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Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek reached their third straight ATP Tour final with a Saturday win at the Swiss Indoors Basel to continue their late surge in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings. Chasing a spot in the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 13-20 November in Turin, the Croatian-American pair defeated the Kazakhstani duo of Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6-3, 6-4 at the ATP 500.

Dodig and Krajicek have moved up one place to ninth in the Doubles Race this week, but will likely need to pass Australian Open champions Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios in seventh place to guarantee qualification for the season finale. A title in Basel would lift them to eighth, just 50 points shy of the Aussies.

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Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin will provide the opposition in Sunday's championship match after their 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-6 win against Maxime Cressy and Botic van de Zandschulp. The veteran team defeated Dodig/Krajicek in the Florence final two weeks ago, but the Croatian-American team bounced back to lift the trophy in Naples last week.

Gonzalez/Molteni Into Vienna Final
Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni defeated the Argentine team of Francisco Cerundolo and Maximo Gonzalez 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday to advance to the final at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. The Mexican-Argentine duo saved all three break points against them in the semis and claimed both sets behind a single break.

Daniil Medvedev will compete in the Nitto ATP Finals for the fourth consecutive year.

The 26-year-old is the sixth player to earn his spot in Turin, joining Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic. The season finale will be played at the Pala Alpitour from 13-20 November.

Medvedev will try to claim his second title at the year-end championships after lifting the trophy in 2020. The 2021 finalist owns a 9-4 record at the prestigious event.

Medvedev lifted his 14th tour-level title this season in Los Cabos. He also reached his second consecutive final at the Australian Open and advanced to the championship match at ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Halle.

On 28 February, Medvedev climbed to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time. At 6’6”, he became the tallest World No. 1 in history and the first player outside the Big Four of Nadal, Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to hold top spot since Andy Roddick in February 2004.

Down 2/6 in a second-set tie-break, Holger Rune could have turned his attention to a decider on Saturday at the Swiss Indoors Basel. But the #NextGenATP Dane instead won the final six points of the match to defeat Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(1), 7-6(8) and advance to his second straight ATP Tour final.

By stretching his winning streak to nine matches, Rune also set himself up for his Top 20 debut in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Entering the ATP 500 at a career-high of World No. 25, last week's Stockholm champion has moved up an additional seven places in the Live Rankings to No. 18, and could rise as high as No. 16 by defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime in Sunday's final.

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"It was brutal. It was a very tough match and really long rallies," the 19-year-old said after two hours on court. "He played some very solid tennis, very aggressive with his forehand. I just tried to play as aggressive as I could, take every chance I got to follow [my shots] forward to the net and just focus on my serve.

"I think I managed the nerves well, especially the second set was super tough. I thought we were going to three sets but I'm happy that I managed to stay focused."

The in-form Felix Auger-Aliassime passed his biggest test yet on Saturday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where the Canadian delivered a stunning all-around performance to defeat World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 6-2.

Auger-Aliassime kept Alcaraz constantly under pressure with some blistering hitting from the baseline throughout the pair's semi-final clash, while also demonstrating some of the huge serving that has defined his European indoor hard-court season so far.

“So far it has been very close to perfect [in Basel]”, said Auger-Aliassime, who has dropped just one set this week, in his on-court interview. "I’ve been serving amazing, not getting broken once yet. There’s still one match to go, but it’s been a fantastic week, [I have] played some great tennis, and again today against the best player in the world. It’s an amazing win, so I’m really happy with my level and hopefully I can go all the way.”

The win bolsters Auger-Aliassime’s seventh-place position in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. The Canadian (3,435 points) is now just five points behind sixth-placed Andrey Rublev as he bids to qualify for November’s Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. The 22-year-old can leapfrog Rublev on Sunday by defeating Roberto Bautista Agut or Holger Rune to claim the title in Basel.

After a cagey start to the match from both players, Auger-Aliassime took control in the eighth game, when he broke Alcaraz to love. The Canadian stayed solid to polish off the first set before two further breaks in the second sealed the win and improved Auger-Aliassime’s ATP Head2Head record against the Spaniard to 3-0.

