Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic saved two match points to defeat John Isner and Neal Skupski 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 12-10 on Friday, advancing to the semi-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters. The Austrian-Croatian team, by virtue of their quarter-final victory and the rest of the day’s results, have clinched the year-end No. 1 ATP Doubles Team Ranking. 

Marach and Pavic are pursuing their fifth tour-level title of the season, with their most recent triumph coming at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open in May. They were the first duo to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 11-18 November. This will be their fifth semi-final at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in 2018, with Marach and Pavic trying to capture their first team title at this level. 

In the last four, the top seeds will face Marcel Granollers and Rajeev Ram, who upset third seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, the defending champions, 6-1, 6-4. It is the first time Granollers and Ram have competed together. 

On the other half of the draw, Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau beat sixth seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus 7-6(4), 6-0. They will play home favourites Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut or Mike Bryan and Jack Sock for a spot in the final.

Austria’s Oliver Marach and Croatia’s Mate Pavic have clinched the year-end No. 1 ATP Doubles Team Ranking for the first time as a result of Friday’s play at the Rolex Paris Masters, the final event of the regular ATP World Tour season.

“It’s been an unbelievable year,” said Marach. “Winning three tournaments in a row, and coming close in a fourth final, was incredible. We played solid tennis throughout the year, reached another Grand Slam final at Roland Garros and now, here again in Paris, we’re in the semi-finals. We’re very happy. “

Pavic said, “We had a great year and a good start. Overall, we lost two or three first rounds, with lots of quarter-finals and semi-finals. We’re extremely happy to finish the year at No. 1 and we’re looking forward to finishing strongly this week, and also [at the Nitto ATP Finals] in London.”

Marach and Pavic have captured four doubles titles in 2018. They opened the year by lifting three consecutive trophies at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha (d. Murray/Soares), the ASB Classic in Auckland (d. Mirnyi/Oswald) and their first Grand Slam championship at the Australian Open (d. Cabal/Farah). Their 17-match winning streak to start 2018 came to an end on 18 February with a runner-up finish at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam (l. to Herbert/Mahut), one of three ATP World Tour 500-level final appearances this season.

The players captured their fourth team crown of 2018 at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open (d. Dodig/Ram) in May. In addition to their runner-up finish in Rotterdam, Marach and Pavic contested their third Grand Slam final at Roland Garros (l. to Herbert/Mahut) in June, the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (l. to Bryan/Bryan), an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in April, plus the German Tennis Championships 2018 presented by Kampmann (l. to Peralta/Zeballos) and the China Open in Beijing (l. to Kubot/Melo).

Chris Kermode, the ATP Executive Chairman & President, said, “To finish the season as the year-end No.1 team is the ultimate accolade, a reflection of excellence and consistency throughout a gruelling doubles season that covers 67 tournaments across 31 countries. From January to November, it’s the prize that all teams are chasing, and Oliver and Mate should be hugely proud of their achievements. On behalf of the ATP, many congratulations on a remarkable season.”

Marach, 38, is the oldest member of a year-end No. 1 doubles team since 38-year-old Sherwood Stewart in 1984. The 25-year-old Pavic is the youngest member of a year-end No. 1 doubles team since Todd Woodbridge, 24, in 1995. They are the first Austrian and first Croatian to finish No. 1 in any of the ATP Rankings respectively (singles, doubles, team).

Together, Marach and Pavic have compiled a 5-8 record in tour-level finals and were the first team to qualify for the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 11-18 November. In 2017, the Austrian-Croatian tandem went 1-3 in title matches, including a runner-up finish at Wimbledon (l. to Kubot/Melo).

Disguise. Concealment. Battering ram.

Where you hit your first serve on the first point of your service game is not always your favourite spot, or the highest percentage location, or even to your opponent’s weaker side.

But sometimes it is, and that’s where the mental warfare rages between players at the beginning of a game.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of first serve location on the first point of a service game from the current Top 10 in the 2018 season reveals a variety of strategies to successfully navigate to 15/0. The data set comes from ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events this season coming into the Rolex Paris Masters.

The Secret Sauce Is In The Mix
Roger Federer is a master at alternating his serve patterns. This season, he has made 32 first serves down the T to begin his service games and 33 out wide. He has turned the first point into a clever guessing game, delivering an even mix of locations so that his opponents won’t be sitting on a specific spot.

Other players within a 10 percentage point range between T and wide include Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin Del Potro, Kevin Anderson and Dominic Thiem.

Current Top 10: 2018 Serve Locations at Love-all at Masters 1000 events.

There Is A Distinct Preference
The next grouping of players has a greater than 10 percentage point difference between T and wide, showing an obvious preference to a specific location. For example, Alexander Zverev served down the T 54.0 per cent (68) of the time, out wide 41.3 percent (52), and at the body 4.7 per cent (6) of the time. Grigor Dimitrov also gravitated more down the T (56 T / 39 wide), while Marin Cilic and John Isner directed more first serves out wide at Love-all.

