Felix Auger-Aliassime fought hard to reach the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament second round on Tuesday when he beat Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in just under two hours. The Canadian hit 16 aces, but did well to bounce back from losing five straight games in the second set. He broke serve at 2-1 in the deciding set and will next challenge 2018 Rotterdam runner-up Grigor Dimitrov, who overcame eighth seed Denis Shapovalov on Monday.

“It was really tough, there was so many emotions running through my head,” World No. 21 Auger-Aliassime told ATPTour.com. “I felt I had chances in the first game of the second set, with the overheard, and so many chances to make the break. It was really frustrating.

“It led me to lose focus in the second set and get broken twice, which isn’t ideal for me or normal. In the third set, it was about forgetting and moving forward. I’m really happy, it’s a really good lesson and a great win to come back after losing the set so badly.”

Last year, the 19-year-old advanced to three ATP Tour finals and moved from No. 108 in the FedEx ATP Rankings to a career-high No. 17 on 14 October.

In his fourth appearance at the ATP 500 event, Karen Khachanov eliminated fifth seed Fabio Fognini 6-3 6-3 to record his first win in Rotterdam. The World No. 17, who opened his 2020 ATP Tour season with four wins from five matches at the inaugural ATP Cup, improves to 7-3 this year.

“I think I was one out from being seeded, and we’re not so far away in the [FedEx ATP] Rankings, so it’s always tough to play against guys like that, especially in the first round,” said Khachanov. “Everything was under control and I trained well after Melbourne, worked hard and now I am waiting to get [as many] matches as possible to get rhythm.”

Khachanov landed seven aces and converted four of seven break points throughout the 79-minute contest. The 23-year-old moves into a 2-1 lead in his ATP Head2Head series against Fognini, having also beaten the Italian in three sets at last year’s China Open.

Khachanov will face Daniel Evans of Great Britain for a place in the quarter-finals. Evans advanced to the second round on Monday after a straight-sets victory against Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Seventh seed Andrey Rublev, who has an 11-1 record in 2020, meets Nikoloz Basilashvili in the final day-session match on Centre Court. Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas looks for his first match win in Rotterdam against Hubert Hurkacz during the evening session.

Steve Johnson carried his early-season ATP Challenger Tour success to the New York Open on Monday. The 30-year-old American earned his first tour-level win of the season, upsetting fifth-seeded countryman Tennys Sandgren 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(3) at the ATP 250.

Johnson scraped past the Australian Open quarter-finalist (l. to Federer), saving three break points at 3-4 in the deciding set and twice holding as he served to stay in the match at 4-5 and 5-6.

The right-hander played his best in the deciding-set tie-break, belting a backhand winner to give himself four match points at 6/2. Johnson improved to 2-0 against Sandgren in their ATP Head2Head series (2018 Houston final). He will next meet Italy’s Andreas Seppi, who edged Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(6).

“I just thought I played a couple good points, down break point at 4-3, and then started off the tie-break with a great return. A couple free points are always key in a tie-break,” Johnson said. “Wins are wins, you take them when you get them and hopefully you string a bunch in a row. That’s my goal.”

Johnson won the Bendigo Challenger last month and fell in the semi-finals of the Newport Beach Challenger on 2 February.

Sixth seed Miomir Kecmanovic beat American Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-2 and will next face a qualifier, either 38-year-old Italian Paolo Lorenzi or Serbian Danilo Petrovic. Kecmanovic is looking to reach his second ATP Tour semi-final after advancing to the Qatar ExxonMobil Open semi-finals in Doha during week one.

The 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals semi-finalist converted four break points from 11 chances to win his first ATP Head2Head matchup with Paul, who reached the third round of the Australian Open (l. to Fucsovics).

John Isner enters the New York Open in a unique position, at least as far as recent history goes. From 2011 to 2019, the American never played more than six matches by this point in the calendar. After beginning the season at the ATP Cup, Isner has played nine matches, and he is ready to roll in New York.

“I think it will help. I certainly hope so. I played nine matches down in Australia, and that’s the beauty of the ATP Cup,” Isner told ATPTour.com. “I was very lucky to be part of that great event, even though I didn’t play that well. I was able to, I think, shake the rust off and maybe get my bad matches out of the way and that helped me in Auckland and it served me well in the Australian Open, also.”

Isner made the semi-finals in Auckland, and then he reached the third round of the Australian Open before retiring during his match against former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka. But the 6’10” right-hander is now set to compete at home in the United States, where he has captured 13 of his 15 ATP Tour titles.