Daniil Medvedev came up against a confident opponent striking the ball cleanly on Saturday at the Erste Bank Open for the second day in a row. The top seed had all the answers.

Medvedev was imperious in downing Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2 in the pair’s semi-final clash at the ATP 500 event. Just as it had against Jannik Sinner in Friday’s quarter-finals, the 26-year-old’s relentless retrieving and precise serving proved the difference as he charged to a 85-minute victory to reach the championship match in Vienna for the first time.

Medvedev, who is yet to drop his serve this week across four matches in Vienna, will face Denis Shapovalov or Borna Coric In Sunday’s final as he chases his second tour-level title of the season.

More to follow…

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Nick Bollettieri has always relished a challenge.

In more than 60 years as a coach, the American has thrived on accomplishing what others said could not be done. From honing talents such as Jim Courier, Andre Agassi and Monica Seles, to founding the world's first major tennis boarding academy, Bollettieri is one of tennis’ true pioneers.

Now a TopCourt ambassador, Bollettieri opens up to fans on the fundamentals of his coaching philosophy, offering key insights that will last them a lifetime. He also reveals how his humble beginnings as the son of Italian immigrants in New York have driven his self-belief over the decades, and how he has embraced the unique playing styles of some of his most successful charges.

Instruction: Bollettieri introduces three building blocks that he teaches to all tennis players, starting with one simple skill that he believes is crucial in developing an early enjoyment of the sport. He then shares his philosophy on how and when a player should move forward in his ‘Learning How To Attack The Net’ class, before using a real life example of two players playing a few points to immediately demonstrate areas of potential improvement.

Drills: Bollettieri brings six of his favourite drills to TopCourt, ensuring there is something for players of all levels. For beginners, 'The Alley Drill’ shows how to make solid and consistent contact with the ball. More confident players can try Bollettieri’s ‘Box Drill Intervals’ exercise, which he introduced to Mary Pierce before she won the 1995 Australian Open.

Rafael Nadal, who at the Rolex Paris Masters will compete for the first time since the Laver Cup, faces a tough path at the season’s final ATP Masters 1000 event following Friday's release of the draw, when it was revealed the Spaniard is in the same half of the draw as six-time champion Novak Djokovic.

Nadal, who will pursue his first title at the indoor hard-court event, will begin his run against former Top 10 player Roberto Bautista Agut or American Tommy Paul, who has enjoyed the best season of his career. The first seeded opponent Nadal could face is this year’s Montreal champion, 14th seed Pablo Carreno Busta. Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas is also in his quarter.

The lefty Nadal has advanced to at least the quarter-finals of the tournament in his eight previous appearances. He has tallied a 22-6 record at the event. 

Sixth seed Djokovic will open against serve-and-volleying American Maxime Cressy or former Top 10 player Diego Schwartzman. The Serbian arrives on a nine-match winning streak after lifting trophies in Tel Aviv and Astana, tournaments that are also played on indoor hard courts. Djokovic owns a record 38 Masters 1000 crowns.

Top seed Carlos Alcaraz will start his chase for a third Masters 1000 trophy this season against Aslan Karatsev or Yoshihito Nishioka. The Spaniard could play 13th seed Matteo Berrettini in the third round. Nitto ATP Finals contenders Andrey Rublev and Hubert Hurkacz are also in the first quarter.

Carlos Alcaraz moved to within two wins of capturing his sixth tour-level title of the season Friday when he overcame Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4 at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The 19-year-old Spaniard looked in control throughout the one-hour, 38-minute clash at the ATP 500 event, opening his shoulders to hit through his countryman on the indoor courts. Alcaraz overpowered Carreno Busta during the backhand exchanges and showed good touch around the net to efficiently win points and triumph.

"It is difficult to play against a friend like Pablo," Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. "Every day we go and have dinner, lunch, together. Every week and we train together, so it is difficult to play against him. I also support him and want him to win every match. On court, there are no friends. You have to be focused and go for the match and that is what I did."

