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Tommy Paul made two quarter-finals in Adelaide last year. Will the American advance even further this week?

The World No. 35 won his first match of the season Tuesday, when he defeated Australian lucky loser Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 7-5 to reach the second round of the Adelaide International 2.

“First match of the season is always a little tough and everyone has nerves going into the first match, so I was happy to go out and play the way that I did,” Paul said. “I didn’t really do too much wrong and I served well.”

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Paul faced just one break point, which he saved, and won 81 per cent of his service points in the match.

NextGen ATP semi-finalist Dominik Stricker has advanced to the second round of Australian Open qualifying for the second consecutive year after defeating German veteran Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-3, 6-4 at Melbourne Park Tuesday.

The 20-year-old, who fell to Australian veteran Matthew Ebden in the second round of AO qualifying last year, is yet to reach the final round of qualifying at a major. Stricker came up big in pressure moments, converting five of his break point chances and saving six of the eight break points on his own serve.

It was a mixed day for young Italian players. Francesco Passaro, 22, defeated 37-year-old Czech Lukas Rosol and 21-year-old Mattia Bellucci enjoyed a 6-3, 6-4 win over Chinese Taipei's Wu Tung-Lin.

Rome's Giulio Zeppieri, 21, also advanced Tuesday, defeating Santiago Rodriguez Taverna 6-4, 6-3.

But Italian Luca Nardi, who is expected to contend for a berth at this year's Next Gen ATP Finals, had a disappointing debut in the Australian Open qualifying, falling 6-3, 6-1 to American Ernesto Escobedo.

Casper Ruud’s determination to never stop improving has helped him become the most successful male player in the history of Norwegian tennis.

Yet despite winning nine ATP Tour titles, reaching two Grand Slam finals and climbing as high as No. 2 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, the 23-year-old remains one of the most grounded personalities in the game.

As Netflix’s new documentary series Break Point takes a behind-the-scenes look at Ruud’s 2022 season, ATPTour.com lays out five things to know about the ice-cool Norwegian.

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1) Like Father, Like Son
Both Ruud and his father Christian Ruud are considered trailblazers for Norwegian tennis. The former World No. 39 Christian was the highest-ranked Norwegian in Pepperstone ATP Rankings history until Casper stormed past that benchmark in 2020. Casper has gone on to reach a career-high ranking of No. 2 and in 2022 reached the final at both Roland Garros and the US Open. He happily attributes some of that success to Christian, who is his long-time coach.

Morgan Riddle, the girlfriend of Netflix Break Point star Taylor Fritz, has taken the tennis world by storm since she began dating the American in 2020. Riddle has helped bring the sport to the masses through her social media channels, especially TikTok.

What people might not know is that she has no background in tennis at all.

“I didn’t know a thing. Literally not a thing. I knew who Federer was. I didn’t even know who Nadal was. That’s not a joke,” Riddle told ATPTour.com. “I literally didn’t know anything about it. But I know a lot now. I would consider myself a tennis expert at this point, I really would.”

Riddle is from Minnesota where she grew up with another sport: hockey.

“My whole family plays hockey. My sister played college hockey, my dad played college hockey,” Riddle said. “It was very different going to tennis matches from that. Hockey games you show up in boots and a sweatshirt and you drink beer. It’s a very different atmosphere than tennis is.”

Matteo Berrettini enjoyed a season of highs and lows in 2022, from triumphing at Queen's Club and Stuttgart to dealing with injuries. The powerful Italian was one of the players who will be featured on Netflix's Break Point, which premieres on 13 January.

ATPTour.com caught up with the Italian about the experience of filming for the show, his interesting Netflix-viewing habits and more.

What was most surprising about the whole Netflix experience?
I think I had done a lot of marketing stuff, but I never got so intimate. Guys filming in your room or in the locker room talking to your team, having dinner with your family, getting to know my deepest connections and relationships. I think that’s something I’d never experienced.

At the beginning I was kind of like, ‘Should I do this? This is my private life.’ But then in order to make it special and the best [it could be], it was needed. I actually loved it because everybody around me really liked it and it was nice. 

What did it take to be able to open up for the cameras and show all that?
I think one thing is being private and [another] thing is showing what you want, certain stuff in your personal life. I personally like to be private and not say too much about myself, for example on my socials. But at the same time if you have a show like that that can show the people who I am in that way without filters, I think it’s something nice.

