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Lorenzo Musetti has broken through to his first ATP Tour final at the Hamburg European Open behind a Saturday semi-final victory against the red-hot Francisco Cerundolo. The #NextGenATP Italian dominated the first half of the contest but navigated a nervy finish to secure a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory.

"It means a lot for me," Musetti said of reaching his first tour-level title match. "It's a surprise for me because I was not playing my best tennis last week [in Bastad], so I didn't expect to be in the final here."

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On his first match point at 5-4, A/40 in the second set, Musetti's underarm serve backfired as Cerundolo reacted quickly to force a difficult, low volley. But after falling behind 1/3 in the tie-break, the 20-year-old closed the match how he started it, dominating proceedings to win the final six points.

"It was not easy because he was playing really good. I was playing under pressure," the Italian said. "I saw him so far from the baseline on the ad side. I don't know why I did the underarm serve, but it didn't work. At the end I didn't take the option of the underarm serve. I went for the kick and serve-and-volley and it worked. So I'm really happy."

Top seed Casper Ruud produced a clinical performance to see off the challenge of Albert Ramos-Vinolas with a comfortable 6-2, 6-0 semi-final victory at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad on Saturday afternoon.

In a battle between the past two champions at the clay-court ATP 250 event in Switzerland, Ruud was dominant throughout. The Norwegian broke 2019 champion Ramos-Vinolas’ serve five times and did not face a single break point on his own delivery as he charged to a 62-minute victory.

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Ruud will take on second seed Matteo Berrettini in Sunday’s championship match as both players seek their third title of 2022 and their second crown in Gstaad. Both finalists are unbeaten in the Swiss mountains, with Berrettini having triumphed on tournament debut in 2018 and Ruud defeating Hugo Gaston to lift the trophy on his first appearance at the event a year ago.

“It will be a tough one for sure,” said Ruud after the match. “I know Matteo well. We didn’t grow up together but the past years we have played each other a couple of times. He’s a super nice guy and he’s also on a good run on the Tour at the moment and also in Switzerland. We’ll both seek our second win here in Gstaad, and it will be an interesting match.”

Matteo Berrettini’s magical European summer rumbled on at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad on Saturday, when the World No. 15 eased to a straight-sets semi-final victory against 2015 champion Dominic Thiem.

The Italian dominated the pair’s sixth ATP Head2Head meeting at the clay-court ATP 250 event in Switzerland, where he struck the ball with power and accuracy throughout to charge to a 6-1, 6-4 victory. Berrettini raced to a 5-0 lead early in the first set and gave Thiem few opportunities to establish a foothold in the match thereafter, going on to seal victory in 78 minutes.

“I’m really happy with my performance,” said Berrettini, the 2018 champion in Gstaad, after the match. “I knew that I had to play my best tennis to beat him. I think my game in general was working pretty well. I was serving well, returning well. I was being aggressive. I don’t think I gave him the time to play his game and that was the key today.”

Having won his previous two tournaments in Stuttgart and at The Queen’s Club, the win extends Berrettini’s winning streak since returning to Tour in June after a hand injury to 12 matches.

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Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop dominated the second half of their Hamburg European Open semi-final to earn a 3-6, 6-3, 10-3 against top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos on Friday.

In the lone doubles match of the day in Hamburg, the Indian-Dutch duo did not drop serve in the second set to force a Match Tie-break. In the decider, they won all seven points on serve to reach their second tour-level final as a team. The pair also reached the Antwerp final in 2020.

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While Bopanna is a 21-time tour-level titlist and Middelkoop a 12-time champion, the veterans are seeking their first trophy together. Bopanna has two titles this season (in Pune and Adelaide with countryman Ramkumar Ramanathan), while Middelkoop has one (with countryman Robin Haase in Rotterdam).

The fourth seeds await the winner of Saturday's semi-final, which pits third seeds Tim Puetz and Michael Venus against Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara.

Carlos Alcaraz has improved with every match this week at the Hamburg European Open. If that trend continues, he's in prime position to claim his fifth ATP Tour title of 2022, an achievement which would break a tie with Rafael Nadal for the most on the season.

The 19-year old Spaniard was at his untouchable best on Friday in a 6-0, 6-2 victory against Karen Khachanov. He fired 21 winners to seven errors as he raced into the semi-finals in just over an hour, winning a battle between the only two seeded Hamburg quarter-finalists.

"I played unbelievable today, probably one of my best matches this year," Alcaraz said, repeating his sentiments from after his second-round victory against Filip Krajinovic. "I'm pretty happy with the performance that I'm playing in this tournament. Yesterday was amazing as well.

