Nick Kyrgios will dribble past you and possibly break your ankles. You have to put a hand in Christopher Eubanks’ face, even if he’s a foot behind the 3-point line. You cannot stop 7’0” Reilly Opelka. Really. You can’t stop him. And don’t underestimate Taylor Fritz’s deep jumper.

The four budding ATP World Tour players took a break from the hard courts at the BB&T Atlanta Open on Sunday evening to try out their skills on the hardwood at Georgia Tech. The quartet headed across the road from the ATP World Tour 250 tournament, held at Atlantic Station, to McCamish Pavilion to play some two-on-two hoops.

They wide-eyed past jerseys of former Georgia Tech stars who became successful NBA players, including Chris Bosh and Jarrett Jack. They practised among the NCAA Tournament banners of former Yellow Jacket teams. The four tennis players also played a little hoops themselves, sweating through their shirts after competing for more than 90 minutes.

“It’s just amazing to come out here… a big arena, playing, just the play the four of us,” Fritz said. “It’s special. You don’t get to do it, ever.”

The four played three two-on-two games, changing teams after every game. Kyrgios crossed up his opponents, making Fritz fall backwards at one point with his dribble-drive penetration. But the 18-year-old American earned revenge the very next point on his fellow #NextGen star when he hit a 3-pointer a foot behind the arc.

“Fritz started off pretty cold but he played well,” said Kyrgios, a Boston Celtics fan who wore a Nike “Basketball Never Stops” T-shirt for the occasion.

The hot hand rotated throughout play. During some stretches, Eubanks couldn’t miss. “This guy’s feeling it out there. He’s shooting like Bradley Beal!” Kyrgios said, comparing Eubanks to the Washington Wizards star.

No one could stop Opelka. Even the 6’7” Eubanks had trouble guarding him. “He’s so big!” Eubanks said.

“I can’t guard him, obviously,” Fritz said after a failed attempt.

Intentionally fouling the 7’0” right-hander also didn’t work. “Hack-a-Shaq,” shouted Kyrgios, with his arms wrapped around Opelka, referring to how some NBA teams used to try to guard former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, who was 7’1”.

“We fouled a lot,” Eubanks said. “It still didn’t work.”

On Monday evening, Eubanks and Opelka will return to a more familiar court to compete, the hard courts at the BB&T Atlanta Open.

Eubanks, who grew up in Atlanta, will make his ATP World Tour debut after qualifying for the 250 event. The 18-year-old Opelka also will be making his Atlanta main draw debut after receiving a wild card.

“It was pretty fun today,” Opelka said. “Me and Eubanks were going at it on the basketball court. Looking forward to [Monday]. We’re pretty good friends. It’s going to be a good one.”

The foursome also were already making plans for more basketball, depending on how their tennis goes, of course.

“It was a lot of fun coming here and just seeing what it was like to get on a court like this,” Kyrgios said. “Hopefully we can continue to play… It was unbelievable.”

Kei Nishikori continued his qualification push last week for a spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 13-20 November. The Japanese star rose one spot to fourth place in the Emirates ATP Race To London after a Rogers Cup runner-up finish – his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final run. He is now 510 points behind No. 3 Milos Raonic (4,015).

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The recent Citi Open champion Gael Monfils moved Tomas Berdych out of an automatic qualification position by advancing to the Toronto semi-finals (l. to Djokovic). The Frenchman, who is now at No. 8, is 185 points behind seventh-placed Stan Wawrinka, who also reached the last four (l. to Nishikori) at the Aviva Centre.

Wawrinka (2,730 points), Monfils (2,545) and Berdych (2,440) are all now within sight of sixth-placed Dominic Thiem (2,845), who has gone 1-3 in his past three tournaments.

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Five-time Barclays ATP World Tour Finals titlist Novak Djokovic, who captured his 30th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy last week, and No. 2 Andy Murray have already qualified. Six singles spots are up for grabs.

Dodig/Melo Make Their Move

Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo secured their third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 team title with victory in Toronto on Sunday. It helped the Croatian-Brazilian pair to jump three spots to fifth position (3,130) in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, just 140 points behind No. 4-ranked Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez (3,270). Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut (6,175) lead overall with all eight doubles team berths available.

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Novak Djokovic owned the start of the point and the back of the court to defeat Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-5 in the the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto on Sunday.

