It appeared that fifth-seeded Jared Donaldson was ready to play spoiler on the final day of round-robin play at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals.

But Russian Daniil Medvedev, after overcoming a strong start by the American and his dominating forehand, kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals, defeating Donaldson 3-4(3), 4-2, 4-3(1), 4-0.

“It was a very tough match. Jared had nothing to lose at all, played amazing the first couple of sets. I managed to halt this, it was very tough,” Medvedev said. “I’m happy with my win and I hope to be through to the semis.”

The Russian will now have to watch the evening match between fellow group members Borna Coric (2-0) and Karen Khachanov (1-1). Depending on the result and scoreline of that battle, Medvedev could advance to Friday’s semi-finals. His easiest path there would be for Coric to defeat Khachanov, regardless of the score.

If Khachanov wins, but needs five sets to do so, Medvedev will sneak in as the second semi-finalist from Group B. Since Medvedev took more than three sets to beat Donaldson, Coric has officially qualified for the semi-finals.

“It’s going to be tough. I’m going to watch the match and unfortunately today I think I will support Borna,” Medvedev joked, as he is good friends with Khachanov. “I’m a very calm person in life but when it’s something about winning or sports, I’m crazy… I’m sure I’m going to get crazy tonight in front of the TV.”

For a while, it looked like he might be out of luck, as Donaldson was impressive in the early going. The American dictated play consistently throughout the first set with his forehand, and seemed to be playing more freely compared to his first two matches this week. He saved the sole break point he faced in the first set before cruising in the ensuing tie-break.

However, Medvedev steadied the ship with a break in the third game of the second set. From there, he began to force more errors from Donaldson and was able to avoid being completely on the back foot.

The Russian had a blip in the third set, as Donaldson played a strong game to even affairs after falling behind an early break. But Medvedev stormed to a 5/0 lead in the tie-break and never looked back, putting himself in a position to possibly advance to the last four.

It appeared that fifth-seeded Jared Donaldson was ready to play spoiler on the final day of round-robin play at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals.

But Russian Daniil Medvedev, after overcoming a strong start by the American and his dominating forehand, kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals, defeating Donaldson 3-4(3), 4-2, 4-3(1), 4-0.

“It was a very tough match. Jared had nothing to lose at all, played amazing the first couple of sets. I managed to halt this, it was very tough,” Medvedev said. “I’m happy with my win and I hope to be through to the semis.”

The Russian will now have to watch the evening match between fellow group members Borna Coric (2-0) and Karen Khachanov (1-1). Depending on the result and scoreline of that battle, Medvedev could advance to Friday’s semi-finals. His easiest path there would be for Coric to defeat Khachanov, regardless of the score.

If Khachanov wins, but needs five sets to do so, Medvedev will sneak in as the second semi-finalist from Group B. Since Medvedev took more than three sets to beat Donaldson, Coric has officially qualified for the semi-finals.

“It’s going to be tough. I’m going to watch the match and unfortunately today I think I will support Borna,” Medvedev joked, as he is good friends with Khachanov. “I’m a very calm person in life but when it’s something about winning or sports, I’m crazy… I’m sure I’m going to get crazy tonight in front of the TV.”

For a while, it looked like he might be out of luck, as Donaldson was impressive in the early going. The American dictated play consistently throughout the first set with his forehand, and seemed to be playing more freely compared to his first two matches this week. He saved the sole break point he faced in the first set before cruising in the ensuing tie-break.

However, Medvedev steadied the ship with a break in the third game of the second set. From there, he began to force more errors from Donaldson and was able to avoid being completely on the back foot.

The Russian had a blip in the third set, as Donaldson played a strong game to even affairs after falling behind an early break. But Medvedev stormed to a 5/0 lead in the tie-break and never looked back, putting himself in a position to possibly advance to the last four.

Hyeon Chung was one of the last players to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. But heading into the semi-final stage, the South Korean will be one of the clear favourites to win the inaugural tournament this weekend.

The sixth seed finished off a perfect 3-0 round-robin stage on Thursday, battling past Italian wild card Gianluigi Quinzi 1-4, 4-1, 4-2, 3-4(6), 4-3(3) to carry three days’ worth of momentum into the final stretch, when Chung will try to win his first ATP World Tour title.

“I’m just really looking forward to tomorrow,” Chung said.

