For Five #NextGenATP stars, the first quarter of the 2022 ATP Tour season marked career-best wins, breakthrough runs and titles at both Tour and Challenger level.

Eighteen-year-old Carlos Alcaraz lifted his maiden ATP Masters 1000 and ATP 500 trophies, while Jannik Sinner soared to quarter-finals at the Australian Open and the Miami Open presented by Itau. Czech Jiri Lehecka and Italian Lorenzo Musetti left their mark at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam and Briton Jack Draper tasted success on the ATP Challenger Tour.

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No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, 1950 points
The Spaniard has started the 2022 season in the same way he finished 2021, by winning titles and earning standout Top 10 wins. Alcaraz capped off a breakthrough 2021 campaign by lifting the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals trophy in Milan and wasted little time in making his mark at the Australian Open in his first tournament of the year.

After cruising past Alejandro Tabilo and Dusan Lajovic, the 18-year-old pushed World No. 6 Matteo Berrettini to a fifth-set tie-break in one of the matches of the season. If his run in Melbourne didn’t remind everyone what he was capable of, then his performance in Rio de Janeiro certainly did.

Alcaraz eliminated seeded pair Berrettini and Diego Schwartzman as he became the youngest ATP 500 champion since the category was invented in 2009 at an event he had gained his maiden tour-level win at just two years earlier.

Following his victory on the clay in Brazil, Alcaraz arrived at the first ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells full of confidence. Alcaraz dispatched Top 20 stars Gael Monfils, Roberto Bautista Agut and Cameron Norrie in the California desert as he became the second-youngest semi-finalist in tournament history behind only Andre Agassi, 17, in 1988. Things only got better from there.

The Spaniard became the youngest Miami Open presented by Itau champion in history, defeating three Top 10 players — Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hubert Hurkacz and Casper Ruud — en route to the biggest title of his career. 

“It feels amazing. I’m so happy to get the title here in Miami with everyone who was supporting me,” Alcaraz said. “The hard work paid off and it’s amazing to get my first Masters 1000.”

Read 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals Spotlight Features
Jiri Lehecka
Jack Draper
Holger Rune
Shang Juncheng

No. 2 Jannik Sinner, 800 points
Jannik Sinner flew out of the blocks at the beginning of the year as he quickly found his range in Australia. The 20-year-old earned three wins at the ATP Cup, before he reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open for the first time.

Despite falling to Stefanos Tsitsipas in Melbourne, Sinner identified the positives from his Aussie Open run and revealed it provided him with further motivation moving forward.

“My goal is to play many matches like this, important matches against the best guys in the world, and then we see and then I grow,” Sinner said after his defeat. “I think it was good. I played matches, and I had [a good] experience. Let’s see next year what I do here.”

The Italian, who triumphed at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in 2019, went on to beat former World No. 1 Andy Murray in Dubai as he reached the last eight, before advancing to the fourth round in Indian Wells.

Sinner then earned wins against Emil Ruusuvuori, Pablo Carreno Busta and Nick Kyrgios en route to the quarter-finals in Miami as he rounded off a strong first quarter of the season at the second Masters 1000 of the year.

No. 3 Jack Draper, 361 points
Brit Jack Draper grabbed the spotlight at Wimbledon last season when he took a set off Novak Djokovic on Centre Court in their first-round clash. Fast forward eight months and Draper has enjoyed a standout start to the season, climbing from No. 265 in the ATP Rankings to a career-high No. 124 on 4 April.

The lefty has earned four ATP Challenger Tour titles this year, becoming the first player to capture four Challenger trophies in the first quarter of a season.

Draper’s early-season form has fuelled him with confidence and he revealed he owed some of his success to countrymen Andy Murray, Cameron Norrie and Daniel Evans.

“I definitely believe that in terms of my level of tennis, that I can beat pretty much anyone,” Draper said. “I’m lucky to practise at the National Tennis Centre with Murray, Norrie and Evans when they’re there. I know that when I go to Challengers, there are going to be some great players I’m facing, so I’m lucky to have good practices like that at the NTC to prepare me. They are all very supportive of us younger players. It helps that there’s a good buzz in British tennis at the moment.”

The 20-year-old was rewarded for his impressive ATP Challenger Tour results by receiving a wild card into the Miami Open presented by Itau, where he earned his third tour-level win against former World No. 6 Gilles Simon.

No. 4 Jiri Lehecka, 267 points
Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka finds himself fourth in the ATP Race To Milan at the start of April, having performed impressively on both the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour.

The 20-year-old, who will be aiming to make his debut in Milan in November, enjoyed a dream run to the semi-finals in Rotterdam as he soared into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings.

