Ninth seed Tomas Berdych survived a scare on Monday when he fought past qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov, currently No. 78 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final match of the day at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. Berdych goes on to face Benoit Paire or 39-year-old Tommy Haas, the oldest player in the draw, for a place in the third round.

Berdych, who is playing at the Monte-Carlo Country Club for the 13th time in the past 14 years, drew on his big-match experience to prevent Kuznetsov recording one of the biggest wins of his career. The 2005 finalist required two hours for his 14th match win of the season.

Having survived one break point in the first set, Kuznetsov broke Berdych to love for a 4-3 advantage courtesy of his rock-solid backhand. While Berdych came through a 20-point hold for 3-2 in the second set, he immediately grew in confidence to break Kuznetsov for the first time. The 31-year-old Czech went on to fire a backhand winner down the line in the third game of the decider to break Kuznetsov, who is now 0-3 lifetime at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.

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The Russian, who had earned his place in the main draw by beating former World No. 4 Mikhail Youzhny 7-6(5) in a third set tie-break on Sunday, had Top 10 wins over David Ferrer (2014 Wimbledon) and Stan Wawrinka (2016 Miami) to his name. Berdych had previously beaten Kuznetsov 7-6(4) in a deciding set tie-break in St. Petersburg last year.

Elsewhere, Pablo Cuevas, who captured his third straight Sao Paulo title in March, cruised past 2011 quarter-finalist Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-0 in 78 minutes to break a three-match losing streak against the Serbian.

Undefeated Aljaz Bedene is experiencing a hot-streak of results on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2017, prevailing past all 15 opponents in his path. On Sunday the Brit maintained his success by clinching the Open Citta Della Disfida in Barletta, Italy, for his tour-leading third Challenger trophy of 2017.

The 7-6(4), 6-3 triumph over top seed Gastao Elias backed up his Verrazzano Open title win in France last weekend and improved his impressive record to 14-2 in Challenger finals.

“I am really pleased with the way I played the last two weeks. I have worked hard to get here,” said Bedene. “I stick to my game plan every match, my level of tennis has been consistent this year and I am trying to stay disciplined through every match, and that has brought me success on this level in 2017.”

Playing as second seed in Barletta, Bedene dropped just one set on course to lifting the trophy, adding to his 2011 and 2012 titles at the Open Citta Della Disfida. The Mediterranean country clearly appeals to Bedene, who has now accumulated seven Challenger titles in Italy.

Boom! @AljazBedene wins a second @ATPChallenger ? in a row after beating Elias 7-6, 6-3 in Barletta! #BackTheBrits ????? pic.twitter.com/EtXVDahUPD

— British Tennis (@BritishTennis) 16 April 2017

“I wouldn’t say it’s just Barletta, I am generally very successful in Italy,” joked Bedene. “I love how much the people love tennis here and of course I love the food. However, Barletta was my first Challenger title (2011), so it will always be a special one for me, different to any other.”

A renewed focus and plenty of endeavour have reaped reward for Bedene, but the 27-year-old signals out some misfortune en route to securing the BMW of Dallas Irving Tennis Classic last month for sparking his recent upturn in form.

“It didn’t start well in Irving, I twisted my foot on the Monday and played that tournament injured, but I fought really well there, which I am very proud of,” revealed Bedene. “I think I was playing well at the beginning of the year, lost some tough battles, but I think that foot sprain in Irving changed many things. I showed myself I can play if I stay disciplined, which wasn’t the case in the previous years.”

Bedene has frequently been able to practise and confide in World No. 1 Andy Murray, who was present at the Verrazzano Open to present his countryman with the trophy at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy. Murray’s relentless work ethic has inspired a change in perspective for Bedene.

“Every time I practise with Andy I learned something,” said the 27-year-old. “Just watching him play is very encouraging, he is a very hard worker and sometimes I can’t believe how hard is he working. He’s a pleasure to watch really.”

Back in November 2015 and Bedene was playing at a career-high ranking of No. 45 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. His fortnight of double Challenger titles has seen the Brit surge up 24 places to No. 69, but the Londoner is intent on building on his momentum to reach his season target of being seeded at Grand Slams.

“I have big goals for 2017, to reach the top 32 and to keep enjoying playing the game, I am playing good tennis, changed a few things in my tennis so let’s see what happens,” said Bedene. “I am enjoying it so far. I am playing great tennis at the moment, feeling fit and ready, so if I stay focused on the tasks I have to do, I will be back where I want to be.”

#NextGenATP German Alexander Zverev silenced a pro-Andreas Seppi crowd on Monday with a memorable display of power and touch to oust the experienced Italian 6-1, 6-2 in 68 minutes at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.

Zverev, the No. 14 seed, saved one break point and broke three times in the 27-minute opening set under sun-kissed skies, executing a number of fine drop shot winners from the baseline. Wild card Seppi held his nerve in a 16-point service hold for 1-1 in the second set of their first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Zverev broke Seppi in the sixth and eighth games for his 12th match win of the year, which includes the Open Sud de France crown (d. Gasquet).

