Who needs shoelaces to win an ATP World Tour quarter-final?

Greek #NextGenATP star Stefanos Tsitsipas was up against a motivated World No. 10 David Goffin in Antwerp, with the in-form top seed battling for a spot in the Nitto ATP Finals in November. Tsitsipas’ shoelaces on his left sneaker broke from sliding, and by the end of the second set his replacement set did as well. It was no problem for the 19 year old, who had never been in an ATP World Tour quarter-final, and has qualified at his past five tour-level events. He borrowed his father’s laces and went on to defeat Goffin, 2-6, 7-6(1), 7-6(4) in two hours, 33 minutes at the European Open on Friday.

“I felt really happy that I could play this way. It’s a very important victory for me today,” said Tsitsipas, who has high hopes for the rest of the week and his future. “Keep my level at the level I was playing today, maybe even better and things will come. They come with time.”

It was Tsitsipas’ first victory over a Top 10 player in the Emirates ATP Rankings after claiming his first ATP World Tour win just last week at the Shanghai Rolex Masters (d. Khachanov).

The 6’4” rising star maintained his hopes of qualifying for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals, moving from No. 13 at the beginning of the week to the No. 10 spot with 547 points. If Tsitsipas goes on to claim his first ATP World Tour title, he will sit in ninth, 65 points behind No. 7 Daniil Medvedev, who currently occupies the final automatic qualifying spot in the Race.

It was a tough blow for Goffin, who is in a battle to earn his London spot. The Belgian, who won back-to-back titles at the Shenzhen Open and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017, is eighth in the Race with 2,750 points. And while he currently would be the seventh player to qualify because No. 7 Stan Wawrinka is out for the season due to injury, No. 9 Pablo Carreno Busta, No. 11 Sam Querrey and No. 12 Kevin Anderson are all within 300 points.

Goffin had three break chances in the 16-point third game of the second set to gain what would have been a break, but he could not convert. And while Tsitsipas failed to serve out the match twice — at 5-4 and 6-5 in the decider — he triumphed on his first match point in the final-set tie-break.

Tsitsipas will play fourth seed Diego Schwartzman, who beat fifth seed David Ferrer, 7-5, 6-2. 

In the other half of the draw, No. 2 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga continued his pursuit of a fourth title (Rotterdam, Marseille, Lyon) this season by defeating compatriot Julien Benneteau, 7-6(5), 6-2.

It was Tsonga’s third win in his past four tries against Benneteau, after not playing his fellow Frenchman since losing to him at the BNP Paribas Open in 2014. Nine of 12 points in the tie-break went to the returner, and Tsonga carried the momentum of winning it into the second set, breaking twice to advance to his fifth semi-final of the season.

Tsonga will play an opponent he has never faced in the final Belgian remaining in the draw, Ruben Bemelmans, who clawed past Joao Sousa, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4.

Welcome to the 2017 ATP World Tour Awards Presented by Moët & Chandon, where we recognise outstanding players and tournaments. View the nominees for the player-voted categories and cast your votes now for ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon. 

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and No. 2 Roger Federer are both up for two player-voted categories: the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award and Comeback Player of the Year. Federer has won the Sportsmanship award every year since 2004, with the exception of 2010, when the honours went to Nadal. Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro round out the nominees in this category.

This year’s Comeback Player of the Year category features a total of six nominees. In addition to Nadal and Federer, who have combined to win the four Grand Slams and five Masters 1000 titles this season, the nominees include Kevin Anderson, Filip Krajinovic, Cedrik-Marcel Stebe and Janko Tipsarevic. Nadal claimed Comeback Player of the Year honours in 2013, and is the only player to have won each of the player-voted categories (2005 Most Improved, 2003 Newcomer of the Year).

Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, who broke into the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings this past September, and three #NextGenATP players – Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov – are the candidates in the running for Most Improved Player of the Year. Zverev, a winner of two Masters 1000 titles this season, and Umag titlist Rublev were the first two players to qualify for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held from 7-11 November in Milan.

The 18-year-old Shapovalov is a leading contender for ATP Star Of Tomorrow Presented by Emirates, which is awarded to the youngest player to finish in the Top 100.* The World No. 50 made his big breakthrough this summer, when he reached the Coupe Rogers semi-finals on home soil, and followed with a US Open fourth-round run as a qualifier. His fellow Canadian, 17-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime, also has a chance, but would need to lift his current No. 153 Emirates ATP Ranking into the Top 100 to edge Shapovalov.

Winners for the 2017 ATP World Tour Awards Presented by Moët & Chandon will be announced ahead of the Nitto ATP Finals.

