Paralympic gold 'stuff of dreams' for Hewett & Reid
Alfie Hewett wins his first Paralympics gold medal, partnering Gordon Reid to victory in the wheelchair tennis men’s doubles in Paris.
Alfie Hewett wins his first Paralympics gold medal, partnering Gordon Reid to victory in the wheelchair tennis men’s doubles in Paris.
Lyudmyla Kichenok wins the US Open women’s doubles title with Jelena Ostapenko – just two days after postponing her wedding to continue competing.
Teenager Mika Stojsavljevic underlines her potential by becoming only the fifth British youngster to reach the US Open junior final.
The Italian city of Genoa endured a horrific tragedy in 2018, when the iconic Ponte Morandi partially collapsed following a torrential rainstorm. As vehicles fell into the Polcevera River, 43 people lost their lives.
While sports may seem insignificant in the face of such devastation, they can serve as an important outlet for those to combat grief. Such is the case with the ATP Challenger Tour event held in the heart of Genoa.
Three weeks after the 2018 tragedy, the Genoa Challenger provided a moment of inspiration as the city continued to mourn and rebuild. It was a memorable moment in the face of adversity. Home hero Lorenzo Sonego was crowned champion that week in front of a full crowd.
The Ponte Morandi bridge collapsed in August 2018. Credit: Andrea Leoni/AFP via Getty Images
Sonego, then 23, triumphed on the red clay to make his Top 100 debut in the PIF ATP Rankings. The Turin native returned to Genoa the following year and successfully defended his title.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this week, the AON Open Challenger has featured seven champions who have climbed inside the Top 25, including Sonego.
In 2017, a Greek wild card with wavy blonde hair won the title without dropping a set. You guessed it, 11-time tour-level titlist Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was 19 years old and ranked No. 161 when he claimed the trophy. The following year, Tsitsipas won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF.
“It was pretty special and something I’ve been dreaming about for a long time,” Tsitsipas said after winning in Genoa. “It was a relief for me at the end.”
The 2019 Nitto ATP Finals champion’s triumph in Genoa marks his lone title on the ATP Challenger Tour.
[ATP APP]Former World No. 9 Fabio Fognini captured a pair of titles in Genoa (2008, 2010). Last year, Fognini returned to the tournament for the first time in 13 years and treated the home crowd to a run to the final.
The city’s premier sporting event, which takes centre stage during the first week of September, won Challenger Of The Year honours in 2014. It is a sight to behold year after year. Akin to the Foro Italico in Rome, the venue features parasol pine trees surrounding the main stadium and ampitheatre-style seating.
But the ATP Challenger Tour 125 event has been much more than high-level players competing for rankings points and prize money. The Genoa tournament has provided a source of comfort in times of need, whether it was shortly after the Ponte Morandi bridge collapse or in 2016, when all proceeds went to victims of a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck central Italy.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]It was 6:41 p.m. on Wednesday evening when Jack Draper sat in the media garden at the US Open for an interview with Sky Sports. The sun was setting in the background above the tournament’s main row of practice courts. But the star that is Draper was rising and continues to soar higher than ever in New York.
Tim Henman, the former British No. 1 and a six-time major semi-finalist, sat next to the 22-year-old, who had just earned his first trip to the last four of a Grand Slam tournament. Henman handed Draper a bucket hat covered with the British flag. It was not the passing of the torch — that went from Henman to former World No. 1 Andy Murray — but it was a fitting moment between two of the best British tennis players in recent memory.
When Draper finished the interview, he stood up and was greeted by another legend, John McEnroe, who was excited to see his fellow lefty. The two posed for a picture. When Draper made it back to the players’ lounge, he snapped a photo with another all-time great, Andre Agassi. Draper was wearing sneakers made famous by the American.
One year ago, Draper broke through in New York and reached the fourth round at a major for the first time. At the time, he was World No. 123 after struggling with injury.
Now the Briton is through to the semi-finals of a Slam without losing a set and is up to No. 20 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. Based on the love he is receiving from many in the tennis world and the efforts he has been producing on court, this seems to be just the beginning.
