Looking for Tennis and Racket Sports International News?

Andrey Rublev strengthened his Nitto ATP Finals chances on Tuesday when he downed big-serving American John Isner 6-2, 6-3 to reach the third round at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The 25-year-old produced a strong returning performance against Isner, breaking three times and winning 83 per cent (10/12) of points on the American’s second service to advance after 62 minutes. With his 49th victory of the season, Rublev has improved to 1-3 in his ATP Head2Head series against Isner.

"It is a really important win at this moment when I am fighting for Turin," Rublev said. "I think I was a bit lucky. It was his first tournament since his bad injury. From the baseline I was feeling really confident. As soon as I was returning and the ball was in play, I felt I had an advantage and wasn't nervous."

Rublev is currently seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin with 3,530 points. He is in the final qualification spot for the prestigious year-end event, to be held from 13-20 November.

Rublev’s closest challenger, Taylor Fritz, is in eighth, holding 2,955 points. The American, who defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in his opening match, will next play Gilles Simon.

Novak Djokovic’s admiration of fellow legend Pete Sampras is well documented. Maxime Cressy, who will play Djokovic on Tuesday at the Rolex Paris Masters, not only looked up to Sampras, but is a disciple of the American’s serve-and-volley style.

“I wanted to study [serve-and-volley] patterns, what made them successful, and Pete Sampras was the one player I watched the most since he was one of the most recent serve and volleyers,” Cressy told ATPTour.com. “I watched a lot of tapes from him and studied his game a lot. I was completely inspired by his way of playing.”

The American began focussing on serve and volleying aged 14, spending countless hours closely analysing his countryman’s serve. Cressy spent the most time watching videos of Sampras serving against Andre Agassi.

“He was hitting a lot of T serves and was having a lot of easy putaway volleys or easy second shots after the ball bounced after hitting T serves. I noticed that would be extremely valuable for my game,” said Cressy, who played college tennis at UCLA. “One tip that one of the assistant coaches at UCLA from when I was there, Grant Chen, gave me [is] that Pete Sampras’ biggest quality was to be unpredictable on the serve. I really took a lot of inspiration from that, a lot of admiration and I started to really analyse how he was making his serve unpredictable.”

[ATP APP]

Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios have qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be played in Turin from 13-20 November.

The Australians are guaranteed a spot under the Grand Slam champion provision, under which if there is a current-year major-winning team positioned between eighth and 20th in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Team Rankings after the Rolex Paris Masters, that team qualifies for Turin in eighth.

Since Kokkinakis and Kyrgios are ensured of a Top 20 finish and Wimbledon champions Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell cannot catch them, they will compete at the year-end championships, joining Wesley Koolhof/Neal Skupski, Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury, Marcelo Arevalo/Jean-Julien Rojer and Nikola Mektic/Mate Pavic in the field.

Kokkinakis and Kyrgios made a splash at the beginning of the season when they went on a dream run to the Australian Open title. The home favourites quickly rallied the Melbourne crowd to their side, defeating a lineup of top veteran teams, including Mektic and Pavic, before lifting the trophy with a victory against Ebden and Purcell.

The duo played seven tournaments together this year, tallying an 18-5 record. The Australians also lifted the trophy in Atlanta and made the semi-finals in Miami and Tokyo.

Gilles Simon wrote another stirring chapter into his storied career Monday when he edged former World No. 1 Andy Murray 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the second round at the Rolex Paris Masters.

Competing in his final tour-level event, the Frenchman refused to go down without a fight in an entertaining clash. The 37-year-old rallied from 3-5 in the second set, lighting up Paris with his grit and quality to level the match, sparking scenes of joy among the home supporters.

Simon then kept his focus and outlasted the Scot in the longer exchanges in the third set to earn the 503rd win of his 20-year career. With his two-hour, 52-minute victory, the wild card improved to 3-16 in his ATP Head2Head series against Murray and will next face Taylor Fritz.

“It was a crazy match,” Simon said. “I was behind the whole match… At 3-4 in the second set I felt a lot of emotions coming. It was difficult to play my service game at that moment and he broke me. He got tight at 5-3 and this time I managed to push, hold my serve and break him again. I tried to push on every game.