Djokovic is a master at figuring out where the key areas of separation exist in a match, and there were numerous battles against Nishikori that finished even, or ones that he lost. 

Nishikori won more of the extended rallies of 10+ shots (9-8), hit more overall winners (14-13), and performed better on second serves, winning 56 per cent (9/16) to Djokovic’s 43 per cent (6/14).

But those were secondary elements of this final. You can’t win all the skirmishes around the court, and Djokovic focused his strengths on attacking early, pressuring with direction, and taking time away in the preparation phase of Nishikori’s lethal groundstrokes. 

First Strike Tennis

The length of a point matters a lot in our sport. On hard courts, around 70 per cent of points are played in the 0-4 shot rally length, 20 per cent in the 5-9 shot rally length, and only 10 per cent of points make it 10 shots or longer.

Players that win the 0-4 shot rally length typically win the match more than 90 per cent of the time. Surprisingly, players that win the extended rallies of 10 shots or more (the rallies that look so much like the practice court) have a much lower correlation of winning the match – less than 60 per cent of the time. 

True to form, Djokovic won the short rallies up to four shots 36-26, and lost the really long rallies 8-9. Fifty four per cent of total rallies existed in the 0-4 shot range, 31 per cent in the 5-9 shot range, and only 15 per cent of total points went 10 shots or longer.

Djokovic simply reigned supreme in by far the biggest pool of points a tennis match offers (0-4 shots), which is the same at every level of the game. 

Baseline Control

Once the point developed into a baseline duel, Djokovic dominated 35-28. The writing was on the wall early, with Djokovic winning baseline points by an 18-10 margin in the opening set. With Djokovic up a set and a break, 6-3, 2-1, he had directed 48 per cent of his forehands to Nishikori’s forehand, 47 per cent to his backhand, and only two rally forehands had landed in the middle third of the court.

Djokovic did not particularly care where he attacked from the back of the court, as long as his court position was superior and he was making Nishikori lean off the ball. This forced Nishikori to “press” with his groundstrokes, often going for a little too much when it wasn’t quite there.

Nishikori narrowly missed time and time again, trying to play offence when Djokovic was dictating that he needed to play defence. Overall, Nishikori committed 17 forehand and 17 backhand errors for the match, a testament to Djokovic’s attacking so evenly with his forehand. 

Serve + 1 Forehands

Djokovic’s backhand normally gets all the attention, but right from the start of this match he was looking to upgrade to a forehand as much as possible with his first shot after the serve, sometimes running into the Ad court to do it. Djokovic won 69 per cent (11/16) when he started the point with a serve and a forehand, including eight of ten in the opening set. He only won 50 per cent (9/18) when he started with a serve and a backhand, including just 33 per cent (3/9) in the second set.

Djokovic picks and chooses his battles wisely, and his leverage is not immediately picked up by the naked eye. But a stats sheet lays bare where the World No. 1 creates his separation.

Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo overcame a rain delay and stayed the course against Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares to win 6-4, 6-4 in the Rogers Cup doubles final on Sunday. Starting their fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final on Centre Court, Dodig/Melo were up 4-3 in the first set when rain interrupted play. The match was later completed on Grandstand court, where Dodig/Melo closed out their third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown as a team (Shanghai 2013 & Paris 2015) and first tour-level title of 2016.

“Finishing on another court was something we could not control, that we had to adapt to,” Dodig said. “But throughout the match we did a great job of that.”

“This is the type of experience we had at Wimbledon,” Melo said. “We often needed to go in and out of the locker room due to rain. We would have loved to play the whole match without interruption, but we are professionals and it’s our job to stay focused and to get it done.”

Both teams won over 70 per cent of second-serve points in the 69-minute encounter, but Dodig/Melo were able to rely on their first serves to dictate play. The Croatian/Brazilian duo landed 75 per cent of first serves and only dropped five points (31/36) throughout. They did not face break point in the match and broke Murray/Soares twice.

Murray/Soares were contesting their second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final of 2016 after finishing runners-up in Monte Carlo. Soares is a two-time champion at the Rogers Cup alongside Alexander Peya. They won in Montreal in 2013, defeating Dodig/Melo along the way, and in Toronto in 2014.

Sunday’s win was Melo’s seventh in 18 FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against countryman Soares. The pair is 10-2 in Davis Cup play and 82-56 at the tour level.

Dodig/Melo earned 1000 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and $242,330, while Murray/Soares will split 600 points and $118,640.