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Alexander Zverev, Alex de Minaur and Jakub Mensik were among the players who strengthened their hopes of qualifying for the season finale on Friday at the China Open in Beijing, where they secured crucial wins.

De Minaur consolidated his position at eighth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin by defeating home favourite Buyunchaokete 6-4, 6-0. With a Tour-leading 32 wins on hard courts this season, the Australian is aiming to make his second appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals, having made his debut in 2024.

#NextGenATP Czech Jakub Mensik moved up on spot to 18th in the Live Race with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Miomir Kecmanovic. While he remains 1,115 points adrift of De Minaur in the qualification spots, the 20-year-old will be hopeful of his chances as the ATP Tour season comes to a close on hard courts.

Mensik reached the quarter-finals at the ATP Masters 1000 in Shanghai last year on his debut and then captured his maiden trophy at that level this year in Miami, where he stunned Novak Djokovic in the final.

View the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin

Taylor Fritz was not at his best on Friday at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships, but he found a way to move past Nuno Borges in straight sets and reach his 10th quarter-final of the season.

The American rallied from a break down in both sets, striking 29 winners to 25 unforced errors en route to earning a tight 7-5, 7-6(4) victory in one hour and 54 minutes in Tokyo.

"I think at times I made it very hard for myself," Fritz said. "I came out first game and was broken. The court I warmed up on was super fast to centre court, and I didn't make first serves in the first game and then caught every ball super early. I did a really good job of breaking back. It is not too often I go down a break early and then went down a break down two times in the second set, but I fought really hard and did a great job of getting myself back in the sets."

Fritz in form! ?@Taylor_Fritz97 takes out Borges 7-5 7-6 to advance into a 65th career quarter-final @japanopentennis | #kinoshitajotennispic.twitter.com/mKkY7M4OKw

Fritz has earned a Tour-leading 30 wins since the start of the grass swing in June, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, and has so far added another 100 points to his tally this week in Tokyo, boosting his chances of returning to the Nitto ATP Finals in November.

Jannik Sinner made a quick start in his bid to reclaim the China Open trophy in Beijing, where he powered past two-time finalist Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-2.

Competing for the first time since his US Open final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz, with which he also ceded the No. 1 spot in the PIF ATP Rankings, Sinner bounced back in emphatic fashion. The 24-year-old Italian, who triumphed on his Beijing debut in 2023 and reached last year’s final, saved the only break point he faced upon return to the Chinese ATP 500 event, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

Starting off STRONG! ?@janniksin defeats Cilic 6-2 6-2 and advances into Round 2 in Beijing@chinaopen | #2025ChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/8W6A9G9003

“I try to put a lot of concentration into the first-round matches, because I know that many things can go wrong,” said Sinner, who has won his past 27 opening-round matches since Cincinnati in 2023. “After you usually find your rhythm, your pace, the speed of the courts much better. I try to prepare myself in the best possible way. I came here quite early in order to feel the conditions.

“I’m very happy to deliver this kind of performance today. Marin is a very tough player to play against, his peak is quite high. I managed to break him quite early in both sets, which gave me the confidence to keep going.”

Carlos Alcaraz overcame both an injury scare and a rain delay on a dramatic debut at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, where he defeated Sebastian Baez 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday evening.

Midway through the opener, the World No. 1 collapsed to the floor holding his left ankle and heel, which required strapping, only to later be interrupted by a 30-minute rain delay prior to serving for the first set. Despite the setbacks, Alcaraz steadied himself to win in straight sets and move safely into the second round at the ATP 500 event.

“I was scared too, I’m not gonna lie,” Alcaraz said. “When I planted the ankle, I was worried, because it didn’t feel good at the beginning. I’m just happy that I was able to play good tennis after that and finish the match quite good. I will try to recover to do whatever it takes to be ready for the next round.”

After dropping serve for 2-2 in the first set, Alcaraz stretched for a forehand and stumbled backward in clear discomfort before collapsing to the court, clutching his left leg and glancing anxiously to his team. While lying there, the World No. 1 received on-court attention from the physio before moving to his chair, where his left ankle and heel were taped during a medical timeout.

