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“I don’t expect myself to do well on any tennis trivia when we are taking it back before I played!” Taylor Fritz joked in the latest edition of ATP Uncovered’s Test The Tour series. The American was one of five ATP Tour stars to be quizzed on their Nitto ATP Finals knowledge.

Former champions Andy Murray, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev were also among the panel.

“I know nothing about it!” Medvedev joked. But would the World No. 3 surprise himself as he was asked who the youngest champion in event history is, which country has the most Nitto ATP Finals titlists and more?

“I remember it! I’m kidding, I wasn’t even born then,” Tsitsipas said, while cracking a smile.

Watch the full video below to find out which of Fritz, Medvedev, Murray, Casper Ruud and Tsitsipas answered the most questions correctly.

Since reaching the US Open quarter-finals, Taylor Fritz went 2-2 on the Asian swing before heading to Europe for the Swiss Indoors Basel. On Wednesday, the American survived a stern opening test from Max Purcell to continue his chase for a spot in the Nitto ATP Finals.

Sitting ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, Fritz's bid to leapfrog Holger Rune for the crucial eighth position received a timely boost with his gritty 7-6(6), 7-6(4) win at the ATP 500.

"As far as where I'm at in the Race, I think I'm in a good spot," Fritz said post-match. "I have a pretty decent chance if I can come up with a big result one of these next two weeks [in Basel or Paris]."

[ATP APP]

The American trailed Purcell 1/5 in the opening tie-break and saved two set points before he snatched the set with a three-point surge. He twice surrendered a break lead in set two, including an unsuccessful attempt to serve out the match at 5-4, but recovered to close out the second tie-break on his third set point.

Not everything has gone the way Cameron Norrie might like in terms of results during the 2023 ATP Tour season. Yet all players, even the very best in the world, go through tough stretches, and the Briton is not one to let a few lean months stop him believing in his own ability.

“I started the year winning [lots of] close matches, and that’s kind of how tennis goes,” Norrie, who is 36-23 for the year, told ATP Tennis Radio on Saturday at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. “You win or lose close ones all at once, and I think it just becomes automatic. I’ve had a couple of tough losses recently, but I think that’s tennis and that’s just how you can learn from it and respond from it.”

Even if things don’t always go to plan on the court, the lifestyle and friendships Norrie enjoys on the tennis merry-go-round are more than enough to keep him positive day-to-day. The World No. 18 believes that those constants are the foundation for him to rediscover his best form.

“Luckily I have a really good team around me to push,” said Norrie, who arrived in Vienna having gone 1-6 since the US Open. “For me, I’m really still really enjoying the Tour, enjoying the travel, and going to new places still. It’s definitely been an interesting year, but I need to stay patient.”

Norrie applies his calm approach to practice as much as he does matches. The five-time ATP Tour champion believes it helps him stay positive even when he is struggling to close out wins.

Can one win change the course of a season?

Holger Rune will be hoping that is the case after he earned just his second victory in nine matches on Tuesday to reach the second round at the Swiss Indoors Basel, boosting his Nitto ATP Finals qualification chances.

The Dane battled hard to claw past Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 at the ATP 500 event in Switzerland, where he rallied from a set and a break down to triumph after two hours and two minutes. Rune trailed 3-4 in the second set but broke back before sealing the set on his third set point. He did not face a break point in the third set, striking 12 winners in the decider.

With his victory, he set a second-round meeting against Sebastian Baez, while he also increased his Nitto ATP Finals qualification chances. The 20-year-old is eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, 90 points ahead of ninth-placed Taylor Fritz. Aiming to make his debut at the prestigious year-end event, Rune is currently occupying the final qualification position.

"I am happy I kept fighting and turned the match around," Rune said. "I tried to raise my level. I always enjoy playing here."

Stefanos Tsitsipas spoiled the party for the local fans Tuesday at the Erste Bank Open by delivering a rock-solid opening-round display to down home favourite Dominic Thiem.

The fourth-seeded Greek prevailed 7-6(5), 6-4 after saving all three break points he faced at the ATP 500 in Vienna. Tsitsipas clinched a first set of narrow margins by rallying from 2/4 in the tie-break before a decisive break in the third game of the second set proved enough for him to book a second-round clash with Tomas Machac.

With his one-hour, 59-minute win, Tsitsipas strengthened his bid to secure a spot at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals. The 25-year-old is currently sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, having amassed a 46-20 record in 2023.

