Cameron Norrie cannot qualify for ATP Finals after Hubert Hurkacz takes last spot
British number one Cameron Norrie can no longer qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin after Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz secured the last spot.
British number one Cameron Norrie can no longer qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin after Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz secured the last spot.
Novak Djokovic continued his quest for a record 37th ATP Masters 1000 crown on Friday by reaching the Rolex Paris Masters semi-finals. The World No. 1 and five-time former champion overcame early resistance of American Taylor Fritz for a 6-4, 6-3 victory in 74 minutes.
If Russian Daniil Medvedev loses to Hugo Gaston, a French qualifier, later today then Djokovic will become year-end No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings for a record seventh time. He would break a tie with Pete Sampras, who finished in the top spot in six straight seasons between 1993-1998.
Djokovic, who has won 46 of 52 matches in another standout season, will now prepare to meet seventh-seeded Pole Hubert Hurkacz, who clinched the last singles spot at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin later this month. The 34-year-old Djokovic is currently tied with Rafael Nadal on 36 Masters 1000 trophies.
[FOLLOW 1000]Djokovic’s athleticism helped him land a blow at 3-4 in the first set, and while Fritz’s shot-making helped him break back immediately, greater depth of stroke from his Serbian opponent clinched the 38-minute opener.
The pair exchanged service breaks at the start of the second set, and once Djokovic recovered from 15/40 at 1-1, his forehand started to do the damage. From 2-2, he kept his foot down to win 12 of 14 points and finished his fifth straight win over Fritz with a backhand volley winner.
As professional athletes, Matteo Berrettini and Argentine footballer Paulo Dybala can relate to the pressure of major finals, crippling pre-match nerves and the elation of competing on the biggest stages.
Dybala is a forward with Serie A club Juventus in World No. 7 Berrettini’s native Italy. And while Italy’s top-ranked tennis player admitted in the past he was an avid fan of rival club Fiorentina, the two discovered in an interview in Italian with ATPTour.com that they shared a common idol: Roger Federer.
“Personally, I never hid that I grew up idolising Roger [Federer]. I liked the way he made everything look easy, almost like Ronaldinho,” Berrettini told Dybala. “The way he was on the court, his elegance, the way he speaks, the vibe he gives.”
The admiration was mutual as the 27-year-old Dybala admitted Federer – alongside his football idol, Ronaldinho – was an athlete he had long looked up to. “Me too,” Dybala said.
“I have skipped a football match a few times to watch his matches instead. Unfortunately I’ve never seen him in person, but I hope I will be able to do it.”
Berrettini, who has booked his second Nitto ATP Finals appearance, has notched a 40-10 record this season, including his first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon where he lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets. It was his appearance in the championship match on Centre Court, which Dybala was most keen to hear about.
“I had knots in my stomach. I tried to force myself to eat but it was hard to deal with… It wasn’t exactly easy against Djokovic,” Berrettini said. “So I was in the locker room. It was just me and Novak.
“He had already played more than 30 Grand Slam finals so he was definitely more used to it than me, surely he felt tension. He was there relaxing with music in his headphones and I was there like, ‘I can’t even eat some rice. How am I supposed to play?’… I remember my hands were sweating, I couldn’t eat and when I was talking to my team, my head started spinning.
“But then something snaps inside you, 20, 30 minutes before the match, when you start warming up. You feel that adrenaline rush, the desire to win, and you feel like you could beat anyone. You say ‘I’m here because I deserve it’… Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”
One point of difference became apparent as the pair’s discussion turned to coaches. Berrettini – who has been under the guidance of Vincenzo Santopadre since he was 14 – was at liberty to prank his coach.
“I almost have a father-son relationship with my coach. We joke, I prank him, I record him while he’s asleep, I wake him up,” he said. “Your problem is that you don’t pay your coach. I pay him, so I can get away with it, you see?”
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Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz has clinched the eighth and final berth to the Nitto ATP Finals, completing the field for the prestigious season finale to be held at the Pala Alpitour in Turin from 14-21 November.
Hurkacz sealed his place after defeating James Duckworth Friday to reach the Rolex Paris Masters quarter-finals.
The 24-year-old is the second Polish player to earn a spot at the event in tournament history (after 1976 runner-up Wojtek Fibak) and will make his debut following a standout season in which he reached a career-high No. 10 in the FedEx ATP Rankings and captured three ATP Tour trophies.
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Hubert Hurkacz booked a place in the Rolex Paris Masters semi-finals on Friday and also became the final singles qualifier for the Nitto ATP Finals later this month.
The seventh-seeded Pole’s greater experience and a strong service performance in the decider helped him to beat first-time ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finalist James Duckworth 6-2, 6-7(4), 7-5 victory in two hours and 13 minutes.
Hurkacz, a winner of the Miami Open presented by Itau title and two other ATP Tour crowns this year, will now prepare to face World No. 1 and five-time former champion Novak Djokovic in south-west Paris on Saturday.
Later next week, the 24-year-old will join Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Matteo Berrettini and Casper Ruud at the season finale, which will take place at the Pala Alpitour in Turin from 14-21 November.
