Tennis News

Sinner: From The Stands To The Stage To The Top

It’s easy to forget that Jannik Sinner was the eighth seed at last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals. Then only 18, the Italian had shown promise earlier in the year by reaching the Antwerp semi-finals. But he gained entry into the 21-and-under finale as a wild card. Sinner finished the 2019 FedEx ATP Race To Milan in 11th place.

But the one-time skiing prodigy was determined to prove that he could compete with more established #NextGenATP stars, like Alex de Minaur, Frances Tiafoe and Casper Ruud.

“Last year, I was watching from the stands,” Sinner said before the tournament, cracking a smile. “This year, I can play in front of the stands.”

Sinner did more than just compete. He became the first Italian to lift the Next Gen ATP Finals trophy, beating De Minaur 4-2, 4-1, 4-2 with a breathtaking shotmaking display in the final. That proved to be just the beginning of what has been a rapid ascent for the teen.

The red-headed right-hander received plenty of attention for his efforts. Even Roger Federer chimed in at this year’s US Open.

“I think we’ll see so much more from him,” Federer said. “He’s an exciting guy and [a] super sweet kid, which I always love to see.”

The spotlight that was on Sinner only grew bigger throughout 2020, but the Italian never allowed the pressure to get to him. In fact, he thrived under it. Sinner has made the biggest jump into the Top 50 of the FedEx ATP Rankings this year, surging from No. 78 to No. 44, and he is not yet done, competing at this week’s Sofia Open.

The #NextGenATP star didn’t soar with just one big result, either. One can argue some of Sinner’s losses have been just as impressive as his wins.

The Italian earned his first Top 10 triumph in February, when he beat World No. 10 David Goffin in Rotterdam. The Belgian is one of the toughest baseliners on the ATP Tour, but Sinner dispatched him in straight sets.

“It feels like a normal victory, [but] sometimes you play [matches] better than others,” he said. “It’s all about improving and testing where you are [as a player].”

Since he first broke onto the scene, Sinner has maintained that he does not focus on one result. He is always working to best position himself for the long term, trying to improve daily.

After the ATP Tour was suspended for more than five months due to COVID-19, the Italian lost his first two matches back. But a five-set defeat against then-World No. 16 Karen Khachanov in the first round the US Open showed a big result was not far away.

Khachanov is one of the world’s biggest hitters, but Sinner had no problem going toe-to-toe with the Russian for three hours and 44 minutes, pushing the 2018 Rolex Paris Masters champion to a fifth-set tie-break. Italian veteran Paolo Lorenzi was in the stands watching his countryman.

“Sometimes it’s like he’s playing another sport. The ball is going so fast from his racquet. He’s still thin, he’s not so big. But the ball is going really, really fast,” Lorenzi told ATPTour.com. “It was impressive. He was playing unbelievable [against Khachanov]. He was two sets up against a guy who is Top 15 in the world and they both were playing really good. I think that was a big step for him.”

Sinner carried that momentum into the clay-court season, during which he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia for his second Top 10 win. Sixteen months earlier, he had managed to take only five games from the Greek star at the same tournament.

That set the stage for one of the most impressive #NextGenATP efforts of 2020. Sinner only lost one set en route to his first Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros, where he beat Goffin and recent US Open finalist Alexander Zverev. The Italian became the first player to reach the last eight on his debut at the clay-court Slam since Rafael Nadal in 2005. It was only fitting Sinner faced the Spaniard next.

“I don’t watch about records. I know who is on the other side,” Sinner said. “I have a lot of respect [for] him. At the end you want to win. You go on court to play your tennis with your personality. You go on court trying to play your tennis, trying to win obviously.”

Sinner gave it a good shot, winning more games against Nadal (11) than World No. 1 Novak Djokovic did in the final (7). The teen showed a willingness to engage the legendary lefty in baseline rallies, sometimes even overpowering the Spaniard.

“He’s improving every single week. He’s playing better and better and better,” Nadal said before their match. “He has an amazing potential, he moves [his] hands very quickly and he’s able to produce amazing shots.”

Two years ago, Sinner was in the stands in Milan. Last year, the Italian took centre stage. And now, the teen is proving that he is well on his way to the top.

