Looking for Tennis and Racket Sports International News?

The ATP Tour will return to Hong Kong in the first week of the 2024 season with the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open, which will be held from 31 December 2023-7 January 2024 at Victoria Park Tennis Stadium. The tournament, which will be played for the first time since 2002, has a rich history. Dr. Edward Hardisty, who will serve as referee for the 2024 edition, looks back on his memories from an event that helped shape his career.

When Dr. Edward Hardisty was lured to Hong Kong half a century ago, he was excited by the prospect of expanding the minds and expertise of locals working in a flourishing industry. But a chance encounter soon after his arrival sparked the opportunity of a lifetime, with Dr. Hardisty instead shifting his focus to a sport requiring him to impose rules and restrictions. 

An Englishman by birth, Dr. Hardisty moved to Hong Kong with his wife Janet in 1973 to work with a polytechnic organisation seeking experts to upgrade the skills of local workers. Possessing a keen interest in tennis, he was thrilled to learn Hong Kong was running a tournament in November that year featuring one of his all-time favourite players.

“A certain gentleman by the name of Rod Laver was playing and he was one player that I'd always idolised, not only because he's another left-hander like myself, but because he was so good,” Dr. Hardisty said.

[ATP APP]

Many of the year's most memorable upsets came on the Grand Slam stages, including big wins from a home favourite at the Australian Open and a pair of rising stars at the US Open.

As we continue to look back at the 2023 season, ATPTour.com counts down the five biggest shocks at the majors this year — all of which came in five sets.

[ATP APP]

5) Roland Garros R1, Seyboth Wild d. Medvedev 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
Brazilian qualifier and Roland Garros debutant Thiago Seyboth Wild scored his first Grand Slam main-draw win in style with a upset of second seed Daniil Medvedev — who entered on a six-match clay-court winning streak after claiming his first tour-level title on the surface in Rome.

Coming into the match at No. 172 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, an aggressive Seyboth Wild made a dream start and held two set points for a two-set lead. But after cramping earlier in the second set, the 23-year-old could not prevent Medvedev from levelling the match and storming through set three soon after.

Jannik Sinner has capped his career-best ATP Tour season in style after being voted the Fans’ Favourite singles player in the ATP Awards.

The 22-year-old Italian won four tour-level titles in 2023, including his maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown in Toronto. He also reached the Nitto ATP Finals title match, his first major semi-final at Wimbledon and led Italy to its first Davis Cup trophy since 1976.

Sinner, who held a 64-15 tour-level record in 2023, finished the season at a career-high No. 4 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, becoming the first Italian man to end a season in the Top 5.

The result will delight Sinner’s fan club, ‘The Carota Boys’, who have become famous in the tennis world for showing up at tournaments in carrot costumes. The act stems from a changeover in Vienna in 2019 when the Italian chowed down on a carrot.

Sinner, who won Newcomer of the Year in 2019, has been nominated for two player-voted ATP Awards this season: Most Improved Player of the Year and the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. The Italian’s coaches, Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi, are up for Coach of the Year award. Winners will be revealed throughout Awards Week. 

Sportradar and Tennis Data Innovations (TDI), a specialist joint venture vehicle of ATP and ATP Media, have entered into a multi-year agreement providing the sports technology company with global data and streaming rights for betting, and media data rights, for all ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour events. The partnership will focus on driving commercial growth for the sport and enhancing fan engagement opportunities for the downstream market through the development of new betting and media products.

Commencing in December 2023, Sportradar’s ATP Service+ purpose-built suite of solutions offers new and dynamic ways for fans and bettors to engage with tennis via next-generation, value-add products and services which utilize previously unavailable deep data. ATP Service+ features include augmented streaming, transforming live streams with immersive 3D animations, expanded in-play betting markets, short-form video highlights for registered users and an extensive range of personalized and targeted betting products, to drive sportsbook performance for Sportradar's global network of operator clients.

[ATP APP]

Sportradar will also work with TDI to create products for media, showcasing more in-depth statistical analysis and insights to inform and entertain fans, as well as utilize Sportradar’s OTT solution to stream live match coverage of the ATP Challenger Tour, via ATP’s Challenger TV. Additionally, the creation of a joint Tennis Innovation Lab will address emerging opportunities to support ATP’s vision to establish tennis as the most technologically advanced sport in the world.

Sportradar will supply Integrity Services for all ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour events to safeguard competitions against the threat of betting-related match fixing and corruption, including monitoring and addressing integrity threats and risks through due diligence and investigation support.

Rafael Nadal’s return to the ATP Tour is drawing ever nearer, and the road toward his comeback at the 2024 Brisbane International presented by Evie, which takes place from 31 December to 7 January, included a stop in Kuwait.