After coming through qualifying at the ATP 500, Lehecka upset then-World No. 12 Denis Shapovalov before eliminating Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp and #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti. It took a gritty performance from Greek Tsitsipas to stop Lehecka’s run in three sets.

“Of course I’m excited,” Lehecka said after his victory over Shapovalov. “It was a good match from my side. I knew that it would be a tough match of course, he’s No. 12 in the world. It is not easy against these type of players.”

The Czech, who has reached two ATP Challenger Tour quarter-finals this year, has sporting pedigree in his family. His father was a swimmer and his mother was a track and field athlete. Lehecka believes his parents’ background has been beneficial in his development.

“I think it was pretty good because they know how the sports life looks like. They know how it is,” Lehecka said. “They know the environment around the athlete. They know how it is. The good thing is they know how the body works and they know how to help me in some situations.”

No. 5 Lorenzo Musetti, 191 points
After making his debut in Milan in front of his home supporters in November, #NextGenATP Italian Musetti will be aiming to return to the Allianz Cloud this year.

The 20-year-old has enjoyed steady progress in 2022, reaching tour-level quarter-finals in Pune and Rotterdam as he has continued to cause opponents problems with his shot making, variety and agility. Musetti, who also advanced to the second round at the BNP Paribas Open, earned the biggest win of his season at the ATP 500 in Rotterdam, where he downed then-World No. 11 Hubert Hurkacz.

“I played in Australia with a little bit of stress, and I had two tough matches with two great opponents,” Musetti said after the Hurkacz win. “From losses you take a lot of experience, especially as younger players, so for me it’s really helpful and I decided to play indoors on a hard court because it is maybe my worst surface. I didn’t think about being here [in the quarter-finals] but I’m really enjoying it.”

With the clay-court season ahead, Musetti will be confident he can strengthen his Milan bid on a surface he favours most. The Italian reached the semi-finals in Lyon last year, before he advanced to the fourth round at Roland Garros, where he took two sets off Djokovic.

Others To Watch
Dominic Stricker, Chun-hsin Tseng and Brandon Nakashima sit sixth, seventh and eighth in the ATP Race To Milan, respectively, after early 2022 success. Switzerland’s Stricker and Tseng of Chinese Taipei have both won ATP Challenger Tour trophies, while 2021 Milan competitor Nakashima advanced to the quarter-finals at the Sydney Tennis Classic in January.

Dane Holger Rune competed in Milan last year and is currently 15th in the Race (83 points), while 17-year-old Shang Juncheng (27th, 44 points) of China became the first man from his country to qualify for Indian Wells.

2022 #NextGenATP ATP Challenger Tour Titlists

Former World No. 5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga announced on Wednesday that he will retire after this year’s edition of Roland Garros. It will be the 15th time he competes at the clay-court Grand Slam as a professional.

“It is with great emotion that I announce today my decision to stop my professional career at the next French Open. So many incredible moments, so much joy shared with a public that gave me a lot,” Tsonga wrote on social media. “Hoping for one last thrill with you!”

C’est avec beaucoup d’émotions que j’annonce aujourd’hui ma décision d’arrêter ma carrière professionnelle lors du prochain tournoi de @rolandgarros 🧡
It is with great emotion that I announce today my decision to stop my career at the next French Openhttps://t.co/yCmP3wch3o

— Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (@tsonga7) April 6, 2022

Tsonga, who played doubles on the Parisian clay in 2002 and 2003 before making his singles debut in 2005, is a two-time singles semi-finalist at the tournament. The Frenchman is a two-time ATP Masters 1000 champion (2008 Paris, 2014 Canada), three-time Nitto ATP Finals competitor (2008, 2011-12), and he also reached a major final at the 2008 Australian Open.

The 36-year-old has the second-highest winning percentage in tour-level matches on record among Frenchmen (66.5%), only trailing Yannick Noah (69.6%). Tsonga is an 18-time tour-level titlist who has won 467 matches.

“I hope that I will stay in shape before and be able to be who I have always been at this tournament,” Tsonga said in a YouTube video. “I have always set myself high goals to try to get what I can. For me, this will be the opportunity to do it one last time.”

Will this be the week Lorenzo Musetti wins his first ATP Tour title? Two down, three to go in Marrakech.

The #NextGenATP Italian reached the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix Hassan II on Wednesday with a 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-3 victory against Spaniard Carlos Taberner. Musetti will play eighth seed Laslo Djere, who ousted Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri 6-4, 6-2, for a place in his first semi-final of the season.

