In his 22^nd season on tour, Belarusian Max Mirnyi is still celebrating career milestones. On Tuesday, the 40-year-old ATP World Tour legend became the fourth active player in the Open Era (since April 1968) to record 750 doubles match wins.

Mirnyi partnered with Philipp Oswald of Austria to beat Chinese wild cards Mao-Xin Gong and Ze Zhang 7-6(5), 6-1 and advance to the second round of the Shenzhen Open.

“I am thrilled that I have come to this stage of my career. It is something that I couldn’t have imagined at the beginning of the road,” said Mirnyi, who turned professional in 1996. “Just playing on the ATP World Tour was already a dream come true and I am so glad that this dream for me still lives on. I want to take this opportunity to thank my family, my coaches and every one of my doubles partners who helped me achieve this feat.”

Open Era Doubles Match Wins List

Mirnyi, who earned the nickname “The Beast” years ago for his 6’5” stature and fearless play, has had success with a number of partners throughout his career.

In 2004, he won three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles with Mahesh Bhupathi and one with a certain Swiss player by the name of Roger Federer. Three years later, Mirnyi partnered with Jonas Bjorkman, who now coaches Croatian Marin Cilic, and captured seven titles, including three Masters 1000 crowns, the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals and Roland Garros.

Just last year, Mirnyi and Treat Huey of the Philippines won the Acapulco doubles title and qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals in London, the 10^th time Mirnyi has competed at the prestigious event. For his career, the right-hander has won 49 tour-level doubles titles, including 16 Masters 1000 crowns and six Grand Slam titles, with 18 different partners.

Rafael Nadal is this week practising in Mallorca to prepare for the final stage of the season, which will include attempts to secure the year-end No. 1 spot in the Emirates ATP Rankings and his first Nitto ATP Finals title. Before he heads off to Asia, where he will play in Beijing (beginning 2 October) and Shanghai, the 16-time Grand Slam champion talked to the Spanish newspaper EL ESPAÑOL.

Nadal has achieved almost everything he could over what has been a successful decade, so how does the Spaniard remain so humble and grounded? Nadal, of course, has a clear answer.

“It’s related to your background, the place where you come from, the people who surround you and the education you have received,” said Nadal. “I grew up in a very normal environment and I still live this way. If I didn’t get a big head being 19, when all of a sudden everything happened and could go to my head, it won’t happen now when I am 31.”

Nadal has tried to maintain a modest attitude throughout his career, even after winning 30 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles and 16 majors.

“I am a normal and a common person. I do not see myself as a role model of anything,” explained Nadal. “I am a guy who plays tennis well. Things have worked out great, but I took it as something normal, as my family and people around me did. I have tried to have the right attitude on and off the court. But I make mistakes like everyone else. I am not the perfect son.”

Nadal, who has suffered multiple injuries over the past two years, has been healthy this season. It has been as perfect a year as he could have hoped for thus far.

“Seriously, I don’t want to talk about pain,” said Nadal. “I don’t like to talk about it. I try to manage everything the best way possible, the better I can. My goal is to finish the season healthy and then see if we can improve things for 2018. Today I am focused on what I have to do now: play well during the Asian swing and try to get ready for the last part of the season. That’s the only important thing for me right now.”

The addition of Carlos Moyà to the team has had a great impact on his success, says the World No. 1.“Carlos has been a great support,” said Nadal. “He came with excitement and also the belief that with a few things, I could improve my results. And it has helped. It has been a breath of fresh air, positive energy. We have changed the way we practise and for Toni (Nadal) it has been also good.” 

Nadal says that while it is sometimes difficult to change practices after doing them the same way for a long stretch, Moya has made it easy.

“When you have the same routine for years it’s difficult to change,” said Nadal. “Carlos has been someone new who arrived in Mallorca to our daily practice sessions with new ideas, more specific ones. When someone new arrives, it’s easier to listen because it’s something different. And for Toni, having Carlos’ reinforcement when he had to talk to me, has made everything much easier. They have been a great team and I am very satisfied with their job, with the three of them.” 

Nadal doesn’t rule out the option of playing doubles alongside Moyà, something he did with one of his other coaches, Francisco Roig, in the past.

“If Carlos is healthy we could play and be competitive,” said Nadal. “We’ll see. Depends on the schedule. I play a few tournaments when it comes to doubles, only when I think it will help me in singles. Normally I play at the beginning of the season or at a specific tournament.”

Does Nadal, who won Grand Slam No. 16 just weeks ago, think about the possibility of surpassing Roger’s Federer record of 19?

“Honestly, no,” answered Nadal. “To me, reaching the No. 1 place was not a goal and now could be a goal to finish the season up there after everything that has happened. Federer’s record? Now it’s not a challenge nor a goal. If there are options in the future, then it would be. I am happy with what I do, I am focused on my career and I don’t worry about the other ones.”