"I'm training every day to be solid and at the same time to be aggressive," he added. "That is my game."

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Lorenzo Musetti is poised to crack the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time behind his semi-final run at the Hamburg European Open. The 20-year-old defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 6-3 on Friday at the ATP 500 event to secure his best result of the 2022 season.

"I think I played one of the best matches of the year," he said after the victory against his close friend. "Really intense from the beginning and really focussed on each point. I think that was the key to get through with the win."

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Musetti has moved up 13 places to No. 49 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings this week; he could reach as high as No. 31 with the title. The Italian's career-high in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings is No. 51.

Entering Hamburg on a six-match tour-level losing streak, the #NextGenATP star has broken out of that slump in style. After dropping his opening set of the tournament against Dusan Lajovic, Musetti has now won six straight sets in Hamburg to book his semi-final place opposite Francisco Cerundolo.

Matteo Berrettini survived a major scare on Friday at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad, rallying past fifth seed Pedro Martinez 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-1 to reach the semi-finals and extend his winning streak to 11 matches.

The Italian was on the brink of defeat in the second-set tie-break, trailing 1/5. However, the second seed found his best level just in time, reeling off six consecutive points to clinch the set, before he raced away in the third set to advance after two hours and 16 minutes.

“Sometimes it is just tennis. It is a crazy sport. At 1/5 I thought I was done. Then I played two good points and it was 3/5 and I thought ‘let’s try’,” Berrettini said in his on-court interview. “I don’t think I played my best match here. But sometimes it is important to win when you are not playing well. I managed to find some energy inside me and I am really happy to be through.”

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The 26-year-old will next play Austrian Dominic Thiem after the former World No. 3 continued to gather momentum with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Peruvian qualifier Juan Pablo Varillas. Berrettini leads Thiem 3-2 in their ATP Head2Head series.

The ATP has announced the launch of a multi-year education partnership with You Can Play, an organisation committed to furthering LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport. The collaboration aims to build on insights from a first-ever LGBTQ+ survey completed by ATP players last season.

You Can Play, a long-time partner of the NHL, MLS and NASCAR, is a non-profit organisation with an impressive track record furthering safety and inclusion for all who participate in sports, including LGBTQ+ athletes, coaches and fans. Through the multi-year partnership, ATP has committed to developing an education programme aimed at furthering LGBTQ+ inclusion on Tour. Together, the two organisations will create science-based educational content to be rolled out across ATP players, tournaments and staff over coming seasons, with content directly informed by insights and data from an ATP survey conducted last year.

The survey, developed in collaboration with Pride Sports and renowned researchers at Monash University (Melbourne), aimed to understand the experiences and perceptions of ATP players, reveal potential barriers to inclusion, and offer data-driven insights to make tennis safe and welcoming for all. The initiative also formed part of ATP’s wider drive to strengthen diversity and inclusion through the ATP Serves programme.

Made open to players on an anonymous basis, the survey looked at behaviours and attitudes across various stakeholder groups and levels of the tennis ecosystem, in order to build as comprehensive a picture of LGBTQ+ inclusion as possible. In total 65 ATP players took part, with the majority of respondents ranked inside the world’s Top 250. Several players also participated in voluntary one-on-one interviews to offer in-depth personal perspectives on the topic. Data was then independently analysed by the researchers and compiled into a final report.

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Dominic Thiem’s comeback stepped up a gear Friday at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad, where he overcame Peruvian qualifier Juan Pablo Varillas 6-4, 6-3 to reach his first tour-level semi-final of the season.

In a dominant performance, the Austrian pulled the 26-year-old from around the court as he took heavy cuts at the ball to dictate the baseline exchanges, advancing after one hour and 47 minutes in their first ATP Head2Head meeting.

“I played a good match yesterday and I was able to back it up today.” Thiem said in his on-court interview. “Some things I didn’t like that much. I failed to serve out at [5-2], but it was also the nerves a little bit because it is my first semi-final in one and a half years. I need the points to go back up the rankings. I was happy I was able to break the nerves.”

The former World No. 3, who missed the second half of last season due to injury, reached the quarter-finals in Bastad last week, earning his first tour-level win of the year in the process.

The 28-year-old has backed up that run in Gstaad and will next face second seed Matteo Berrettini or Spaniard Pedro Martinez. It is the first time Thiem has reached the semi-finals at a tour-level event since May 2021, when he enjoyed a run to the last four in Madrid.

For the first time in Laver Cup history, the 'Big Four' will join forces for Team Europe this September in London.