"It was really difficult physically, but it was difficult physically on his side. But I thought ‘Come on, I have a chance to beat him.’ It is not like I have the best record against Andy. I really wanted to win this one and I was really happy I was able to do it.”

Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies are back to winning ways at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The German pair dug deep to hold off home favourites Adrian Mannarino and Fabrice Martin and clinch a 6-4, 7-6(5) victory on Monday at the ATP Masters 1000 event in France. The six-time tour-level titlists saved six of seven break points they faced to notch their first win at Paris-Bercy since they reached the semi-finals on tournament debut in 2019.

Krawietz and Mies are two-time Grand Slam champions, having lifted the trophy at Roland Garros in 2019 and 2020, and the pair is chasing its first ATP Masters 1000 crown in the French capital this week. However, they face a tough second-round assignment in Paris in fifth seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.

[ATP APP]

Also on Monday, home wild card pairing Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul saved two match points in the Match Tie-break before clinching a thrilling 7-5, 6-7(4), 15-13 win against Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski. Doumbia and Reboul’s reward for holding their nerve to clinch an epic two-hour, 10-minute battle is a second-round meeting with top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

It has been an unforgettable season for Carlos Alcaraz full of historic moments. One of them was when the Spaniard became the youngest World No. 1 in the history of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

On Monday evening at the Rolex Paris Masters, ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi presented Alcaraz with the ATP No. 1 trophy presented by Pepperstone.

“For me it’s a dream come true being No. 1 in the world, to be a Grand Slam champion,” Alcaraz told the ATP Tour. "I feel like the No. 1, to have this trophy, it means a lot to me. “

Photo Credit: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
Alcaraz is one of 28 players who have reached World No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. He accomplished the feat after claiming his first major crown at the US Open.

“Everything has come so fast. I didn’t think at the beginning of the year that I’m going to have the year that I’m having right now,” Alcaraz said. “I always believe in my team and in my work, so this is something that came with the hard work that I put in every day, the hard preseason, the work during the year with my team. Everything pays off.”

Australian Rinky Hijikata and Croatia’s Borna Gojo cruised to victory to claim their maiden ATP Challenger Tour titles this week. Hijikata dropped just one set all week to win on home soil in Playford, Australia, while Gojo was unbroken at the Ortisei Challenger. Gojo and Hijikata are among five Challenger champions this week.

#NextGenATP Hijikata took down Japan’s Rio Noguchi 6-1 6-1 in Sunday’s final to win the City of Playford International.

“I’m stoked [to win the title], I’m over the moon,” Hijikata said. “It’s a little bit of a relief, it’s always nice to win the first title, it’s not easy to get over that hump. To be able to do that this week at home, I’m pretty proud of the way I played this week.

“I came out firing. I thought I stuck to my game plan well. I played to the [windy] conditions as well as I could.”

Novak Djokovic will begin his quest for a record-extending seventh Rolex Paris Masters title Tuesday when he faces Maxime Cressy in the second round in the French capital.

The sixth-seeded Serbian has performed strongly at the final ATP Masters 1000 event of the season throughout his career, lifting the trophy in his previous two appearances in 2019 and 2021. Djokovic will face the American Cressy for the first time on Court Central and heads into the clash high in confidence.

View Schedule | View Singles Draw | View Doubles Draw

The former World No. 1 has won his past nine matches, lifting trophies in Tel Aviv and Astana in October. Djokovic, who will compete at the Nitto ATP Finals in November, will be looking to win a record-extending 39th Masters 1000 crown this week, having won his 38th title at this level in Rome in May.

“I feel great in this tournament,” Djokovic said in his pre-tournament press conference. “[I've had] lots of success. [It] always helps to come into the tournament confident and with some good memories, good emotions on the court. [The] past few times that I played here, I won both tournaments... Hopefully I can continue that run.”

