Alexander Bublik arrived at the Open 13 Provence chasing his maiden tour-level win of the 2023 season. The Kazakhstani dug deep to get the job done on Monday, when he rallied to a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 first-round victory against Filip Krajinovic in Marseille.

Bublik engineered the turnaround with a late break of Krajinovic’s serve in the second set and two early breaks in the third. Although the 25-year-old was then broken once himself as his lead in the decider was cut to 3-2, Bublik held firm to clinch a two-hour, nine-minute triumph in which he sent down 18 aces.

With the win, Bublik extended his ATP Head2Head series lead against Krajinovic to 2-0. The pair’s previous clash also came on an indoor hard court in southern France, with Bublik a straight-sets winner in the Montpellier semi-finals last year en route to claiming his maiden ATP Tour title.

The World No. 50 will seek to build on Monday’s win in a second-round meeting with eighth seed Marc-Andrea Huesler or Gregoire Barrere. Bublik is competing at the ATP 250 in southern France for the second time, having reached the semi-finals on tournament debut in 2020.

Former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, who first competed in Marseille 15 years ago, also moved on. The Swiss star clawed past Belgian Zizou Berga 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-4 after two hours and 31 matches.

“It was a tough match against a great player. It was a big fight,” Wawrinka said. “I’m happy to get through. The first one is never easy. [It is] a new week, new tournament, different conditions. You have to fight through it [and] stay positive. I’m happy with the win.”

The 37-year-old was cool under pressure, saving all seven break points he faced against the World No. 132. Wawrinka will next face seventh seed Richard Gasquet or another Frenchman, qualifier Laurent Lokoli.

Earlier in the day, Frenchmen Benjamin Bonzi and Luca Van Assche played out two contrasting sets in front of their home fans. The first featured five breaks of serve and the second just one break — in the 12th and final game — but it was Bonzi who prevailed in both.

The 26-year-old’s 7-5, 7-5 victory booked him a second-round clash against fifth seed Maxime Cressy or another Frenchman, wild card Geoffrey Blancaneaux. The World No. 60 Bonzi is now 4-2 in Marseille, having reached the semi-finals there a year ago.

Another week, another Andy Murray comeback win in 2023.

The 46-time tour-level titlist showed trademark resilience to rally to a 4-6, 1-6, 7-6(4) first-round victory against Lorenzo Sonego on Monday at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. The two-time Doha champion saved three match points before prevailing at the ATP 250 tournament.

Murray saved the match points from 4-5, 15/40 on his own serve in the deciding set and later trailed 0/3 in the deciding tie-break. The 35-year-old raised his level in style from there, however, winning seven of the last eight points to clinch a two-hour, 30-minute win.

“It was really tough,” said Murray post-match. “We never played together, or practised with each other before, so I didn’t know exactly how the match was going to go and it took a while to get used to his game.

“He’s a very aggressive player, takes a lot of chances, but it’s high-risk tennis. He rolled the dice at the end, and it looked like he had the momentum. But thankfully in the mid-part of that tie-break he made a couple of mistakes and I managed to turn it around.”

It was the second tournament in a row where Murray’s first-round match was settled by a deciding-set tie-break. He also saved a match point before edging Matteo Berrettini in his opener at January’s Australian Open, where he later rallied from two-sets-to-love down to defeat Thanasi Kokkinakis in a second-round epic.

A slow start from Murray in Doha cost him dearly in the first set after Sonego broke the Briton to love in the first game. There were no further break points for either man as the Italian moved ahead, but Murray struck back in style in the second set, racing to a 5-0 lead that proved unassailable by staying aggressive and striking cleanly off both wings from the baseline.

The tension-filled third set appeared to be on the racquet of Sonego, who frequently painted the lines with some huge groundstrokes and at one stage won 13 points in a row on serve. Yet Murray was not to be denied, as his late charge earned the victory despite the former World No. 1 having hit just 20 winners to Sonego’s 34.

Monday’s win means Murray, who is a four-time finalist in Doha and lifted the trophy in 2008 and 2009, is now 7-0 in opening-round matches at the outdoor hard-court event. The 35-year-old Briton will play fourth seed Alexander Zverev in the second round as he bids to reach his first ATP Tour quarter-final of the season.