New to the game of tennis? Our Tennis Explained series will quickly bring you up to speed with all you need to know to fully enjoy the sport. This primer will provides an overview of the ATP Tour.

How To Tour

How many tournaments are there around the world?
The 2023 ATP Tour calendar includes more than 60 events in nearly 30 countries. 

How do players decide which tournaments to enter?
Far far from a carefree jaunt around the globe, a number of factors go into a player’s schedule on the ATP Tour.

The first consideration is whether a player’s Pepperstone ATP Ranking will earn them a place in either the main draw or the tournament’s qualifying draw. Other factors include Pepperstone ATP Rankings points and prize money on offer. With all things being relatively equal, players can then choose their  destination based on which city they would prefer to play in.

Learn more about the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in the next section.

New to the game of tennis? Our Tennis Explained series will quickly bring you up to speed with all you need to know to fully enjoy the sport. This installment covers some entertainment (both on and off court), fashion and more.

How To Entertain

What is a tweener?
The holy grail of hot shots, a tweener is a circus shot hit between the legs, usually with a player’s back to the net. They’re not quite as rare as you might think, as they do have a tactical benefit in particular situations — when a player is sprinting back from the net to track down a lob, a tweener can be the best option.

During the 2022 ATP Tour season, Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas hit consecutive tweeners as both chased down lobs in Miami, making for one of the points of the season.

What is an underarm serve?
While the standard tennis serve is struck with the hitting arm at full stretch above a player’s head, some like to mix it up with the cheeky underarm serve. This changeup tactic, where a player quickly drops the ball and bunts it over the net, has seen more play in recent years as returners have begun to stand far back behind the baseline to return powerful serves.

As long as the ball does not bounce after it is tossed — or in the case of the underarm serve, dropped — it is a legal serve.

Netflix on 13 January will release the first five episodes of its new behind-the-scenes tennis series, Break Point. Before the launch, ATPTour.com looks at all you need to know about the show, which closely follows stars of the ATP Tour and the Hologic WTA Tour.

What is Break Point?

Break Point is an upcoming tennis series on Netflix that takes fans behind the scenes of life on the ATP Tour and the Hologic WTA Tour during the 2022 season.

The series will follow players during their highs — including historic runs at the world’s biggest tournaments — and lows, including career-threatening injuries and emotional heartbreak.

Will all the Break Point episodes be released at once?

The first five episodes of Break Point will be released on 13 January, just before the start of the Australian Open. Five more episodes will be released in June.

How many total episodes will there be in the first season of Netflix’s Break Point?

The first season of Netflix’s Break Point will feature 10 episodes, spanning from the beginning of the season in Australia to the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.

New to the game of tennis? Our Tennis Explained series will quickly bring you up to speed with all you need to know to fully enjoy the sport. We start here with the basics of the game itself.

How To Score

How is a game scored within a match?
Don’t be alarmed when, after one point, a player leads 15/0. It’s not as big a lead as it sounds!

Within a match, each individual game is played first to four points, win by two. But rather than counting points as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, the scoring system uses Love, 15, 30, 40, Game.

The server’s score is always first. For example, if the server has won two points and the returner has earned one, the score would be 30/15.

If both players are tied at 40/40, the score is called “deuce”, and a player must win two points in a row to claim the game. The player who wins the “deuce” point earns the “advantage”, and then has an opportunity to win the next point and close out the game — or lose it and face another deuce.

The highly anticipated new tennis series on Netflix, Break Point, premieres on 13 January. 

Before the world gets an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the sport, ATPTour.com spoke to executive producer James Gay-Rees and showrunner Kari Lia about what it took to produce the series, how it compares to F1: Drive To Survive, what surprised the crew about how filming unfolded and more.

How much goes into a big task like this?
Kari: It’s an incredible amount of work. ‘Drive To Survive’ has been such a success for Box to Box, but we knew this was going to be very different. Tennis is a different kind of game, there’s so many more matches. In the end, we probably filmed too much in the beginning because we were so excited to get a sense of how these tournaments feel, how can we convey what it’s like to be there, what’s it like to feel live tennis…

It took us months of learning what are really the pivotal moments, the moments you don’t want to miss. Some tournaments we would have only two or three cameras and we would try to film specific people. At the Grand Slams, it was different. We would have four or five cameras every day and we had people we wanted to follow, win or lose. 