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ATP Finals: Joe Salisbury's journey from setbacks to Grand Slam success

British doubles player Joe Salisbury enjoys flying under the radar but his Grand Slam success is putting him in the spotlight.

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Beyond The Antics, Nastase’s Genius Made Him A Masters Great

Continuing our series on the 50 years of the Nitto ATP Finals, ATPTour.com looks at one of the most colourful and controversial figures in tennis history, Ilie Nastase.

A ticket to an Ilie Năstase match represented much more than just an opportunity to watch a tennis match. Năstase once told a chair umpire that tennis “isn’t the opera”. Perhaps not, but his matches were very much a raucous blend of performance art, theater, and stand-up comedy.

The talented and polarising Romanian was fined or suspended too many times to count for making obscene gestures, using profane language, firing balls at linespersons and generally making a nuisance of himself on the court. Sometimes his fines added up to more than his prize money at the end of the week.

In a memorable match with John McEnroe at the US Open in 1979, he played the part of his other nickname—the Bucharest Buffoon—when he nearly caused a riot with his antics and made McEnroe look like a choirboy by comparison. Năstase once turned up at a Wimbledon doubles match wearing a beefeater helmet. On another occasion, he ripped his tennis shorts during a match at the US Open, and promptly took out a new pair and changed right there on the court. As they say in Romanian, nicio problemă. No problem.

British tennis great Tim Henman recently asked “Nasty” how he feels about still being considered the sport’s iconic bad boy. “I don’t care!” he said on a Zoom call from his Bucharest home, where he sat before his collection of tennis mementos and a Romanian flag, with pop music playing in his office. “Somebody has to be nasty, no? Not everybody is nice. I’m the nasty one. I love it.”

Nasty was known for clowning, stalling, and displaying flashes of genius on the court. He often drove his opponents to the brink of madness, and usually beat the short shorts off of them too, particularly at the season-ending Masters, where he made it to the final in five consecutive seasons in five countries (France, Spain, USA, Australia, and Sweden) on three surfaces.

Ilie Nastase en route to his second Masters title in Barcelona 1972. Photo: FC Barcelona/Horacio Seguí

Năstase was a playboy, a practical joker, a novelist, a coach, a diplomat, a politician, a provocateur, and, perhaps above all else, an entertainer. Amid all the legends, generations who missed watching his artful game may not realise that he was also a gifted tennis player, a guy no one wanted to see their name next to in the draw, particularly at the Masters, where he won four titles in four different cities in a five-year stretch in the early ‘70s.

Ask Năstase why he was so very good at the Masters, as British tennis great Tim Henman did, and he shrugs. “I don’t know how I did it,” he said. “It was my lucky tournament…it was my favorite tournament, but I don’t know how I did it.”

Ilie Theodoriu Năstase was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1946 just months before the Romanian Communist Party took power, winning an election marred by allegations of fraud. He lived for tennis from an early age and wrote in a memoir that his parents were “extremely supportive” but decided not to come to any of his matches or “take any interest” in his tennis career. “When I rung them to tell them I had won the French Open in 1973, my dad said, ‘What’s that?’” he wrote. “Deep down, I knew this was his way of showing he loved me.”

Travel was strictly restricted during the communist era in Romania, so Nasty was unable to test his level of play at an international level until the mid-1960s. His tennis career took off in 1966, when at 19 he became the champion of Romania. That same year, he reached the French Open doubles final with his sidekick, Ion Țiriac.

He went on to win two singles majors—the French and US Opens— three doubles majors, and more than 100 titles (combing singles and doubles), 15 of them in 1973, when he was the first ATP World No. 1. Năstase also proudly represented his country in Davis Cup competition for 18 years, leading Romania to the final on three occasions. He was part of an elite club, together with Ken Rosewall, Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe— who earned $1 million or more in the sport.

“People remember his crazy antics but not his talent”, said Zeljko Franulovic, Tournament Director of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, who lost a tough three set match to Năstase at the ’71 Masters in Paris. “He was one of the most talented ever. We were used to (his antics), but now I don’t think it would work because the rules have changed.”

Ilie Nastase at the Barcelona presentation ceremony in 1972. Photo: FC Barcelona/Horacio Seguí

Năstase told Henman that his first Masters title in Paris at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin in 1971 remains his favourite. His $15,000 first prize came in handy for the post-match celebration.