More to follow…

Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek bounced back from a disappointing first-round exit in Shanghai on Tuesday when they beat Felix Auger-Aliassime and Sebastian Korda 6-2, 6-4 at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The top seeds are chasing their sixth tour-level title as a team this week and will next play Tallon Griekspoor and Robin Haase or Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski. Dodig and Krajicek will compete at the Nitto ATP Finals in November after qualifying earlier this month.

Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni are currently fifth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings and are looking to join Dodig and Krajicek in Turin. They suffered a first-round loss in Basel, falling to Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz. The Germans advanced 6-2, 5-7, 10-5 in one hour and 38 minutes.

[ATP APP]

Ofner/Oswald Save 2 MPs, Advance In Vienna
Austrians Sebastian Ofner and Philipp Oswald defeated defending champions Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler 7-6(4), 4-6, 11-9 in the first round at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Ofner and Oswald saved two match points, eventually advancing after one hour and 47 minutes.

One year ago, Ben Shelton was No. 158 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and competing in a stretch of ATP Challenger Tour events. At the time, the American had earned just three tour-level wins and was embarking on his life as a professional tennis player.

Little did the lefty know that one year later, he would be No. 15 in the world and competing with the biggest stars on the ATP Tour every week.

“I think that’s the craziest thing to think about, how far I’ve come,” Shelton told ATPTour.com. “But it’s interesting that a lot of guys who where in a similar position to me last year, like Chris Eubanks or Aleks Vukic, have kind of had the same trajectory.

“They’re Top 50 now, so to be playing Challengers with all those guys last year and now we are at the point where we are playing a full ATP schedule, it’s something really cool that we share.” 

Shelton is 26-22 this season and has consistently risen to the occasion on the biggest stages. He reached the semi-finals of the US Open, the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and last week at the ATP 500 in Tokyo claimed his first tour-level title.

After a standout collegiate career, Cypriot Menelaos Efstathiou will now try his hand at the pro level.

The 24-year-old is set to compete in his first ATP Challenger Tour event this week at the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena in Ortisei, Italy. Efstathiou graduated this year from Wake Forest University, where he became just the second player from his school to earn Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year honours, joining Noah Rubin.

After finishing seventh in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rankings, Efstathiou will receive up to eight spots at select ATP Challenger Tour events in the next year, including in Ortisei, thanks to the ATP/ITA Accelerator Programme. The goal of the programme is to become a launching pad for the top players within the American collegiate system and accelerate their journey to the pro level.

The college route is one that Efstathiou will forever cherish.

“College tennis is amazing. I improved my game overall, but I would say more, I became more mature over the last five years,” Efstathiou told ATPTour.com earlier this year. “The level is very high so you always compete with good players, it definitely helped me improve my maturity and raise my level.”

Hubert Hurkacz recorded his 40th tour-level win of the season on Tuesday when he moved past Serbian Dusan Lajovic 7-6(2), 6-3 to reach the second round on his debut at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The 26-year-old fired 18 aces, won 80 per cent (41/51) of his first-serve points and broke Lajovic’s serve three times to become the first Polish man to earn 40 tour-level wins in consecutive years since Wojtek Fibak in 1981-82.

[ATP APP]

With his victory, Hurkacz has boosted his Nitto ATP Finals qualification hopes. The Pole is currently 11th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, 300 points behind Holger Rune, who occupies the final qualification spot in eighth.

Earlier this month Hurkacz moved himself into qualification contention for the prestigious year-end event when he won his second ATP Masters 1000 crown in Shanghai, gaining 1,000 points.

Nobody has won more ATP Challenger Tour titles this season than Mariano Navone. The Argentine claimed his fifth title of the year at that level this past weekend when he captured the AAT Challenger Santa Fe 2 on home soil.

The 22-year-old, who is one of four Challenger champions this past week, defeated Italian Andrea Pellegrino 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the final. Now at a career-high No. 127 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Navone has won 15 of his past 16 matches on the ATP Challenger Tour, including two consecutive titles after winning in Buenos Aires the week prior to Santa Fe.

“In May of last year I was losing in the first round of an M15 and today I have won five Challengers,” Navone said in Spanish. “To that kid I would tell him to be calm, that good things are going to come. At that moment it was difficult, but now we have to continue, finish the [season] as high as possible.”