Yet to drop a set. ❄️@jackdraper0 downs de Minaur 6-3 7-5 6-2 to advance into the #USOpen semi-finals!@usopen pic.twitter.com/02J7v9bMKG
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 4, 2024
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Draper’s talent has been clear since he was a teen. The pinnacle of his junior career came in July 2018, when he showed both his ability and grit.
In a span of two weeks, he played a top junior from the time, Tristan Boyer, who is less than a year older than Draper.
“I was Top 10 in juniors going into Wimbledon. I go to [a tournament before that at] Roehampton, I see Draper first round and British guys are always tough on grass,” Boyer said. “But I was like, ‘Alright this guy hasn’t really been around, I’m Top 10’. I was pretty confident, and he tuned me up one and two at Roehampton. I didn’t have a chance.”
The American recalls Draper playing big and serving well, both trademarks of his game today. A week later, Boyer had another opportunity to face Draper at Wimbledon, where all the pressure was on the home favourite.
It was not an easy match, and Boyer remembers Draper standing during changeovers in the third set due to cramp, but the lefty found a way through 6-7(1), 6-3, 7-5.
“It was a tight match. He just played better than me in the third,” Boyer recalled. “I think that I was going [with] almost everything to his backhand and now his backhand is like a rock. It’s ridiculous. I was watching a little bit of him versus [Tomas] Machac [at the US Open] and he was so solid with his backhand. It’s really, really good.”
After beating Lorenzo Musetti in the next round in three sets, Draper played the most memorable match of his junior career. The lefty needed four hours and 23 minutes to oust Colombian Nicolas Mejia 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 19-17 in the semi-finals.
“I think that that match for me, it’s one of the most [memorable] matches of my life,” Mejia said. “First of all, it was the farthest stage I got into into a Slam in the juniors. It was also against a British player in Wimbledon. We were playing unbelievable tennis. It was a crazy, big level in that match.
“I think that’s maybe one of the craziest junior matches in a Grand Slam. It went so much into the distance. It was in the semi-finals, we just had a huge battle. And it’s a very cool thing that I was able to be part of.”
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/09/06/13/36/draper-mejia-wimbledon.jpg” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Jack Draper and Nicolas Mejia” />
Jack Draper and Nicolas Mejia after their Wimbledon classic. Photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images.
Draper lost the final to Chun-Hsin Tseng, but the tournament was proof that the Briton is willing to scratch and claw, no matter how long it takes.
Mejia faced Draper several times and they even played doubles together as they embarked on their professional careers, spending time together everywhere from Mexico to Italy. Mejia said: “I think he’s an amazing person, and I’m really happy to have a nice friendship with him.”
What stands out the most is not necessarily his game, but his competitiveness and effort off the court.
“I think one of the biggest things that he has is the way he competes and he handles all the difficult moments in matches,” Mejia said. “He has a lot of passion. He does everything around tennis with a lot of passion, not only on court, but off court. That’s something that you know he does really well, and the results are reflecting given the professionalism that he has in his day-to day life.”
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As Draper climbed the PIF ATP Rankings, he showed plenty of flashes of his potential. The lefty earned his first ATP Tour main draw win at The Queen’s Club in 2021 against the man he will face in the US Open semi-finals, Jannik Sinner.
The game has been there, but over the past few years he has struggled with various injuries, including his shoulder last year. But despite those setbacks, the Briton’s determination helped him persevere through tough times in which it was difficult to envision him finding his way through.
“I’ve been working so hard for such a long time now. I’d say last year was a real turning point for me, when I had my injury setbacks and taking a lot of time off over the summer because of my shoulder injury,” Draper said. “I had to sort of watch all these young, amazing players winning amazing tournaments. I’m playing on the biggest stage in the world and I felt like I just wasn’t doing enough to get to that point myself.