“I lived in Paris for four years,” said Năstase, who was the head of the Romanian tennis federation for eight years until 2008 and also served as the country’s Davis and Fed Cup captain for spells. “It was my favorite city at the time. When I made the (prize) money, by the next day I had to take the bus because I spent it all at a nightclub in St. Germain.”

Nasty backed up that title with back-to-back Masters wins in ’72 (Barcelona) and ’73 (Boston), notching wins against a host of tennis legends, including Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, Manuel Orantes, and John Newcombe among others. But if you ask him about Boston, what he remembers is how a chair umpire didn’t show up for one of his matches.

“They picked some guy out of the crowd to be umpire!” he said.

In 1974, the quest to win four Masters titles in a row took Nasty Down Under, to the grass courts of Melbourne’s venerable Kooyong Club. He came into the event ranked No. 10 and grass wasn’t his best surface, but he was undefeated in the round-robin stage and then upset Aussie star John Newcombe, then ranked No. 2 in the semi-finals.

“But then I lost to (Guillermo) Vilas in the final,” Năstase said, chuckling at the memory of his five-set loss. “The grass was very slow, the balls were quite big… it was like playing on clay.”

The following year, 1975, the tournament was played in Sweden, and a young Björn Borg, then just 19 but already ranked No. 2, was the hometown favorite. Năstase, then 29, schooled young Borg in the final, winning three sets in just 65 minutes. After the match, Nasty told reporters, “It was the most I concentrate in 29 years. From now on, I try not to kid. For as long as possible, anyway. I realise it’s not good for my game.”

The “kidding” he was referring to was a round-robin match earlier in the tournament where both he and his opponent, Arthur Ashe, were disqualified. Nasty quick served Ashe on at least one occasion, and was repeatedly warned for stalling. At one point, he faked as though he was about to serve four times, remarking to his opponent, “Are you ready, Mr. Ashe?” Ashe eventually walked off the court to protest Nasty’s antics. The American was disqualified for leaving the court; moments later, Nasty was also disqualified. If Ashe had stayed on the court, he would have won the match. After the debacle, Năstase said, “I’m always wrong. Why do I have to say anything?”

“It was my fault,” Năstase told Henman of the Ashe disqualification affair. “Jack Kramer was the president (of the ATP) at that time. I went to him the next day and apologised. I told them it was my mistake and they should give the match to Arthur. No other player would do that. You see, so I was not always so Nasty.”

Nitto ATP Finals 50th Anniversary Content

• Step Aside Boris, Sampras Owned Germany in The ‘90s
• The Other Rock Stars Of Madison Square Garden
• Tom Gorman’s Remarkable Sportsmanship Resonates 48 Years On
• Djokovic’s Shanghai Reality Check Fuelled His Finale Success
• Stan Smith: From First Masters Champ To Boot Camp…
• At Madison Square Garden, ‘Ivan Was The Truth’
• Two Years To Rule Them All: Hewitt Soars In Sydney And Shanghai

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Step Aside Boris, Sampras Owned Germany in The ‘90s

ATPTour.com continues its series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Nitto ATP Finals, looking at the biggest stars and greatest moments in tournament history.

In the ‘90s, Nirvana rocked, the Soviet Union vanished, Netflix, Google and online dating were launched on the new World Wide Web, and Pete Sampras dominated the ATP World Championships in Germany. The always cool and collected Californian won a remarkable 12 majors in the decade.

He led the United States team to a Davis Cup title in 1995, beating the Russian team in Moscow. And Sampras won five Masters titles and two Grand Slam Cups. Other than healing lepers, turning loaves of bread into fish and winning Roland Garros and Olympic gold, Sampras did it all.

Petros “Pete” Sampras has largely retreated from the public eye since he retired from the sport in 2002 after beating Andre Agassi in the final of the US Open. And with tennis’ Big Three passing his record haul of 14 majors, younger tennis fans who never had the pleasure of watching Pete’s emphatic slam dunk overheads may not know much about his remarkable story, which he detailed sparingly during his career but in much more detail in his memoir, A Champion’s Mind: Lessons from a Life in Tennis.