Marc-Andrea Huesler did not hold back on his ATP Masters main draw debut on Monday afternoon. The Swiss qualifier delivered a high-quality first-round performance to take out 11th seed Jannik Sinner 6-2, 6-3 at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The 26-year-old Huesler lifted his maiden tour-level title on indoor hard courts in Sofia at the beginning of October but had gone 0-3 since. After defeating Hugo Gaston and Laslo Djere in qualifying in Paris, however, the lefty brought his big-serving, aggressive best to the clash against Sinner. He fired 20 winners, including six aces, to down the World No. 12 in 68 minutes.

“[It feels] really big,” said Huesler. “I’ve had a great season… I had two good matches in the qualies, I came out here and had nothing to lose today. That helped me play very aggressive. It was not his best match, for sure, but I had to be ready to take that [opportunity]. I just stayed at it, and I’m really happy with the win.”

First upset of the tournament ?

Swiss No.1 Marc-Andrea Huesler stuns No.11 seed Sinner 6-2 6-3 in the #RolexParisMasters R1! pic.twitter.com/X7YJQ7cdsX

Huesler was the only player to win a set against eventual champion Felix Auger-Aliassime in Basel last week and the World No. 61 believes his level did not drop significantly despite his tough run of results post-Sofia. Having only broken the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time in July, he is now growing accustomed to performing on the biggest stages the ATP Tour has to offer.

Taylor Fritz dug deep to overcome a typically resilient Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Monday in a Rolex Paris Masters first-round clash that carried extra meaning for the American.

Fritz trailed by a break in the first set and let slip a 2-0 lead in the second as Davidovich Fokina threatened an early upset against the 2021 quarter-finalist at the ATP Masters 1000 event. The ninth seed raised his level at key moments to resist the Spaniard’s charge, however, converting five of 10 break points to clinch a 7-5, 6-2 victory in 90 minutes on Court Central.

“[I’m] really happy, he’s a tough person to play against,” said Fritz after the match. “He’s got weapons on both sides. He’s extremely quick as well, so there’s nowhere you can really play with a lot of safety. He makes a lot of crazy shots and he’s beaten me the past two times, so definitely good to just get out there, play a solid match, and get through it.”

With the win, Fritz kept alive his hopes of qualifying for November’s Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. The 25-year-old is currently eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and he must reach the championship match in Paris to have a chance of leapfrogging Felix Auger-Aliassime or Andrey Rublev into a qualification spot for the season finale.

“Right now I’m just focused on kind of playing myself into the tournament,” said Fritz. “I feel like any time this year that I’ve won a couple of matches into a tournament, then I’ve done well. So I’ll just try to focus on these early rounds.

With one week of the regular season to go, Felix Auger-Aliassime looks in strong contention to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals after he captured the title at the ATP 500 event in Basel.

ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week in the Race following a two-tournament week on Tour.

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin Rankings

Sixth, Felix Auger-Aliassime, +1
The Canadian has jumped one spot to sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin after he won his third consecutive tour-level trophy in Basel. The Canadian, who defeated #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune in the final, is on 3,635 points, 725 points clear of eighth-placed American Taylor Fritz (2,910 points). The 22-year-old is aiming to make his debut at the prestigious end-of-year event, to be held from 13-20 November.

Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin (as of 31 October)

The ATP, International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Kosmos Tennis have today announced an unprecedented strategic alliance from 2023 supporting the Davis Cup by Rakuten. The men’s World Cup of Tennis is the longest-running and largest annual international team event in sport with 122 years of history.

The new partnership has been established to enable strategic collaboration on the competition’s governance and evolution, with ATP granted two of six seats on a newly formed Davis Cup Event Committee alongside the ITF and Kosmos, long-term investors and promoters of the competition. The partnership officially brings ATP and ITF together across Davis Cup for the first time in history in a combined effort to maximise the success of the historic team competition as the men’s World Cup of Tennis.

The Davis Cup Finals and Qualifier ties now become an official part of the 2023 ATP Tour calendar, taking place in weeks 5, 37 and 47, with increased promotion on ATP channels. This integration will support players in planning their annual schedule when selected to play in their national Davis Cup team. The Finals will continue under its existing format, offering $15 million in player prize money in 2023.

Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman: “Our focus is always on creating the best possible experiences for our fans and players. Delivering compelling international team competitions that dovetail with the year-round calendar and continue to innovate is a vital part of that. The Davis Cup has an incredibly rich history and we’re excited to see this important new alliance drive the event forward from 2023.”

David Haggerty, ITF President: “This announcement heralds an important new alliance between the ITF, Kosmos and ATP which further strengthens the importance of team competition and Davis Cup’s unique role in elite men's professional tennis. Part of the Olympic Qualification Pathway, Davis Cup is the largest annual men's team competition in sport and the sole men's team competition in the pro tennis calendar where teams are officially selected by their nation. Together with the women’s Billie Jean King Cup, it shows the ITF’s full commitment to delivering spectacular tournaments that players love to play and electrifying battles between nations which fans in the stadium and whole countries love to get behind.”

Two singles spots remain at the Nitto ATP Finals, with a four-way battle at this week’s Rolex Paris Masters deciding who among Felix Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz and Hubert Hurkacz will earn a place in Turin.

Auger-Aliassime and Rublev are in pole position to qualify for the season finale, which will take place from 13-20 November. But Fritz and Hurkacz, who are in eighth and ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, still have an opportunity to flip the script.

Fritz and Hurkacz need to make at least the final to have a chance to earn their spot in Turin. But since Fritz could play Auger-Aliassime in the third round and Hurkacz could face Rublev, they have an opportunity to eliminate the contenders ahead of them in the Live Race.

Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin (as of 31 October)

Nobody is in better form than sixth-placed Auger-Aliassime, who has won titles in Florence, Antwerp and Basel over the past three weeks. Prior to his 13-match winning streak, the Canadian had won only one title in his career, which came earlier this season in Rotterdam. He has 3,635 points in the Live Race, putting him 725 points clear of eighth-placed Fritz.

With the pressure on, Taylor Fritz will need to deliver on Day One at the Rolex Paris Masters if he is to keep alive his chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals.

The American arrives at the final ATP Masters 1000 event of the season eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, holding 2,910 points. The 24-year-old is currently 525 points behind seventh-placed Andrey Rublev. The prestigious end-of-year event will be held from 13-20 November.

View Schedule | View Singles Draw  | View Doubles Draw

Fritz’s first test in the French capital comes against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Monday on Court Central. However, the four-time tour-level titlist will need to do something he has never done and earn a maiden victory against the Spaniard, with Davidovich Fokina leading Fritz 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series.

[ATP APP]

Novak Djokovic has enjoyed great success at the Rolex Paris Masters throughout his career. The Serbian has won the title a record six times, including in his past two appearances in 2019 and 2021.

Arriving in Paris as the sixth seed this week, Djokovic revealed on Sunday that he is excited to challenge for the crown again at the final ATP Masters 1000 event of the season.

“I feel great in this tournament,” Djokovic said in his pre-tournament press conference. “As you mentioned, [I've had] lots of success. [It] always helps to come into the tournament confident and with some good memories, good emotions on the court. [The] past few times that I played here, I won both tournaments... Hopefully I can continue that run.

“I think at this level it's important to have a good feeling on the court and just good memory of coming to a place where you have done well, because tennis is a game of fine margins that decide who is going to take a win in the match,” Djokovic later added. “Oftentimes, how you feel mentally, whether you are fighting with your own demons inside in a good or bad way affects the end result. Here I always felt good.”

[ATP APP]

In a battle between two previously impenetrable serves on Sunday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, it was Felix Auger-Aliassime who held firm.

Neither the Canadian nor Holger Rune had been broken en route to the championship match at the ATP 500 event in Switzerland, but Auger-Aliassime twice unpicked the Dane’s delivery to seal a 6-3, 7-5 victory and lift his third consecutive ATP Tour title.

“It’s been an amazing week,” said Auger-Aliassime after the match. “Once again in the final, not getting broken all week… [It’s been] a long year, a long stretch of wins, and it’s not over. So hopefully I can keep going, but right now I’m feeling all the good emoitons that come with winning a tournament. It’s amazing.”

FAA RISING ?