“It’s obviously a dream come true to be at the Finals,” Hurkacz told the Tennis Channel. “I played at the Next Gen Finals so I thought to myself maybe one day I would get to the main one. I’m just super happy.
“I’m getting so much support, especially from other athletes… I’m privileged to be in this position and I hope I am making Poland a little proud. Interest [in tennis] is growing in Poland also with Iga [Swiatek], who is in the WTA Finals, so it’s amazing to have both players at the high level. Hopefully we will have a lot more guys and girls join the top soon.”
[FOLLOW 1000]Hurkacz applied pressure right from the start, but it wasn’t until Duckworth made a backhand slice error to be broken at 2-2 that the Pole really settled. Duckworth paid the price for just two first serves into court at 2-4 and Hurkacz coolly closed out the 31-minute opener in the next game.
Out of nowhere, World No. 55 Duckworth took a 4-2 advantage in the second set when his opponent pushed a forehand wide, but his lead was short-lived. Hurkacz broke back immediately, and was left to watch Duckworth’s great hands and aggressive tennis in the tie-break. Duckworth took a 4/0 lead, but Hurkacz responded with three straight points. The Australian didn’t waver and although he lost a 37-stroke rally at 6/3, he closed out the second set with a backhand winner.
Hurkacz didn’t blink and won 23 of his first 24 service points in the decider, before Duckworth returned to his aggressive best at 5-5. Duckworth held firm from the baseline after saving one break point at 0-1 and later saved two match points at 5-5, 15/40, but Hurkacz completed victory with a lob winner. He follows in the footsteps of 1976 runner-up Wojtek Fibak as a Nitto ATP Finals qualifier from Poland.
“James was playing some really good tennis,” said Hurkacz. “He was very solid throughout the whole match, especially [in the] second and third sets. He was serving well and it was not easy to play against him. Obviously, in the back of my mind, I [knew] that basically I had to win today. So that was putting a little bit more pressure [to] push me to compete as hard as I could.”
Duckworth, who was seeking his first Top 10 win (0-10 lifetime), is now 22-19 on the season, which includes a run to the Astana Open final in Nur-Sultan (l. to Kwon).
“I’ll definitely take a lot of positives from this week,” said Duckworth. “Since playing [in] Miami, I feel like I have been playing some good tennis and improving. There’s still a few areas I need to get better at to get higher up the [FedEx ATP] Rankings.”
The Rolex Paris Masters hits the business end on Friday with five-time former champion Novak Djokovic, 2020 titlist Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev in quarter-final action. Casper Ruud plays in the safe knowledge that he has already qualified for the the Nitto ATP Finals, while Hubert Hurkacz will be aiming to join the Norwegian in Turin later this month as a fellow first-time qualifier.
Back at the start of Djokovic’s standout season, Taylor Fritz had the World No. 1 on the ropes having won the third and fourth sets of their Australian Open third-round clash. Of course, Djokovic came within one victory of completing the first Grand Slam since 1969, going 27-1 in major play. Today, second on Court Central, the pair meet for the third time this year (also Internazionali BNL d’Italia), with Fritz in good form on the back of three Top 10 wins — Matteo Berrettini and Alexander Zverev in Indian Wells and Andrey Rublev in Paris — in recent weeks. The American has won 11 of his past 13 matches, while five-time titlist Djokovic seeks his seventh semi-final on the indoor courts of south-west Paris.
Medvedev will attempt to overcome home favourite and qualifier Hugo Gaston, who will compete next week at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. The second-seeded Russian has compiled a 17-1 indoor record over the past 12 months, but should he lose on Friday then Djokovic will become 2021 year-end No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings for a record seventh time. In five matches this week, including qualifying, World No. 103 Gaston has beaten Kevin Anderson, Lorenzo Musetti, Arthur Rinderknech, Pablo Carreno Busta and Carlos Alcaraz to become the youngest quarter-finalist in Paris since No. 121-ranked Michael Llodra in 2012.
In the final singles match of day five, sixth seed Ruud, who secured his spot at the Nitto ATP Finals on Thursday, challenges fourth-seeded German Zverev, who has won seven of his past 10 matches against Top 10 opponents. Zverev got the better of Ruud 6-1, 6-3 at the Western & Southern Open in August. Seventh-seeded Pole Hurkacz begins proceedings, knowing that if he beats first-time ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finalist James Duckworth of Australia, he’ll clinch the final berth at the season finale, to be held at the Pala Alpitour in Turin from 14-21 November.