The 21-year-old reached the semi-finals at the BMW Open by FWU in Munich earlier this year (l. to Pella). Chung, the Group A champion, is off to the best start of any of his #NextGenATP peers. Croatia’s Borna Coric, the only other undefeated finalist, will put his 2-0 round-robin record on the line Thursday evening when he faces second seed Karen Khachanov of Russia.

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Quinzi, though, didn’t make it easy for Chung. The Italian had won both of their prior junior meetings, on clay in Milan in 2012 and in the 2013 Wimbledon boys’ singles final. And Quinzi started full of confidence as the South Korean struggled to get going. Chung double faulted twice in his first service game and was broken to 30.

But the sixth seed loosened up after the first set and was overpowering the wild card. It looked as if Chung he would finish it in four.

Quinzi, however, wasn’t yet done in Milan. With the home crowd behind him, he fought back, saving a match point at 2-3, 40/40 in the fourth set to force a decider. The Italian saved another match point at 2-3, 40/40 in the fifth set before Chung advanced.

“It was a great hounor to play Gianluigi again,” Chung said.

Quinzi, who received a wild card for winning the Italian 21-and-under qualifying tournament last weekend, finishes 0-3 in Milan. But the World No. 305, having played against the best 21-and-under players in the world, will know what needs to be done if he wants to reach the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings and check off his other goals in the coming years.

There were times when the 2017 season seemed like it could have been a highlights reel taken from Rafael Nadal’s long, unparalleled career. There was Nadal performing his elaborate ritual of tics and tucks, preparing to serve. Nadal, deep in the backcourt, his body torqued and poised, about to uncoil a forehand. Nadal, battling his great rival, Roger Federer, in the final at the Australian Open, in Indian Wells, in Miami, in Shanghai. 

Nadal, hair matted with sweat, clothes streaked with clay, eyes creased into a smile, nibbling trophies in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and Roland Garros. On the hard courts of the US Open and Beijing, too. Nadal becoming the No.1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. 

It was all so familiar that each image could be taken for granted – just as, a year ago, it was taken for granted that Nadal was in an inevitable and inexorable decline. At the end of 2016, Nadal had seemed a broken man, frequently injured and too often unnerved. His forehand was landing short, rebounding without its usual bite. His serve was weaker, his movement a microsecond slower. He lost matches that, in the past, he would have pulled out, and he barely won matches that, in the past, he would have won in a rout. He missed long stretches with injury. 

Of course, he was still one of the best players in the world, still capable of astonishing feats. He could reach ungettable shots and turn them into his own freakish winners. He could grind opponents down and finish them off with a vicious thrust. But the big wins came more rarely and he finished 2016 at No. 9. He seemed to be fading, if not gone.

But Nadal takes nothing for granted. It is the source of his genius – as important to his success as his revolutionary, lefty, hooking forehand, his uncanny anticipation and his impeccable footwork. He begins every service, whether the first of a tournament or the last, with the same pattern of gestures. He hits every ball, whether defending or attacking, with the same level of intensity. He approaches every match with the same focus and determination, whether he is playing against Federer or a random qualifier. 

He treats every tournament just the same. After winning the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at Monte-Carlo for an unprecedented 10th time, he was asked if Roland Garros was the next step. “The next step is not Roland Garros,” he answered. “The next step is Barcelona. That’s the real thing. Today is a good start of the clay-court season, but I never take Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Rome, Madrid like a preparation for one tournament. These tournaments are so important in themselves.” That is the kind of statement that every player makes but only Nadal seems to truly believe. 

He would go on from Monte-Carlo to win his 10th title in Barcelona, his fifth Madrid Open title – the 30th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title of his career, tying Novak Djokovic for the all-time record – and his 10th Roland Garros title. He seemed to be playing at another level from everyone else, dropping only one match the entire clay-court season, to Dominic Thiem in Rome. (He would go on to avenge that loss, crushing Thiem at Roland Garros.) It was one of the best clay-court seasons that the best clay player of all time had ever had. 

And Nadal wasn’t done. By August, during the hard-court season, he had become the No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the fourth time in his career – a feat that not so long ago many had thought impossible, given his physical state and the landscape of the game. At the US Open, he stretched his lead in the Emirates ATP Rankings, winning that title with apparent ease, though always insisting on the difficulty of every match. Nothing for granted, from first ball to last. 

And in fact, once you get past the similarities between this season and seasons past, you will see that this is, in some significant ways, a changed Nadal. He is 31 years old now, which shows in the creases around the eyes, and perhaps in the occasional bafflement when a shot does not land where it should. His shorts have shortened. The more subtle and significant changes are in his game. 