The moment @felixtennis captured the #SwissIndoorsBasel title & his 13th consecutive win! pic.twitter.com/shaE8mKife

It was Auger-Aliassime’s 13th consecutive tour-level win, extending his personal-best winning streak. The one-hour, 40-minute triumph also lifted the 22-year-old one spot to sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

Daniil Medvedev didn’t have things all his own way Sunday at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, but he stepped up when needed, overcoming Denis Shapovalov 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to capture his second tour-level title of the season.

The top seed was overpowered by Shapovalov in an entertaining first set, with the Canadian firing 21 winners to move ahead. However, the World No. 4 refused to go away throughout the two-hour, 16-minute clash, hitting with greater depth and accuracy in the second and third sets to force Shapovalov into errors at the ATP 500 event.

Medvedev now leads the 23-year-old Shapovalov 4-2 in their ATP Head2Head series, while he has improved to 45-15 on the season. Earlier this year, he reached the final at the Australian Open before he won the title in Los Cabos.

The 26-year-old looked back to his very best during a dominant week in Austria. He did not drop a set or lose serve en route to the championship match, securing his spot at the Nitto ATP Finals – to be held in Turin from 13-20 November – along the way.

In front of a packed crowd in the championship match, Medvedev produced moments of magic in the third set as he blunted the attack of Shapovalov with a range of stunning passing shots. The top seed hit 24 winners and broke serve five times, sealing the title on his sixth match point.

Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek continued their late season charge Sunday by defeating Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin to lift their second consecutive ATP Tour trophy at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The Croatian-American duo held their nerve at the tail-end of both sets in their 6-4, 7-6(5) championship match win. They broke their opponents’ serve in the tenth game to clinch the opener before storming to an unassailable 6/2 lead in the second-set tie-break en route to a 97-minute victory.

Dodig and Krajicek’s red-hot run of form has given the pair a real shot at qualifying for November’s Nitto ATP Finals, just six and a half months after becoming a permanent partnership. Their title run in Basel lifted them two spots to eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as they head to France for this week’s Rolex Paris Masters.

“For us, the tennis never stops,” said Krajicek. “We are going to Paris tonight and we will prepare the same way we’ve been preparing. Hopefully we can take the good form to Paris and just focus on playing one more good match on Wednesday or Thursday, and the rest of the stuff will take care of itself.”

[ATP APP]

Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler ended their dream week in style Sunday at the Erste Bank Open where they overcame Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-3, 7-6(1) to capture the crown on home soil in Vienna.

The Austrian wildcards produced a strong performance on serve, winning 89 per cent (34/38) of points behind their first delivery and saving the one break point they faced to triumph after 83 minutes.

[ATP APP]

Erler and Miedler arrived in Vienna off the back of disappointing first-round exits in Florence and Antwerp. However, they soared through the draw at the ATP 500 event, not dropping a set en route to the trophy.

The pair has now won two tour-level titles together, having lifted the crown in Kitzbühel last season. The Austrians have also tasted success on the ATP Challenger Tour this year, winning four titles at that level in 2022.

The stars of the ATP Tour this week are set to take centre stage at the Rolex Paris Masters, the final ATP Masters 1000 event of the season. World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, defending champion Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are in action.

It is also the final week of the regular season, with the final Nitto ATP Finals qualification spots in singles and doubles still up for grabs. ATPTour.com looks at 10 things you should watch at Paris-Bercy.

View Draws: Singles | Doubles

1) Reigning Champion Djokovic: Novak Djokovic will look to capture a record-extending seventh Paris title and third in a row when he takes to court at the ATP Masters 1000 event next week. The 35-year-old, who defeated Daniil Medvedev in the championship match last year, has won his past nine matches, lifting trophies in Tel Aviv and Astana. The sixth-seeded Serbian will open against Diego Schwartzman or Maxime Cressy as he looks to maintain his good recent form.

2) Alcaraz Chasing Sixth Title: The 19-year-old arrives in Paris aiming to write another chapter into his fairytale season. The Spaniard, who will compete at the Nitto ATP Finals in November, won ATP Masters 1000 titles in Miami and Madrid earlier this season before he captured the US Open crown, becoming the youngest player to rise to No. 1 in the history of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings (since 1973).