Novak Djokovic announced Thursday his commitment to the 2022 event, with Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray already confirmed to participate in the competition's fifth edition. 

"Laver Cup is the only competition where you can have all the big rivals, the 'Big Three', 'Big Four' players joining in the same team," Djokovic said at Wimbledon, where he won his 21st Grand Slam title earlier this month. "Of course, it is [a] very different and exciting concept for us players, but also for the fans around the world."

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The Serbian is set for his second Laver Cup appearance and will be seeking his first match wins in the competition. Djokovic was a part of Team Europe's winning 2018 side, but lost two Match Tie-breaks — one in singles and one in doubles — in his only matches. He teamed with Federer in doubles, but they fell to Team World's Kevin Anderson and Jack Sock.

Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara advanced to their sixth tour-level semi-final of the 2022 season on Thursday at the Hamburg European Open. The British-Finnish duo earned a a 6-1, 7-6(0) victory against Germany's Andreas Mies and Kevin Krawietz to back up an opening-round upset of second seeds Neal Skupski and Wesley Koolhof.

Glasspool/Heliovaara saved all three break points against them in the quarter-finals and won the final 11 points of the match as they held to love before claiming a shutout in the tie-break.

Three-time finalists this season (Montpellier, Dallas, London), the pair is seeking its first title of the year. The duo won its first title last season in Montpellier.

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Third seeds Tim Puetz and Michael Venus will provide their semi-final opposition after a 6-3, 6-3 victory against German wild cards Daniel Altmaier and Jan-Lennard Struff on Thursday.

Carlos Alcaraz produced a burst of untouchable clay-court tennis Thursday at the Hamburg European Open to overcome a slow start in a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory against Filip Krajinovic.

While the Serbian matched the top seed blow for blow in the opening set and served for the set at 5-4, Alcaraz began to find his top level at the crucial moment. He saved four set points in that 5-4 game, then reeled off five straight points to win the tie-break from 2/4. 

"I had to play one of my best matches on Tour. I'm really happy with my performance," Alcaraz said after the victory.

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In a clean match from both sides, Krajinovic hit five more winners than Alcaraz, finishing with a pristine 27-to-15 winners-to-unforced-errors count.

Matteo Berrettini made a winning return to the ATP Tour Thursday, when he dispatched Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad.

Playing in his first match since triumphing at The Queen’s Club in June, the Italian showed little sign of rustiness against the Frenchman, improving to 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series.

“I have great memories here,” Berrettini said in his on-court interview. “My first ATP Tour title. I really like these conditions. Even though I was coming from grass and this is the complete opposite, I like when the ball is jumping like this. I think it suits my game and my serve. Also I have a lot of people coming to support me. A lot of Italians I heard, so I am really happy to be here and I am enjoying it.”

In front of a vocal crowd, the second seed fired seven aces and won 79 per cent (31/39) of his first-serve points to advance after one hour and 30 minutes, setting up a meeting with Pedro Martinez. The fifth-seeded Spaniard edged Elias Ymer 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 in two hours and 49 minutes.

Berrettini, who missed Wimbledon due to Covid, has now won his past 10 matches. He lifted trophies on grass in Stuttgart and London in June after missing the spring clay swing in Europe due to a right hand injury.

Francisco Cerundolo extended his winning streak to seven matches on Thursday, when he upset World No. 8 Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-2 at the Hamburg European Open to earn his second Top 10 win in as many weeks.

The Argentine captured his maiden tour-level title in Bastad last week and has backed that up in Hamburg. In a high-quality second-round match, Cerundolo rallied from 2-4 in the first set and fired 26 winners as he blasted the second seed off the court in one hour and 33 minutes.

“I think I played another great match. I felt really comfortable on the court,” Cerundolo said in his on-court interview. “I think in the first three games I didn’t play that bad, but he was really solid and didn’t miss many balls. Then I started feeling more confident and I think I was very solid today.”

The 23-year-old, who defeated World No. 5 Casper Ruud in Sweden last week, will next face Aslan Karatsev in the quarter-finals after the 28-year-old eliminated Colombian qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

“It is really good to have this confidence at this level,” Cerundolo added. “It is the first time it has happened for me. I am playing against the top guys and I am playing well and it is unbelievable. I really happy with my game and my head, because I am keeping my concentration and playing the whole match well.”

The ATP has issued updates to the 2022 ATP Tour calendar, including cancellation of the 2022 China swing and the inclusion of six additional single-year events.

ATP has today confirmed the Rolex Shanghai Masters, China Open (Beijing), Chengdu Open, and Zhuhai Championships will not take place in 2022 due to ongoing restrictions related to COVID-19. This marks the third year of cancellation for the ATP’s China swing, typically hosted in September and October and last staged in 2019, prior to the pandemic.