And In A Category Of His Own…
The only player left in the data set is World No. 1, Rafael Nadal, whose left-handed serve patterns look nothing like the rest of the group. Below is the breakdown of his first serve location at Love All.

• T = 58 (67%)
• Body = 17 (20%)
• Wide = 12 (13%)
• Total = 87

Nadal was the only player to serve more at the body than out wide, and he had by far the greatest disparity between T serves and wide serves (67% to 13%).

Nadal has won 65.5% (38/58) of his first serves down the T this season, which is almost identical to his win percentage out wide at 66.7% (8/12). His strategy is akin to a battering ram to his right-handed opponent’s backhand return, almost always delivering a Serve +1 forehand to begin the point for the Spaniard. It’s a lethal “1-2” punch that is almost impossible to break down.

Overall, there is no overarching game plan that the Top 10 all stick to with their first serve location on the first point of a game. They are either hitting it where they want, hitting it where the opponent does not expect it, or bombarding a specific location that they know is simply unbeatable.

Novak Djokovic won’t be taking anything for granted heading into his Rolex Paris Masters quarter-final with Marin Cilic Friday.

Two years ago, despite taking a 14-0 FedEx ATP head2head record against Cilic into the Paris quarter-finals, Djokovic’s eight years of dominance over the Croat ended in a straight-sets defeat that cost Djokovic the No. 1 ATP Ranking. He has not been back to No. 1 since, but will leapfrog Rafael Nadal as World No. 1 Monday after a stunning recovery from a low of No. 22 in June.  

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-up at the Rolex Paris Masters and vote for the players you think will win!
Federer vs Nishikori | Djokovic vs Cilic | Zverev vs Khachanov | Thiem vs Sock

Djokovic, however, is focused more immediately on his Friday appointment with Cilic, who also beat the 32-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion in the Queen’s final this year, before Djokovic had his revenge in three sets in Cincinnati.

“Well, I had a very good head-to-head record [against Cilic] until that match a few years ago here,” Djokovic said. “It’s going to be a tough one. Tough to receive his missiles… and he’s got the really big game from back of the court. Great backhand, flat. He can play very aggressively and he can also defend well.

“We respect each other. We get along very well. We speak the same language. So I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a great match.”

Djokovic comes in with an ATP World Tour season-high 20-match winning streak and personal-best 30 sets won in a row streak. Cilic is guaranteed a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals in London if he reaches the semi-finals. 

The first match on Friday’s quarter-finals card is between the two youngest players remaining. The 21-year-old, Alexander Zverev brings a 2-0 record against the 22-year-old Karen Khachanov, who is appearing in his second career ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final after reaching the semi-finals in Toronto in August.  Zverev leads the ATP World Tour with 54 overall wins and 24 in ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. This is the German’s seventh ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final of the season and he is 5-1 in quarter-final matches.

In the second match on, Dominic Thiem takes a 2-1 head-to-head against Jack Sock, who won the last meeting two years ago in Paris in the second round. Sock is playing his first Top 10 opponent of the season and he’s trying to reach his first SF since last year’s Nitto ATP Finals in London. Thiem is trying to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the third straight year.

In the final match on, Roger Federer enters with a 6-2 record (won last five) against Kei Nishikori, who must beat the Swiss in order to keep his London hopes alive. If he loses, then Cilic and Thiem will grab the last two spots. Both players are appearing in their first quarter-final in Paris since 2014 when Nishikori advanced to the semi-finals and Federer the quarter-finals.

It was November 1997. As neon winks danced between hotels and casinos, illuminating the night’s sky, Las Vegas was fast becoming a beacon of opportunity and hope in the desert. It was thus apropos that the ATP Challenger Tour set its roots in the burgeoning city.

During the day, the city was drenched in scorching sunlight. Even in late autumn, the Frank and Vicki Fertitta Tennis Complex was set ablaze, but the players took it in stride as they battled for the trophy at a $50,000 event. For Andre Agassi, this is the place he calls home. The Las Vegas native is an American legend and one of the best players to ever lift a racquet. But as he stepped on the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, sitting outside the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings, he was a humbled man.

Following a stretch of wrist issues and personal troubles, he became just like any other player on the Challenger circuit. The goal was the same as the next guy, fighting for his career.

“Despite what you would read about me and my tennis, my fall from the top was in comparison to Bruce Springsteen playing at the local bar down the street,” Agassi told ATPWorldTour.com. “People talk about me being humbled out there. Well for sure. I was fighting out there and I was very far from where I had been. I was as disconnected as I had ever been on a tennis court. But what a beautiful place to start the climb back than in your own backyard. I have really proud memories from playing out here.”

