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Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop made a strong start to their Erste Bank Open campaign on Wednesday, defeating Argentine duo Pedro Cachin and Diego Schwartzman 6-1, 6-3. In the process, the Indian-Dutch pair kept alive its outside chance of reaching November’s Nitto ATP Finals.

Bopanna and Middelkoop are currently 15th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, and likely require deep runs this week in Vienna and next week at the Rolex Paris Masters to have a chance of qualifying for November’s season finale in Turin. Their second-round opponents in the Austrian capital will be Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni, who downed second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski 7-6(6), 7-5.

Daniel Evans and John Peers also charged into the second round in Austria by upsetting top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury at the ATP 500 event. Montreal finalists Evans and Peers converted four of seven break points en route to a dominant 59-minute win against Ram and Salisbury, the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, respectively.

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Dodig/Krajicek Make Confident Start In Basel
At the Swiss Indoors Basel, Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek extended their winning streak to five with a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Matthew Ebden and Jamie Murray.

Felix Auger-Aliassime hit a new milestone Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where he defeated Marc-Andrea Huesler for his personal-best ninth consecutive tour-level win. Yet the Canadian was pushed all the way for his 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 victory.

Huesler strung together a series of high-class points to charge to the first-set tie-break in his maiden tour-level meeting with Auger-Aliassime. As the vocal home crowd cheered on the Swiss and his big-serving lefty game, the third seed had to remain dialled in to clinch the sole breaks of the second and third sets and earn a two-hour, 18-minute first-round triumph.

“I think matches like this are tougher mentally, in a way,” said Auger-Aliassime in his on-court interview. “Playing indoors, quick points, both of us serving really well. You need to stay locked in and focused for two hours… If you are able to seize one opportunity, you take a break.

“I was able to serve it out well at the end. It was tough to keep my focus, he was serving great, and being really aggressive. Not an easy match, but really happy to get through.”

FAA makes it through in Basel! ?

The number 3 seed defeats Marc-Andrea Huesler 6-7 6-4 6-4.#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/CT2IGqVHw6

The potential matchup many had circled in the Erste Bank Open draw is now a reality. With his opening win on Wednesday, Daniil Medvedev set up a Thursday showdown with home favourite Dominic Thiem in Vienna.

The top-seeded Medvedev eased into the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Nikoloz Basilashvili, breaking early and late in both sets. The 26-year-old improved to 30-10 on hard courts this season as he seeks his second title of 2022 (Los Cabos).

Making his second appearance in the Austrian capital, Medvedev will seek to match his 2020 quarter-final run with a victory against Thiem. The Austrian saved two match points against Tommy Paul on Tuesday to advance to the second round on home soil.

Thiem holds a 3-2 edge in his ATP Head2Head against Medvedev, though Medvedev won their most recent meeting by coming from a set down in the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals title match. Before that, Thiem won their 2020 US Open semi-final in straight sets on the way to his first Grand Slam title.

Stefanos Tsitsipas settled in at the Erste Bank Open as he improved throughout his opening win on Wednesday at the ATP 500 in Vienna.

In a 7-6(2), 6-2 victory against home favourite Dennis Novak, the second-seeded Greek instantly recovered a mid-set break in the opening set. After two straight love holds, Tsitsipas was broken to love as he fell behind 3-4. He then let slip a 0/40 opening in the ensuing game before converting on his fourth break chance and never looked back, dominating the second set to advance to the second round for the third straight year in the Austrian capital.

The victory sets up a rematch of the Cincinnati final, which he lost in Borna Coric. The Croatian earned a three-set win against France's Quentin Halys on Monday.

Tsitsipas leads the ATP Tour with 57 match wins this season and is also co-leader (with Carlos Alcaraz) with seven finals, including runs to the title match each of the past two weeks in Astana and Stockholm.

Sitting third in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, the 24-year-old has already secured his fourth straight trip to the Nitto ATP Finals, an event he won in his 2019 debut.

Holger Rune’s late-season surge showed no sign of abating Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where the 19-year-old fired his way to a 6-2, 7-5 first-round win against Alex de Minaur.

After lifting his second ATP Tour title on Sunday in Stockholm, Rune picked up where he left off in Basel, hitting 26 winners to seventh-seeded De Minaur’s nine in an 89-minute triumph. It was the Dane’s second victory against De Minaur in the space of five days after he overcame the Australian in three sets in the Stockholm semi-finals on Saturday.