Nadal travelled to the Rafa Nadal Academy in Kuwait, which opened in 2020 at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah International Tennis Complex. There, he shared a training session with Arthur Fils, the 19-year-old Frenchman who recently reached the title match at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM.

“It’s great to be here in Kuwait to train for a few days. Everyone has been so welcoming. Thank you for everything,” wrote the Spaniard on his official social media accounts.

[ATP APP]

The Mallorcan travelled to Kuwait in search of temperatures and conditions similar to those he will find in a few weeks in the Australian summer.

Jose Higueras, who worked with ATP Tour greats like Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Roger Federer and Michael Chang during his coaching career, has been named the recipient of the Tim Gullikson Career Coach Award in the 2023 ATP Awards. 

The Spaniard coached Chang to his 1989 Roland Garros title, when the American was 17, and also spent time with Americans Jennifer Capriati and Mary Joe Fernandez.

[SWEEPSTAKES]

The 70-year-old Spaniard, who also worked with USTA Player Development, has been selected as the third winner of this award, following in the footsteps of Australians Tony Roche (2019) and Bob Brett (2020). The recipient exemplifies excellence, leadership, respect, and a true love for the sport of tennis and the art of coaching.

Named after the late Tim Gullikson, the award showcases someone who has inspired generations of young players and fellow coaches to grow the sport of tennis.

French media outlet L'Équipe has been recognised with the Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award in the 2023 ATP Awards.

"It is a great honour for us, the journalists of L'Équipe, to receive the Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award from the ATP," L'Équipe said. "Winning the award for the third time, after 1999 and 2010, suggests that the baton is being passed from one generation of journalists to the next."

Recognised for excellent coverage of tennis on all their platforms (newspaper, magazine, digital, TV), L'Équipe prides themselves in being present on the Tour all year round, boasting a list of writers whose sole focus is tennis reporting: Lucile Alard, Vincet Cognet, Bertrand Lagacherie, Romain Lefebvre, David Loriot, Quentin Moynet, Franck Ramella and Julien Reboullet. Journalists Anne-Sophie Bourdet and Bruno Garay also play a key role for the magazine.

"Our commitment is to covering tennis as well as possible and be consistent in an attempt to write about everything that makes this sport so complex, from the game itself such as technique, tactical evolution, and history to the human side of the game," L'Equipe said. "We appreciate the fact that we are receiving this award collectively, because it is a real 'Equipe' [team] effort throughout each season."

Long-time friends Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev have been voted as the Fans' Favourite doubles team in the 2023 ATP Awards. The duo captured its maiden team title at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid and were semi-finalists in Beijing.

"I just want to say a big thanks to you guys for voting for me and Karen," said Rublev. "For us it means a lot. Thank you so much one more time. See you soon, happy new year."

Khachanov and Rublev had lively fan support throughout the season, including in Madrid when they earned Match Tie-break wins in four of their five matches en route to the trophy. Known for the powerful baseline games, Khachanov and Rublev also won fans' hearts over with constant energy and frequent smiles on the doubles court.

Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov share a laugh at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome. Credit: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
Khachanov and Rublev also met twice this season on the singles court. Rublev won their third-round match in Monte-Carlo en route to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title, but three weeks later Khachanov earned revenge in the Madrid fourth round. 

The Pepperstone ATP Rankings provide a perfect way to measure the size of upsets in the men's game. For many of the matches selected here, the shocks were off the charts.

As we continue our look back at the 2023 season, ATPTour.com counts down the five most seismic upsets of the year. On Tuesday we'll look at the biggest upsets at the Grand Slams.

[ATP APP]

5) Toronto R1: Diallo d. Evans 7-6(4), 7-5
Canada's Gabriel Diallo, then 21, roared to his first ATP Tour win on home soil by beating one of the game's most in-form players.

Two days prior, Daniel Evans lifted the Washington title behind a run of 10 consecutive sets won. But in Toronto, he had his hands full just to keep Diallo from running away with the match.

During his appearance on CBS’ 60 MINUTES on Sunday evening, Novak Djokovic made clear that the rising stars of the sport are keeping him on his toes aged 36.

“I think the young guys who are very hungry and very inspired to play their best tennis against me is an additional motivation,” Djokovic told reporter Jon Wertheim. “I think they kind of awaken a beast in me.”

That was evident earlier this year when he lost a heartbreaking Wimbledon final against Carlos Alcaraz. The Spanish star has quickly become a big rival for Djokovic, who used that defeat as a source of energy for the rest of the season.

“Yes, absolutely, it was,” Djokovic said. “That pissed me off so much that I needed to win everything on American soil, which I did.”