“He’s obviously one of the top players in the world,” said Murray of Zverev, against whom he holds a 2-1 ATP Head2Head series lead. “He had a bad injury at [Roland Garros] last year and is just coming back from that. He’s going to be improving every week just now.

“He’s not quite at the level he was back in the middle of last year, but injuries like that take time. It will be another great match, hopefully I can keep building on this one.”

Murray’s countryman Liam Broady also enjoyed deciding-set tie-break success on Monday. The World No. 147 converted six of 17 break points to see off fellow qualifier Oleksii Krutykh 6-0, 4-6, 7-6(2) and set a second-round meeting with third seed Daniil Medvedev.

Australians Christopher O’Connell and Jason Kubler both advanced to the second round. O’Connell defeated wild card Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 3-6, 6-0, while Kubler led 7-6(4) 1-0 when his opponent Aslan Karatsev retired from their first-round match.

He may spend much of the year away from home competing on the ATP Tour, but Felix Auger-Aliassime never feels too far from his roots.

The Canadian played his part in a team-event double in 2022, leading Canada to victory at the ATP Cup and the Davis Cup Finals. The pride Auger-Aliassime feels when playing for his country maintains a connection he has always felt between his childhood and his life as a pro.

“Growing up back in Montreal, Canada was a great upbringing,” the 22-year-old recently said in an interview with the ATP Tour. “My dad was a tennis coach and still is today, so he brought tennis into the family for my sister and I. So we grew up playing tennis every day after school. I had this dream of, I guess, being in the position I am today.”

Staying positive through the hurdles. That’s the key for @felixtennis 🔑 pic.twitter.com/kYHNHDQsMV

— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 20, 2023

Auger-Aliassime is renowned for his cool, calm and collected on-court demeanour, even when the going gets tough. Netflix’s Break Point followed the Canadian during his 2022 Roland Garros campaign, when he fell to an agonising five-set defeat to icon Rafael Nadal in the fourth round. The Spaniard went on to lift the trophy for a record-extending 14th time at the clay-court Grand Slam.

Although Auger-Aliassime had come within a set of pulling off a historic victory against one of the best players in history, his mental approach ensures he does not overreact to on-court disappointment, no matter how heartbreaking.

“You’re alone out there on the court,” said Auger-Aliassime. “There’s only one guy that lifts the trophy, that leaves the tournament undefeated. It toughens your skin a lot.

“What’s always been very important for me is to have the big picture. I think that’s helped my mental health tremendously. Try to always stay positive and look at how you can use those challenges to improve.”

A three-tournament week on the ATP Tour saw Daniil Medvedev seal a return to the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after claiming his first title of the year in Rotterdam, while Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz also lifted trophies in Buenos Aires and Delray Beach, respectively.

ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week as of Monday, 20 February 2023.

View Pepperstone ATP Rankings

No. 8 Daniil Medvedev, +3

The 27-year-old returned to the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after clinching his 16th tour-level crown at the ABN AMRO Open, an ATP 500 held in Rotterdam. Medvedev dropped just one set en route to the final before he rallied past Jannik Sinner to win the trophy. Read Rotterdam Final Report & Watch Highlights.

No. 12 Jannik Sinner, +2
The Italian arrived in Rotterdam aiming to win back-to-back titles after triumphing in Montpellier. However, he fell one match short, falling to Medvedev in the final after defeating World No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas and three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka. The 21-year-old is up to No. 12 as a result of his impressive run in the Netherlands.

No. 25 Grigor Dimitrov, +3
The Bulgarian defeated Aslan Karatsev and fifth seed Hubert Hurkacz in Rotterdam before clinching one of the match points of the season so far to see off Alex de Minaur in a tense quarter-final. Despite falling to a semi-final defeat to Medvedev, Dimitrov rises three spots to No. 25 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

No. 40 Tallon Griekspoor, +21 (Career High)
The 26-year-old has climbed into the Top 40 for the first time after enjoying a dream run to the semi-finals on home soil in Rotterdam. The Dutchman defeated eighth seed Alexander Zverev en route to his maiden ATP 500 semi-final, where he fell in two tight sets to Sinner.