Navone is the sixth player with at least five Challenger titles in a season this past decade, joining Facundo Bagnis, Filip Krajinovic, Tallon Griekspoor, Sebastian Baez and Benjamin Bonzi. Navone is the fifth Argentine in ATP Challenger Tour history (since 1978) to collect five Challenger titles in a season.

In other action, Frenchman Kyrian Jacquet claimed his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title at the Olbia Challenger in Italy. The 22-year-old won seven matches in eight days as he advanced through qualifying en route to being crowned champion. Jacquet downed #NextGenATP star Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

Andrey Rublev rode out a topsy-turvy start to secure a first-round win Tuesday at the Erste Bank Open.

The third seed defeated Alexei Popyrin 7-6(5), 6-4 in Vienna to improve to 10-4 at the ATP 500 event. Rublev led 2-0 and 4-2 in the opening set but he still had to rally from a break down at 4-5 to force a tie-break, which Popyrin at one point led 5/2. The World No. 5 reeled off five straight points to claim the first set, however, before holding firm in the second for a 97-minute triumph.

“I don’t know [how I won the first set],” said Rublev. “I was super lucky, it was my mistake. I was 4-2 up, I had an easy ball and I played it where he was and he passed me. From that moment the match started to change and he was 5-4 up with a break. Somehow I was able to stay there and I was able to turn it around."

Rublev finished the match having converted four of seven break points he earned. The 26-year-old is a five-time ATP 500 titlist, a tally which includes a title run in Vienna in 2020.

Rublev up and running ?

2020 champion @AndreyRublev97 gets the better of Popyrin 7-6(5), 6-4@ErsteBankOpen | #erstebankopen pic.twitter.com/O3va2KuTNM

The final ATP Masters 1000 event takes place at the Rolex Paris Masters, where six-time record champion Novak Djokovic and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz compete. 

Here's what you need to know ahead of the indoor hard-court event in France: 

When is the Rolex Paris Masters?

The 2023 Rolex Paris Masters will be held from 30 October-5 November. The indoor-hard ATP Masters 1000 tournament, established in 1986, will take place at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France. The tournament director is Guy Forget.

Who is playing at the Rolex Paris Masters?

The Rolex Paris Masters will feature record champion Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner and defending champion Holger Rune.

When is the draw for the Rolex Paris Masters?

The Rolex Paris Masters draw will be made on Saturday, 30 October at 12:00 p.m.

What is the schedule for the Rolex Paris Masters?

* Qualifying: Saturday, 28 October - Sunday, 29 October at 10:00 a.m Saturday and 11:00 a.m. Sunday
* Main Draw: Monday, 30 October - Sunday, 5 November. Monday – Thursday at 11:00 and 7:30 p.m. Friday at 1:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
* Doubles Final: Sunday, 5 November at 12:30 p.m.
* Singles Final: Sunday, 5 November at 3:00 p.m.
*View On Official Website

What is the prize money for the Rolex Paris Masters?

The prize money for the Rolex Paris Masters is €5,779,335 and the Total Financial Commitment is €6,748,815.

SINGLES
Winner: €836,355/ 1000 points
Finalist: €456,720/ 600 points
Semi-finalist: €249,740/ 360 points
Quarter-finalist: €136,255/ 180 points
Round of 16: €72,865/ 90 points
Round of 32: €39,070/ 45 points
Round of 64: €21,650/ 10 points

DOUBLES ($ per team)
Winner: €282,960/ 1000 points
Finalist: €147,840/ 600 points
Semi-finalist: €78,140/ 360 points
Quarter-finalist: €43,300/ 180 points
Round of 16: €23,760/ 90 points
Round of 32: €13,200/ 0 points

How can I watch the Rolex Paris Masters?

Watch Live On Tennis TV
TV Schedule

How can I follow the Rolex Paris Masters?

Hashtag: #RolexParisMasters
Facebook: @rolexparismasters
Twitter: @RolexPMasters
Instagram: @rolexparismasters

[NEWSLETTER FORM]

Who won the last edition of the Rolex Paris Masters in 2022?

Holger Rune triumphed in the Rolex Paris Masters singles final with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 win against Novak Djokovic in the championship match. Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski lifted the doubles trophy in Paris with a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory against Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the final.

Who holds the Paris record for most titles, oldest champion, youngest champion and more?