Having also reached the final in Sofia at the beginning of the month, Rune now holds an 11-2 record on European indoor hard courts this Autumn. The World No. 25, who will hope to maintain his form when he competes at November's Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, is chasing his third tour-level title of the season (Munich, Stockholm) but his first at ATP 500 level.

Rune’s next opponent in Basel will be Ugo Humbert, after the French qualifier downed Jenson Brooksby 6-1, 6-4.

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Chun-Hsin Tseng is the sixth player to qualify for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, which will be played at the Allianz Cloud in Milan from 8-12 November. He joins Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Brandon Nakashima and Jiri Lehecka in the eight-player field.

The 21-year-old from Chinese Taipei has enjoyed a breakthrough season, cracking the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in June and climbing as high as World No. 83.

The former junior World No. 1 won two ATP Challenger Tour titles and reached the final at another by mid-April. He also earned his first three ATP Tour match victories in Los Cabos, Winston-Salem and Seoul.

The Milan qualifier gained experience by playing in the main draw at all four Grand Slams for the first time. At Roland Garros, he clawed through qualifying to earn his place in the field.

Tseng will be the first Asian player to compete in the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals since South Korean Hyeon Chung lifted the trophy in 2017. Two places remain at the 21-and-under season finale.

When Camilo Ugo Carabelli and Jesper de Jong arrived at the Lima-2 Challenger this week, they traded in their tennis racquets for kitchen utensils.

Dutchman de Jong and Argentine Ugo Carabelli embraced the culture of Peru’s capital city as they took part in a local cooking class, a few blocks from the host venue (Club Terrazas de Miraflores) of the Lima-2 Challenger. Both Challenger Tour stars were up for the task.

“I really like to cook,” Ugo Carabelli said. “This past month I cooked my favourite dish, Argentinian barbecue.”

Although it wasn’t his home-cooked asado, the 23-year-old, who holds two Challenger titles this season, jumped right in as he teamed with de Jong to make causa limeña and lomo saltado.

Camilo Ugo Carabelli prepares the lomo saltado at a cooking class in Lima. Credit: Adam Roberts

Dominic Thiem found himself on the brink Thursday at the Erste Bank Open, but he showcased his fighting qualities to survive on home soil in Vienna.

The former World No. 3 saved two match points en route to a hard-fought 2-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(6) win against American Tommy Paul at the ATP 500 event.

In front of a packed home crowd, Thiem recovered from a slow start as he grew into the match. He fired his fierce groundstrokes through the court and held his nerve under pressure, saving two match points at 4/6 and 5/6 in the third-set tie-break to eventually triumph after two hours and 58 minutes.

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Thiem is making his 11th appearance in Vienna, with his best result a run to the title in 2019. The 29-year-old will look to continue his journey at this week’s event when he plays top seed Daniil Medvedev or Nikoloz Basilashvili in the second round.

Competing at the Swiss Indoors Basel for the 15th time, Stan Wawrinka thrilled his home fans by recording his biggest win since defeating Novak Djokovic at the 2019 US Open.

The 37-year-old from Lausanne used a crisp and efficient performance to upset second seed Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 in the pair's first ATP Head2Head meeting. Wawrinka converted on each of his two break points — one late in each set — and saved all three against him to close out the victory in one hour and 18 minutes.

"It's super special. A lot of emotion being back here in Basel with the Swiss fans," he said post-match. "It's always been amazing for me to play here [but] it's always been difficult because I am always nervous when I enter this court. I always want to show my best. It took me a little bit of time to adapt to the court but the level was great and I'm really happy with that.

"This is one of the main reasons why I keep on playing," added Wawrinka, who entered the event with a protected ranking. "I'm getting old, that's for sure. I had to fight the last two years with the injury, surgery. Coming back was not easy. I was struggling really to get back in shape physically and tennis-wise. So to be able to produce that tonight here in Switzerland is of course something really special and hopefully I can keep playing well."

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When Andreas Seppi was seven years old, his hobbies included playing football and skiing. Tennis was not on his radar because his family had never played the sport.

But one day, Seppi’s childhood best friend tried tennis, so ‘Andy’ wanted to give it a shot. More than three decades later, the 38-year-old Italian on Tuesday concluded a decorated career during which he finished inside the year-end Top 100 for 15 consecutive years (2005-19), won 386 tour-level matches and three ATP Tour titles.

“I would have signed immediately if somebody would have told me, ‘You could play until the age of 38’,” Seppi told ATPTour.com. “I feel really blessed that I could do this for such a long time.”