The Serbian laughed as he made that comment. But his feelings showed in his reaction to the loss on the court. In Cincinnati, Djokovic refused to lose to Alcaraz, saving a championship point en route to winning the longest best-of-three-set final in ATP Tour history (three hours, 49 minutes). He went on to win the US Open, the Rolex Paris Masters and the Nitto ATP Finals.

The longest ATP Challenger Tour final in history? The first unranked Challenger champion? France's record-breaking 27 titles? All of these occured during the 2023 ATP Challenger Tour season, in which 46 different countries hosted a tournament while witnessing the rapid rise of young stars and the resurgence of Tour veterans.

ATPTour.com reviews key facts and figures to remember from the 2023 ATP Challenger Tour season.

Comesana Collects Most Match Wins
Argentine Francisco Comesana tallied a 45-21 Challenger-match record in 2023, edging countryman Facundo Diaz Acosta by one match for the most wins this season. Comesana, 23, was crowned champion in Vicenza and Liberec. On two separate occasions, Comesana went on hot streaks in which he won 12 of 13 matches across three tournaments.

The 22-year-old Diaz Acosta was not far behind with a 44-16 match record. The Buenos Aires native captured four titles (Savannah, Oeiras, Milan, Montevideo) and hit a career-high No. 93 in August after making his Top 100 debut the previous month.

Navone Nails Five Titles
Argentine Mariano Navone was unstoppable during the second half of the year. From 19 June to 12 November, the 22-year-old competed in six Challenger finals, triumphing in five of them: Poznan, Santa Fe, Santa Cruz, Buenos Aires and Santa Fe-2.

The best-of-five format at the Grand Slams lends itself to matches full of twists and turns as the world's best compete on the game's biggest stages. The four majors in 2023 delivered with memorable matchups full of quality and drama from start to finish.

As we continue our look back at the 2023 season, ATPTour.com counts down the five greatest Grand Slam matches of the year.

[ATP APP]

5) Wimbledon Open R1, Tsitsipas d. Thiem 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(10-8)
A roller-coaster match that was played over two days at Wimbledon climaxed with a dramatic final-set tie-break, the result on a knife's edge until the last ball of the three-hour, 55-minute contest.

Stefanos Tsitsipas trailed by a set overnight, with the match suspended midway through set two. But the Greek took control upon its resumption, only to see Dominic Thiem battle back. After Thiem saved a break point early in the fourth set, he won a tense tie-break and then — for a brief moment — appeared to have secured a break lead in the fifth. But an accurate overrule by the chair umpire stopped Thiem from taking a 4-3 lead, and Tsitsipas ultimately closed out a gritty victory with a forehand passing shot on his third match point.

Another ATP Tour season full of gripping storylines, magic moments and standout achievements is in the books… but which matches from 2023 will live longest in fans' memories?

The Top 4 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings — Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner — were among those to play their part in some classic encounters this year. As part of of ATPTour.com’s annual season-in-review series, we count down the best matches on the ATP Tour this season. On Sunday, we will focus on the best Grand Slam matches of the year.

[ATP AWARDS]

5) Indian Wells R16, Medvedev d Zverev 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5
Medvedev and Alexander Zverev reactivated their Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry after 15 months away in style at the BNP Paribas Open in March. Medvedev clung on for a thrilling three, hour, 16-minute triumph in Indian Wells to extend his early-season winning streak to 17 matches, but that only told half the story of the fourth-round clash at the ATP Masters 1000.

Zverev was 8-7 for the year heading into the match and was still rebuilding confidence in his movement after missing the second half of 2022 with a serious right ankle injury. Yet the German came out strong against an opponent who was fresh from lifting consecutive trophies in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai. It was only after Medvedev saved all 10 break points he faced in the second set, during which he also rolled heavily over his right ankle, that the then-World No. 6 was able to wear down the German and reach his first Indian Wells quarter-final.

What makes Novak Djokovic tick?

Few people are better equipped to answer that question than leading tennis journalist Jon Wertheim and the acclaimed CBS news broadcast programme known for its signature stopwatch, 60 MINUTES.

Wertheim, who in January 2020 profiled Rafael Nadal for the American show, spent three days on the ground in Belgrade in early November. Djokovic, who recently claimed ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone honours for a recording-extending eighth time at the age of 36, was first profiled on 60 MINUTES in 2011.

“That was 12 years and 20 majors ago,” Wertheim said. “We had already done the back story, so we approached this piece with the assumption that people already knew him. This time we really wanted to get into his mind. You’re not going to learn about his childhood like you did in the first one. We’re focused on the present and the future.”