“Very excited. I love playing in the States, I love this time of year in particular, starting off in New York and then you leave the States, but barely, going to Acapulco, and of course you have the two very big [ATP] Masters 1000 events that I’ve done well at in the past,” said Isner, who will face Ivo Karlovic or Jordan Thompson in New York. “So it’s a very important part of the year for me.”

This stretch of the year has often been kind to Isner, as he won the Miami Open presented by Itau in 2018, and reached the final last year.

“It’s a focus, but it’s not a bigger focus than it has been in the past. I’m just going to try to do what I’ve done in years past and just take care of myself as best as I can and hope it serves me well this year,” Isner said. “One thing I noticed now that I’m almost 35, it takes a lot more energy to keep myself fit and healthy. I left Australia with a bit of an injury and haven’t actually been able to practise much. The focus has been more on rehab, which kind of stinks. But I think I’m lucky that I feel like I’m over that right now.”

This is the third straight year in which Isner has competed in the New York Open. Last year, he made the semi-finals. This time, he’ll try to lift his 16th ATP Tour trophy.

“For one just being in New York is fantastic. We’re not in the city, we’re close to the city if you want to take in some of that energy. You’re only about 20 to 30 minutes away,” Isner said. “But I think the best part about this tournament is the facility here. This arena is amazing. The locker rooms are amazing. The court is fantastic. All the players really enjoy their time here. The hotel is super close, you walk across the street. It’s got everything a player can ask for in a tournament.”

Isner gets a special treat by being one of the top two seeds. He has a private locker room with his own bathroom, shower, couches and television.

“It’s very special. It’s very cool. Last year I was one of the top seeds as well and if you’re a top two seed you get your own little private locker room,” Isner said. “I think it’s very cool, very unique, and it’s something to keep striving for. So next year of course I hope I’m a top two seed and I can spend some time here again.”

Last season was a “wild year” according to Isner. He broke his left foot in the Miami final, and he’d miss three months. His second child, John Hobbs, was born in October. Then the American finished inside the Top 20 of the year-end FedEx ATP Rankings for the 10th straight year. Now, Isner is ready to settle down and move forward.

“It’s very nice to get back to business. We had our second kid last year and of course [we’re] so lucky and blessed to have two beautiful kids and healthy most importantly. They’re actually here with me this week with my wife and we’re enjoying our time here,” Isner said. “[We have] a great room, a great set-up. They haven’t been to the site yet, but they’ll be taking advantage of this locker room as well. Hopefully my kids can maybe take a nap in here. It’s a lot of fun to travel with them. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

When Jurij Rodionov entered the RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas, he had no expectations. In fact, the Austrian was merely hoping to win just one or two matches as he sought to rebound from a disappointing 2019 season.

Rodionov never imagined he would be lifting the trophy at the end of the tournament, but that’s exactly where he found himself on Championship Sunday. The 20-year-old became the first #NextGenATP titlist of 2020, claiming six wins in seven days to triumph at the T Bar M Racquet Club.

It was an impressive display all week from Rodionov, who upset second seed Andreas Seppi, as well as an in-form Michael Mmoh, Joao Menezes and Dominik Koepfer to reach the final. There, he won a thrilling encounter against fifth seed Denis Kudla, 7-5, 7-6(10). The 22-point tie-break was as epic as they come.

Rodionov is two years removed from his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title on the clay of Almaty, Kazakhstan. At the time, the 20-year-old was first embarking on his professional journey and one of just a handful of teens to triumph in the 2018 season. But 2019 proved to be a reality check for the young Austrian, reaching just one semi-final and going from inside the Top 200 to No. 362 entering Dallas. His latest victory has him soaring 130 spots to No. 232 in the FedEx ATP Rankings.

When the net is your best friend and your worst enemy in a matter of minutes.

Sometimes you just have to hug it out. pic.twitter.com/YJ0aEKEIol

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) February 9, 2020

Rodionov posted the following on his Facebook page after lifting the trophy:

Unbelievable, I have done it! I really cannot describe my feeling after the fourth match point. The win is a reward for the hard times I and especially my team had. This is for you!
The match was high level and epic till the end, but finally I managed to defeat Denis Kudla (USA / ATP 106) with the score 7:5 and 7:6(10). I have played like I have done the whole week so far, so simple that might sound. Being patient, aggressive if appropriate and sticking to the match plan were and are the keys for me.
This is the beginning for me and I will continue the hard work with this intensity.

Now, with a renewed attitude and approach, Rodionov is hoping his latest victory is a harbinger of what’s to come for the rest of 2020. He spoke to broadcaster Mike Cation after prevailing in Dallas…

You won six matches in seven days. That’s a lot of tennis. You have to be super pleased with the result and you only dropped one set in those matches.
First of all, it’s a great tournament and I really enjoyed playing here. The courts are very good, the whole facility and the food too. The organization made it easy to play here. I really enjoyed it. It was very comfortable and that’s why I could play my tennis. From round to round it got better and better.

Jurij, you have such a unique style of play. It felt like there were times where you were moving side-to-side, then luring your opponents in and then attacking and taking rips. Where did all that come from?
Honestly I don’t know. I basically created my own style. In the beginning of my career, I was a player like Dustin Brown. A trickster playing a lot of drop shots. I was playing for fun, because I liked it. But later, when I became a professional and started playing Challengers, that style didn’t work. I had to be more consistent and win from the baseline. So it all came together and I had to use different game styles. I don’t play just one way. This week, I played my best tennis and it worked.

Earlier this week, Jurij Rodionov admitted he was lost in 2019. What a difference a new season can make.

Refreshed and refocused, the 20-year-old ?? found his way back to the winners’ circle in Dallas. The champion @TennisChampsDTX, needing four MP to survive Kudla 75 76(10). pic.twitter.com/9CbohyxpSG

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) February 9, 2020

Your game style doesn’t seem to play well on a fast hard court. How did you think you incorporated it this week?
It’s tough to explain, because at the start of the tournament, if someone told me I’d make the quarters, I would have been completely happy with that. Now I’m sitting here after a big win. I just played match to match and I knew what I can do. I know what my strengths are and how to overshadow my weaknesses. With those strengths, I stayed very consistent and made the life of my opponents very hard.

You obviously had a tough 2019, suffering a big ranking loss. What were the expectations going into the week?
This is the first week coached by Javier Frana. He’s an ex-Top 30 player. I was really looking forward to it. He knows what he’s doing and while I didn’t expect a lot, I just wanted to get confidence back and maybe win some matches. Javier told me after I reached the quarter-finals, that I should be happy. He said to play match to match and just enjoy it. He told me not to make it complicated. If I lose, there’s always another tournament next week. He explained to me that tennis doesn’t have to be that hard. You just have to give 100 per cent and work on the right things. The results will come.

How do you celebrate? You go right to Cleveland from here, but how do you make sure you enjoy such a monumental moment?
After I finish all these autographs and selfies, I’ll probably go to my room and call my mom, my brother, my coaches and my friends. It’s always nice to see their reactions. It’s just a joy for me. Maybe in the evening I’ll have a Diet Coke. Keep it low key.

Casper Ruud made a fast start to his Argentina Open campaign on Monday, beating Pablo Andujar 6-2, 6-3 to reach the second round in Buenos Aires.

The 21-year-old, who is aiming to capture his maiden ATP Tour title this week, struck six aces and broke serve on three occasions to advance after 72 minutes. Ruud reached his maiden tour-level championship match on clay at last year’s Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston and reached two further ATP Tour semi-finals on the surface in 2019 (Sao Paulo, Kitzbühel).

Ruud improves to 3-3 this season, adding to career-best wins at the ATP Cup. Representing Team Norway in Perth, the 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier beat two Top 20 players — Fabio Fognini and John Isner — to open his 2020 ATP Tour season at the innovative team competition.

The eighth seed will meet defending champion Marco Cecchinato or Roberto Carballes Baena for a spot in the quarter-finals. Cecchinato defeated Diego Schwartzman in last year’s championship match to earn his third ATP Tour crown.

Thiago Monteiro booked a second-round clash against fourth seed Borna Coric in the Argentine capital. The 25-year-old Brazilian saved 10 of 11 break points to move past Jaume Munar 6-3, 6-3.

In other action, six-time ATP Tour clay-court titlist Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay dismissed Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 6-4. Cuevas will next meet seventh seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain or home wild card Leonardo Mayer.

Home favourite Federico Delbonis also advanced, beating Bolivian Hugo Dellien 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 and will meet top-seeded countryman Diego Schwartzman in the second round. Schwartzman fell in the Cordoba Open final to Chile’s Cristian Garin on Sunday.

The longer his service games are extended on hard courts, the more Grigor Dimitrov digs in and finds a way to hold.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of players holding serve when their service games are extended to two or more deuces on hard court over the past five seasons identifies Dimitrov as the leader of the pack with 199 service games held from this precarious scenario.

This metric is somewhat of a double-edged sword as Dimitrov, like all players on Tour, would naturally prefer to hold his service games with greater ease.

But theory and reality don’t always mix, and Dimitrov has shown great resolve to hold serve when opponents are pushing their way deeper and deeper into his service games.

The leading 10 players from 2015-2019 that held the most service games from two or more deuces:
1. Grigor Dimitrov = 199
2. Stan Wawrinka = 192
3. Dominic Thiem = 164
4. David Goffin = 159
T5. Alexander Zverev = 153
T5. Adrian Mannarino = 153
7. Novak Djokovic = 149
T8. Benoit Paire = 145
T8. Kei Nishikori = 145
10. Fernando Verdasco = 145

Dimitrov is currently No. 22 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. He held his career-high of No. 3 in November 2017 after winning the Nitto ATP Finals in London.

In the past five seasons, Dimitrov’s single season effort in 2016 of holding 58 times from two or more deuces is the best.

2015-2019 Season Leader: Holding Two Or More Deuces
2019: Stefanos Tsitsipas = 53
2018: Grigor Dimitrov = 50
2017: Alexander Zverev = 51
2016: Grigor Dimitrov = 58
2015: Stan Wawrinka = 56

Overall, Dimitrov has held an impressive 76.8 per cent (199/259) of the time when his service games have been extended to two or more deuces, which is ahead of the Tour average of 73.4 per cent (9270/12636).

The player with the highest win percentage from 2015-2019, with a minimum of 50 attempts, is Ivo Karlovic, who won 85.6 per cent (83/97). The five best win percentages:

1: Ivo Karlovic = 85.6% (83/97)
2: Milos Raonic = 84.7% (100/118)
3: Nick Kyrgios = 84.4% (119/141)
4: Juan Martin del Potro = 84.3% (75/89)
5: Reilly Opelka = 83.6% (46/55)

Having your service games extended to two or more deuces is going to happen no matter if you like it or not. Dimitrov’s resilience in this specific situation helps keep him at the top tier of our sport.

John Isner, Ivo Karlovic and Reilly Opelka are three of the biggest servers in the history of tennis. 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier Ugo Humbert serves well, too. But the quartet faced a different returning challenge on Monday before starting the New York Open.

Members of the New York Riptide, a professional lacrosse team that competes at the same venue as this ATP 250 tournament, jumped on court with the ATP Tour stars to see if they could catch the monstrous deliveries. And to their credit, Tyson Bomberry, Connor Kelly and Jake Fox were able to do so, even when the players ramped up the velocity and kick on their serve.

Everyone then switched roles, with the tennis players attempting to catch the lacrosse players’ serves.

“That was actually very fun. I said earlier that they are much better at tennis than we are lacrosse. They were serving to us and they actually served very well in my opinion,” Isner said. “All of us as lacrosse players leave a lot to be desired out there, I could say. We could catch it pretty well, but our passes were not accurate at all. Those guys are extremely tough. I love watching it on TV. Those guys put their bodies on the line every single time they go out there, so lacrosse is a fantastic sport to watch.”

Opelka, the defending champion at the New York Open, watched 38 Isner aces whiz by him in last year’s semi-finals. The 22-year-old tried a new approach on Monday, seeing if he could catch his countryman’s serve with a lacrosse stick.

“I like to think my serve is difficult to return even with a tennis racquet in your hand, but throw a lacrosse stick in Reilly’s hand and he was having a little bit of trouble,” Isner said. “I wasn’t cranking it up. I was cranking it up against the professional players, and that was a lot of fun.”

Ivo Karlovic is 40, and in all his travels he’d never gotten to play lacrosse. The Croat was excited to try something new before playing Jordan Thompson in the first round.

“It is always fun. It’s interesting. I never did this before and I didn’t know at all how it is,” Karlovic said. “It is really fun, I liked it a lot.”

In Humbert’s case, lacrosse was more than just something he had never played.

“I don’t know the sport, in France we don’t have it,” said Humbert, who will play Jack Sock or Marcos Giron. “I enjoyed to be with those guys, it was good. I was having some fun before my first match. It’s always great for my mind.”