See more stories in the 50th anniversary celebration series

As a boy, Sampras often practised 12 hours a day. His coach insisted he play with a wooden racquet until he was 13 because he thought it would help him perfect his strokes. “For some reason I had no best friends – or any friends, for that matter – but I did believe in God because he had given me the Gift,” he wrote in his book.
Sampras suffers from thalassemia minor, a condition that can inhibit the blood’s ability to carry oxygen, but it didn’t stop him from bursting into the Top 10 by age 19 and remaining there for nearly his entire career.

By his own reckoning, Pistol Pete’s most difficult feat may have been his Open Era record of six consecutive year-end No. 1 FedEx ATP Rankings from 1993 to 1998. His five Masters titles helped lock down those honors, but don’t get as much attention as they deserve. In a recent conversation with British tennis great Tim Henman, and Novak Djokovic for ATPTour.com, Sampras reflected on the event and how it helped make him the sport’s dominant player of the decade.

“It was stressful, I wasn’t sleeping well, I wasn’t eating well, I just kind of put all this pressure on myself to break this record that was important to me,” Sampras said. “It felt great, but it definitely took a lot out of me emotionally. Just, even the next few years, those years at No. 1 and staying on top of the game, year after year after year. … it’s very hard to stay No. 1. And to do it six years in a row was for me in my career… I look back at that, and I’ve won a lot of majors, I’ve done some great things – but staying No. 1 all of those years, I think was my biggest achievement.”

Djokovic, who now has six year-end No. 1 finishes on his CV and passed Sampras’ mark of 286 total weeks as World No. 1 in September, agreed. “Staying No. 1, ending the seasons as No. 1… is a paramount achievement and the amount of dedication that you need to undergo in your life and the way you have to organise yourself, not just on the court but off the court, is tremendous. So, six years in a row? I really don’t know how… Pete did it, but huge respect for that.”

Sampras reflected that the pursuit of year-end No. 1 was a 24-hour job that consumed him. “Just to be dominant, and to not just stay No. 1 for six months or a year, but to really cement that and own it, it’s not easy, as Novak knows,” said Sampras, who is now 49.

His journey to cement his preeminence in the sport ended each year in the ‘90s at ATP Tour World Championships in Germany. Sampras played in the event a remarkable 11 consecutive times, compiling a 35-14 record from 1990-2000. By comparison, Djokovic, who has also won the title five times, has gone 36-14, and played in the tournament 10 times in a row from 2007-2016. For his part, Federer played in the season finale 14 years in a row during one long stretch, from 2002-2015. He’s won the title six times, and has a staggering 59 wins at the event, against 17 losses.

Each of Pete’s five title runs in Germany—he won twice while the tournament was in Frankfurt and three times after it moved to Hanover—were replete with wins over legends of the sport. His victims’ list from his five titles reads like a who’s who in the sport: Michael Stich, Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier, Stefan Edberg, Goran Ivanisevic, Patrick Rafter, and of course, his great rival Boris Becker, whom he played seven times, all in Germany, where Becker was a national hero.

Sampras won four of those seven encounters, including both times they met in finals, in 1994 and 1996. “(Boris) really was like the king coming home,” Sampras told Henman and Djokovic. “He was tough to play… He was a beast. Boris played well indoors. He was a very imposing figure on the court. Boris is a big guy. And having his German fans behind him, it was tough, there’s no doubt—you’re not only playing a great player, you’re dealing with the fans.”

Sampras’ four-hour, five-set win over Becker in the ’96 final at the intimate Festhalle in Hanover remains one of the most exciting in tournament history. Becker took the fourth set in a riveting tie-break, 13-11, but resilient Sampras took the match 6-4 in the fifth, clinching the match on a 24-shot rally.

“We were both exhausted,” Sampras recalled. “It was a great embrace at the end; we gave each other a hug. It was one of the all-time great matches I’ve been a part of. The atmosphere was fantastic. We were both playing great at the same time.

Everything was meant to be. I think it was one of the best ATP Final matches in history.”

Sampras isn’t prone to self-promotion or hyperbole. He once told Sports Illustrated, “I could be a jerk and get more publicity, but that’s not who I am.” And so, his pride in reflecting on his five Nitto ATP Finals titles and his incredible wins over Becker in Germany are worth highlighting.

“We were both playing great at the same time on a fast court,” he said. “It was two heavyweights. And that crowd was loud, but fair. It was a great rivalry.”