“This is not kind of like an overnight thing for me. I’ve believed for a long time that I’ve been putting in the work and doing the right things, and I knew that my time would come. I didn’t know when it would be, but hopefully from here I can do a lot of amazing things. I’m very proud of myself.”
Before matches at the US Open Draper has been visiting his court earlier in the day to take a look before it is full of fans. This has included Arthur Ashe Stadium, onto which he will walk Friday afternoon for the biggest match of his life.
When players walk onto the court they immediately see a plaque with a quote from Billie Jean King, after whom the venue his named. “Pressure is a privilege”.
Draper is embracing that, and needs to continue doing so to capture the ultimate Grand Slam glory.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Britain’s Jack Draper has produced the standout run of his career to reach the US Open semi-finals – but world number one Jannik Sinner stands in his path to Sunday’s final.
Home hope Jessica Pegula will face title favourite Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s US Open final after an electric night in New York.
Taylor Fritz broke new ground on Tuesday when he defeated Alexander Zverev for the second consecutive major to reach the semi-finals of the US Open. The American had made four previous Grand Slam quarter-finals, but never advanced to the last four. That changed with a splendid performance against the two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion.
But according to Wolfgang Oswald, Fritz’s longtime physiotherapist, the 26-year-old is not satisfied just to move one step further.
“Before, maybe there was a sense of relief. ‘I made the second week, I made a quarter-final’,” Oswald said. “He actually said it in a car the other day. He was like, ‘I’m not celebrating, because it’s not over. I’m not happy’.”
Fritz is fully focused on continuing his biggest run yet and trying to become the first American man to win a major singles title since Andy Roddick 21 years ago at Flushing Meadows.
ATPTour.com spoke to Oswald, who knows Fritz as well as anyone, to gain insight into the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals competitor’s growth and mindset. The Australian first noticed Fritz when he played Tommy Paul in the 2015 Roland Garros boys’ singles final, won by Paul. He then continued to follow the American as he progressed to the ATP Challenger Tour, including a final-set tie-break Fritz played against Dustin Brown.
At the time, Oswald was a tennis fan working out of Arizona. He got into tennis because Brett Waltz, the current physiotherapist for Frances Tiafoe, Fritz’s US Open semi-final opponent, thought it would be good to get a physio with a tennis background like Oswald on Tour.
One day, the Aussie received a call asking if he could be in Chengdu by Wednesday. Despite a fully booked schedule, Oswald manouevred things around and made the trip to work with Fritz later that week.
“I’d never met Taylor. I’d never met David Nainkin, his coach [at the time]… I rocked up at breakfast, and I met Taylor, and we went straight to the tournament, and he was in qualifying, and he qualified. He made the quarter-finals and that’s how it started,” Oswald said. “I’d never even talked to him on the phone. I just rocked up in Chengdu, China. It was supposed to be a three-week trip.”
It turned into a five-week trip as Fritz was pushing to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF. Oswald even competed in an ATP Challenger Tour event in Vietnam during the trip.
“Taylor’s pretty reserved if he doesn’t know you. So I remember he was on his phone. He said, ‘Hi’. I talked with his coach quite a bit in the car ride over, because his coach and I had a lot of mutual friends. The tennis world is very small,” Oswald said. “There wasn’t a lot of communication, I would say, because Taylor’s pretty reserved and pretty quiet. But I remember he had his routine, I had a routine and we grew together.”
After a whirlwind start to the trip due to how quickly it came about, the player-physio duo familiarised themselves with each other better at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Ningbo, where Oswald needed to take on a few more roles for the week. They naturally spent more time together.
“We went out to the malls and did some shopping, went out to dinner,” Oswald said. “And then we started communicating a lot more, and then we gelled pretty good.”
It did not take long for Oswald to learn about Fritz’s competitive spirit.
“Pretty much the first match I was with him, qualifying in Chengdu, which is me not knowing him that way, because I didn’t get that from watching him on TV, necessarily,” Oswald said. “[I saw] how laid back he is, and then flip the switch and fight tooth and nail to the end and [how he] tries to figure out how to win… Pretty much right from the get-go, you can see he was a competitor.”
