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How it feels to have Alcaraz on your side: Team Europe stars weigh in!

  • Posted: Sep 21, 2024

Most weeks of the year, Carlos Alcaraz’s ATP Tour rivals are focused on how they might defeat him on some of the biggest stages in tennis. This week at the Laver Cup, some of those same rivals are discovering what it is like to have the Spaniard’s sublime talent on their own side for once.

On his singles debut at the teams event on Saturday in Berlin, Alcaraz downed Ben Shelton in straight sets to earn two crucial points for Team Europe. As his teammates supported from courtside, the No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings gave them a reminder of why he is such a tough opponent.

One of those watching from the Team Europe bench was Casper Ruud, who is yet to notch a win in four Lexus ATP Head2Head clashes against Alcaraz, including in the 2022 US Open final.

“I’m happy to have him on my team, that’s for sure,” Ruud told ATPTour.com prior to Alcaraz’s match against Shelton. “He’s an incredible player, so I’d rather have him on my team than against me. It’s cool. He’s going to come out explosively, as always, to hopefully get some important wins for Team Europe. We all know how great he is and it’s his debut so I’m sure he would like to do well.”

Alcaraz is lining up alongside fellow former World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev, World No. 2 Alexander Zverev, 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov, and former Grand Slam finalists Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas for Team Europe this year. A stellar cast, yet the presence of the Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion has made a clear impact to his team’s spirits.

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Competing in his fourth Laver Cup in Berlin, Tsitsipas is a relative veteran at the annual teams event compared to debutant Alcaraz. The Greek only had good things to say about the latest addition to Team Europe.

“I think he’s having a lot of fun. I think he enjoys the format,” said Tsitsipas of four-time major champion Alcaraz. “These are the rare occasions where you can have a teammate like that. Having the opportunity to be on the same side and strive for the same result and for the same accomplishment, that is something I would have never thought of. That is what makes the Laver Cup stand out, and I’m definitely loving it so far.”

Bjorn Borg is captaining Team Europe for the seventh and final time in Berlin. The legendary Swede could hardly have asked for a bigger weapon in his armoury as he plots his team’s bid for a first Laver Cup title since 2021.

“I am so excited to have all these guys in my team, and to have Carlos for the first time is exciting,” said Borg. “People are excited, and hopefully he’s going to win a few matches.”

So how did Alcaraz himself adjust to the unique dynamic of his ATP Tour rivals cheering him on Saturday against Shelton?

“It was fun. Honestly it was a great feeling having them supporting me behind, being like coaches,” the Spaniard told ATPTour.com after his 6-4, 6-4 triumph. “Having Bjorn on the bench as well, it is a great support for me. Normally I watch my team after every point. Here I’m looking at my partners and Bjorn [instead of] my team. So it is a different feeling.

“For me it was unique experience that I enjoyed a lot. Having, for example, Grigor [Dimitrov] all the time coaching me, telling me the tactics that I have to do during the match, it was crazy. Having Stefanos and all the players behind me in all the break times, it was great for me. I’m going to take this experience for a long time, and I honestly learn a lot from them as well.”

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Fritz extends winning streak vs. Zverev at Laver Cup

  • Posted: Sep 21, 2024

Is Taylor Fritz set for a late-season surge that takes him all the way to the Nitto ATP Finals?

The Team World star on Saturday notched his seventh victory against a Top 10 opponent in 2024 by overcoming Team Europe’s Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-5 at the Laver Cup. Fritz rallied from 2-4 down in the second set before securing a one-hour, 57-minute win, his third consecutive tour-level triumph against the German, to set Team World on course to opening an 8-4 lead after Day 2 in Berlin.

“I think over the years we have always had close matches,” said Fritz in his post-match press conference of his rivalry with Zverev. “I think the games match up well. I can serve and hang in there with my serve, because he’s very tough to break. You have to have a good serve to stay in the match with him or else he’s just going to serve you out of the match.

“His backhand is incredibly good. I think my backhand is my stronger side, too, so I feel like maybe I can neutralise and hang with him on that side where maybe some people wouldn’t be able to stay in a pattern. But the biggest thing is I have just been playing well.”