In parallel, ATP has announced six ATP 250 tournaments, issued as single-year event licenses for the 2022 season:

Week 38 (19-25 Sep): San Diego, USA (Hard) Week 39 (26 Sep-2 Oct): Seoul, KOR (Hard); Tel Aviv, ISR (Indoor Hard) Week 41 (10-16 Oct): Florence, ITA (Indoor Hard); Gijon, ESP (Indoor Hard) Week 42 (17-23 Oct): Naples, ITA (Hard)

View The Full 2022 ATP Tour Calendar Here

Single-year event licenses were first issued by ATP in 2020, in response to pandemic-related event cancellations, to maintain playing opportunities and also enable tennis to explore new markets.

Dominic Thiem gained further momentum on Thursday at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad, overcoming Argentine Federico Delbonis 7-6(8), 6-3 to reach his second tour-level quarter-final in as many weeks.

The Austrian let slip a 5-2 lead in the first set, but took the opener after saving two set points in the tie-break. Thiem then opened his shoulders and hit through Delbonis in the second set to advance after one hour and 57 minutes.

“Every win is so important right now and I got a great energy from my box,” Thiem said in his on-court interview. “They also knew that first set was crucial and the key to the match. I am coming from [reaching] the quarters in Bastad and I really wanted to back it up here in Gstaad.

"I have won two matches which means a lot to me right now. I really need those ranking points. Every match win is something very special.”

The former World No. 3, who saved one match point in his first-round victory against Hugo Gaston, defeated Emil Ruusuvuori and Roberto Bautista Agut en route to his maiden tour-level quarter-final of the season last week in Bastad.

In the lone completed singles match on a rainy Wednesday at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad, Jaume Munar defeated Alexander Ritschard to advance to his second tour-level quarter-final of the 2022 season.

The Spaniard earned the 6-3, 6-3 victory by saving all seven break points against him in Roy Emerson Arena and claiming three breaks of his own in the one-hour, 21-minute contest.

"Here with altitude and the fastest court maybe we're playing on Tour, it's difficult," the 25-year-old said in his on-court interview. "I think the key to success in this match was to handle the pressure. I think I played a couple of good points [to save the break chances] and on my break points I did well."

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Munar is into his first quarter-final in Gstaad after losing to Robert Bautista Agut in the second round in each of his previous two appearances (2018-19).

Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos made a winning start to their Hamburg European Open campaign Wednesday, overcoming Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 5-7, 6-2, 10-4.

The top seeds, who are making their debut together at the ATP 500 event, won 83 per cent (33/40) of their first-serve points to reach the quarter-finals in one hour and 35 minutes.

The Spanish-Argentine pair has now won their past five matches, after capturing their first title of the season in Halle last month. Granollers and Zeballos will next play Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev.

Third seeds Tim Puetz and Michael Venus also advanced, defeating Aslan Karatsev and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 32 minutes. The German-New Zealand tandem, who triumphed in Dubai in February, will next face Daniel Altmaier and Jan-Lennard Struff after the Germans defeated Sander Arends and David Pel 6-4, 7-6(4).

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Come to Tampere, Finland, in summer and three things immediately stand out.

First, the line between day and night is a blur across the entire country. With the Tampere Open held in the 60th parallel north, players are competing twice as far away from the equator as from the North Pole. At this latitude, the sun is visible until midnight every day in July, illuminating the night sky with a stunning golden-orange hue. It provides a unique backdrop for a professional tennis tournament.

Second, the idyllic landscape that surrounds the city creates a cosy and relaxing atmosphere for players and fans alike. Pine trees fill the countryside as far as the eye can see, permeating the environment with some of the cleanest air in the world. Finland is also known as the 'Country of a Thousand Lakes' and the city of Tampere is embedded within a winding network of bodies of water.

Finally, and most importantly, it is the people that make any trip to Tampere special. Finland is famous for being the 'Happiest Country in the World', a moniker which they take very seriously at the Tampere Open. Enter the tournament site and you're promptly greeted with a 'Moi' or 'Huomenta' (good morning), as you proceed to sit down for a meal in the cafe, enjoy the day in the VIP area or settle in for a match on Center Court. The hospitality is unmatched in Tampere.

It's no wonder players have been returning to the tournament for 40 years. This week, the longest-running event on the ATP Challenger Tour became the first to celebrate four decades of professional tennis. The Tampere Open was honoured by the ATP on Tuesday, with a special ceremony in front of the Finnish faithful on Center Court.