When Mardy Fish wanted to create an unforgettable moment in one of his last ATP Tour events, he brought one of his closest friends since high school out of retirement.

Fish, then 33, delighted fans by teaming up with Andy Roddick in doubles at the 2015 Truist Atlanta Open. Roddick hadn’t competed since calling time on his career at the 2012 US Open, while Fish confirmed plans to retire at that year’s US Open and was only competing in his third tournament since August 2013.

The former No. 7 in the FedEx ATP Rankings had been candid about his struggles to get back on court. He underwent an operation in June 2014 to correct misfiring electric pulses with his heart and opened up about battling an anxiety disorder, but was determined to finish on his terms.

“With Mardy’s comeback, it’s been a pretty amazing story. The fact that he’s going to pursue that even more this summer is really exciting,” Roddick told USA Today. “We’ve been friends for a long time and we just wanted to play together one last time. I wanted to play with my friend and share in his comeback a little bit.”

In front of a packed Wednesday night crowd in Atlanta, Fish and Roddick turned back the clock with a 7-6(2) 6-4 win over Yen-Hsun Lu and Jonathan Marray. Although the Americans lacked match play, they were able to lean on their previous success together. They had compiled a 20-6 tour-level record and won two titles together, including an ATP Masters 1000 crown at the 2009 BNP Paribas Open.

“When you don’t play for that long, you don’t know what to expect,” Roddick said. “I had a blast. I wanted to win that really badly. It was a lot of fun at the end when we realised we had won. I had fun and I think Mardy did too. There was a lot of rust out there, but we masked it well.”

“It was a blast out there,” Fish said. “The crowd was great. It’s good to do it here in Atlanta.”

Roddick also tried to give Fish a boost in singles, albeit with less success. When Fish needed a fresh pair of socks during his first-round match, Roddick offered his own.

“I wear the low socks and my shoes were really wet, so I was asking for my trainer to run back and get some socks,” Fish explained. “Andy was nice enough to take his off his feet and try to get them to me, and I threw them away. I don’t want those!”

Although they fell in the quarter-finals to Eric Butorac and Artem Sitak, their brief run in Atlanta helped kickstart Fish’s final lap on Tour. He picked up the first singles victory of his comeback three weeks later in Cincinnati and won a round in his final event in New York.

Defending champion Daniil Medvedev is one of 16 Top 20 players on the entry list of next month’s 2020 Western & Southern Open, the first tournament to be played since the ATP Tour was suspended in early March. The ATP Masters 1000 tournament will take place from 20-28 August at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 24-year-old Russian won his first Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati last year, rallying past World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals before defeating Belgian David Goffin for the trophy.

Four more former Western & Southern Open champions are on the singles entry list: Djokovic (2018), World No. 2 Rafael Nadal (2013), Grigor Dimitrov (2017) and Marin Cilic (2016).

The list also includes World No. 3 Dominic Thiem, reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, #NextGenATP stars Felix Auger Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov and Alex de Minaur, three-time Masters 1000 champion Alexander Zverev and 2019 breakthrough star Matteo Berrettini.

The top eight seeds will receive a first-round bye. Twelve players will be added to the field through a two-round qualifying event that will be held from 20-21 August. The entry deadline for qualifying is 3 August. Four men will be awarded wild cards in the coming weeks.

Two-time champion Serena Williams (2014-15) will join Madison Keys (2019), Kiki Bertens (2018), Garbiñe Muguruza (2017) and Karolina Pliskova (2016) as past WTA champions in the Premier 5 field.

The US Open (31 August-13 September) will begin three days after the conclusion of the Western & Southern Open.

Nick Kyrgios showed his abilities from an early age, reaching two Grand Slam quarter-finals before turning 21. But the Aussie made his biggest charge up the FedEx ATP Rankings by establishing more consistency throughout the 2016 season, with a prime example coming at the Truist Atlanta Open.

The flashy Aussie arrived in Georgia on a two-match losing streak, but he quickly settled into the Atlanta heat and battled hard to win his second ATP Tour title.

“In Marseille, I was unbeatable,” Kyrgios said of his first title earlier in the year. “This week was completely different. I wasn’t playing well at all at the start of the week… I found the right balance. I was competing and had some fun.” 

Kyrgios emerged from three-setters in the quarter-finals and semi-finals against Fernando Verdasco and Yoshihito Nishioka, respectively. He then faced a daunting challenge against big-serving home favourite John Isner, who carried a 15-match Atlanta winning streak into the final.

“I knew it was going to be tough from the get-go,” said Kyrgios. “John is still so comfortable on that court. I needed to come up with some special stuff today and it just came down to a couple points here and there. I did all the right things today and stayed calm. I knew I’d have my chance.”

Kyrgios had his back against the wall at the start, facing three break points at 0/40 in his opening service game. Losing any of those points against the American would have been a crushing way to start the match. But the 21-year-old saved them all and settled in from there.

“Returning is very crucial against John,” said Kyrgios. “That serve is world-class. It would have been a completely different story if he got me there.”

Isner saved the two break points he faced, but it was not enough. Kyrgios triumphed 7-6(3), 7-6(4) when the American double faulted on match point. Kyrgios had previously trailed Isner 0-2 in their ATP Head2Head series.

“I go back to that second game of the match,” Isner said. “He came up with really good serves. He’s one of the best servers on the Tour.”

Later in 2016, Kyrgios won his first ATP 500 in Tokyo and reached a career-high No. 13 in the FedEx ATP Rankings.

Did You Know?
In the 2016 Atlanta final, Kyrgios won 67 per cent of his second-serve points compared to 39 per cent for Isner.