The 26-year-old Fritz arrived in Germany off the back of reaching his maiden Grand Slam final at the US Open, where he defeated Zverev in four sets in the quarter-finals. Having also prevailed in the pair’s fourth-round clash at Wimbledon in July, he now leads the German 6-5 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Fritz fired a series of searing winners from deep to overcome Zverev on home soil in Berlin, where Team World and its captain John McEnroe are chasing a third successive victory at the teams event. Although Zverev channelled home support to move a break ahead in the second set, he was unable to maintain his charge as Fritz secured a victory in which he fired 27 winners to his opponent’s 11.

Although no PIF ATP Rankings points are available this week at the Laver Cup, where Fritz is competing as the World No. 7, Saturday evening’s victory against home favourite Zverev at Uber Arena was another reminder of the momentum the American has built heading into the final two months of the season. He is fifth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin as he chases a second appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Ben Shelton and Alejandro Tabilo built impressively on Fritz’s momentum for Team World by notching a comfortable doubles victory against Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final match of the day. The pair eased to a 6-1, 6-2 triumph to open up an 8-4 lead for John McEnroe’s men as they head into Day 3, when four matches worth three points each are on the schedule.

“We put [Shelton and Tabilo] together and they stepped up big time,” said Team World captain McEnroe in his on-court interview. “We’ve had a great day and we’re pumped for tomorrow.

“We need two wins, and I think we’re going to come out tomorrow in the doubles guns blazing. I like our chances, and hopefully if we win that, we need one out of three [singles matches]. Team Europe are great, three of the top four players in the world are in Team Europe, so we know we’ve got our hands full, but we are totally psyched for tomorrow.”

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What Chinese history did Zhang & Buyunchaokete make in Hangzhou?

  • Posted: Sep 21, 2024

When Zhang Zhizhen defeated Mattia Bellucci 6-3, 6-0 to reach the quarter-finals in Hangzhou Saturday, he made history for Chinese tennis.

It is the first time multiple Chinese players have made the quarter-finals of the same ATP Tour event. On Friday his countryman Buyunchaokete upset second seed Karen Khachanov to reach the quarter-finals.

“We’re happy to [earn] some wins for Chinese people,” Zhang shared after the match.

In a near-perfect performance, Zhang fired six aces and faced no break points throughout the match as Bellucci made 29 unforced errors. The Chinese will face Roberto Carballes Baena in the quarter-finals. It will be the first meeting in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Buyunchaokete will face Mikhail Kukushkin in the quarter-finals. It will also be the pair’s first meeting.

Did You Know?
Zhang became the first Chinese player in PIF ATP Rankings history to break into the Top 100 in October 2022 and Top 50 in January 2024. Zhang and Buyunchaokete will try to join Wu Yibing (2023 Dallas) as Chinese ATP Tour titlists.

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Tiafoe upsets Medvedev: 'I felt like I was Roger Federer, honestly'

  • Posted: Sep 21, 2024

Frances Tiafoe caught such fire on Saturday in Berlin that he felt like he was Roger Federer.

That form helped the Team World player rally past Team Europe’s Daniil Medvedev 3-6, 6-4, 10-5 to give his side a 4-2 lead in Berlin.

“Honestly I just started having fun. Laughing with my team, laughing with my team over there and here. Just having a bit of fun and started really finding my rhythm,” Tiafoe said. “The courts are obviously much slower than I’m used to playing on, so it’s tough playing Daniil on this court. But after the second set, midway into the second and in the tie-break, I felt like I was Roger Federer, honestly.”

Federer, who was in the crowd, gave on-court reporter Mark Petchey a double thumb’s up when asked about Tiafoe’s comment. The American is playing some of the best tennis of his career, having just reached the US Open semi-finals for the first time after making the final in Cincinnati.

Tiafoe entered the match facing a 0-5 Lexus ATP Head2Head deficit against Medvedev, but did not let that intimidate him. He played freely in the critical moments and had a blast on court even when losing points. After one Medvedev shot drew Tiafoe to his side of the court, the American did his signature sprinkling celebration to compliment his opponent.

[ATP APP]

“I just have a lot more confidence in myself. I’m having a lot of fun playing the game at the moment,” Tiafoe said. “I’m just trying to play the right way and compete as hard as I can, let the chips fall where they may. I respect everyone, but I’m just not fearing anyone at the moment. I’m just going out there, taking it to guys and seeing what happens.”

Team Europe’s Carlos Alcaraz and Team World’s Ben Shelton are now meeting in the second match of the day.