Watch Thursday Highlights From Paris
VIEW SCHEDULE – FRIDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2021
COURT CENTRAL start 2:00 pm
J. Duckworth (AUS) vs [7] H. Hurkacz (POL)
[1] N. Djokovic (SRB) vs T. Fritz (USA)
Not Before 7:30 pm
[Q] H. Gaston (FRA) vs [2] D. Medvedev (RUS)
[6] C. Ruud (NOR) vs [4] A. Zverev (GER)
COURT 1 start 2:00 pm
[PR] F. Martin (FRA) / A. Mies (GER) vs T. Puetz (GER) / M. Venus (NZL)
[5] J. Cabal (COL) / R. Farah (COL) vs J. Murray (GBR) / B. Soares (BRA)
S. Gille (BEL) / J. Vliegen (BEL) vs [6] J. Peers (AUS) / F. Polasek (SVK)
Not Before 5:00 pm
[3] P. Herbert (FRA) / N. Mahut (FRA) vs [WC] B. Bonzi (FRA) / A. Rinderknech (FRA)
Hugo Gaston rounds out the field at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held at the Allianz Cloud in Milan from 9-13 November.
The 19-year-old lefty broke onto the scene by reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2020, and he maintained his momentum this year. The French lefty is soaring higher than ever, having reached a career-high No. 103 in the FedEx ATP Rankings on 1 November 2021.
This week, Gaston has become the lowest-ranked quarter-finalist at the Rolex Paris Masters since No. 121-ranked Michael Llodra in 2012.
Read the full story at NextGenATPFinals.com
French qualifier Hugo Gaston wrote another chapter of his fairytale run to the Rolex Paris Masters quarter-finals Thursday night with a jaw-dropping comeback win over fellow #NextGenATP star Carlos Alcaraz.
Fuelled by a raucous Paris crowd, the World No. 103 rallied from 0-5 in the second set to win 20 of the last 21 points of the match to stun the 18-year-old Spaniard 6-4, 7-5.
It was the latest and most remarkable turnaround in a dramatic week that began with Gaston saving two match points in the first round of qualifying against former Wimbledon and US Open finalist Kevin Anderson. He then came from a set and a break down to beat another #NextGenATP teen Lorenzo Musetti to qualify for the main draw.
He dropped the first set to Arthur Rinderknech in the first round, came from a set and a break down to beat Pablo Carreno Busta in the second round and then twice came from a break down in the first set against Alcaraz before uncorking tonight’s second-set escape, during which he won 17 consecutive points.
The latest turnaround from 0-5 came as a shock to the 21-year-old lefty, who benefitted from what Jim Courier coined “a festival of errors” from Alcaraz.
“I was drifting off at that point, and he started to have a letdown, as well,” Gaston said. “He made a lot of mistakes, because I managed to have fast balls, slow balls, to have high balls. He started to lose his groove, and I stayed focused. This is why I managed to overturn the match in my favour.
HOW ?@HugoGaston7 #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/G4uTGiKRJ3
— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 4, 2021
“[The atmosphere] was incredible. Honestly, I have been playing tennis for this. It was actually incredible. It was really wonderful to live this match with them. I actually won because they supported me from beginning to the end even when I had a letdown during the first or the second set, they were always cheering me. It’s incredible to have such a great public.”
Gaston advances to play second seed and defending champion Daniil Medvedev.
Daniil Medvedev played inspired tennis in front of energetic Parisian fans to snuff out a stern test from Sebastian Korda 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 en route to the Rolex Paris Masters quarter-finals on Friday night.
Medvedev conjured up a dipping forehand pass laced with spin worthy of a sorcerer that found its way under the American’s racquet to claim the decisive break at 3-2 in the final set. Pandemic-weary fans responded with a Mexican Wave during the changeover and then sustained applause when the players emerged from their seats, earning a smile from Medvedev, hearty laughs from Korda and even a generous smile from umpire Aurelie Tourte.
“I had adrenaline going [from another hot shot earlier in the game] and that’s how it’s possible to make these shots. It was a little bit of luck, a little bit of skill and a little bit of magic,” Medvedev said.
But Medvedev was also focussed on the serious business of continuing his title defense and not handing Novak Djokovic an early path to the year-end No. 1 FedEx ATP Ranking. Defeat to Korda would have guaranteed Djokovic a record-breaking seventh year-end No. 1 finish. If Medvedev wins the Paris title, his faint hopes of finishing No. 1 himself will carry over to the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.
Medvedev’s victory was anchored in his low unforced error count of 17, fewer than half the 40 Korda made. He earned 14 break point chances, converting five, while dropping serve twice himself.
“It was a tough first set where I felt that I had the margin but I didn’t manage to break him [from 0/40 at 3-2] and he turned it around against me,” Medvedev said. “But I was really happy that I stayed calm and kept my level and that was enough to win today.”
Medvedev next faces the winner of #NextGenATP stars Carlos Alcaraz and Hugo Gaston.
Casper Ruud will make his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals after clinching his spot on Thursday at the Rolex Paris Masters The 22-year-old is the first Norwegian to earn a spot in the season finale, to be played at the Pala Alpitour in Turin from 14-21 November.
“It’s been an unbelievable year that will have the perfect end to the season,” said Ruud. “It’s been a stressful couple of weeks and months, because it’s been such a tight [FedEx ATP] Race [To Turin]. It’s been fun at the same time [and] so exciting to watch as a tennis fan.”
The Oslo native has enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2021, winning five of his six ATP Tour titles. The only other player who has lifted five tour-level trophies this year is Alexander Zverev, another Turin qualifier.
Read the full story at NittoATPFinals.com