Alcaraz tentatively returned, but eventually retrieved some of his first-class shotmaking to seal the first set, which was halted for 30 minutes at 5-4. The 22-year-old Spaniard then had the strapping reinforced, and with his movement more secure, he powered through the remainder of the match.

Taylor Fritz narrowly escaped an opening-round upset on Thursday at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, where he rallied past Gabriel Diallo 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3).

Just days removed from his standout Laver Cup wins over Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev, Fritz found himself pushed onto the defensive against fellow big server Diallo, who struck 16 more winners (40-24). Yet the second-seeded American dug deep to seal a two-hour, nine-minute victory and extend his perfect 3-0 record in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Taking care of business ?@Taylor_Fritz97 survives the Diallo test to advance to round two.@japanopentennis | #kinoshitajotennis pic.twitter.com/S2YAcknt7P

With his win, Fritz also strengthened his bid to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the second consecutive year. He is sixth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, having reached the title match at last year's season finale before falling to Jannik Sinner.

“The biggest thing for me today was the energy, it’s really tough to match the energy from last week with Andre [Agassi] and the team going crazy on the bench,” said Fritz of Laver Cup’s Team World, captained by Andre Agassi. “I really just had to find it and get it going. It was a really tough match to play.”

Frances Tiafoe and Denis Shapovalov both watched bright beginnings slip away on a turbulent opening Wednesday at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo.

Taifoe suffered his first opening-round hard-court loss of the season (10-1) at the hands of qualifier Marton Fucsovics, who fought for a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory. The 2022 Tokyo finalist pressed hard in a topsy-turvy decider marked by three service breaks, but Fucsovics won a series of bruising baseline exchanges to seal the upset.

Tokyo Debut Delight! ?

Marton Fucsovics takes out 8th seed Tiafoe (3-6 6-1 7-5) to move into Round 2 @japanopentennis | #kinoshitajotennis pic.twitter.com/YCM4fIq1Dw

By improving to 3-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Tiafoe, Fucsovics climbed seven spots to No. 51 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. The Hungarian won his third ATP Tour title in Winston-Salem last month and will continue his campaign in the Japanese capital against Brandon Nakashima or Jordan Thompson.

Shapovalov’s exit came earlier against Daniel Altmaier, who scored for his fifth Top 30 win of the season with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph. Shapovalov — in his first outing since marrying partner Mirjam Bjorklund — will rue his missed opportunities in the opening set.

Carlos Alcaraz may be making his Tokyo debut this week while Jannik Sinner battles in Beijing, but the Spaniard can’t help studying their growing rivalry.

After toppling Sinner in the US Open final, Alcaraz extended his Lexus ATP Head2Head lead to 10-5, winning seven of their past eight clashes. That loss cost Sinner the No. 1 spot in the PIF ATP Rankings and also prompted the Italian to hint at changes. Alcaraz, however, believes he’s still one step ahead.

“I know he's going to change,” Alcaraz said of Sinner during a pre-tournament press conference in Tokyo. “He is going to change something from the last match. It's the same thing that I did when I lost to him a couple of times. I tried to be a better player. Next time I'm going to face him so I expect him to do the same thing to change a few things just to be ready and I have to be focused and I have to be ready for the changes.

“I will try to overcome those changes [and] be ready for that rivalry. I think it's getting better for me and for tennis. We will see in the future how many times I'm going to play against him and in which circumstances we would play. But I think right now it's going great.”

Novak Djokovic is on a semi-final collision course with World No. 2 Jannik Sinner following the release of the Rolex Shanghai Masters draw Monday.

Djokovic, who fell to the Italian in the semi-finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon this season, returns to competition for the first time since losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open semi-finals.

[ATP APP]

The fourth-seeded Serbian and four-time Shanghai champion will play the winner of Frenchman Corentin Moutet and Marin Cilic in his opening match. He is seeded to meet Frances Tiafoe in the third round, Andrey Rublev in the fourth round and Ben Shelton or Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals.

Djokovic, No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings, is 31-11 on the year according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss index after reaching all four Grand Slam semi-finals this season. 