The 20-year-old saved six of the seven break points he faced and won 64 per cent of his second-serve points to move on after two hours and 29 minutes. This followed a strong first-round performance against Spanish clay-court standout Albert Ramos-Vinolas on Tuesday.

The 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals competitor has proven himself on clay before, reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros last year. Once there, he won the first two sets against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic before the Serbian advanced. 

In other action, 2017 Nitto ATP Finals runner-up David Goffin made a good start to his clay-court season with a 6-2, 7-6(3) victory in the first round against qualifier Damir Dzumhur.

“It was not easy. I started really well getting an early break in the first. The first set was really good, 6-2 with some good groundstrokes, with serving well, really precise,” Goffin said. “The second it was a little bit tougher. I started to serve a little bit some double faults, some missed first serves, so he had a chance to come in the rally more often and then he had time to go for more drop shots, to dictate a little bit more in the second.

“But at the end, even if I was a break down, I played well to come back in the set and with a solid tie-break, so I’m happy to have my first win on the clay in the first tournament of the year on clay. It gives me confidence for the next round.”

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The Belgian will next play three-time champion Pablo Andujar, who defeated second seed Daniel Evans in his opener on Tuesday.

“He played a really good match yesterday against Dan Evans, the second seed,” Goffin said. “He likes the conditions here, he likes the tournament, so I will have to play my best tennis for sure to have a chance to beat him. But it will be a good match and hopefully I will play my best tennis.”

Three qualifiers earned first-round wins on Wednesday. Pavel Kotov eliminated ninth seed Tallon Griekspoor 0-6, 6-2, 6-2, Vit Kopriva defeated lucky loser Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-1, 6-4 and Mirza Basic rallied past Kamil Majchrzak 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Steve Johnson scored a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over countryman Denis Kudla in front of a supportive crowd at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship on Tuesday. But at least one person in the Houston stands was not too concerned about the result — Johnson’s young daughter, Emma.

“If I would’ve lost, I would’ve still gone out and had a blast with her,” the American said in his on-court interview. “She doesn’t care whether I win or lose. Life is good;  you’ve got to put it all in perspective.”

Following the interview, Johnson picked up his daughter from the crowd and held her on the court as he signed the camera lens in victory.

The 2017 and 2018 Houston champion will next face fourth seed John Isner in the second round, with Emma sure to be watching on.

For any ATP Tour player, a successful season always takes a physical toll. Stringing together great results also means playing a huge number of matches each week. And that is what Carlos Alcaraz has done in the first quarter of 2022.

The Spaniard has played a total of 20 matches in four tournaments — plus a Davis Cup tie — this season, with a win-loss record of 18-2. In other words, the No. 11 in the ATP Rankings has won 90 per cent of the matches he has played so far this year, helping himself to the Rio de Janeiro and Miami titles along the way.

At 18 years of age, Alcaraz is still racking up a lot of new experiences. One of them is covering a large number of kilometres on court against the best players in the world. In Indian Wells and Miami, he faced four players who are in this week’s Top 10: Rafael Nadal (4), Stefanos Tsitsipas (5), Casper Ruud (7) and Cameron Norrie (10).

“Although this effort may be new to his body, it’s not for his team,” said Juanjo Moreno, Alcaraz’s physiotherapist, in an exclusive interview with ATPTour.com detailing the work done by the professionals behind the success of the man from Murcia. “We know how the body responds to these types of exertions. We have both the experience of Juan Carlos Ferrero and the science from the medical and technical team.”

Moreno provides the master plan for Alcaraz’s physical work, just as Alberto Lledó does in preparation and Juanjo López on the medical side. Sergio Hernández is also part of the physiotherapy work, while Alcaraz receives care in Murcia from Alejandro Sánchez in preparation and Fran Rubio in recovery.

“Imagine how much experience Juan Carlos has of high-intensity, long-duration exertion, coupled with short rest time. Also, science has advanced a lot and the team makes every strategy that has been shown to be effective available for Carlos’ recovery,” adds Moreno, who was in his box during the week at the ATP Masters 1000 in Miami.

Despite it being the first time he has been exposed to this kind of exertion, his team has prepared him for it in such a way that he is able to take it in his stride.

“It’s our working philosophy. It has become part of our lifestyle, to the extent that it’s normal for us,” explains Moreno. “We prepare Carlos so that he can cope with these short, high-intensity matches and that his body is able to recover by means of the physiotherapy and recovery resources available to us.”

Every detail counts and that is the message that has been drilled into the Spaniard by his entourage over the last few years.

“The aim has always been to be safe rather than sorry. In the team, we have established very good physical work for him, from which he also acquires some healthy sporting habits, in which recovery and restorative sleep play an important role,” Moreno continued.