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The World No. 1 Alcaraz now leads Carreno Busta 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series, having defeated him in the Barcelona final in April. Alcaraz, who defeated Jack Draper and Botic van de Zandschulp earlier this week, will next play Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semi-finals on Saturday.

Daniil Medvedev’s defiant defence shut down the high-powered challenge of Jannik Sinner on Friday at the Erste Bank Open, where the 26-year-old secured a clinical 6-4, 6-2 quarter-final triumph.

Medvedev’s persistence proved decisive in an engrossing 91-minute encounter in the Austrian capital. Sinner threw a barrage of heavy groundstrokes at his opponent but was unable to regularly hit through the top seed. Medvedev did not face a break point in the match and converted three of six break points of his own as he improved his ATP Head2Head series record against the Italian to 4-0.

From downtown ?@DaniilMedwed with a return from wayyyy back!#ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/BpidvBBnvy

“Jannik is a top player, and he can pose problems to anybody basically,” said Medvedev after the match. “The last two Grand Slams, he played five sets with the [eventual] winner, so Jannik is a top player and I’m really happy today with my performance.

“I served amazingly well, I almost didn’t do any unforced errors, I was solid behind the baseline. Everything was working well today and I’m really happy about it.”

Felix Auger-Aliassime extended his winning streak to 11 matches on Friday when he moved past Alexander Bublik 6-2, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

In a dominant display, the Canadian fired 28 winners and committed just four unforced errors to advance after 73 minutes. Auger-Aliassime now leads the 25-year-old Bublik 2-1 in the pair's ATP Head2Head series and will next play top seed Carlos Alcaraz or fifth seed Pablo Carreno Busta.

"It was a good match. It is so important for me to stay disciplined and focus on my serve," Auger-Aliassime said. "I haven't been broken in the whole tournament and today was a good effort on staying focused on my serve. I was able to seize a few opportunities. The first break was important. To take that pressure off myself from the beginning. It is the best way to start the match.

"In the past two months, I have been training much better and very locked in and focused on what I need to do and I am trying to put it on display."

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Stan Wawrinka faced down an inspired comeback from Brandon Nakashima on Thursday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where the home favourite held firm to seal a thrilling 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 second-round win.

Wawrinka appeared set for a straightforward victory in his first tour-level meeting with Nakashima when he served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. #NextGenATP American Nakashima had other ideas, raising his level with some high-octane baseline hitting to force a decider, but Wawrinka kept his cool to convert the only break point of the third set and clinch an engrossing two-hour, 12-minute win.

“He battled, of course,” said Wawrinka after the match. “He was playing well, it was a really intense match. He’s a great player and it was tough, the first time playing against each other… I had the chance to close the match at 6-4, 5-4, I couldn’t really find my first serve and he played really well.

“He was aggressive. So it was not easy to come back in the third, but really I am happy with the way I fought again, the way I came back.”

Thursday’s win backed up Wawrinka’s opening-round triumph against second seed Casper Ruud. The former World No. 3 was delighted to seal another victory in front of his home fans and reach the quarter-finals in Basel for the sixth time in 15 appearances.

Borna Coric earned his third straight victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas with a Thursday comeback at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Down a set and a break, Coric recovered to claim a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) win and advance to the quarter-finals.

The Croatian famously saved six match points to stun the Greek at the 2020 US Open, and while he was never that close to defeat at the ATP 500, he did have his back to the wall when Tsitsipas led by a set and 2-0. After breaking straight back, Coric fought off a break point at 2-3, which sparked a run of 15 straight points on serve that carried into the final set.

Both players fought through deuce to hold early in the decider, with another trade of breaks exchanged midway through the set. From 3-3, there would be no further break points, Coric ultimately taking the tie-break behind a single mini-break.

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Coric improved to 3-1 in his ATP Head2Head against Tsitsipas, with the Greek's only win coming via an early retirement in Rome 2018. The resurgent Croatian is now 13-3 since the start of Cincinnati, where he beat Tsitsipas 7-6(0), 6-2 in the final. Through to his fourth quarter-final of the season and his second of the month (Tokyo), he will meet fifth seed Hubert Hurkacz on Friday.