Nitto ATP Finals 50th Anniversary Content

• The Other Rock Stars Of Madison Square Garden
• Tom Gorman’s Remarkable Sportsmanship Resonates 48 Years On
• Djokovic’s Shanghai Reality Check Fuelled His Finale Success
• Stan Smith: From First Masters Champ To Boot Camp…
• At Madison Square Garden, ‘Ivan Was The Truth’
• Two Years To Rule Them All: Hewitt Soars In Sydney And Shanghai

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Frankfurt Firepower: How Stich Turned Tables On Sampras

Watching a pair of teenage German wunderkinds emphatically burst onto the scene in the mid-’80s, Michael Stich could not help but draw inspiration. Boris Becker and Steffi Graf were at the helm and this golden era of German tennis was just getting started. 

Stich, too, was about to become swept up in it and with that came expectation. Only 11 months younger than Becker and as his nation’s former top junior it was unavoidable. 

So the stage seemed fitting after Graf had won her third women’s final at Wimbledon in 1991 that Stich upstaged his more accomplished compatriot, Becker, a day later for what ended up his sole Grand Slam trophy. It completed a German sweep of the singles trophies that year – the last time it has happened to date.

While it stood as Stich’s most defining career moment, there was another “bucket list” item he ticked off two years later, which held a hugely sentimental piece of his heart. Victory in the ATP World Championships was his statement triumph on home soil, proof his Wimbledon breakthrough was no fluke, and against world No. 1 Pete Sampras in the final, no less.

“Coming back to Frankfurt was a big goal,” Stich told ATPTour.com. “I had my bucket list and winning the Masters was one of the biggest things you can achieve in the sport. 

“There was a lot of pressure, it was my best year. I won five titles coming in, but I didn’t do well at the Grand Slams. So the year-end championships was my chance to shine.”

In 1992, it was Becker who shone to land the trophy in Frankfurt but as defending champion he had failed to qualify a year on. Stich, though, gave the home fans plenty of cause for excitement when he saw off Andrei Medvedev, Michael Chang and Jim Courier in the round-robin stage, before he eked out two tie-breaks against Goran Ivanisevic to reach the final against Sampras.

“I didn’t play my best tennis up to the final, but it seemed like I was mentally really focused as I knew what I wanted to achieve,” Stich said. “Playing Goran was always tough, as you never got a lot of chances, although I had a good record against him.

“Michael [Chang] was always a great competitor, Jim [Courier] was reading his book at the change of ends, so that was a strange atmosphere. Against Pete, the top guy, that was the showdown I was looking for and I played a really great match.”

The win elevated Stich to a career-best World No. 2 and he ended up the only player in the 1990s to win the ATP World Championships undefeated. His 7-6(3), 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 triumph over Sampras was his third from six showdowns between the pair, a head-to-head ledger which ultimately finished 5-4 in the German’s favour. 

It was, however, the last time he would qualify for the event. Despite having reached the second of his three Grand Slam finals in New York only months before, Stich followed in Becker’s footsteps when as defending champion he failed to qualify for the subsequent ATP World Championships in 1994.

Six of Stich’s 18 tour-level titles, plus the Grand Slam Cup, came on home soil and at every German event at the time, on every surface. He clearly relished playing at home. 

His debut appearance in the ATP World Championships, however, painted a vastly different picture. As the reigning Wimbledon champion, Stich experienced a baptism of fire playing at home on a big stage in 1991 as he failed to win a set against Sampras, his Wimbledon final victim Becker, or Andre Agassi.

“Obviously for me winning at Wimbledon and winning on all four surfaces, I was so looking forward to playing in this great arena in Frankfurt, but it turned out to be a disaster from my point of view,” Stich said. “It wasn’t a good first Masters that I played. It was an experience that made me understand how to play in my home country and react to the German fans. It was not a good experience sporting wise, but it developed my personality.”

There would be ample opportunity through the late 1980s and 1990s to compete on home soil. But it took those three convincing defeats in Frankfurt on debut to learn how to cope with such expectations of a tennis-mad nation as Germany, so used to a wealth of success.

“I learned to understand that everyone in Germany wanted me to do well, but when [I wasn’t] so emotionally involved and I didn’t play well, they were frustrated on my behalf as they wanted to me to do well,” Stich said. “Once I learned that… I really understood how the German crowd works and I used it to my advantage, but it took the 1991 year-end championships for me to realise.”