When current World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz was born, Seppi had owned a Pepperstone ATP Ranking for two and a half years. The veteran has been a fixture at the top of the men’s game ever since, consistently competing against the world’s best players.

Seppi defeated a who’s who of stars including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Daniil Medvedev and Lleyton Hewitt, helping him climb to a career-high World No. 18. But perhaps most impressive about Seppi's journey is not the level he reached, but his longevity.

Another day, another epic Andy Murray match on the ATP Tour.

With his back against the wall, the former World No. 1 rallied past Roman Safiullin 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

In a hard-fought clash, Murray showcased an abundance of grit as he rallied from 1-4 in the third set to eventually triumph after two hours and 37 minutes at the ATP 500 event.

“He was serving huge and any opportunity he was hitting the ball huge from the back of the court,” Murray said. “As the match went on, I started to dictate a few more points and served better. I changed the way I was returning a little bit and when I did that I was able to create a few more opportunities and frustrate him a little bit.”

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Tennis is largely an individual sport. But Argentine players on the ATP Challenger Tour have been playing with a sense of team spirit in the second half of the season, chasing history for their proud sporting nation.

The South American country, which boasts great sportsmen such as Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona, Manu Ginóbili, Juan Martin del Potro, and Guillermo Vilas, has a crop of Challenger Tour players who have proven to be unstoppable.

“We have a nice group of players at the moment,” Facundo Bagnis told ATPTour.com. “We have young players, those that entered the Top 100 for the first time this year, those that qualified for Grand Slams for the first time, and even the older guys like me [laughs].”

Players from Argentina have combined to make Challenger Tour history this year, collecting 21 Challenger titles, marking the most titles by a single country in a season.

Juan Manuel Cerundolo (left) and Camilo Ugo Carabelli at the 2022 Buenos Aires-2 Challenger in October. Credit: Manuel Cortina

Grigor Dimitrov snapped a three-match losing streak on Tuesday when he cruised past Brazilian qualifier Thiago Monteiro 6-3, 6-4 at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

The Bulgarian arrived at the ATP 500 event off the back of disappointing opening-round exits on home soil in Sofia and in Stockholm. However, he produced a strong serving performance against Monteiro to earn his 22nd tour-level win of the season.

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Dimitrov fired 10 aces, won 86 per cent (30/35) of his first-serve points and did not face a break point to reach the second round after 75 minutes. The 31-year-old, who is making his fifth appearance in Vienna, will next play third seed Andrey Rublev.

In other action, Daniel Evans rallied from 2-5 in the second set to overcome German Oscar Otte 6-4, 7-6(3). The Briton has fond memories in Vienna, having advanced to the semi-finals on debut in 2020. The 32-year-old will next meet Karen Khachanov.

Argentine Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Italian Mattia Bellucci continued their sizzling runs on the ATP Challenger Tour this week as they each claimed their second Challenger title this month. Cerundolo collected the title at the Coquimbo Challenger while Bellucci triumphed in Vilnius, Lithuania. The #NextGenATP stars Bellucci and Cerundolo are among five Challenger champions this week.

Cerundolo defeated countryman Facundo Diaz Acosta 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the championship match to win the Challenger Dove Men+Care Coquimbo 2.

Following his breakthrough season in 2021, when Cerundolo collected a trio of Challenger titles and won the ATP 250 event in Cordoba, the lefty has battled a psoas muscle injury [located in the lower lumbar region of the spine] that forced him to take time off this summer.

 

Since returning to competition, the Buenos Aires native has made a sudden impact on the Challenger Tour, winning 12 of his past 13 matches, including triumphing in his home city, Buenos Aires, earlier this month. The 20-year-old boasts a 21-8 Challenger-match record this season and the title in Coquimbo lifts him to 136 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Carlos Alcaraz fought off a strong challenge from #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper to earn his first tournament win since his US Open title on Monday at the Swiss Indoors Basel. After dropping the opening set and surrendering a break advantage in the third, Alcaraz got back on track with a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory in his debut at the ATP 500.

The World No. 1 was beaten by David Goffin three weeks ago in the Astana opening round and was made to work to avoid another early exit against the 20-year-old in the pair's first ATP Head2Head meeting.

"In the beginning of the match it was tough," he said. "I did a lot of mistakes in the beginning. I wanted to play really aggressive on this court. For me, it's a bit slower than the other tournaments. But obviously I had to handle that, I had to work on my problems and change my tactics a little bit in the second set.

