Kevin Anderson and wife Kelsey have welcomed a new addition to their family, a baby girl Keira. Anderson announced the birth on social media today, sharing, “We are so happy to say that Keira O’Neal Anderson joined us on Sept 27th. @KelseyOAnderson, you are amazing. I love you.”

Congratulatory messages rolled in from the tennis community, with Bob Bryan, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Magnus Norman, Max Mirnyi, Billie Jean King, Judy Murray and ATP tournaments among those wishing the Andersons well.

Congratulations @KAndersonATP & @KelseyOAnderson! https://t.co/LUwfUCZdRI

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 9, 2019

Anderson, who reached a career-high ATP Ranking of No. 5 following a runner-up finish at Wimbledon in 2018, announced earlier in September that he had undergone knee surgery and would be sidelined the remainder of 2019. He won the Pune title in the opening week of the season.

It was just like any other point between Alexander Zverev and Jeremy Chardy on Wednesday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, until Zverev’s racquet flew out of his hands.

Chardy was serving down 1/4 in the second-set tie-break, when Zverev, on the fourth shot of the rally, hit a forehand and accidentally launched his racquet into the stands. The German was immediately surprised and apologetic about his racquet toss, which landed in an empty seat and, thankfully, did not hurt anyone.

The fifth seed retrieved his most important piece of equipment and advanced 7-6(13), 7-6(3). Zverev, who’s currently in eighth place in the ATP Race To London, will next meet Russian Andrey Rublev for a place in the Shanghai quarter-finals.

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Dominic Thiem keeps building momentum ahead of his fourth appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals in London.

Last week’s China Open champion (d. Tsitsipas) won his sixth consecutive match on Wednesday, beating Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6(3), 6-3 to make the third round at the Rolex Shanghai Masters for the first time.

The Austrian had fallen in the second round of the ATP Masters 1000 event the past four years, but the World No. 5 fought off inspired tennis from the Chengdu Open champion to advance.

Carreno Busta had three set points on Thiem’s serve at 4-5, including two consecutively from 15/40. But the Austrian tightened his game to hold and carried the momentum into the tie-break.

In the second set, Thiem secured the lone break of the match during the fifth game when Carreno Busta lifted a backhand long off a skidding backhand slice from Thiem, who finished with 36 winners to 20 unforced errors.

Thiem qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 10-17 November at The O2 in London, by reaching the China Open final in Beijing last week. He will face Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili for a place in the Shanghai quarter-finals. Basilashvili beat Benoit Paire on Tuesday.

The three-time ATP 500 titlist beat Thiem during their only FedEx ATP Head2Head matchup at the 2017 Sofia Open.

Novak Djokovic began his title defence at the Rolex Shanghai Masters by pushing his set winning streak in Asia to 22 on Wednesday. The World No. 1 and top seed rolled past #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 6-3 at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

“It’s nice to be back. And also, it feels very good to play as well as I did today,” Djokovic said. “I knew that Denis is very dangerous player. If he has time, if he’s feeling the ball well, it can be a tough match.

“He was serving really well, high percentage also first serves, and just really difficult to return in the first set, so it took me a little bit of time to really adjust, start reading his serve a little bit better.

“But I thought I served really well. I used angles. I was very solid from back of the court. I had no problems with the shoulder pain… So no concerns there. Everything is feeling and looking good.”

The pressure was amplified in the second, and a loose service game from Shapovalov at 2-2 all but sealed it for the 33-time Masters 1000 titlist. Djokovic won all 10 sets he played last year in Shanghai and did the same last week when he won the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo.

“Because of the history that I had in this tournament and in general in the Asian Swing and lots of success and lots of matches won in my career, I actually feel less pressure because I’m more confident that I can perform at my best,” Djokovic said.

The Serbian will face 16^th seed John Isner for a place in the quarter-finals. Isner hit 19 aces and never faced a break point during a 7-5, 6-3 dismissal of Australian Open semi-finalist Lucas Pouille.

Djokovic is looking to make up ground in the battle for year-end No. 1 against Spain’s Rafael Nadal in Shanghai. The Serbian added 90 points with the second-round win to push his ATP Race To London tally to 7,855. But he still trails Nadal (9,225 points), who is recovering from a left hand injury, by 1,370 points.

Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah have clinched the year-end No. 1 ATP Doubles Team Ranking for the first time as a result of beating Americans John Isner and Sam Querrey on Wednesday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

They are the second all-South American team to finish year-end No. 1 (in the history of the ATP Doubles Team Rankings since 1984), following in the footsteps of Chile’s Hans Gildemeister and Andres Gomez of Ecuador in 1986. Brazil’s Bruno Soares was the 2016 year-end No. 1 with Jamie Murray and Soares’ compatriot, Marcelo Melo, finished in top spot with Lukasz Kubot in 2017.

“It’s been amazing and a crazy run this year,” said Cabal. “It’s unreal, we’re really happy and proud about what we have achieved. We have kept things simple and kept the hunger to achieve this amazing achievement.”

Farah said: “It is a great achievement and I will be very happy and honoured to receive the year-end No. 1 doubles trophy. I’ve been dreaming about this forever, so to make it a reality is pretty cool.”

Cabal/Farah has been the standout team of the 2019 ATP Tour season, winning five doubles titles from seven finals. They captured their first Grand Slam championship crown at The Championships, with a five-hour victory over Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the Wimbledon final, which saw them rise to joint No. 1 in the ATP Rankings on 15 July 2019. Two months later, the pair clinched their second major trophy at the US Open (d. Granollers/Zeballos).

The players also captured the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell title (d. Murray/Soares) in April, successfully defended the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (d. Klaasen/Venus) in May, which represented their second ATP Masters 1000 trophy, and won the Nature Valley International in Eastbourne (d. Gonzalez/Zeballos) in June. Cabal and Farah additionally finished runners-up at the Sydney International in January (l. to Murray/Soares) and the Western & Southern Open at Cincinnati (l. to Dodig/Polasek) in August.

Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “The way that Cabal and Farah have stamped their authority on the doubles game this year has been incredibly impressive. To seal the year-end No.1 ranking at this stage in the season is a fitting recognition of the level of success that they’ve had. To finish the season as No.1 is the ultimate achievement in our sport, and they are truly deserving of their position at the top of the game.”

Cabal, 33, and 32-year-old Farah were the first pair to qualify for the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 10-17 November, where they will be bidding to win the prestigious season-ending event for the first time. The Colombian duo will be presented with the year-end No.1 trophy at a special on-court ceremony at The O2.

Alexander Zverev dug deep to beat Jeremy Chardy on Wednesday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters to boost his chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals, where he is the defending champion.

The fifth-seeded German saved three set points in the first-set tie-break en route to a 7-6(13), 7-6(3) victory over French qualifier Chardy in one hour and 47 minutes. Zverev returns to eighth position in the 2019 ATP Race To London on 2,345 points, usurping Belgium’s David Goffin.

The 22-year-old Zverev will next play Russia’s Andrey Rublev, a 6-2, 6-0 victor over last week’s Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships runner-up, John Millman of Australia, in 65 minutes.

After an early break exchange, the first set was decided by an epic 16-minute tie-break. Zverev missed out on set points at 6/5, 8/7, 9/8, 10/9 and 12/11, while Chardy could not convert set point chances at 7/6 (Zverev ace), 11/10 (blocked forehand return into the net) and at 13/12 (return long). With Zervev serving at 14/13, Chardy ripped a deep forehand return that was deemed long by Hawk-Eye, the electronic line-calling review system.

Chardy regrouped and broke Zverev for a 3-2 advantage in the second set with a deep forehand return to the feet of Zverev, who couldn’t deal with it. But Chardy committed three unforced errors when serving for the set at 5-4 and paid the price as Zverev broke with a forehand volley winner.

A terrific, low crosscourt forehand from Zverev to win the first point of the tie-break, and a forehand winner down the line at 4/2, helped to propel the German to victory.

Zverev is now 38-20 on the season, which includes his 11th ATP Tour title at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open (d. Jarry). Chardy, who has lost 10 straight matches against Top 10 opponents since defeating then-No. 4 Grigor Dimitrov at the 2018 Miami Open presented by Itau, is now 24-25 on the year.

Earlier in the day, seventh seed Karen Khachanov was impressive in his 6-2, 6-4 win over American Taylor Fritz over 69 minutes. The Russian, who lost just two of his first-service points (24/26), goes on to meet Italian No. 10 seed Fabio Fognini, a contender for the season finale to be held at The O2 in London from 10-17 November.