This year, Nadal brought on Carlos Moya, another Spaniard to have held the No. 1 spot, to be a new voice in his camp, sitting alongside his uncle Toni Nadal, who did so much to shape Rafa’s game, and who will bow out at the end of the season. With Moya’s encouragement, Nadal paid more attention to his shotmaking, swinging freely, stepping into the court and taking the ball down the line with more frequency. He dramatically improved his service game, to the point where he could top 120 miles per hour with his first serve and hit his second with more pace and bite. He also showed this year a willingness to adjust even over the course of a match, putting more pressure on in certain moments, playing more defensively when he sensed an opponent’s nerves or weariness. 

Perhaps the last major prize for him to win is the Nitto ATP Finals. He has qualified for the year-end tournament 13 straight times, but he has never won it. This could be his best chance, but you will not know it from the total seriousness with which he enters each match. 

It has been a long year. Despite his consistently Herculean effort and brutal physical style, which tests not only his stamina but the resiliency of his wrists and knees, Nadal is the only one of his established rivals who made it through the entire 2017 without taking long breaks for rest or to recover from injury. He has been on the ATP World Tour week in and week out, playing with passion. 

Part of the pleasure of watching Nadal is that his game, like his spirit, has a kind of generosity. He often elevates his opponents’ games to levels that we, and perhaps they, had never imagined possible. It is his greatness that his own level still rises higher. 

The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals will be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November

Just 20 years old, Alexander Zverev is the youngest qualifier at the Nitto ATP Finals since Juan Martin Del Potro’s appearance at the 2008 season finale. Simon Briggs of The Daily Telegraph looks at the fast rise of a German who has been spoken of as a future No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

At the start of the year, Alexander Zverev would have been on most people’s lists to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals, the experimental 21-and-under tournament that was held in Milan last week for the first time. But Zverev himself had other ideas. Sure, it would be good to prove himself the best player in his age-group. But why stop there? 

With his 130 miles per hour serve, his ferocious hitting off the ground, and the long-legged athleticism that would put many a basketball player to shame, why shouldn’t Zverev stand among the best players of the world, period? In other words, why should he restrict himself to the 21-and-under version, when he had a decent shot at competing in the Nitto ATP Finals as well? There was certainly no bashfulness on this front from Zverev himself. The 6’6” German has been tipped for years as a future No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings – a diagnosis he himself is happy to go along with. 

If Zverev possesses uncanny self-confidence, this may have something to do with his background. His parents, who hail from Russia, are tennis lifers who built his game from scratch. And his brother Mischa has been a tour player since 2005. Even as a small child, Alexander – or Sascha, as his family call him – was there at the side of the court, gripping his cut-down racquet and waiting for his turn once the big boys had finished. 

“Sascha was mentally a little bit better prepared for the tennis tour,” said Sascha’s father, Zverev Snr., when asked recently to compare the brothers. “For Mischa, everything was new. But when Sascha was six years old, for example, Djokovic was 15 or 16. Djokovic was at the same tournament and he was playing with Sascha a little bit, maybe tennis or football.” 

Alexander Zverev Snr., known to the family and back-up team simply as “Papa”, was a player of real talent in his own right. Born in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, he represented Russia 36 times in the Davis Cup, claiming victories over such familiar names as Miloslav Mecir and Vijay Amritraj. But he wasn’t able to travel regularly to tournaments because of the political climate.

In 1991, the Zverevs moved to Hamburg, where Alexander Jnr. was born in 1997. As the baby became a toddler, Papa found most of his time taken up by Mischa, who is almost 10 years older. So it was the boys’ mother Irina – inevitably known as “Mama” – who constructed her younger son’s game. “My father is my coach,” Zverev puts it, “but when I was younger my mother was guiding me more. I think I have pretty good technique, which my Mum did at a young age so credit to her for that. My backhand, in particular, is 100 per cent down to my Mum.”

This may explain the dramatic contrast between the two sons’ styles. Mischa is a throwback, coming to the net on every point behind his lefty serve. Sascha is right-handed and almost allergic to the volley, the one part of his game that his father admits he needs to brush up on. From the back of the court, though, he is relentless off both wings. The forehand is heavy and versatile, and the backhand is technically flawless – a two-hander that resembles Novak Djokovic’s in its consistency, yet travels at greater speed. Combine that with the loping, almost effortless lateral movement across the baseline – which he is able to cover in a couple of giant strides – and he makes an intimidating prospect for anyone.