“Fitness work, nutrition, rest, recovery… all of that requires hard work as part of a lifestyle we have tried to instill in him. These are the values the team believes in and it’s our way of working every day.”

This is what Moreno defines as a hard-work culture, something he has integrated into his routine.

“If I had to single out two of Carlos’ strengths, it would be talent and the culture of hard work the team has taught him,” he said. “We have managed to instill in him the fact that, without hard work, the talent will not reach its potential and that at this level it is necessary to take care of every detail.”

And that is what Alcaraz has done. The results speak for themselves.

– This story first appeared on ATPTour.com/es

Nick Kyrgios carried his red-hot form from the American hard courts onto the red clay in Houston with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Mackenzie McDonald on Tuesday. After reaching the quarter-finals in Indian Wells and the fourth round in Miami at the year’s first ATP Masters 1000 events, the wild card Aussie started strong at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship.

Playing his unique brand of attacking and entertaining tennis, Kyrgios took some time to find his footing in what was his first clay appearance since Rome in 2019.

“Clay is obviously not my preferred surface, but I just served really well and started playing more aggressive and just found another gear,” the Aussie said of his comeback win. “I did slip and slide a little bit, but my game actually suits the clay quite well. It’s a great atmosphere out here and the crowd’s pretty involved, so I’m looking forward to continuing to progress through the event.”

Each set was decided by a single, early break. After Kyrgios dropped serve in the fifth game of the match, he navigated two tough service games and saved a pair of break points early in the second before turning the match around. McDonald did not face a break point in the opening set, but dropped serve twice on 11 break points in sets two and three.

The change in match dynamics was also highlighted by the Kyrgios ace count: He recorded 18 aces in the one-hour, 52-minute contest, with 16 of those coming in the last two sets. As he grew comfortable late in the match, Kyrgios turned on the style with a tweener lob, surprising his opponent and drawing an error at net.

Three certainties in life ⬇️

✅ Death
✅ Taxes
✅ Kyrgios hitting a tweener@NickKyrgios #USClay pic.twitter.com/5R6rgFAS6l

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 5, 2022

“[Mackenzie] is an amazing player,” Kyrgios added, referencing the American’s win over him in Washington in 2021 — their only previous ATP Head2Head meeting. “He’s a tricky one because he doesn’t make too many errors.”

He will face the seventh seed Tommy Paul in the second round, after the American advanced via a third-set retirement in his opener against Peter Gojowczyk. Paul led, 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 3-2, before the German stopped the contest.

Two all-American matches opened play on the Houston stadium court prior to the Kyrgios win. In the day’s first match, wild card J.J. Wolf scored a 6-4, 6-4 win over eighth seed Jenson Brooksby by breaking serve in the final game of each set. The 23-year-old Wolf was not only making his debut in Houston, but was playing his first tour-level match on clay. With the upset over the World No. 36 — who was playing in just his second tour-level match on clay — Wolf earned his first ATP Tour win against a fellow American.

Two-time Houston champion Steve Johnson also followed that with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Denis Kudla. The only multiple-time winner in the Houston field (2017-18), Johnson improves to 6-1 in tour-level opening rounds on the 2022 season. He dropped serve just once on four break points in the match, though it came at a crucial time as he served to stay in the second set. But after breaking for 3-2 in the decider, the American powered through the finish line with three love holds, setting up a second-round showdown with fourth seed John Isner.

The Houston evening opener nearly saw defending champion Cristian Garin make an early exit, but the fifth seed battled back from a double break down in the third set to edge Jack Sock, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. Trailing 1-4 in the decider, the Chilean won four straight games to get back in the match. 

From 4-all, three love holds left Garin ahead 6-5, and he managed his third break of the set to seal the victory. The World No. 29 was effective on his first serve throughout, winning 79 per cent (38/48) of those points in the contest, but struggled his second delivery with six double faults.

After snapping his five-match losing streak, Garin will next face Australia’s Jordan Thompson, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Canada’s Steven Diaz earlier on Tuesday.

Frances Tiafoe wrapped up the day’s play with a 6-4, 6-4 win over countryman Marcos Giron. In a frantic finish, three consecutive breaks of serve from 3-3 in the second set gave Tiafoe a chance to serve out the victory.

The sixth-seeded American battled through a three-deuce game to close it out, saving a break point before converting on his third match point. Pablo Cuevas awaits in the second round, after the Uruguayan’s 7-6(7), 6-3 win over Aussie Max Purcell.

All the action from Houston ATP 250 event can be seen on ESPN3 in the U.S.