For 10 years Germany hosted the ATP World Championships – now the Nitto ATP Finals – as both Becker (twice) and Stich channelled this pressure at home into success in Frankfurt before the event moved to Hanover after six years. While competing in such heady days for German tennis, Stich admitted it was not always an easy relationship with such expectant fans.

“Boris and I had different kinds of fan bases, from different backgrounds,” Stich said of playing in Germany. “I think that I had great fans and I had a lot of appreciation within the fan base and media, but it’s always the same. 

“If there is someone who was the first, who had great success before, like Steffi or Boris, or Michael Schumacher in Formula One, even with Sebastian Vettel as a four-time F1 champion, there is always Michael Schumacher. I won all the tournaments in Germany, I felt comfortable playing at home. Maybe I could have had more respect, but I was very lucky to play at that time and be a part of a great German tennis era.”

Nitto ATP Finals 50th Anniversary Content

• The Other Rock Stars Of Madison Square Garden
• Tom Gorman’s Remarkable Sportsmanship Resonates 48 Years On
• Djokovic’s Shanghai Reality Check Fuelled His Finale Success
• Stan Smith: From First Masters Champ To Boot Camp…
• At Madison Square Garden, ‘Ivan Was The Truth’
• Two Years To Rule Them All: Hewitt Soars In Sydney And Shanghai

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Caruso Ends Felix's Season In Sofia

Salvatore Caruso earned one of the biggest wins of his career on Wednesday, upsetting second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-4 to reach the Sofia Open quarter-finals.

“Felix is a great champion,” Caruso said of the World No. 21. “For me it’s a really good win and it’s just something I will bring with me. This season is almost over, but of course for the next one as well.”

“I think I played a really solid match. My serve was very solid today, I got a lot of points when my first serve was in. I was feeling very confident with my serve, but also with my strokes from the baseline. I think that was the difference,” Caruso said. “I didn’t make many mistakes on the court.”

Auger-Aliassime’s season ends with a 23-19 record. He reached three ATP Tour finals (Rotterdam, Marseille, Cologne).

Caruso will next play former World No. 7 Richard Gasquet, who eased past #NextGenATP Czech Jonas Forejtek 6-4, 6-2. The Frenchman is pursuing his first ATP Tour title since ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2018.

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ATP Finals: Jamie Murray & Neal Skupksi into Sofia semi-finals to keep hopes alive

Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski reach the semi-finals at the Sofia Open – an event they must win to stand a chance of making the ATP Finals.

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Melzer/Roger-Vasselin One Win From Qualifying For London

Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin defeated Jonny O’Mara and Ken Skupski 6-4, 6-2 on Wednesday at the Sofia Open to move within one win of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals.

The top seeds knew at the beginning of the week they could guarantee their spot at the season finale by reaching the final, and now they are into the Sofia semi-finals without losing a set.

The other team competing for the final doubles spot at The O2 is Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski, the second seeds. For the Brits to qualify for London, they must win the title and Melzer/Roger Vasselin must lose in the semi-finals. Murray and Skupski defeated Radu Albot and Artem Sitak 6-4, 6-2 in their quarter-final.

Melzer and Roger-Vasselin will next play Tomislav Brkic and Marin Cilic, who eliminated Nikola Cacic and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 7-6(4), 7-6(3).

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Lawn Tennis Association's 2020 income falls by 40% because of coronavirus pandemic

The Lawn Tennis Association says its income has fallen by about 40% – or £30m – in 2020, as a result of Covid-19.

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Musetti Magic, Alcaraz's Ascent Top #NextGenATP Stories Of 2020

It has been another impressive year for the #NextGenATP, who made their mark both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic suspended play for more than five months.

ATPTour.com looks back at some of the #NextGenATP highlights of 2020.

Musetti’s Magic In Rome
Jannik Sinner seized the #NextGenATP spotlight by triumphing in Milan one year ago. The teen continued on his upwards trajectory this year, cracking the Top 50 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. But another #NextGenATP Italian made a big splash in 2020, too.

Lorenzo Musetti entered the Internazionali BNL d’Italia as the World No. 249, and he lost a set in two of his three qualifying matches. But once in the main draw, the 18-year-old showed why he is a star in the making.