Zverev was still only 19 when he won his first ATP World Tour title, in St Petersburg, just over a year ago, by overcoming Tomas Berdych and Stan Wawrinka in successive matches. And that breakthrough seemed to flick a switch. From the beginning of this season, he has been mopping up the trophies: Montpellier, Munich, Rome, Washington D.C. and Montreal. And the most significant element in that series is Rome, where he defeated Djokovic in the final to become the youngest winner of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in 10 years (since Djokovic himself). By beating Roger Federer in the Montreal final he became the first player outside the ‘Big Four’ to win multiple Masters 1000 titles in the same season since David Nalbandian in 2007. 

Another of Zverev’s remarkable assets is his physical resilience. Zverev might still look like a baby giraffe, his stretched-out limbs suggesting a lack of steadiness, but this is an optical illusion. In fact, he has been training with Jez Green – formerly Andy Murray’s fitness guru – since he was 16 to make sure he could withstand the pummeling of year-round tennis. 

As you can see, Zverev has been one step ahead of the game since the very beginning. Clearly, he possesses all the natural attributes, including an eye as sharp as a raptor’s, and the cussed nature that has always driven him to fight until the last point. But he has also been steered to perfection by his family, his agent Patricio Apey (who also used to work with Murray) and the rest of his backroom staff.

In August, Zverev finally brought in an outside coach for the first time. His choice was Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former World No. 1, whom he described as “such an easy guy to be around”. One suspects, though, that Ferrero is there to offer experience more than technical guidance. The only thing that Alexander Zverev Snr. lacks is the first-hand knowledge of what it is like to land major titles.

“I think my dad might be one of the best family coaches of all time,” Zverev has said. “He has two sons who are in the Top 25 in the world… with two completely different game styles. That’s not easy to do. You’ve got to be very smart, you’ve got to know what to practise and what to teach… Our practice sessions are completely different. I think no other coach has done that, to bring two players from scratch, absolute zero to the Top 25 in the world. So I think he really is one of the greatest coaches of all time.”

Only time will tell whether Alexander Zverev Jnr. will deliver on all the extraordinary predictions that have been made about him. What we do know, though, is that he couldn’t have got off to a better start.  

The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals will be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November

Four months after an emotional appearance in his first Wimbledon final, Marin Cilic is back in London after qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals for the third time. As Stuart Fraser of The Times writes, victory for Cilic this week would be a heartening tale.

One of the enduring images of this year’s Wimbledon men’s singles final is of Marin Cilic breaking down during a change of ends, with the Croatian sitting on his chair with his head buried under a towel. Those tears came around 45 minutes into the match when Cilic, trailing by a set and 0-3, and with two medics crouched in front of him, was hit by the realisation it wasn’t to be his day. That distress was borne more of frustration than of physical pain.   

Now, it is hard enough to beat Roger Federer – who is considered to be the greatest grass-court player in history, and who would score a record eighth Wimbledon title that afternoon – when you are fully fit, never mind when a blistered foot is hampering your movement across the Centre Court grass. “It came to the point where I felt that my chances of winning were very slim,” Cilic recalls. “Considering the injury that I had, it just pushed me back emotionally and I felt in that moment, ‘That’s it, I cannot give my best in one of the most important matches of my career’. Just considering all the facts, it was little bit too tough for my mind.” 

It was a rare display of emotion from someone who has always had a reserved manner on the court. While most of the crowd had come in the expectation of seeing Federer make history at the All England Club, they appreciated that Cilic needed their support in that moment. So as he stood up from his chair to continue play, many of the 15,000 spectators were also up on their feet. Four months later, Cilic is back in London, where he can expect a warm welcome. He has always enjoyed playing in the city, and that appreciation and affection for the British tennis public have only grown since such a collective show of kindness in the summer.

Cilic’s blisters have long gone, he is over the disappointment of losing a Wimbledon final, and much satisfaction can be taken from the season he has put together to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the third time.

Finishing among the leading eight players is all the more impressive when you consider he made a slow start in the first three months of this year, including losing his first matches at the opening two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments of the season, in Indian Wells and Miami. It was on the clay that Cilic’s form finally took an upward curve. By defeating Milos Raonic, of Canada, in the final of the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open, Cilic took at least one title on the ATP World Tour for the 10th consecutive year. With 17 titles, Goran Ivanisevic (22) is the only Croatian to have more. That same week, Cilic also became only the third player from his country, after Ivanisevic and Ivan Ljubicic, to win 400 or more matches. A run to the quarter-finals of Roland Garros was his best performance in 11 appearances.