"I knew that Jack is playing great. He is a really dangerous player and I really had to be focused and, of course, never give up."

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Taylor Fritz boosted his Nitto ATP Finals qualification chances on Monday when he earned a comeback victory against Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

The American was two points from defeat in the second-set tie-break and trailed Nishioka 1-3 in the third set before he won the final five games of the match to advance 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 6-3.

With his two-hour, 45-minute win, eighth-placed Fritz has climbed to 2,910 points in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. The 24-year-old trails seventh-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime by 315 points, with the Canadian in action in Basel this week.

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Fritz is aiming to make his debut at the prestigious end-of-year event, to be held at the Pala Alpitour in Turin from 13-20 November. Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic have all already qualified.

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[EMIRATES CONTEST]

In a week when Felix Auger-Aliassime strengthened his chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals, Matteo Berrettini kept his Turin hopes alive by reaching the final in Naples.

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

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin Rankings

13th, Matteo Berrettini, +2
The Italian has jumped two spots to 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin after he reached the final at the Tennis Napoli Cup. Berrettini dropped just one set en route to the championship match before falling to #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti. The 26-year-old is currently on 2,375 points, 850 points behind seventh-placed Felix-Auger-Aliassime with two weeks of The Race to go. Berrettini will need to have deep runs in Vienna and Paris if he is to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the third time.

Seventh, Felix Auger-Aliassime
The Canadian (3,225 points) pulled further clear of eighth-placed American Taylor Fritz (2,885) when he won his third tour-level title of the season at the European Open in Antwerp. The 22-year-old, currently seventh, could climb as high as fifth this week when he competes at the Swiss Indoors Basel, depending on Daniil Medvedev (3,555) and Andrey Rublev’s (3,440) results at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. If Auger-Aliassime triumphs in Switzerland, he will finish the week with 3,635 points in the Live Race.

A host of #NextGenATP stars will this week battle for the final spots at the eight-player Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals as the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan concludes Sunday.

Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Brandon Nakashima and Jiri Lehecka have already qualified for the 21-and-under event. Who will join them at the Allianz Cloud in Milan? Chun-Hsin Tseng, Francesco Passaro and Dominic Stricker lead the hunt to claim the remaining places.

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan

Tseng of Chinese Taipei has 490 points, but is not in action this week. The 21-year-old has enjoyed a breakthrough season, clinching two ATP Challenger Tour titles and earning his first ATP Tour win in Los Cabos.

Italian Passaro will be looking to make his debut in Milan, where he could join his countryman Musetti. The 21-year-old has 473 points, 51 points clear of 10th-placed Dominic Stricker (422 points). The Swiss lefty is competing on home soil at the ATP 500 event in Basel, where he will face American Maxime Cressy in the first round.

The ball is in Felix Auger-Aliassime's court in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

With back to back titles, the 22-year-old has positioned himself well to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. The job is far from done, however, and a pivotal week featuring ATP 500 events in Basel and Vienna could see the Canadian surge into a comfortable place or fall outside the cut.

Auger-Aliassime, who is seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, currently holds the final qualifying spot for the season finale, to be played from 13-20 November. Tenth-placed Novak Djokovic, this year’s Wimbledon winner, has already qualified under the Grand Slam champion provision.

Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin (as of 23 October)

Player	Current Pts	Max Pts (on 31 Oct)
5) Daniil Medvedev	3,555	4,055
6) Andrey Rublev	3,440	3,850
7) Felix Auger-Aliassime	3,225	3,635
8) Taylor Fritz	2,885	3,365
9) Hubert Hurkacz	2,770	3,270
10) Novak Djokovic*	2,720	Not playing
11) Alexander Zverev	2,700	Not playing
12) Cameron Norrie	2,400	2,855
13) Matteo Berrettini	2,375	2,875

*Djokovic has qualified under the Grand Slam champion provision
The winner of back-to-back titles in Florence and Antwerp, Auger-Aliassime now has a 340-point advantage over eighth-placed Taylor Fritz (2,885). He is just 215 points behind sixth-placed Andrey Rublev (3,440) and 330 points behind fifth-placed Daniil Medvedev (3,555).

Auger-Aliassime could climb as high as fifth this week when he competes at the Swiss Indoors Basel, depending on Medvedev and Rublev’s results in Vienna. If the Canadian triumphs in Switzerland, he will finish the week with 3,635 points in the Live Race.