Musetti upset former Top 5 stars Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori in back-to-back matches to reach the third round. It wasn’t just that he won, but he only lost 13 total games across the two matches.

“This kid’s backhand is incredible!” former World No. 1 Jim Courier, who broadcasted the Wawrinka match for Tennis Channel, said of Musetti.

The Italian lost in the third round against Dominik Koepfer, but he used the Rome ATP Masters 1000 event to step into the spotlight, and he has carried that momentum ever since, winning his first ATP Challenger Tour title in Forli and reaching his maiden ATP Tour semi-final in Sardinia.

Alcaraz’s Rio Marathon & More
Carlos Alcaraz first announced himself in February before his 17th birthday, defeating Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(2) in a three-hour, 37-minute marathon at the Rio Open presented by Claro.

“I will remember Rio forever,” Alcaraz said. “I am very happy to win my first ATP Tour match. This has been the longest and most intense match I’ve played so far. There were quite difficult conditions, but if you have the right attitude, the conditions don’t matter. You can achieve anything.”

The Spaniard’s win against Ramos-Vinolas came in his tour-level debut, which finished at 3:00 a.m. That match showed fans Alcaraz’s potential, and he has continued to improve under the tutelage of former World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero.

In October, at the age of 17 years and five months, Alcaraz became the youngest player to lift ATP Challenger Tour trophies in consecutive weeks and the second-youngest to claim three titles in Challenger history. Only Richard Gasquet was younger (16 years, 10 months) when he triumphed for the third time in Napoli in 2003.

Seyboth Wild Breaks Through
Thiago Seyboth Wild will forever remember 2020. The Brazilian captured his first ATP Tour title at the Chile Dove Men+Care Open. He battled past established clay-courter Casper Ruud 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in the final.

“It’s an incredible achievement,” Seyboth Wild said. “It’s something I’ve always dreamed about.”

Seyboth Wild, who was 19 at the time, became the youngest Brazilian titlist in ATP Tour history and the youngest champion during the Golden Swing since an 18-year-old Rafael Nadal prevailed in Acapulco in 2005. 

Seyboth Wild was the season’s lowest-ranked winner at World No. 182 as well as the youngest tour-level champion at 19 years, 11 months.

Gaston’s Moment In The Paris Sun
#NextGenATP Hugo Gaston arrived at Roland Garros without a tour-level win and his best result on the ATP Challenger Tour was reaching a semi-final. But the Frenchman, who turned 20 just before the tournament, went on a memorable run on the terre battue.

Gaston beat countryman Maxime Janvier and Japanese lefty Yoshihito Nishioka to reach the third round. It was there that his creative, drop shot-heavy game came to the forefront against Stan Wawrinka. The Swiss star won Roland Garros in 2015, but it was the young Frenchman who stormed through the fifth set to reach the fourth round.

World No. 239, Gaston became the lowest-ranked player in the last 16 at the clay-court major since World No. 283 Arnaud Di Pasquale in 2002. He also was the last Frenchman remaining. Gaston fell just short in the fourth round in a memorable five-setter against two-time finalist Dominic Thiem. But the 20-year-old showed that he plays an entertaining brand of tennis that fans will want to watch for years to come.

Korda Catches Fire
The surname ‘Korda’ re-entered the tennis dialogue after the ATP Tour’s restart as Sebastian Korda, son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda, made his mark. ‘Sebi’ qualified for the Western & Southern Open and pushed Denis Shapovalov in a fun four-setter in the first round of the US Open.

But the American kicked it up a notch at Roland Garros, where he qualified. Korda beat veterans Andreas Seppi and John Isner to reach the third round of the main draw, in which he defeated Spaniard Pedro Martinez. The 20-year-old, who had never won a tour-level match before the tournament, became the first qualifier to reach the Round of 16 at Roland Garros in nine years.

Next up was Korda’s idol: Rafael Nadal. The legendary lefty means so much to Korda that he has a cat named Rafa. Nadal only lost four games against the American, but it was a match Korda will never forget.

“It was definitely the best moment of my life,” said Korda, who asked Nadal for a signed shirt. “It was super awesome.”

Korda maintained his momentum by winning his first ATP Challenger Tour title in Eckental, Germany.

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