It took us a while to hone in on how we wanted to do it but the crucial thing was making the experience and making it feel like something you’ve never felt before. In the end, I think we had five times as much footage as they had for ‘Drive To Survive’, but we very carefully learned how to work with that footage. It took a lot of work.

French qualifier Gregoire Barrere survived an ace deluge from two-time champion John Isner and a move indoors due to Cyclone Hale to move into the second round of the ASB Classic in Auckland Wednesday. The World No. 88 survived 28 aces from sixth-seeded Isner to advance 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-3.

Avenging a four-set loss to Isner in the second round of Roland Garros last year, Barrere cracked a clean cross-court service return winner off an aggressive Isner second serve in the eighth game of the third set to claim the only break of serve in the match.

Barrere notched just his fourth win in 23 outings against Top 50 opposition. He has never beaten a Top 50 player outdoors, but didn't need to today after matches were moved indoors due to torrential rain. Barrere was solid on his own serve, winning 84 per cent of first serves and 69 per cent of second serves. He did not face a break point.

The 28-year-old will next face countryman Constant Lestienne.

Isner, who already holds the record for most aces since records began in 1991, is now just 12 aces away from becoming the first man to reach 14,000 aces at ATP Tour and Grand Slam events.

For 14 years, New Zealand was home to Cameron Norrie.

The 27-year-old lived in the country from the age of two to 16 before he moved to England and then the United States to study at Texas Christian University. This week, the World No. 14 is back in New Zealand, making his third main draw appearance at the ASB Classic in Auckland.

It has been some journey for second seed Norrie, who has fond memories of attending the ATP 250 as a teenager.

“It is pretty crazy playing here,” Norrie told ATPTour.com. “I was actually in the car with [Fabio] Fognini coming back from the practice courts today and I have a photo with him from 2011. He was 23 years old and I was even younger than that. I remember coming here as a fan and watching all the players and even hitting with John [Isner] this morning and I have a photo with him as well from 2008.

“I remember watching him in 2008, so it was pretty crazy for me to be a fan and to be one of those kids out there watching and then to be suddenly playing here. I’ve played well here before. I made the final in 2019, my first-ever final, so it's pretty special to be back here. Especially kind of playing a bit better, playing at the level I am.”

After experiencing several highs and lows in 2022, Argentine Juan Manuel Cerundolo got off to a fast start this year on home soil at the season-opening Tigre Challenger.

The 21-year-old recently battled leg and hip injuries which forced him to take time off. When the lefty was able to play tournaments consistently in the latter part of 2022, he made a sudden impact as he triumphed at the Buenos Aires and Coquimbo Challengers. Cerundolo, who has won 19 of his past 22 matches, picked up right where he finished the previous season.

Cerundolo, seeded first, rallied from a set down in Sunday’s final to defeat Bolivian Murkel Dellien 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 and claim the Challenger Aysa de Tigre-1.

Juan Manuel Cerundolo is crowned champion at the 2023 Tigre-1 Challenger. Credit: Asociación Argentina de Tenis

“I feel really good about this week,” Cerundolo said. “I think I had an amazing level, and tried to play offensive. The final was super tough coming from a set down, but I managed to turn it over. I’m really happy.”

An early-season equation has become clear: Thanasi Kokkinakis and Adelaide equals magic.

One year after lifting his first ATP Tour trophy in Adelaide, the Australian made more memories on his home court Monday evening when he battled past countryman Alexei Popyrin 6-0, 6-7(5), 7-5 after two hours and 45 minutes in the first round of the Adelaide International 2.

“It’s what you play for to be honest. I’ve had many great memories last year as well. Having that home energy and home crowd was crazy. I’m happy I gave them something to cheer about there,” Kokkinakis said. “It was almost going too smoothly, but then when I got the crowd into it and got them fired up, I know that’s what they came to see. It’s why you do all the work in all those tough moments. You remember those feelings and that’s something you can’t replicate other than [in] tennis.”

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After falling behind by a break in the third set, it seemed Kokkinakis was on the brink of defeat. But the 26-year-old rallied for an emotional victory to the delight of the fans.

Matteo Arnaldi enjoyed a breakthrough 2022, capped by his appearance at the Next Gen ATP Finals. The 21-year-old Italian looks set to pick up where he left off last year.