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World No. 20 Zverev, who leads the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, goes on to face Feliciano Lopez or fellow #NextGenATP and Aircel Chennai Open finalist Daniil Medvedev in the second round.

Elsewhere, 22-year-old Kyle Edmund won an all-British battle against Daniel Evans 7-5, 6-1 in 80 minutes on Court des Princes. Edmund will next challenge fourth seed and nine-time champion Rafael Nadal, who has a 58-4 record at the event.

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#NextGenATP player Borna Coric has risen 30 places to return to the Top 50 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. The 20 year old clinched his first ATP World Tour title on Sunday at the Grand Prix Hassan II following a remarkable final in Marrakech against third seed Philipp Kohlschreiber. Coric, now ranked at World No. 49, stormed back from a break down in both the second and third sets, before staving off five championship points in the 5-7, 7-6(3), 7-5 triumph.

Coric now stands second in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan and is a strong contender to qualify for the inaugural #NextGenATP Finals in November. Read Marrakech Final Report.

Steve Johnson has moved up four places to No. 25 in the rankings following his title triumph on home soil in Houston at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. The fighting 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5) victory over Thomaz Bellucci in Sunday’s final captured Johnson’s second ATP World Tour singles title, with his maiden trophy coming in June 2016 on the grass court of Nottingham. The 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points edged Johnson closer to his career-high position of No. 21. Read Houston Final Report.

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Bellucci has been rewarded for his determined run in Houston by moving up 12 places to World No.53 in the rankings. The Brazilian won four three-set matches en route to the final, but he was narrowly edged from claiming his fifth ATP World Tour title and first since Geneva in May 2015.

Stellar performances on the ATP Challenger Tour have continued Aljaz Bedene’s sharp rise up the rankings. The Brit moves up seven places to No. 69 courtesy of a tour-leading third Challenger title in 2017. The 27 year old won 7-6(4), 6-3 against top seed Gastao Elias to land his third Open Citta Della Disfida trophy to remain undefeated in 15 ATP Challenger Tour matches this season.

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Ernesto Escobedo is another #NextGenATP player on the rise. The American launched up 18 places up to No. 73 in the latest rankings on Monday. The 20 year old reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final in Houston (l. Bellucci), prevailing in a three-hour, three tie-break marathon quarter-final against second seed John Isner. Escobedo was ranked outside of the Top 300 just 12 months ago but his strong start to 2017 has moved the American to No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan.

Gastao Elias moves up nine places to World No. 88 having reached his first ATP Challenger Tour final of the season in Barletta (l. Bedene).

It has been 14 years since Rafael Nadal first set foot on the hallowed grounds of the Monte-Carlo Country Club. 

A precocious 16 year old with immense promise, Nadal would notch his first Top 10 win over countryman Albert Costa in 2003, before falling to Guillermo Coria in the third round, but that was just the beginning of a reign that sent shockwaves throughout the ATP World Tour for years to come. The Spaniard would return to the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters two years later and proceeded to exact revenge on Coria in the final – his first of eight consecutive titles in the Principality.

Nadal has fond memories from his tenure at the prestigious Masters 1000 event.

“Everything was new for me in that moment,” said Nadal. “It was the first big tournament that I played. I started to play Challengers at that time and won the title in Barletta before coming here. So I had a lot of confidence. I played against players that I knew very well from those Challengers. 

“I remember I played against Kucera in the first round, my first time here. And then [beating] Albert gave me great feelings. I had nothing to lose and everything to win. There was a lot of adrenaline and that was an important moment for me. After that I cracked the Top 100, which allowed me to play on the ATP World Tour for the rest of the season.”

Nadal returns to Monte-Carlo as the defending champion after downing Gael Monfils for his ninth title last year. He is bidding to become the first player to lift 10 trophies at a single tournament in the Open Era. And with Roger Federer taking a break, No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Race To London is well within his grasp as he embarks on his favourite time of year – the clay-court season.

Records aside, Nadal says he finds motivation in kicking off another clay campaign. Following a runner-up finish ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Miami, momentum is at the Spaniard’s back.

“This is an important event. It’s one of my favourite events of the year without a doubt. Monte-Carlo is unique for me. I’m trying to work as much as I can to be ready for the competition and adjust my game again to clay.

“I am excited to be here. I started slow to adapt to the clay, hitting for 45 minutes, then one hour and one hour and 30 minutes for the first few days. I did what I needed to avoid the risk for injuries. With more practise, I remind myself how to win the points, how to defend and how to move. It’s a process. Things are not that easy. It takes time. I decided to not play on clay in February this year so it’s a little different.”

Nadal will open his quest for No. 10 against a Brit – Kyle Edmund or Daniel Evans. A third-round clash against #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev looms large, as does a potential quarter-final match-up versus eighth seed Grigor Dimitrov.