Most Titles, Singles: Novak Djokovic (6)
Most Titles, Doubles: Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan (4)
Oldest Champion: Novak Djokovic, 34, in 2021
Youngest Champion: Boris Becker, 18, in 1986
Highest-Ranked Champion: No. 1 Stefan Edberg in 1990, Pete Sampras in 1997, Andre Agassi in 1999, Novak Djokovic in 2014-15, 2019, 2021.
Lowest-Ranked Champion: No. 50 Tomas Berdych in 2005
Last Home Champion: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2008
Most Match Wins: Novak Djokovic (45)

View Who Is Playing, Past Champions, Seeds, Points & Prize Money Breakdown

Spanish tennis today seems to be a bottomless source of emerging talent on the ATP Tour. Among the young guns bidding to find a space in the circuit’s elite is 21-year-old Pablo Llamas Ruiz, who has his sights set on a place in the Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held from 28 November - 2 December in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Spaniard Llamas Ruiz is hoping to follow in the footsteps of countrymen Jaume Munar (2018), Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (2019), and Carlos Alcaraz (2021), who have previously played in the tournament that pits the best eight under-21 players in the world against one another.

Like almost every boy born in Spain early in the 21st century, he grew up watching Rafael Nadal.

“When I started playing, everything was Nadal. I remember everyone had his racket, everyone was talking about him”, he says of the 22-time Grand Slam champion.

The No. 135 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings hails from a land in which success has become the norm. Spanish tennis boasts a huge haul of titles in recent times, not only thanks to Nadal, but also figures like David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez, Fernando Verdasco, Pablo Carreno Busta, Roberto Bautista Agut and, more recently, Alcaraz.

Any time Dominic Thiem steps on court at the Erste Bank Open, the home crowd raises the volume inside the Wiener Stadthalle. That raucous atmosphere may hit new highs on Tuesday in Vienna, however, when the Austrian favourite takes on Stefanos Tsitsipas in a blockbuster first-round clash at the ATP 500.

“There are some sports where you play home games every second week and everybody's telling you about the advantages, about how much better you play at home,” Thiem told ATPTour.com on Sunday in Vienna. “And it is like that, but as a tennis player, as an Austrian especially, you only have it two or three times a year. I always love it. The crowd gives me unbelievable energy.”

A clash between two former World No. 3s would be a much-anticipated opening round no matter when or where it takes place. The two Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings between Thiem and Tsitsipas that have taken place this year add an extra dimension to their Vienna clash.

The 17-time tour-level champion Thiem, working hard to rediscover his mojo against the world’s best after a serious wrist injury he suffered in mid-2021, pushed Tsitsipas to deciding-set tie-breaks in Madrid and at Wimbledon this year. On each occasion it was the Greek who ultimately prevailed, and Thiem knows the margins could well be fine once again on Tuesday evening in Vienna.

“I guess the only thing which I'm thinking about is that when we're both playing well, the possibilities are high that we have another very close and tight match,” said Thiem, who is 5-5 overall in his rivalry with Tsitsipas. “I hope so because that would mean that we're playing well or that I'm playing well. It would mean a great match for the crowd as well.

It is no secret that Thanasi Kokkinakis loves basketball, including the NBA. The Australian, who this week is playing an ATP Challenger Tour event in Playford, Australia, has long been a huge fan of all-time great point guard Chris Paul.

For years, one of Paul’s greatest rivals was the Golden State Warriors. Now, the 38-year-old is on the Warriors and Kokkinakis will be cheering him on as the season gets underway this week.

“I'm excited to see how it's going to work out. It was a big trade. It's going to be interesting,” Kokkinakis told ATPTour.com earlier this year in Washington. “They've been rivals for so long, so it's going to be interesting to see with the Warriors.”

One of Kokkinakis’ early pinch-me moments came when as a teen he met the basketball icon around the 2013 US Open. Paul still follows the Aussie on Instagram today.

“We had the same agency and I saw him train when I was like 15 or 16 in New York for the US Open juniors,” Kokkinakis said. “So I met him and watched him work out in a private facility. So that was pretty cool.”

Ben Shelton’s standout season on the ATP Tour went up a gear on Sunday when he clinched his first tour-level title at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships.

After becoming the sixth first-time winner of the season, the 21-year-old Shelton caught up with ATPTour.com to discuss his triumph at the ATP 500 event in Tokyo.