No. 49 Mackenzie McDonald, +7
The American has climbed back into the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after reaching his first semi-final of the season at the Delray Beach Open. The 27-year-old defeated Taro Daniel, Yoshihito Nishioka and Michael Mmoh at the ATP 250.

No. 63 Bernabe Zapata Miralles, +11 (Career High)
The Spaniard has jumped 11 spots after he advanced to the semi-finals at the Argentina Open, an ATP 250 event held in Buenos Aires. The 26-year-old Zapata Miralles, who was making his debut at the clay-court tournament, beat seeds Diego Schwartzman and Francisco Cerundolo before losing to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.

Other Notable Top 100 Movers
No. 30 Miomir Kecmanovic, +3
No. 58 Gregoire Barrere, +13 (Career High)
No. 59 Pedro Cachin, +9
No. 75 Tomas Martin Etcheverry, +7
No. 80 Dusan Lajovic, +10
No. 81 Juan Pablo Varillas, +20 (Career High)
No. 99 Radu Albot, +14
No. 100 Thanasi Kokkinakis, +41

Having won opening-round matches at the past two majors, Brandon Holt could be forgiven for wanting to spend less time on the ATP Challenger Tour and steel his focus on tour-level events.

But at No. 199 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, the 24-year-old American realises that he still has dues to pay before earning the right to play at the top echelon of the sport on a consistent basis. In fact, the son of former WTA World No. 1 Tracy Austin is thankful to be playing tennis at all.

A career-threatening hand injury in 2021 nearly forced Holt to hang up his racquets and put his Real Estate Development degree to use. But now that he’s 100 per cent healthy, Holt is aiming towards more success on the Challenger Tour.

“In 2021, I went to an ITF tournament in Tunisia and instantly started feeling pain in my hand,” Holt said. “I came home and went to the doctor and was told it was this, then it was that. It ended up being a tumour in my bone [osteoid osteoma] that was growing. They had to do surgery on it. It was like touch and go, they didn’t really know if I’d be able to play again.

“If they did one wrong technique, they would basically burn the tendon, 50/50 chance they’d burn the tendon and never be able to play again. Then they opted to do a different [procedure], where they basically cut one-fourth of the bone out and repacked it in.

“There was a while where I’d walk out of a doctor’s office thinking I would never play again. That was a tough time because I was like ‘My whole life I’ve dreamed of playing this sport and worked so hard for it and just because I have this thing in my hand means I can never play again.’”

Holt has been enjoying a rapid rise up the Pepperstone ATP Rankings the past six months, which included two victories at the hard-court majors. At the Australian Open, the American advanced through qualifying and played back-to-back five setters before falling in the second round (l. Bautista Agut). The strong start to the year was a welcome sight to Holt, who was World No. 531 a year ago before embarking on his career-best season.

In 2022, the California native made his first professional breakthrough at his home Slam, the US Open, where as a qualifier he defeated 10th seed Taylor Fritz. A few weeks before his Grand Slam upset, Holt was battling in qualifying at the Challenger Tour event in Chicago, Illinois and couldn’t have dreamed of a Top-15 win on Grandstand.

His Flushing Meadows debut, which came 41 years after his mother’s second major title, quickly grabbed tennis fans’ attention.

Growing up in a tennis family can lead to high expectations and immense pressure. But Holt said his childhood was a blessing and he’s thankful that his family helped him see tennis as a hobby first before it became his full-time occupation.

“I think my parents did a really good job of raising my brothers [Dylan and Sean] and I to be really well-rounded people,” Holt said. “My parents weren’t the tennis parents that are too much. Growing up, there were a lot of times where we were like, ‘Look at that guy, he’s crazy!’ It was never that way with my family. My grandparents would bring me to every single match, they never missed a match. My whole family is really close.

“My parents did a good job of letting me play all the sports and focus on school. Tennis was never the priority growing up. It was never play tennis and everything else is secondary.”

Holt’s family recalls him dragging a racquet everywhere at a young age. He would walk around the house swinging at anything, such as a chair or someone’s ankle. While Holt claims he used to make his coaches mad by constantly trying to attempt Gael Monfils’ incredible shotmaking rather than focusing on the assigned drills, it all turned out okay for the American. He went on to play college tennis at the University of Southern California, where he was a four-time ITA All-American before turning pro in 2020.