“I am happy playing tennis now. When I don’t have injuries and am competitive, I am happy and enjoy it more than winning titles. I am working to try to keep having these feelings in the coming months.”

It’s clay-court season! ?

Last year @RafaelNadal won a NINTH @MCROLEXMASTERS title – will it be the big 1️⃣0️⃣ in 2017?#mondaymotivation pic.twitter.com/YacRV7sACG

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 10, 2017

The ATP World Tour hasn’t existed without Mark Darby. Literally. Darby has been an ATP supervisor since 1990, the first season of the tour.

But after more than 27 years of traveling the globe and making sure tournaments and players follow the rules, Darby will retire from the ATP World Tour to spend more time with his family, including his wife and his 14-year-old triplets. The Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston was his final tournament. Darby was honoured on Saturday during an on-court ceremony.

Asked what he’ll miss the most, Darby said the countless number of good people he’s worked with during his career. “As in a lot of jobs, I think it’s more the people you meet than it is necessarily the job itself,” Darby told ATPWorldTour.com on Sunday evening.

Houston was the latest tournament in what has been a lifetime of tennis for Darby. As a kid growing up outside of Pittsburgh, he became interested in the sport because his mother played. She dragged him to the tennis court with her, and pretty soon Darby was playing as well. He turned out to be pretty good.

Darby was a talented junior player in Pennsylvania and went on to play at Penn State University, eventually representing the Nittany Lions in the NCAA singles tournament. Darby remains in seventh place on the school’s all-time match wins list.

He worked as an official for the U.S. Tennis Association before joining the ATP World Tour. Darby is also a member of the USTA Middle States Hall of Fame. After decades of traveling, he has accumulated quite a few stories and some favourites along the way.

Favourite tournament?
“Newport, Rhode Island. It’s a 250-level event… The atmosphere at Newport I think is so good for the spectators and I think the players enjoy going there,” Darby said. “I think it had a certain charm to it. There are a lot of events around the globe that do such a wonderful job. If I had to pick one that would be it.”

Most unusual incident you had to rule on?
“In 1994, centre court at the New Haven, Connecticut, tournament had received so much rain that it started to crumble. The tournament had to resurface centre court on Tuesday night and let it dry all night before play resumed on it on Wednesday morning,” Darby said. “We even brought in a helicopter to help blow the lines… That’s probably as unusual of a case as I’ve ever had… I’m glad we didn’t ever top that one.”

What are you looking forward to most about retired life?
“The thing I’m most looking forward to is being at home every day with my kids and not going somewhere and maybe missing some activity that they’re involved in,” Darby said.

He won’t be completely out of tennis, though. As of now, he still plans to work as the referee at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

Fourth seeds Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos won their fourth ATP World Tour team doubles title on Sunday, holding off the first-time pairing of Dustin Brown and Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 7-5, 10-6 to take the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston.

Peralta of Chile and Zeballos of Argentina saved 10 of 12 break points in the one-hour and 37-minute final. The champions won the final four points of the Match Tie-break to claim their first championship trophy of the season.

The South American pairing also played in the Quito final earlier this year (l. to Cerretani/Oswald). Peralta/Zeballos won all three of their other team crowns last season – Sao Paulo, Gstaad and Metz. The team will receive 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and split $29,010 in prize money.

The wild-card pairing of Brown/Tiafoe reached the final during their first week as a team, a stretch highlighted by their opening-round victory against No. 2 seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah. Brown was going for his third ATP World Tour doubles title; Tiafoe, his first overall crown.

The #NextGenATP 19 year old was playing in his first ATP World Tour final. The German/American pairing will receive 150 Emirates ATP Rankings Points and split $15,250 in prize money.

The doubles field at this week’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters is not only stacked with all the top doubles players on the ATP World Tour, but also many of the world’s best singles players.

Stan Wawrinka prevailed in his first-round match with Fabio Fognini on Sunday by ousting the veteran team of Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 6-4, 7-6(2). Their path won’t get any easier as second seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut await in the next round.

Two-time Monte-Carlo singles champion Novak Djokovic teams up with fellow Serbian Viktor Troicki and will open against Gilles Muller and Gilles Simon. Djokovic/Troicki ousted Herbert/Mahut en route to a quarter-final finish last month at the BNP Paribas Open. Should they win their first match in Monte-Carlo, they’ll have another high-profile battle on their hands against top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers.

In a battle of doubles teams that pair youth and experience, brothers Mischa Zverev and Alexander Zverev will take on Philipp Kohlschreiber and Dominic Thiem. The winner of that match will move on to play fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo. 

Other attractive first-round doubles matches include Marin Cilic and Philipp Petzschner squaring off against Florin Mergea and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, wild cards Grigor Dimitrov and Nenad Zimonjic facing French duo Benoit Paire and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, and Tommy Haas and Treat Huey taking on another French duo in Julien Benneteau and Lucas Pouille.