With his confidence at a high, Cilic set himself up for the grass-court swing, for a surface on which he has always been a force, thanks to the powerful serve he can fire down from a height of 6’6”, and his atomic forehand. Here in London, Cilic came close to winning the Aegon Championships at The Queen’s Club for a second time to add to his 2012 triumph, but, despite holding a match point against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, he could not quite get across the finish line, and after two and a half hours eventually lost 10-8 in the deciding tie-break. Despite departing with no trophy, Cilic was at least comforted in the knowledge that he had only dropped his serve once all week. 

This level of performance continued at Wimbledon, where Cilic, almost three years after winning the 2014 US Open, reached his second Grand Slam final. “I think that part of the year was the most consistent I have ever played during my whole career,” Cilic says. “In that stretch from the clay-court season to the end of the grass-court season, I found that great balance of playing really good tennis on a high level and still keeping it consistent match after match, week after week.”

Unfortunately, Cilic’s momentum was lost through sustaining an adductor injury. He did not hit a ball until two weeks before the US Open, and played no other tournaments leading into the last major of the season. “I was just a little bit unlucky to get the injury at that moment after Wimbledon, after such good form and playing such great tennis,” says Cilic, who lost in the third round in New York. “It pushed me maybe one step back in regaining my form and getting back to the court and finding the nice balance I had during the grass-court season.”

Cilic did eventually rediscover his mojo during the Asian swing last month. 

Consecutive semi-final appearances at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo and the Shanghai Rolex Masters earned him a career-high position of No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. On Cilic’s two previous appearances at the season finale, in 2014 and 2016, he didn’t progress into the knock-out stages, but his return this week may well prove more fruitful if he can bring the high level of play he has shown recently. 

A settled period with his coaching team of Jonas Bjorkman, the former World No. 4 who was hired in August last year, and Ivan Cinkus, who joined Cilic’s team in April 2015, has brought improvements to his game, particularly to his serve. “I am a little bit more consistent this year in serving performances. I’m winning quite a lot of service games and a lot of matches. I’m leaving the match either not broken or broken only once, so that’s something very valuable for me. Overall, when I’m playing well, I’m going to give myself a lot of chances on the returns. I’m keeping that pressure all the time on the guys, and it pays off in the end.”

If Cilic’s serve and forehand are in full flow at the Nitto ATP Finals, this week may well end with the trophy in his hands. Four months after his tears at SW19, victory in SE10 would be a heartening tale.  

Hyeon Chung may have secured his semi-final spot at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals on Wednesday, but there will be plenty of action on Thursday. Three more spots in the final four are up for grabs on the final day of round-robin play.

The stakes are clearest in one match in particular, as the winner between Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov will qualify as the second semi-finalist in Chung’s group. Both players are 1-1 so far in Group A action. The Russian-Canadian battle will be their first meeting

Rublev, who earned his first ATP World Tour title in Umag, is trying to earn his 20th win of the season (19-17). The 18-year-old Shapovalov is the youngest player in the field and he advanced to his maiden semi-final on home soil at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Montreal.

Chung will attempt to finish 3-0 in the group as he takes on Italian wild card Gianluigi Quinzi for the first time as professionals. Quinzi won both of their meetings in the juniors, triumphing in Milan five years ago on clay, and also beating the South Korean in the 2013 Wimbledon Boys’ Singles final.

In Group B action, No. 2 seed Karen Khachanov, fourth-seeded Borna Coric and No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev are all in contention for the two semi-final spots. Fifth-seeded Jared Donaldson has been eliminated.

Coric has the best chance of advancing, after winning his first two matches in Milan. The Croatian will take on Khachanov for the second time this season. In February, Coric won in two sets in the Rotterdam first round.

Khachanov, who is 1-1 so far, lost to his countryman, Medvedev, in four sets in the opening match of the tournament. He then beat Donaldson in straight sets on Wednesday. Khachanov has posted a career-high 26 wins this season.

Medvedev is 1-1 so far in group play and he takes on Donaldson (0-2) for the first time. Both players have cracked the Top 50 in the Emirates ATP Rankings this season with Medvedev reaching a career-high No. 48 on 24 July and Donaldson No. 50 on 23 October.

Medvedev reached his first ATP World Tour final in Chennai (l. to Bautista Agut) in the opening week of the season and was a semi-finalist in Eastbourne (l. to Djokovic) prior to Wimbledon.