Ferrer in 5 sets. Nerves anyone?
Disappointing performance by Tomas Berdych who loses to gluten-free Djokovic in 4 sets.