Voted By Fans

ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon (Singles, Doubles): The singles player and doubles team receiving the highest number of votes from ATPWorldTour.com fans from now through 6 November.

Note: Fans’ Favourite candidates are the Top 25 players in the Emirates ATP Race To London and Top 15 teams in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London as of 11 September 2017.

Determined By Emirates ATP Rankings 

ATP World Tour No. 1 Presented by Emirates: The player who ends the year as World No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

ATP World Tour No. 1 Doubles Team Presented by Emirates: The team that ends the year as World No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings.

ATP Star Of Tomorrow Presented by Emirates: The youngest player in the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings as of 6 November 2017. *If two or more players in the Top 100 share the youngest birth year, the higher-ranked player wins the award.

Voted By Players

Comeback Player of the Year: The player who has overcome serious injury in re-establishing himself as one of the top players on the ATP World Tour.
Kevin Anderson
Roger Federer
Filip Krajinovic
Rafael Nadal
Cedrik-Marcel Stebe
Janko Tipsarevic 

Most Improved Player of the Year: The player who reached a significantly higher Emirates ATP Ranking by year’s end and who demonstrated an increasingly improved level of performance through the year.
Pablo Carreno Busta
Andrey Rublev
Denis Shapovalov
Alexander Zverev 

Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award: The player who, throughout the year, conducted himself at the highest level of professionalism and integrity, who competed with his fellow players with the utmost spirit of fairness and who promoted the game through his off-court activities.
Marin Cilic
Juan Martin del Potro
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal 

Tournaments of the Year: The tournament in its category that operated at the highest level of professionalism and integrity and which provided the best conditions and atmosphere for participating players.

Categories:
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
ATP World Tour 500
ATP World Tour 250 

Voted By Coaches

ATP Coach of the Year: Voted on by fellow ATP coach members, this award goes to the ATP coach who helped guide his players to a higher level of performance during the year. Nominees to be announced on 30 October.

Chosen By ATP

Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award: The person who has made outstanding humanitarian contributions. Previous winners include former South African President Nelson Mandela, Arthur Ashe, Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and 2016 recipient Cilic.

Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award: The journalist who has made significant contributions to the game of tennis.

While #NextGenATP Daniil Medvedev did well in Moscow to move into the final qualifying position in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, the story of the week took over at the VTB Kremlin Cup, a tournament Bosnian tennis fans will not soon forget.

With two Bosnians in an ATP World Tour quarter-final at the same tournament for the first time, the nation’s duo went one better, with qualifier Mirza Basic and sixth seed Damir Dzumhur both advancing to the semi-finals.

Basic, playing in his first ATP World Tour quarter-final, beat 21-year-old Russian Medvedev, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to advance to his first semi-final in one hour and 41 minutes.

The Bosnian, who is at No. 209 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, had not played an ATP World Tour main draw match this season before arriving in Moscow, and has made the most of the opportunity. Despite losing the first set in just 30 minutes and falling behind a break in the second set, Basic would not be denied. The 26-year-old won 10 of the final 11 games to capture his fifth win of the week.

If that victory wasn’t enough, Dzumhur guaranteed that a Bosnian would reach the final by setting up a clash against his Davis Cup teammate, also coming back from a set down to defeat ATP World Tour veteran Andreas Seppi, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

“I was playing good,” Dzumhur said. “It’s always tricky in three sets, it could go both ways. It just seems like I’m a little bit more fit mentally here in Moscow…everything is good. Today was a really tough match from the beginning.”

The first two Bosnians to compete in the main draw of a Grand Slam have played three times on the ITF Futures Circuit, with Dzumhur winning on two of three occasions. The favoured World No. 38 is seeking the second title of his career, after capturing glory for the first time at the St. Petersburg Open last month.

On the other half of the draw, the top seed remaining, No. 3 Adrian Mannarino, overcame a game Dudi Sela, 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-2 in just over two hours. The Frenchman will have an opportunity to reach his third final of the year and his fifth overall, as the left-hander is still in pursuit of his first ATP World Tour title. The World No. 29 will play Ricardas Berankis, who battled past #NextGenATP Alexander Bublik, 7-5, 6-1. Mannarino beat Berankis in straight sets at this year’s US Open.

The sixth time was the charm for Nitto ATP Finals contender Grigor Dimitrov, who took six match points to defeat veteran left-hander Mischa Zverev, 6-3, 6-4 at the Intrum Stockholm Open on Friday, moving closer to securing his spot at The O2 in London.

“Very happy with it. It’s nice to get through that match in straight sets,” Dimitrov said. “I knew it was not going to be easy but at the same time I thought I kept a very good intensity throughout the whole match.”