Already a three-time Grand Slam champion and World No. 1, Agassi was made to work to resurrect his ATP Ranking. After falling as low as No. 141, he made his comeback debut on his home courts of Las Vegas. On the ATP Challenger Tour, fans are given the unique opportunity to catch a rising star in an intimate setting. It is rare to see an established superstar of Agassi’s caliber working his way back from injury at the level. But that’s exactly what the Vegas faithful were treated to.

Fans crammed into every square foot of the recently opened tennis centre to catch a glimpse of Agassi, as the American battled his way to the final. Where many players would seek wild cards into ATP World Tour events to rebuild their standing, Agassi said he needed to experience the grind of working from the bottom up. Armed with a rigourous conditioning programme with longtime trainer Gil Reyes, he not only reached the final in Las Vegas, before falling to Christian Vinck, but would go on to lift the trophy a week later in Burbank, California. 

“The important part was having those thresholds of quantitative improvement. I grinded my way to the final at UNLV and I was never more excited to win a tournament than in Burbank. That was reflected in my performance. To earn my way through a few tough matches, I got to the final and remembered not what you don’t need to do, but what you do need to do out there. You’re not playing to not lose. You’re playing to win. There was a learning curve there that gave me a lot of wind in my sail heading into 1998, where I managed to make it all the way back to No. 6 in the world.”

It was that 9-1 stretch that not only restored his confidence, but gave him a feeling of purpose on the court that he desperately sought to rediscover. He would defeat a 25-year-old Daniel Nestor in the Burbank semis, followed by a 6-2, 6-1 rout of World No. 68 Sargis Sargsian for the title.

Agassi firmly believes that his impressive run at the Challenger level was the impetus that propelled him back to the top. Getting consistent match play over the two-week stretch, and the resulting momentum and confidence, was essential. 

His success on the circuit kick-started his climb up the ATP Rankings. One year later, he would return to the pinnacle, securing his lone year-end No. 1 finish in 1999, as well as five more Grand Slam titles.

“The Challenger Tour is crucial,” Agassi added. “It’s unimaginable that a large number of players would be able to make it without the tour. It provides the ability to build your tenacity and competitive drive and put it to the test at this level. It’s a clear stepping stone for the next stage. It played a big role in my life multiple times. When I started my career and then when I fell from No. 1 to No. 141 in the world, I went straight back to the university courts I grew up on and started over again. 

“Had the tour not been there, even with all the experience I had, I don’t know if I could have built the stamina to hone my craft. It is critical to build your game step by step. It’s an important level for every player at some stage in their development. Everybody that makes it uses this as a crucial stepping stone in the process.”

More than two decades later, the ATP Challenger Tour is thriving once again in Agassi’s hometown. Last week, the Las Vegas Tennis Open celebrated a successful fourth edition, with Thanasi Kokkinakis lifting the trophy. Following a 10-year hiatus, the fast-growing desert metropolis welcomed pro tennis back with open arms. 

Aside from Agassi’s influence, the city has a strong relationship with the sport, having also hosted a pair of tour-level events. The Alan King Tennis Classic was held at Caesar’s Palace in the 1970s-80s, featuring the likes of Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl as its champions. And the Tennis Channel Open enjoyed a three-year run from 2006-08, with another former World No. 1 – Lleyton Hewitt – among its titlists.

“Pro tennis in Las Vegas was a huge part of my inspiration. It was a powerful part of my life when the Alan King Tennis Classic used to be here. The top players in the world were in the city and it was a pretty special time to have that tournament. But having this platform to impact the city is big. This city deserves pro tennis in some capacity. It’s a combination that needs to exist. 

“Back in the day, I was the only player from here through the years. I have a lot of close friends that I grew up with here. David Pate comes to mind. He paved the way to believe that dreams are possible. It’s big for the community as well.”

Now, under the guidance of tournament director Jean-Francois Blais and UNLV head coach Owen Hambrook, the revival of the ATP Challenger Tour event is attracting new tennis fans in the city. Agassi himself is also playing an integral part, with the Andre Agassi Foundation serving as a key partner.

The foundation is dedicated to transforming U.S. public education for underserved youth. It is a cause close to Agassi’s heart. According to the 48-year-old, nothing has a greater impact on children’s lives than the education they receive. He has taken on the responsibility of helping them fulfill their potential and achieve their dreams. 

Learn More About Andre’s Foundation

“I’m blessed to be able to make a difference in children’s lives. That has generational implications. It’s rewarding and humbling and really a privilege. Figuring out ways to scale my mission here in Vegas across the country, has been a real challenge but certainly a fabulous journey. I continue to pursue ways to impact children’s lives through education, and especially those who are underserved. 

“And to integrate it with tennis has given me a second career. It’s my life’s work. The sport has given me such a great platform in my life. It’s doing it in a way that’s very personal and rewarding. When I can engage with the kids and provide some direction for them, then I do take that opportunity. 

“There’s a lot to be said for a city of can-do spirits. We’re built in the middle of a desert and whatever keeps that dream alive is important.”