“Going to college allowed me to get a lot stronger because you have a lot of time in the weight room,” Holt said. “It’s kind of hard when you’re on Tour to get a good training block, so college is like four years of consistently working out. Also, there [are] coaches that have a four year plan with your game. They’re like, ‘This is the player we think you can become.’ Then they have years to progress you to that point. You show up every day and they have one goal to get better and closer to that goal. They have a tailored plan for every player and I think that’s huge.”

Still early in his young career, it’s only a matter of time before Holt is lifting his hands around his maiden Challenger Tour trophy and making more noise at the Grand Slams.

Argentine journalist Sebastian Torok was presented at the Argentina Open with the 2022 Ron Bookman Excellence Award by tournament director and former Argentinian player Martin Jaite.

The LA NACION journalist also received the 2023 Sports Excellence Award which was introduced four years ago by ATP 250 event held in Buenos Aires.

Torok has been a journalist for the Argentine newspaper LA NACION since 2000. He has covered football, rugby, boxing and handball but specialises in tennis, reporting on Argentina’s Davis Cup Finals title run in 2016.

The Argentine has received international recognition at the AIPS Sport Media Awards for various investigations and one of his career highlights as a journalist was interviewing Roger Federer in Basel in 2019.

Ten years after winning their second team title in Buenos Aires, Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini returned to the winners’ circle in Argentina’s capital city Sunday.

The six-time tour-level titlists cruised to a 6-2, 6-4 final victory against Nicolas Barrientos and Ariel Behar at the 2023 Argentina Open. Bolelli and Fognini didn’t drop a set all week en route to their first title of the season. In the championship match, the third seeds saved all six break points faced and won 13 of 16 points off their second serve to collect the trophy.

Their title run in Buenos Aires comes after an 0-2 start to the season, including a disappointing first-round exit in Melbourne, where they were seeded ninth. The Italians won their maiden Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open in 2015.

This past season, Bolelli and Fognini won two team titles: Rio de Janeiro and Umag. Five of their six titles have come on clay.

Barrientos and Behar were competing in their first ATP Tour final, with their best previous result a quarter-final run last week in Cordoba.

For the second straight year, South Florida residents Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer have made themselves at home at the Delray Beach Open. The El Salvadoran-Dutch duo became the third team to repeat as champions at the ATP 250 with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Rinky Hijikata and Reese Stalder in Sunday’s final.

“It’s really special for us,” Rojer said after the pair won its sixth title in the past 13 months. “Playing here is a treat. We really enjoy it. We spend most of our time practising in the area. We’re happy to be back. We had a lot of success here last year, decided to come back and defended our title so we’re super happy about that. We’re just going to enjoy it for a few days.”

After making their team debut in Delray Beach in 2021, the pair reunited in 2022 and won five titles, including the Roland Garros crown. The team is now on a seven-match winning streak in Delray Beach after twice winning the title as the top seeds.

“We’re super happy that we were able to do it again,” said the 32-year-old Arevalo. “There were other options that we could play but we stayed loyal to the Delray Beach Open and to the people here, to the crowd, this amazing crowd that we have here. We’re extremely happy that we were able to play the tournament and ended up winning the tournament as well.”

The champions lost just one set this week, in the semi-finals against Robert Galloway and John-Patrick Smith. In the final, Arevalo/Rojer saved all three break points they faced while breaking their opponents’ serve once in each set. They lost only three points on first serve (29/32) in their one-hour, 14-minute victory.

“Our chemistry is our weapon and we try to make sure its on point for every match,” said Rojer, 41, who claimed his 35th tour-level doubles trophy. “We had it going this week. Today we played a couple of guys that maybe were not as experienced in a lot of finals, although Rinky had that massive Australian Open final that he just played.

“But we wanted to impose with our presence and intensity and energy and see if we could get to them a little bit.”

Hijikata/Stalder were making their ATP Tour team debut. The 21-year-old Hijikata won the Australian Open doubles title alongside fellow Aussie Jason Kubler last month and moved up three places in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Live Rankings to No. 32 this week. Stalder, 26, was playing his first tour-level event.