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Uchiyama upsets Rune, advances to Hangzhou QFs

  • Posted: Sep 21, 2024

Japanese qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama upset top seed Holger Rune 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday to advance to the quarter-finals at the Hangzhou Open.

The No. 160 in the PIF ATP Rankings won 77 per cent of his first-serve points to record the joint biggest win of his career, after his victory over World No. 14 Kyle Edmund at Brisbane in 2019. The 32-year-old Uchiyama also saved two of the four break points that he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to close out the match in one hour, 40 minutes.

“I’m very excited, I’m happy with my performance today,” Uchiyama said after the match. “I couldn’t imagine winning in two sets, I was just thinking about my performance, I had to play 100 per cent the whole match to get the chance to beat him, so it went well for me today”.

Uchiyama will compete in the third ATP Tour quarter-final of his career, in which he will face wild card Marin Cilic.

Former US Open champion Cilic eased past Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 6-1 Saturday to seal his place in the quarter-finals in Hangzhou.

The former No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings struck 32 winners to take his Lexus ATP Head2Head record against the eighth seed to 2-0. The Croatian wild card also converted four of his six break point chances as he wrapped the match in just 69 minutes.

[ATP APP]

“It was a really good match even though I was a break down in the first set at 4-3,” Cilic said after the match. “Sometimes you have to wait for the right moments to get your game together, when everything clicks and luckily I made that break to come back and win the first set and then everything started to fall into place so definitely extremely pleased with the level.

“I know what my level can be and when I’m getting to the level where I’m close to my best. I try to stay there as much as I can, try to push myself and get as many points as I can to try to play well.”

Cilic achieved consecutive ATP Tour wins for the first time since reaching the 2022 Tel Aviv final.

Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena rallied to defeat lucky loser Mitchell Krueger 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The 31-year-old won 76 per cent of his first-serve points to close out the match in two hours, 30 minutes. The No. 55 in the PIF ATP Rankings extended his winning streak to seven matches at all levels after capturing a Challenger title in Seville last month.

 

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Musetti rallies to beat O’Connell, advances to Chengdu QFs

  • Posted: Sep 21, 2024

Lorenzo Musetti battled past Christopher O’Connell 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(4) on Saturday to advance to the quarter-finals at the Chengdu Open.

The top seed recovered from 5-3 down in the deciding set to notch a personal-best 35th win of the season and progress to his seventh quarter-final of the year. The 22-year-old Musetti hit 33 winners, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to close out the match in two hours, 37 minutes.

“That was a difficult match, he [O’Connell] was serving pretty sharp and really precisely and I didn’t find so many break points,” Musetti said after the match. “But at the end I stayed focused, I played the right tactics and I managed to play well throughout the match.”

The Italian will meet fifth seed Adrian Mannarino in the quarter-finals, after the Frenchman survived a scare to beat home hope Yi Zhou 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-4.

Mannarino rallied from 1-3, 0/40 down in the deciding set to overcome the 19-year-old wild card and advance to his second quarter-final of the season (Dallas). The No. 46 in the PIF ATP Rankings saved eight of the 12 break point chances against him.

By sealing victory in two hours, 45 minutes, the 36-year-old became the oldest quarter-finalist in the tournament’s history.

[ATP APP]

“It was really hot conditions out here, I was feeling really tired in the match and it wasn’t easy because I could see that he [Zhou] was super fresh,” Mannarino said in his post-match interview.

“But at the end he was playing too good so I thought ‘Okay, try to put one more ball in the court’ and I was lucky that he made some mistakes at the end.”

The Frenchman defeated Musetti in their only previous Lexus ATP Head2Head encounter (Indian Wells 2023).

Second seed Alexander Bublik defeated Federico Agustin Gomez 6-4, 6-4 to reach the final eight.

The four-time ATP Tour champion hit 25 winners en route to victory over the qualifier. The 27-year-old Bublik also saved four of the five break points against him to close out the match in 97 minutes.

Bublik will face either #NextGenATP star Shang Juncheng or eighth seed Roman Safiullin in the next round.

 

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What makes Pouille tick? 'This little thing in the stomach'

  • Posted: Sep 21, 2024

Lucas Pouille knows what it is like to win ATP Tour titles, reach the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings and compete in a major semi-final. The adrenaline of a match day is nothing new for the Frenchman. 