The 2025 China Open continues on Monday in Beijing, where top seed Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev are among the stars in quarter-final action at the ATP 500 event.

View Monday's full schedule below...

ORDER OF PLAY - MONDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2025
Capital Group Diamond - start 11:00
WTA - [4] Mirra Andreeva vs Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (ESP)

Not Before 13:00
ATP - [3] Alex de Minaur (AUS) vs [7] Jakub Mensik (CZE)
ATP - [1] Jannik Sinner (ITA) vs Fabian Marozsan (HUN)

Not Before 19:00
WTA - [26] Linda Noskova (CZE) vs [7] Qinwen Zheng (CHN)

Not Before 20:30
ATP - [8] Daniil Medvedev vs [2] Alexander Zverev (GER)

Lotus - start 11:00
ATP - [1] Julian Cash (GBR) / Lloyd Glasspool (GBR) vs Karen Khachanov / Andrey Rublev

World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz will return to court again at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships on Monday, with second seed Taylor Fritz also featuring on the schedule on semi-final day.

View Monday's order of play below:

ORDER OF PLAY - MONDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2025
Starts At 11:00 AM
Wheelchair Event - [1] Tokito Oda (JPN) vs [2] Daisuke Arai (JPN)

Not Before 2:00 PM
[1] Christian Harrison (USA) / Evan King (USA) vs [WC] Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Takeru Yuzuki (JPN)

Daniil Medvedev’s 2025 campaign has been anything but smooth, yet if there is a stage where his fortunes might shift, it could well be the China Open.

The 29-year-old brushed aside Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday afternoon in Beijing, sealing his spot in a third straight quarter-final at the ATP 500 event. Though Medvedev stands with a modest 29-19 record this year by his lofty standards, the 2023 finalist remains focused on rediscovering the edge that once carried him to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

“Maybe the feeling of the game, the general awareness [which I have been] lacking lately,” Medvedev reflected when asked what qualities he would borrow from his 2023 self. “I’m trying to get that back, and that’s also why I’m happy today. To win many return games, you need to react fast on the return, run faster on the next shot. Everything needs to be better, but it’s not too bad.”

After his first-round defeat at the US Open last month, Medvedev parted ways with his coach of eight years, Gilles Cervara, and has now been working with Thomas Johansson and Rohan Goetzke. Competing as the World No. 18 — his lowest mark since January 2019 — Medvedev will next meet second seed Alexander Zverev, who rallied from a break down in the deciding set to overcome Corentin Moutet 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Moutet, competing at a career-high World No. 37, lured Zverev in with his trademark variety and unpredictability before landing 40 winners across their two-hour, 38-minute battle. But Zverev fought back with a determined final-set display, during which he won six of the next eight games from 0-1, to keep his title hopes alive.

Carlos Alcaraz maintained his seamless debut campaign at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships on Sunday, where he eased past Brandon Nakashima to reach the last four.

The No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings produced a stunning serving display and plenty of crowd-pleasing moments in a 6-2, 6-4 night-session triumph in Tokyo. Alcaraz powered 25 winners past Nakashima with his forehand alone to march into his ninth consecutive tour-level semi-final. With his Tour-leading 65th match win of the season, the 22-year-old Alcaraz equalled his personal-best tally in a single season (set in 2023).

A forehand from another planet ?@carlosalcaraz | @japanopentennis | #kinoshitajotennis pic.twitter.com/wcPkNSnL0d

“It’s great to go through, to play another semi-final,” said Alcaraz in his post-match interview. “It’s special because it’s the first time I am playing here in Japan and here in Tokyo, so to reach the semi-finals in my first appearance is something great.”

Even after some of the sublime shotmaking Alcaraz produced in a classy opening-set performance, the Spaniard arguably saved his best for last inside Ariake Coliseum. Having let slip three match points on return at 5-3 in the second set, he reeled off four consecutive winners in the next game to wrap his win with a flourish.

Carlos Alcaraz put to bed any injury concerns on Saturday at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships, where he moved past Belgian Zizou Bergs 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals in Tokyo.