Lastly, Nadal addressed the possibility of becoming a coach in the future.

“I don’t know if I would be a good coach or not,” admitted Nadal. “I don’t think about it, but I won’t say no because there were a lot players who said that they wouldn’t become coaches and here they are. I can see myself in the academy helping kids every day, playing with them. In five or 10 years, we’ll see what happens.”

Fifth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov continued his return to form Tuesday, dropping just six points on serve en route to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over qualifier Lloyd Harris at the Shenzhen Open.

Dolgopolov, who is nearing the Top 50 of the Emirates ATP Rankings once again after falling to No. 89 in May — his lowest ranking since 2010 — did not face a break point in dispatching his South African opponent in 63 minutes.

The Ukrainian dropped just one point in his first three service games to sprint to a 4-1 lead and would never look back. Dolgopolov hit 11 aces to help secure the victory and a matchup with compatriot Sergiy Stakhovsky, who defeated Nicolas Kicker in straight sets.

Henri Laaksonen earned the upset of the day, taking just 68 minutes to upend seventh-seeded Joao Sousa, 6-3, 6-0. It was the second-best win of the Swiss’ career by ranking, after beating World No. 29 Pablo Cuevas in Bastad earlier this year.

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Laaksonen’s toughest moment came when facing break point at 3-3 in the opening set. After nullifying the World No. 107’s opportunity, he held and would not lose another game.

Zhizhen Zhang won his second ATP World Tour match, and his second at the Shenzhen Open in three years, as the 20-year-old qualifier beat Rogerio Dutra Silva, 6-4, 6-1.

Eighth-seeded Donald Young eliminated 17-year-old wild card Nicola Kuhn, who was making his ATP World Tour debut and attempting to become the first player born in the 21st century to win a tour-level match, 7-5, 7-6(4).

Second-seeded David Goffin will begin his campaign Wednesday, while #NextGenATP World No. 4 Alexander Zverev will play his first-round doubles match with Marcelo Melo against Hans Podlipnik-Castillo and Andrei Vasilevski.

Mirnyi’s Milestone Doubles Win

Max Mirnyi became only the fifth player in the Open Era (since April 1968) to record 750 doubles match wins on Tuesday afternoon when he partnered Philipp Oswald to a 7-6(5), 6-1 victory over Chinese wild card Mao-Xin Gong and Ze Zhang. Todd Woodbridge (782), Bob Bryan (1,038), Mike Bryan (1,052) and Daniel Nestor (1,054) stand ahead of the Belarusian in the Open Era doubles match wins list.

Sixth-seeded Briton Kyle Edmund struck nine aces and lost just two of his first-service points to beat Australian Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-2 in 62 minutes on Tuesday at the Chengdu Open. Tomic has played just once (US Open) since a Wimbledon first-round exit on 4 July. Edmund will now challenge #NextGenATP American Jared Donaldson in the second round.

Serbian Dusan Lajovic set up a second-round encounter against second seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas after he beat another Spaniard, qualifier Adrian Menendez-Maceiras, 6-3, 7-6(3) in 75 minutes. Elsewhere, Yen-Hsun Lu, a winner of a record 29 ATP Challenger Tour titles, defeated Swede Mikael Ymer 6-2, 6-3 and now plays fourth seed and this season’s Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag champion Andrey Rublev of Russia.

Uzbekistani Denis Istomin converted one of his 13 break point opportunities to beat Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-3, 7-6(3) in one hour and 46 minutes. He now faces #NextGenATP Russian third seed Karen Khachanov, who joined Americans Jared Donaldson and Taylor Fritz on Tuesday for a visit to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

Argentine Guido Pella, a finalist at the BMW Open by FWU in Munich earlier this year, saved all three break points to beat #NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric 6-4, 7-6(2). Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, who lost in the Moselle Open semi-finals (l. to Paire) last week, beat seventh seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 and now faces Fritz. 

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Three #NextGenATP players, Karen Khachanov, Jared Donaldson and Taylor Fritz, all visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

The trio, who are competing at the Chengdu Open, saw giant baby and red pandas during their morning trip and were definitely smitten by the cuddly animals, especially Donaldson, who came prepared with a variety of panda trivia.

“Did you know that China owns the rights to every panda in the world, except two? Those two are in Mexico,” said Donaldson. “My mum would be very happy that I got this opportunity to go out and see the pandas.”

Fritz said, “We got to see all kinds of pandas and it’s really cool to see what Chengdu is famous for. We travel so much, so we need to be able to go out and explore a bit.”

Khachanov said, “I really enjoyed this trip, it’s nice to see something outside of the tournament and spend some time with the locals and off the court. We’re really thankful for this. The panda is my favourite animal now!”