What does it mean to you to win your first ATP Tour title?
It means a lot. It is not something I thought I would accomplish when I started playing tennis. To be able to be in a position to compete for a title and hold my nerve and win one is really special for me and my team and something I will remember for the rest of my life.

How did you handle the occasion today, playing in your first final?
It was interesting. I expected to be a lot more nervous going into the match, but I felt pretty calm and at peace and clear minded when on court. I am not sure what came over me and gave me the calmness and confidence that I had out there, but it felt like another day at the office.

How much confidence and self-belief did your semi-final run at the US Open last month give you?
I think the semi-final run at the US Open gave me a huge amount of confidence that I could compete against the best in our sport and that I could continue to make deep runs in tournaments, doing it in three out of five sets. I showed myself that I was fit and in shape to go the distance, so it is something that has helped me a lot in the tournaments I have played after the US Open and hopefully I can carry on that momentum in the next year.

The last nations standing in the 2023 Davis Cup have announced their teams for the Final 8 knock-out stage in Malaga, Spain next month, with some of the game’s biggest stars set to do battle for the right to be named 2023 world champions.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will lead a Serbia team bidding to win a second Davis Cup title, while Jannik Sinner (Italy), Alex de Minaur (Australia) and Cameron Norrie (Great Britain) will also feature in the event at the Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena.

Defending world champions Canada have restored world No. 19 Felix Auger-Aliassime to their team alongside Gabriel Diallo, Alexis Galarneau and Vasek Pospisil, who starred as the Canadians finished top of Group A in Bologna in September. Former Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic has also been named in the Canadian squad and could make his first Davis Cup appearance since 2018, having battled various injuries in recent seasons.

The Canadians will contest the opening tie of the week on Tuesday 21 November against first-time Davis Cup quarter-finalists Finland, who have named the same squad which finished runner-up to Netherlands in Group D in Split last month. World No. 67 Emil Ruusuvuori, who has won five of his six Davis Cup matches this season, will lead the Finnish team in Malaga.

The second quarter-final on Wednesday 22 November will see 2022 runners-up Australia take on the Czech Republic, both of whom have named unchanged teams from September’s Finals Group Stage and are led by De Minaur and Jiri Lehecka, respectively.

Nicolas Jarry is enjoying the best season of his career, breaking into the Top 20 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time Monday. On Sunday, he spent time with his family ahead of the Swiss Indoors Basel to take it all in.

Jarry, his wife Laura, sons Juan and Santiago, and his mother Cecilia toured the city, including a ferry ride across the Rhine River.

“Having my family around is wonderful and means the world to me,” Jarry said. “I’m happy to be here and looking forward to playing the Swiss Indoors.”

His wife Laura added: “I enjoy visiting new places and Basel is very beautiful. This summer we had a great time in Geneva and it is nice to be back in Switzerland.”

There is one food you will never catch Nicolas Jarry eating.

The Chilean recently joined ATP Uncovered’s ‘What I Eat’ series to discuss his approach to nutrition and general eating habits. The 2023 breakthrough star also revealed the fruit he does not go anywhere near.

“I don’t like tomatoes,” Jarry said. “It’s always been something that I don’t eat since I’m a kid. Now it’s just mental. I know I can eat it, but it’s just a part of me.”

The 28-year-old brought fans inside his eating routine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He also revealed his favourite tournaments for certain meals. Hint — one event serves particularly good ice cream.

To discover his selections and much more, watch the full video below.

Alexander Zverev hit 50 tour-level wins for 2023 in style on Monday at the Erste Bank Open, where the fifth-seeded German beat home wild card Sebastian Ofner 6-4, 6-1 at the ATP 500 in Vienna.

After an even start, Zverev won 10 of the final 12 games to claim a 78-minute triumph for a 3-0 lead in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Ofner. The German did not face a break point and converted four of seven break points he earned to improve to 8-1 in Vienna, where he lifted the trophy in 2021.

“Obviously I’m happy to be back to winning ways after the past two weeks, which were not very positive for me,” Zverev, who arrived in Vienna on a three-match losing streak, told ATPTour.com. “In general I’m happy to be back in Europe, happy to be back in a German-speaking country. I think you always feel comfortable here straight away.”

Flying into the next round like… ?@ErsteBankOpen | #ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/1nvMSGJVGA

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 23, 2023

Zverev was pleased with the way he had handled taking on a home favourite in his opening match in Austria.