The world’s best players will unite to compete side by side at the United Cup, a stunning new team event set to launch the global tennis season in 2023.

The United Cup, an ATP-WTA event presented in partnership with Tennis Australia, will showcase equality at the highest level of the sport, with mixed teams from 18 countries competing across Brisbane, Perth and Sydney over 11 days, from Thursday 29 December to Sunday 8 January 2023.

The power and passion of team competition will come to life as the players unite to represent their countries with national pride and USD $15 million in prize money on the line. In a world first for a mixed team event, 500 Pepperstone ATP Rankings and WTA rankings points are also up for grabs.

The first 12 countries will qualify via the six highest-ranked No. 1 players that enter, on both the ATP Tour and Hologic WTA Tour. The remaining six countries will qualify according to the best combined ranking of their respective No. 1 men’s and women’s players. Teams will feature three to four players from each Tour.

Each city will host two groups of three countries, competing in a round-robin format, with ties comprising two ATP and two WTA singles matches, and one mixed doubles match. Each City Final winner will advance to the United Cup Final Four in Sydney (6-8 January), with the next best performing team from the group stages completing the quartet.

The field for the 2022 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals is now set. Dominic Stricker will join Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Brandon Nakashima, Jiri Lehecka, Chun-Hsin Tseng and Francesco Passaro in Milan from 8-12 November.

The 20-year-old lefty is the first Swiss player to qualify for the 21-and-under season finale in event history (since 2017).

Stricker has excelled against top competition this season, earning a 7-5 record against players inside the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. He has won two ATP Challenger Tour titles this year, triumphing on hard courts in Columbus, Ohio in January before lifting the trophy in July on clay in Zug, Switzerland.

Three of the players in the field — Musetti, Rune and Nakashima — will be competing in the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals for the second time. The trio played at the Allianz Cloud last year, with Nakashima advancing to the semi-finals.

With Musetti and Passaro in the field, two Italians will compete in the same edition of the event for the first time. The home favourites will try to join Jannik Sinner as Italian champions at the 21-and-under season finale.

Felix Auger-Aliassime has been in blistering form this month, but he hit new heights on Thursday at the Swiss Indoors Basel. Seeking his third ATP Tour title in as many weeks, the Canadian advanced to the quarter-finals with a stunning performance against Miomir Kecmanovic, wrapping up a 6-1, 6-0 victory in 49 minutes.

"It's tough to play better than that, from my part," Auger-Alassime said in his on-court interview. "For sure the best match I've played in my whole life — not my career, since I'm a little kid! It's a nice feeling. It was a treat to play this level, to play this way in front of you," he told the Swiss crowd.

In a flawless second set, he dropped just seven points and was a perfect 11-for-11 behind his first serve. Showcasing his athleticism and first-strike tennis, the third seed finished with 21 winners and 10 aces on the match.

Auger-Aliassime currently sits seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as he clings onto what is currently the final qualifying position. He is 315 points clear of Taylor Fritz in eighth place as he seeks his Nitto ATP Finals debut at age 22, but cannot add points this week unless he reaches the semi-finals or better.

Now on a 10-match winning streak that began with title runs in Florence and Antwerp, Auger-Aliassime became the third player to earn 50 wins this season (Tsitsipas 57, Alcaraz 54) with his latest victory. His 2022 record stands at 50-24 with three titles, the first ATP Tour trophies of his career.

Daniil Medvedev had to bide his time against Dominic Thiem on Thursday at the Erste Bank Open, but the top seed’s persistence paid off as he registered a 6-3, 6-3 second-round win in Vienna.

Both players came out firing in a hard-fought opening set at the indoor ATP 500 event. Thiem delighted the vocal home crowd with some clean hitting off both wings from the baseline, while Medvedev countered with some trademark defiant defence. After clinching the first break of the match for 4-3, however, the top seed’s combination of consistent, powerful hitting came to the fore as he accelerated away to a 98-minute victory.