The Spaniard tweaked his ankle during his opening-round win against Sebastian Baez but moved freely during his first Lexus ATP Head2Head clash against Bergs to advance after 79 minutes at the ATP 500 hard-court event.

Alcaraz hit through Bergs with his forehand, was sharp around the net and recovered from squandering break advantages in both sets to improve to 64-7 on the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.

"It was tough and it was a really important day and a half I had to recover as good as I could," Alcaraz said when asked about his ankle. "I have said it before and I will say it again, I have the best physio in the world, who I trust 100 per cent. The work he has done for the ankle has been great. I could play normally, which is great. Sometimes I was worried about some movements, when I could feel the ankle, but in general I played some great tennis, a great match."

Alcaraz earned a career-best 65 tour-level victories in 2023 and will match that tally with a win against American Brandon Nakashima in the quarter-finals. Nakashima defeated Marton Fucsovics 7-5, 6-3 to clinch his 30th win of 2025.

Jannik Sinner overcame a mid-match scare against Terence Atmane on Saturday at the China Open, where he eventually broke the resistance of the French qualifier to earn a 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 second-round win.

The Italian defeated Atmane with relative ease last month in the semi-finals in Cincinnati, where the Frenchman had enjoyed a breakthrough run to the last four. However, the top seed in Beijing was pushed far harder at the ATP 500 event.

After losing a tight first set, Atmane broke Sinner’s serve three times in the second set to level, frequently rushing the World No. 2 with his depth and precision. Yet the 23-year-old was unable to inflict just a sixth defeat of the season on Sinner, who upped his aggression in the decider to eventually advance to his 13th consecutive hard-court quarter-final after two hours and 22 minutes.

“The game style he plays is quite unique and he is a lefty and we don’t have so many. He is a great, great player and has improved a lot again since Cincinnati,” Sinner said. “Today he struggled a little bit in the third set with some cramp but it was a tough, tricky second-round match. I was twice up with a break in the second set and I couldn’t use it, but this is the sport and this happens. Maybe the concentration went down a little bit at times and some nerves, but I am very happy to be through to the next round.”

The former Beijing champion Sinner defeated Marin Cilic in the opening round in his first match since he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open final. The Italian ceded the No. 1 spot in the PIF ATP Rankings with his defeat to the Spaniard but will aim to keep pace in his battle with rival Alcaraz for ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours across the remaining months of the season. He trails the 22-year-old, who is competing in Tokyo, by 2,590 points in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.

The China Open in Beijing, China, which this year runs from 25 September- 1 October, has announced a prize money total of US $4,016,050 for the 2025 edition.

The singles champion will earn US $751,075, while the winning doubles team will split US $246,690. View the full prize money breakdown and the PIF ATP Rankings points at stake below:

2025 China Open Singles Prize Money

2025 China Open Doubles Prize Money (per team)

The Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Japan, Tokyo, which this year runs from 24-30 September, has announced a prize money total of US $2,226,470 for the 2025 edition.

The singles champion will earn US $416,365, while the winning doubles team will split US $136,760. View the full prize-money breakdown and the PIF ATP Rankings points at stake below.

2025 Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships Singles Prize Money

2025 Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships Doubles Prize Money (per team)

Hubert Hurkacz is shutting it down for the year.

The former World No. 6, who underwent arthroscopic right knee surgery on 2 July, announced on social media Friday that he would not play another tournament this year.

[ATP APP]

Hurkacz wrote...

I would like to thank you very much for all the messages, support and kind words I receive from you. This is extremely important to me and gives me a lot of energy.

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Ben Shelton has withdrawn from the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships due to injury, the tournament announced Friday.

The No. 6 player in the PIF ATP Rankings suffered a shoulder injury during his third-round match at the US Open against Adrian Mannarino and was forced to retire before starting the fifth set. He has not competed since.

The lefty won his first ATP Tour title two years ago in Tokyo on his debut at the ATP 500 event. Last year, he returned to Japan and made the quarter-finals, falling short in a final-set tie-break to eventual champion Arthur Fils.

Shelton owns a 37-18 record this season and is fifth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. The 22-year-old is trying to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.