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/09/04/20/08/fritz-us-open-2024-russell-reaction.jpg” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Taylor Fritz” />
Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images
According to the physiotherapist, Fritz’s competitive nature came out in many settings, including the arcades and batting cages in Tokyo their second week together. It was not just on the tennis court.
“Video games, ultra competitive. We’re playing cards, ultra competitive. Chess, ultra competitive. Any type of social game, ultra competitive,” Oswald said. “If we’re doing drills on the court, [even] if there’s nothing riding on it. ‘Hey you’ve got to do assault bike sprints or push ups’, then he’ll be ultra competitive. So he’s very competitive at almost anything that he does.
“I’ve seen him get pretty heated early on. Actually, he was really into FIFA. Now he plays other games, but he was video gaming FIFA, and I remember he beat a professional FIFA player that we thought was professional based on his user name. I remember he was ultra competitive, maybe even breaking a couple of controllers on his video game console, because he was that competitive, truly heated when he would lose.”
But Fritz is not constantly in that mode. In fact, he is more reserved than many of his colleagues off the court.
“He’s quiet and reserved and he’s very mellow other than [when he is on] the court. His heart rate doesn’t even go up one beat per minute if we’re late for a flight. He is so cool, calm and collected,” Oswald said. “And then in a match, if you watch him play, he fights tooth and nail to the end. But I think being calm most of the time helps the mental energy when you have to turn it on. You can turn it on. If you’re always amped up, and then have to amp up more for a match, sometimes that can be very mentally fatiguing.”
[ATP APP]That mentality has helped Fritz climb as high as No. 5 in the PIF ATP Rankings and check off various stepping stones in his journey. The World No. 12 has won at least one title at the ATP 250s, ATP 500s and the ATP Masters 1000s.
“Having been quarters of Slams and being close to a semi several times in five sets, this is the next stepping stone. Now he’s been in that situation, he knows how to handle it,” Oswald said. “One of the themes the last couple of days has not been, ‘Hey, we’re happy we’re in the semis, let’s celebrate’. The job’s not done, let’s go for the whole thing.”
Oswald has watched his charge grow in several ways over the past seven years, from physical improvements to maturity and more. And now, Fritz has used that to move to within a match of becoming the first male American singles finalist at a major since Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009. Only longtime friend Tiafoe stands in his way.
“Frances and him have pushed each other. His training volume went up when Frances hit 30 something in the world the first time, and then Fritz overtook him, and then Frances got better,” Oswald said. “They’ve continually pushed each other. Even though they’re good buddies, neither one wants to lose the other guy, I can tell you that.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson charged into their second consecutive Grand Slam doubles final after edging Americans Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow 6-4, 7-6(4) in the US Open semi-finals Thursday night.
The Australians will now get a shot at redemption after squandering three championship points in the Wimbledon final in July. In Saturday’s final they will play the winner of tonight’s second semi-final between Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic and Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz.
[ATP APP]In a match of fine margins, two missed forehand volleys by Lammons and Withrow and a bold second-serve ace on match point by Purcell is what separated the teams in the tense tie-break.
“What makes it so special is that we’re such good mates. Every time we get a win I just feel overloaded with happiness,” Purcell said. “It’s not just the achievement, it’s who you do it with. We made it a goal this year to win a Grand Slam, so to be one match away again is special.”
“Back-to-back finals is incredible,” said Thompson, who reached the fourth round of the singles at Flushing Meadows. “This is my first full year of doubles and to go from the Wimbledon final to the US Open final… hopefully we can go one better here.”
Purcell and Thompson improved to 36-6 on the year. Purcell is chasing his second major doubles title after partnering Matthew Ebden to the 2022 Wimbledon title. Thompson is seeking his maiden Grand Slam crown.
Purcell and Thompson have risen to fifth place in the PIF ATP Doubles Teams Rankings and will go to third with a title. Lammons and Withrow are also in the running to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals after climbing to eighth in the Race by reaching their first Grand Slam semi-final.
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