Novak Djokovic is considered the greatest men’s tennis player of all time. 60 Minutes reports, Sunday. https://t.co/mEN4CWeXMW pic.twitter.com/YQCbV9VwNa

Nick Kyrgios will not compete in the 2024 Australian Open.

The 28-year-old was not on the entry list for the season's first major. He confirmed on Friday that he will not play his home Slam for the second consecutive year.

The only match Kyrgios played in 2023 came in Stuttgart, where he lost in straight sets to Wu Yibing.

"This is a very disappointing time for me, but I won't be able to compete at the 2024 Australian Open," Kyrgios said on a social media platform.

"Obviously, heartbreaking. I've had so many amazing memories there, and I just want to really get back to playing at the top of my game and doing it right, and I need a little more time."

ATPTour.com highlights five players who tasted success on the ATP Challenger Tour this season before shining at one of the four majors.

Christopher Eubanks
Coming into the season, the American was ranked outside the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings with just one major main-draw win. Closing 2022 by winning 11 of his final 14 Challenger-level matches was a sign of things to come for Eubanks. A quarter-final appearance at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Miami led Eubanks to his Top 100 debut.

During a South Korean Challenger swing across April and May, Eubanks reached two quarter-finals and a semi-final. The former Georgia Tech University standout started his grass season at the Surbiton Challenger, suffering a second-round exit. Then his life changed.

The 27-year-old collected his maiden ATP Tour level title in Mallorca and completed a dream run to the Wimbledon quarter-finals. En route to the last eight at the All England Club, Eubanks ousted 15th seed Cameron Norrie and fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

“My grass-court season got off to a bit of a rough start at the Surbiton Challenger. I began to question whether or not I could be good on the surface. I didn't think that I could,” Eubanks said in July. "But my coach, Ruan Roelofse, and I, we put in a lot of work on the grass to try and understand the footing and the shots and everything that I would need to have in order to be successful.”

There’s nothing quite like a good rebound, a good revival. Our Comeback Player of the Year nominees in the 2023 ATP Awards — Dominik Koepfer, Gael Monfils, Jan-Lennard Struff and Alexander Zverev — will attest to that. All four players found a way to overcome injury and battle back toward the top of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2023.

Nominees for Comeback Player of the Year are determined by an International Tennis Writers' Association (ITWA) vote. The winner is selected by players from the shortlist.

Stay tuned: ATP Awards winners will be announced during Awards Week, starting Monday, 11 December.

[SWEEPSTAKES]

Dominik Koepfer

Kazakhstan’s Beibit Zhukayev first picked up a tennis racquet on a family vacation at age eight. A native of Aktau, population roughly 180,000, Zhukayev has defied odds to become a rising star on the ATP Challenger Tour.

“I never thought I’d become a professional player while practising in Aktau. It was for fun, we never had tennis coaches there or players,” Zhukayev told ATPTour.com. “I’m kind of like a superstar in that city. A lot of people tell me, ‘We never thought that someone would be that high in the rankings!’”

Zhukayev, who moved to Almaty in 2013, takes pride in being born and raised in Kazakhstan. “I’m real Kazakh,” he said. At No. 189 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, the 23-year-old hopes to see more tennis players emerge from his home country.

“Our tennis society and level is going up. I see a lot more children that are starting to play tennis and are more interested in the sport,” said Zhukayev, who is the second-highest ranked Kazakh, behind World No. 32 Alexander Bublik. “I believe in five, 10 years we will have more players competing.”

[ATP AWARDS]

After Holger Rune closed his 2022 ATP Tour season by beating Novak Djokovic in the Rolex Paris Masters final, the pair squared off again three times this year. Each match went the distance, all three-setters on some of the game's biggest stages — in Rome, Paris (again) and at the Nitto ATP Finals

ATPTour.com looks back at their memorable matchups for 2023.

Rome QFs, Rune d. Djokovic 6-2, 4-6, 6-2
Rune earned his second straight win against the Serbian and, for the moment, moved ahead 2-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry with a focussed effort in rainy Rome. Djokovic clinched the second set after the players returned from a rain delay, but Rune composed himself to wrestle away the match at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

Rune made Djokovic work to close out the middle set from 5-2, but Rune had little trouble in closing out the victory after building a 4-0 lead in the decider — his third-set surge aided by a vexing combination of power and touch, including several well-timed drop shots.

"It's really a big win for me,” said Rune, who converted on five of 10 break chances and hit 26 winners to Djokovic's 22. “Obviously I did it last year in Paris as well, but every match is a huge challenge for me when I play against Novak. He's one of the greatest that's ever played the game... I'm super proud of myself and I enjoyed every moment out there."