Dimitrov, still No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, now has 3,500 points, moving to within 35 points of No. 5 Marin Cilic, who is not in action this week. The 26-year-old, who is into his seventh tour-level semi-final of the season, will move into fifth place in the Race if he advances to the final.

While it took six chances to close out the victory, Dimitrov showed calm under pressure against the serve-and-volleying left-hander, hitting tough passing shots in key moments to claim the advantage that allowed him to get through.

As Zverev served at 2-3 in the first set, facing a 15/40 deficit, Dimitrov stabbed at a backhand return crosscourt, forcing the German to miss a backhand volley and concede the break. The top seed faced little trouble in closing out the set. And after the left-hander could not handle a ball that skipped off the baseline at 3-3, 30/30 in the second set, Dimitrov fought off a jamming second serve with a forehand return that Zverev volleyed into the net to gain the break advantage.

While the 2013 champion could not capitalise on his first five match points on Zverev’s serve, he served out the match, eliminating the veteran with a backhand volley.

The Bulgarian will next face sixth seed Fabio Fognini, who saved two match points to outlast third seed Jack Sock 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 7-5 in a back-and-forth two-hour, 51-minute marathon.

Fognini, who is attempting to claim his second title of the season (Gstaad, d. Hanfmann), advanced to his fifth semi-final of the year.

After breaking immediately in the third set and holding to go up 2-0, it appeared that the Italian was in control against his higher-ranked opponent. But the American took advantage of a frustrated Fognini to break back in a 14-point game to level the deciding set at 3-3.The 30-year-old faced two match points on his serve at 4-5, but was able to survive and broke in the next game as Sock failed to put a first serve in play.

He had no problem with this break of serve, closing out the match at love when Sock dumped a return into the net.

Throughout the battle, it was a matter of whether or not Fognini would be able to survive an onslaught of the American’s forehands to take control of points himself. And in the key moments, it was Fognini who found opportunities to turn defense into offense with a dazzling display of shotmaking.

Dimitrov leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Fognini 3-2, with the Italian winning their last match on home turf at the Internazionali BNL D’Italia in 2015.

Nick Kyrgios announced on Twitter Thursday that he would skip the rest of the season to help aid his recovery from injury and best prepare for the 2018 season on the ATP World Tour.

Here’s an update guys. #SeeYouIn2018 ❤️?? pic.twitter.com/oSoNsTXGCW

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 19, 2017

“Unfortunately due to the reoccurrence of my hip injury that I originally suffered at Queen’s [Club], I am shutting down my season to make sure I can rehab and prepare as best as I possibly can for the Australian summer,” Kyrgios wrote. “I have played a huge amount of tennis since coming back from my hip injury in Washington and unless I want this to escalate to an injury that requires surgery, I need to listen to my body and my team.”

Nevertheless, it was a successful season for the 22-year-old Australian, who earned his 100th tour-level win at the Western & Southern Open against Rafael Nadal. Kyrgios also triumphed four times against players ranked inside the Top 5 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, beating then-World No. 2 Novak Djokovic twice, at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel and the BNP Paribas Open.

The right-hander advanced to two ATP World Tour finals in 2017, at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (l. to Dimitrov) and the China Open in Beijing (l. to Nadal), winning 31 matches on the season.

“I will do all I can to improve for 2018 and I would like to thank all of you who supported me, reached out and sent encouragement and positive energy through 2017,” Kyrgios wrote. “Thank you, and see you in 2018.”

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut will attempt to earn their first Nitto ATP Finals trophy when they arrive at The O2 for the third time this November. The Frenchmen join Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo, defending champions Henri Kontinen/John Peers, 2015 winners Jean-Julien Rojer/Horia Tecau, Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares, four-time season finale champions Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan and Roland Garros winners Ryan Harrison/Michael Venus in the 2017 field.

Herbert and Mahut qualified for the event, to be held from 12-19 November, for the third year in a row, and are seeking their first appearance in the semi-finals.

The Frenchmen won at least two titles for the third consecutive year in 2017, with each of the victories coming at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event — the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, the Coupe Rogers in Montreal and the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. The duo leads the tour in Masters 1000 triumphs this season, and their three in 2017 have lifted their overall Masters 1000 trophy count to six.

Mahut became the first Frenchman to finish No. 1 in the year-end Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings last season, with Herbert right behind him at No. 2.

One spot remains up for grabs in the doubles field with one month to go until the season finale. Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram currently sit in eighth place in the Emirates ATP Race To London with 3,020 points. Marcel Granollers and Ivan Dodig are right behind them with 2,945 points in the No. 9 slot.