In 2017, Pouille held his nerve to secure the Davis Cup title for France in front of a raucous home crowd. It was a final, all-or-nothing deciding rubber against Belgium.

Now ranked World No. 142 and competing mostly on the ATP Challenger Tour this season, Pouille continues to live for that thrill of going toe to toe against another competitor.

“Before the match, in the morning you wake up and you have this little thing in the stomach. You know it’s a match day. You don’t wake up like the other days,” Pouille told ATPTour.com at this week’s Saint-Tropez Open, an ATP Challenger Tour 125 event. “Once I step on court, they are there for sure, but I take it as a positive. For me, it’s just great to have this kind of stress.”

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In May, Pouille won his first title across all levels in five years at the Mauthausen Challenger. It was an important moment for Pouille, who has been plagued with injuries. He underwent elbow surgery in 2020 and last year at Wimbledon, he suffered a stress fracture in his lower back.

In his first tournament back last September, Pouille tore an abdominal muscle that forced him to shut down his season in September.

Claiming his second ATP Challenger Tour title on the Austrian clay this year was a pivotal turning point.

“It proved to myself that I was able to win this kind of tournament. I was able to play five matches in a week. It gave me a lot of confidence in my body and my capacity as well, to play day after day,” Pouille said. “It was the first time I was finishing the week on a victory in awhile, for five years actually, so it meant a lot.”

Pouille later advanced through qualifying at Wimbledon, where he competed in the main draw of the grass-court major for the first time since 2021. A quarter-finalist at the All England Club in 2016, Pouille began this year’s tournament by winning a five-setter against Laslo Djere. Pouille reached the third round, but withdrew before his clash against ninth seed Alex de Minaur.

The Frenchman had suffered another abdominal strain, though in a different area than last year’s injury.

“I felt abdominal [pain] the first day against Djere. Finally I managed to win, it was okay. After that I checked with the doctor that was there for the French team. I tore my abs a few centimetres. It was a Grade 2,” Pouille said.

Making the third round was already a huge accomplishment, considering that Pouille’s team advised him to retire in the second round against Thanasi Kokkinakis, who suffered an injury of his own. The Australian retired in the third set.

“I decided to go on court because I wanted to play so much. I decided to serve a way where I was able to control the pain,” Pouille said. “If I got broken in the second set and started to lose two sets to love, then yes, I think I would’ve been thinking to stop.

“Then after the match, it was too much and the [doctor] said, ‘If you play now, you are going to have to stop for more than six weeks because it’s going to be too much’.”

There are positive signs for Pouille, whose goal is to “make the main-draw cutoff for the Australian Open”. He is on pace to play more than 50 matches at all levels this season, a feat he has not accomplished in a single year since 2017.

“It’s great considering that I didn’t play in July [after Wimbledon], almost nothing in August and June either, except the qualifying at Wimbledon,” Pouille said. “It means every time I step on court at a tournament, I win many matches, so that’s a good thing. I cross my fingers that I stay healthy until the end of the season and play as many matches as I can.”

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Alcaraz thrilled to play in front of Federer: 'I wished for that moment for a long time’

  • Posted: Sep 21, 2024

Roger Federer has seen a lot in his career. Friday at the Laver Cup, the Swiss was faced with something new.

Federer watched four-time major champion and No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings Carlos Alcaraz play a match in person for the first time.

The stars had already gotten to know one another during the leadup to the event, chatting at various functions, posing together for a photoshoot and having a nice conversation on the practice court Friday before the Spaniard’s match.

But for the first time, 103-time tour-level titlist Federer experienced the Spaniard’s game up close when Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev faced Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton in doubles. Fritz and Shelton won the match in straight sets.

Alcaraz reflected on playing a match in front of Federer for the first time, saying: “It was great, honestly, playing in front of him. It’s the first time that he watched one of my matches in real life and I’m really happy that he was there watching our doubles.

“I think I’m good [at doubles], but I’m not as good as [I am at] the singles, I guess. I hope to see him tomorrow in the singles. I hope he enjoyed the doubles match, and obviously it was great seeing him in the practice. He didn’t tell me any tactics, any advice. But he just told me that he’s really happy about watching me in real life, that I’m here. It was a great time for me. I wished [for] that moment for a long time.”

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