Arnaldi eliminated Swiss United Cup team member Alexander Ritschard 6-3, 7-5 in the first round of Australian Open qualifying on Monday. He will next play Australian Alex Bolt, who ousted Argentine Renzo Olivo 6-1, 6-2.

#NextGenATP Dalibor Svrcina also moved into the second round. The Czech ousted Briton Paul Jubb 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 and will next take on Argentine Nicolas Kicker.

There were a slew of final-set tie-breaks contested at Melbourne Park. Nicolas Jarry outlasted Otto Virtanen 5-7, 7-4, 7-6 (10-6), Gianluca Mager battled past Filip Misolic 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(10-6), Adrian Andreev clawed past Francesco Maestrelli 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(10-5) and Frenchman Enzo Couacaud found a way past countryman Hugo Grenier 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(10-3).

Brandon Holt, who made a splash by reaching the second round of the US Open main draw as a qualifier, rallied past third seed Radu Albot 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. The American will face Portugal’s Gastao Elias in the next round.

An entertaining opening week of the 2023 ATP Tour season saw the United States lift the inaugural United Cup, while Novak Djokovic and Tallon Griekspoor won titles in Adelaide and Pune, respectively.

ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

View Pepperstone ATP Rankings

No. 19, Lorenzo Musetti, +4 (Career High)
The #NextGenATP Italian has cracked the Top 20 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time after earning four victories to help Team Italy reach the United Cup final. The 20-year-old is the third Italian inside the Top 20, joining World No. 14 Matteo Berrettini and World No. 16 Jannik Sinner. Read United Cup Final Report & Watch Highlights.

No. 12, Cameron Norrie +2
The 27-year-old has jumped two spots after he went 3-0 at the United Cup. The Briton defeated Australian Alex de Minaur, Spaniard Rafael Nadal and American Taylor Fritz to help his nation win Group D.

David Goffin earned his first win of the season Monday when he overcame fifth seed Alexander Bublik 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round at the ASB Classic in Auckland.

The 32-year-old went 0-2 at the inaugural United Cup last week in Perth but responded with a confidence-boosting performance against Bublik, returning with great depth to break the 25-year-old six times en route to his 74-minute win.

"I returned really well," Goffin said. "We all know how he can serve, it is not easy to return. The key was the return for sure. I tried to stay calm because on my service games, I know how hard he can hit the ball and be aggressive. I stayed calm and that was the key.

"I love the atmosphere on this court, with people having fun. They are having dinner, it is a nice arena and it is fun to play in front of them."

Goffin, who is making his first appearance at the ATP 250 event since 2013, now leads the Kazakhstani 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series. He will next face 2020 champion Ugo Humbert or American qualifier Christopher Eubanks.

“I feel like I'm at home with my eight kids. This is like the Brady Bunch,” said Team USA captain David Witt as he sat alongside his triumphant players in their United Cup post-final media conference.

“I had a blast these two weeks. It was a lot of fun. A lot of tennis watching, but I had a blast. You guys are so immature, and I love you for it.”

Underpinned by a sense of camaraderie, a commitment to having fun and its overall team depth, the United States found the winning formula at the inaugural 18-country mixed teams’ event, showcasing a blueprint that others may look to emulate in future years.

The team’s Top 10 No. 1 players Taylor Fritz and Jessica Pegula dropped just one singles match each during the tournament. No. 2 players Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys didn’t drop a set in eight matches combined.

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It is one thing to challenge Novak Djokovic, which Sebastian Korda did to a great extent Sunday evening in the Adelaide International 1 final. It is another thing to finish the job against the former World No. 1.

Djokovic proved that when he saved championship point in the second set before rallying for a three-set victory to secure his 92nd tour-level title.

“No one is invincible. We've seen the biggest tennis players in the history of the game lose some big matches. I've lost many matches where I was up actually in a match or close matches,” Djokovic said. “Sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don't. Statistically I've won more of those, which I'm obviously very happy about.”

Djokovic added that it is difficult to explain the “formula of success” for dealing with such situations. So often the 35-year-old goes into “lockdown mode” and forces his opponents to do something special to win, but he does not believe there are any rules to triumphing from the brink of defeat.

“I feel like each one of us is so different and we are all unique in our own way in terms of the character, in terms of the body, in terms of how we play tennis,” Djokovic said. “Someone feels more comfortable serving and volleying when you're match point down, some feel [better] playing conservatively from the back of the court. It's really a matter of and a question of the moment, who you play against, what do you feel?