“It was a tough match,” said Medvedev after his win. “[Around] one hour, 40 [minutes], and you know when it’s one hour, 40 minutes, even if you win 6-3, 6-3, that it was a tough match. It could have gone either way. At one moment in the match I started to put a lot of pressure on his serve. I was serving good myself, so didn’t [give] him to many opportunities on my serve, and that was the key today I think.”

Medvedev acknowledged the seventh game of the match had been crucial as he moved level with Thiem at 3-3 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series.

“That was the first game in the match where I actually won the first point on his serve,” said the top seed. “Otherwise, it was 40/0 for him all the time, so a little bit tougher to break. This game I managed to put pressure on him. He had two or three game points where I managed to bring it back to deuce which is really important. When I won this game, I got a little bit of momentum during the match.“

Can Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek’s impressive late-season form carry them all the way to the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin?

The Croatian-American pair showed no sign of slowing down in its pursuit of a spot at the season finale on Thursday, when it registered a 6-4, 6-3 quarter-final victory against top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

It was a sixth consecutive tour-level win for Dodig and Krajicek, who lifted their second ATP Tour title of the season on Sunday in Naples. They remain in ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, but Thursday’s 73-minute triumph moved Dodig and Krajicek within 180 points of eighth-placed Tim Puetz and Michael Venus.

With a seventh-place finish required to guarantee qualification for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals, Dodig and Krajicek will seek to boost their chances further when they meet Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov in the semi-finals in Basel. The Kazakh duo advanced to the last four with a 7-5, 6-3 win against Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez.

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Francesco Passaro will look to thrill his home fans in Milan next month after qualifying for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals.

The Italian is the seventh player to earn his spot in the eight-player field at the 21-and-under season finale, which will be played at the Allianz Cloud from 8-12 November. Only one place remains at the event, which will also feature Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Brandon Nakashima, Jiri Lehecka and Chun-Hsin Tseng.

This will be the first time two Italians — Musetti and Passaro — compete in the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in the same edition. Italian Jannik Sinner won the tournament in 2019.

Passaro began the season outside the Top 600 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, but has soared as high as World No. 122. He reached the final at ATP Challenger Tour events in Sanremo and Forli as a qualifier, then advanced to another championship match at that level in Milan before claiming his first Challenger trophy in Trieste.

The 21-year-old earned his first tour-level match win earlier this month in Florence, where he defeated Zhang Zhizhen. Passaro then qualified for another ATP Tour event the following week in Naples.

Nestled amongst high-rise buildings and a short walk from the Pacific coast lies the host venue of the Lima-2 Challenger: Club Terrazas de Miraflores.

You could go to the beach, try surfing, visit some of Lima’s famous parks such as ‘Paruqe del Amor’, taste the Peruvian cuisine, and enjoy the ATP Challenger Tour tournament all without needing public transportation.

While that may seem like a dream getaway for many, tournament director Luis Horna, former World No. 33, strives to bring a home feeling to the competitors at the Lima-2 Challenger.

“It doesn’t matter where the players come from, we always meet them with our arms wide open and try to give them a good treatment,” Horna said. “That’s a key for us. As I used to be a player, I know the way I used to feel at a tournament.

Carlos Alcaraz raced through the finish line on Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel by winning the final six games of a competitive match against Botic van de Zandschulp.

The 6-4, 6-2 scoreline belies the hard-fought nature of Alcaraz's victory. After a tight opening set that was decided by a single break, Alcaraz found himself behind 0-2 in the second as the Dutchman made his first breakthrough.

Five games in the second set went through deuce, but Alcaraz won four of them before serving out the match to love in just under 90 minutes. His late surge prevented another three-set match after his comeback win against #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper on Monday.

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The Spaniard is now 3-2 since his US Open triumph last month, which earned him his debut atop the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Alcaraz currently holds a 740-point lead over Rafael Nadal in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. Through to his 11th quarter-final of the season, Alcaraz is seeking to add to his ATP Tour-leading five titles in 2022. His seven finals are joint-most, alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas.