Top seed Tommy Paul opened his campaign at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open on Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Ethan Quinn, claiming victory in a matchup of Americans coached by Brad Stine.

Quinn, the reigning NCAA singles champion, picked up a win in his ATP Tour debut this week but was turned back by Paul on centre court at the Newport ATP 250.

“I think the overall level of the match was really good,” Paul said after making his tournament debut. “I knew Ethan’s game a little bit. My coach also works with him, so I’ve watched a few of his matches. I watched him play at NCAAs.

“I knew he had a big serve, big forehand, so I kind of knew what to be ready for, and I knew that he would be hyped up for the match.” 

A former Georgia Bulldog, Quinn began his professional career last week on the ATP Challenger Tour. He has worked with Stine since he was six or seven years old, and the coach often uses Paul as an aspirational example in his work with Quinn.

On Wednesday, Paul gave Quinn a lesson himself on the Rhode Island grass courts. The World No. 14 converted on five of 11 break points to advance to the quarter-finals. He navigated a topsy-turvy start to the second set that featured five consecutive breaks, ultimately winning the final four games of the match.

With the win, Paul improved to 13-3 against fellow Americans since the start of 2022 (8-1 in 2023). He also improved to 19-0 in tour-level matches against players ranked outside of Top 150.

He will next face John Isner or eighth seed Corentin Moutet.

Kevin Anderson was also a Wednesday winner in Newport, continuing his successful comeback to ATP Tour action. The South African beat Gijs Brouwer 6-3, 7-6(6) to advance to the quarter-finals with his second straight-sets win of the tournament.

Next up for Anderson is Steve Johnson or Ugo Humbert.

Second seed Adrian Mannarino made a winning start in Newport with a 6-3, 6-4 result against Rinky Hijikata. He will take on another Aussie in the quarters: Jordan Thompson, who earned a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Liam Broady on Wednesday.

Italian Lorenzo Musetti did not have things all his own way against countryman Matteo Arnaldi at the Nordea Open on Wednesday, but he found a way to reach his seventh tour-level quarter-final of the season.

Competing on the clay at the ATP 250 in Bastad, the third seed Musetti overcame a mid-match dip to advance past Arnaldi 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(6) in two hours and 38 minutes. The 21-year-old recovered from squandering a break advantage in the third set, converting his seventh match point to advance to his fifth quarter-final on clay this year.

Musetti, who had never been beyond the first round in his two previous appearances in Bastad, now leads Arnaldi 2-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. Chasing his first tour-level title of the season, the World No. 16 will next meet Filip Misolic. The Austrian qualifier beat Slovakian qualifier Jozef Kovalik 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4.

In other action, defending champion Francisco Cerundolo defeated #NextGenATP Frenchman Luca Van Assche 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals. The fourth-seed, currently No. 21 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, has now earned 30 tour-level wins this season. The Argentine will next meet Federico Coria or Swede Leo Borg.

Several #NextGenATP stars have continued to make their moves in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race, with maiden tour-level titles, breakthrough wins and career-high rankings the story of the second quarter of the 2023 season.

Frenchman Arthur Fils lifted his maiden tour-level trophy on home soil in Lyon, while Ben Shelton earned his first tour-level wins on clay and grass. Dominic Stricker, Hamad Medjedovic and Alex Michelsen have all tasted success, clinching crowns at ATP Challenger Tour events.

NextGenATPFinals.com looks at some of the most notable #NextGenATP accomplishments of the second quarter of the season.

Fils & Shelton Continue To Set Pace
Frenchman Fils, who is aiming to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals, is currently fourth (693 points) in the Live Next Gen Race. The 19-year-old enjoyed impressive results on the European clay, advancing through qualifying to reach the second round at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome before he captured his maiden tour-level title in Lyon. Having started the season outside the Top 250, Fils’ results lifted him to a career-high No. 58 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in June.

“I will remember this forever,” Fils said following his title triumph in Lyon. “It has been a great week. It has been amazing. I am happy with the win and now I want more.”

Shelton has also continued to make good progress after a standout start to the season, highlighted by his run to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open. The 20-year-old American made his tour-level debut on clay and grass in the second quarter of 2023, earning two tour-level wins on both surfaces. Aiming to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals, fifth-placed Shelton (645 points) will be seeking strong results during the North American hard-court season. Last year he reached the third round in Cincinnati, upsetting Top 5 star Casper Ruud.

Read More
Ben Shelton
Luca Van Assche
Arthur Cazaux
Arthur Fils
Hamad Medjedovic
Bu Yunchaokete
Dominic Stricker
Jakub Mensik

Frenchmen Van Assche & Cazaux Impress, Stricker In Contention
Frenchmen Luca Van Assche and Arthur Cazaux are sixth (487 points) and ninth (348 points), respectively, in the Live Next Gen Race. The 19-year-old Van Assche, who won an ATP Challenger Tour title at the start of April, captured his maiden Grand Slam match win at Roland Garros, defeating Marco Cecchinato.

Van Assche spoke to ATPTour.com before Wimbledon on how he is finding life on Tour.

“Now on the ATP [Tour] I am taking another step. It’s more complicated because every player wants to win for their life. And they’re all very, very good, so you never have an easy match. It’s a different world, but I’m enjoying my, my life on Tour and it’s only the beginning,” said Van Assche, who is No. 75 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. “I am learning a lot of things at lots of different new events.”

Cazaux, 20, had never competed on grass prior to this season but showed his pedigree on the surface when he advanced to the final at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Nottingham. The Frenchman, who lost against former World No. 1 Andy Murray in the final, also reached the semi-finals at a Challenger event on the lawns in Ilkley.

Swiss lefty Stricker, currently seventh (371 points) is chasing his second appearance at the Next Gen ATP Finals. The 20-year-old, who reached the semi-finals at the 21-and-under event last year, lifted his second Challenger Tour trophy of the season in Prague in May before he captured his first major match win at Wimbledon.

Chasing Pack
Serbian Medjedovic, American Michelsen and Czech Dalibor Svrcina have all won Challenger Tour titles in the second quarter of the season, while Italian Flavio Cobolli has continued to impress.

The eighth-placed Medjedovic (353 points) triumphed at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Austria and is into the quarter-finals at the ATP 250 in Gstaad this week. The 11th-placed Michelsen (286 points) earned victory on home soil in Chicago and then defeated Maxime Cressy in Newport to earn his first tour-level win on Tuesday. The 12th-placed Svricna (272 points) won a title in the Czech Republic, while 10th-placed Cobolli (337 points) advanced to the quarter-finals at the ATP 250 event in Munich.

#NextGenATP Serbian Hamad Medjedovic moved past former World No. 3 Dominic Thiem 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 on Wednesday at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad to reach his maiden tour-level quarter-final.

The 20-year-old was aggressive throughout the two-hour, 15-minute encounter, forcing Thiem into forehand errors with his weight and depth of shot at the ATP 250 clay-court event.

With his third tour-level win of the season, Medjedovic has climbed two spots to eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race. The Serbian, who is aiming to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals, will next face fourth seed Yannick Hanfmann. The German defeated Daniel Altmaier 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Thiem has tasted success in Gstaad before, lifting the trophy in 2015. He leaves Switzerland holding an 8-16 record on the season, with his best result quarter-final runs in Estoril and Munich.

In earlier action Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs clawed past Jurij Rodionov 7-6(8), 4-6, 7-6(4) in two hours and 56 minutes. The 24-year-old will next meet second-seeded Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, who wrapped up Wednesday’s play with a 7-6(4), 6-1 win against Dominick Stricker. 

Kecmanovic, a top two seed at an ATP Tour event for the second time, is through to his 24th tour-level quarter-final and his sixth of 2023.

A semi-finalist at last season’s Next Gen ATP Finals, Dominic Stricker has boosted his hopes of returning to the 21-and-under event this year after he earned his major maiden win at Wimbledon.

The 20-year-old Swiss has climbed one place to seventh (371 points) in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race after defeating Australian Alexei Popyrin at SW19, before he fell against 10th seed Frances Tiafoe.

Stricker is looking to move further this week when he competes on home soil at the ATP 250 in Gstaad. The lefty defeated fellow #NextGenATP star Arthur Fils (693 points) in the first round.

American Alex Michelsen has also climbed after winning his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in Chicago. The 18-year-old, who is aiming to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals, is 11th in the Live Next Gen Race (286 points). Michelsen is in action at the ATP 250 tournament on grass in Newport this week. He defeated big-serving American Maxime Cressy in three sets in his opening match to earn his first tour-level win.

The 20-year-old American Ben Shelton (645 points) and 19-year-old Frenchman Luca Van Assche (487 points) are fifth and sixth, respectively, and remain on course to qualify for the 21-and-under event. Van Assche is in action at the ATP 250 in Bastad, where he advanced to the second round.

Dutchman Gijs Brouwer was born in Houston, where his parents lived for 10 years. His father, Idso, worked for companies in the American city. But Idso and his wife, Jolanda, decided to move home to the Netherlands just a couple of months after Gijs was born.

From a bustling city, they moved to Hoogkarspel, where they lived in a house on a canal.

“Very small, very local. Not a lot of people dreaming big things,” Brouwer told ATPTour.com. “Just people kind of small-minded, living in their little village.”

Brouwer does not fit that description. The 27-year-old is travelling around the world competing against the best tennis players in the world.

His journey in the sport began when he would watch the Australian Open on television as a child. His parents did not have a tennis background, but enjoyed watching the sport, and Brouwer caught on. The lefty told his parents he wanted to try playing tennis, so they took him to a local tennis club.

“They just gave me to the teacher and said, ‘Hey, entertain this little kid and let’s see if he likes it,’” Brouwer recalled. “I do remember some vague memories from starting at the club. Just me hitting the ball with a group of eight young kids really starting out on artificial grass.

“My parents told me I immediately liked it and I wanted to keep playing a couple times a week, maybe twice a week because I had lessons.”

Brouwer also did gymnastics and drumming until age 12. But from then on, he focussed on tennis. The Dutchman said he was “decent” for his age in the Netherlands, but did not earn notable honours internationally as a junior, so he was unable to compare himself to the best players from his age group in the world. He remained in school until he was 19.

The moment things changed was when Brouwer won the national championships in The Netherlands aged 17.

“That’s when I started playing a little bit better and I just really enjoyed it and I didn’t really like what I was doing at school,” said Brouwer, who studied sports marketing and communications. “I studied for one year in university back in the Netherlands. But I didn’t really like the subjects and the topics. So I decided well, I’m just going to aim high and go for the pro tennis life and ended up here.”

Brouwer’s biggest breakthrough came last year in Houston, where he was born. The lefty made the quarter-finals as a qualifier in his qualifying and main draw debut on the ATP Tour. From No. 361 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings he surged into the Top 300 in a week and has been on the rise ever since.

The Dutchman just qualified for Wimbledon for the first time and challenged former World No. 2 Alexander Zverev in the first round. The German triumphed in straight sets, but needed two tie-breaks.

“Of course it was amazing. It was a close match, I played really good. It was just amazing. That’s what I’ve been working for all these years,” Brouwer said. “To be on a big court at Wimbledon was very, very nice.”

Brouwer on Tuesday continued his grass success with a convincing 6-4, 6-1 win at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open against Max Purcell, who was part of the winning Wimbledon men’s doubles team last year.

“It’s showing that I’m on the right track, at least that I’m doing what I wanted to do all these years [and] that I’m capable of really competing with the Top 100 guys,” Brouwer said. “That’s where I see one of my big goals, to make it to the Top 100.”

To reach that goal, he is focussing on match by match and blocking out the rest. In the end, the battle is between him and his opponent across the net. That is his favourite part of the sport.

“If you win, it’s all you. If you lose, it’s all you,” Brouwer said. “It’s not really anybody else that can do it for you.”

Australian James Duckworth is competing this week at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open in Newport, where he will play #NextGenATP American Alex Michelsen for a place in the quarter-finals.

ATPTour.com caught up with the 31-year-old to learn about the Australian off the court and find out what Roger Federer does when he sees Duckworth.

If you could have dinner with any three people who would they be and why?
My favourite golfer is Jordan Spieth. I’ve been following him closely the last few years so maybe him. Have got to go with an NFL player, so I’ll go [with] Josh Allen. And then Andrew Johns, a rugby league player.

If you could switch places with anyone for a day, who would it be?
I was just in Chicago last week. It would have been pretty cool to be Michael Jordan there when he was in his prime.

Do you remember watching him play?
I’ve only watched on YouTube and highlights and I obviously watched The Last Dance.

What was your pinch me moment on Tour?
Playing Roger for the first time, that was pretty cool, at the Aussie Open. It was weird [to play] someone that I’d watched on TV for years and years and someone that I’d looked up to for so long. It was also a similarly strange feeling [when] I played Lleyton [Hewitt] at the Aussie Open as well. That was just odd a little bit.

I have heard a story about Roger quacking at you. What is the story behind that?
Yeah, Rog does that when he sees me. When I played him at the Aussie Open the crowd was quacking and he thought it was pretty funny.

What is your favourite non-tennis memory?
One of the coolest things that I ever went to was the World Cup Qualifying Match [when] Australia played Uruguay in Sydney in 2004 or 2005. We won in a penalty shootout. That was a pretty cool atmosphere being there for that.

What is something fans might not know about you?
[I do] cooking at home. My fiancé never cooks, so I do all the cooking.

What is your favourite dish to cook?
Nothing fancy. It’s usually some sort of meat and vegetables. I think I do a pretty good balsamic brussel sprouts. They’re pretty good.

If you could achieve one thing what would it be?
Win a Grand Slam.

What’s the coolest perk of being a pro tennis player?
Just playing the big tournaments, big crowds, playing in front of the fans.

Have you ever gotten to go to like a certain game because you’re a tennis player?
I mean yeah, I’ve been to a few rugby games to support the team of Newcastle, a few of their games.