Second seed Ricardas Berankis recovered from a slow start, saving two set points at 4-5 in the first set, before beating Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 7-6(2), 6-1 in one hour and 42 minutes on Wednesday for a place in the Tata Open Maharashtra quarter-finals. He’ll next challenge fifth seed Yuichi Sugita, who advanced without hitting a ball when qualifier Viktor Troicki pulled out due to a fever.

Jiri Vesely battled hard to overcome seventh seed Salvatore Caruso 7-6(5), 6-4 in one hour and 51 minutes. He awaits the winner of third seed Stefano Travaglia and Ilya Ivashka in the last eight.

In first-round action, Taro Daniel, the winner of an ATP Challenger Tour title in Burnie (d. Hanfmann) on Sunday, knocked out wild card Sasikumar Mukund 6-2, 7-6(7) in one hour and 40 minutes. He will next challenge sixth seed James Duckworth.

The ATP and the European Tennis Federation have announced plans to collaborate on the Tennis Europe Junior School, the pioneering educational program designed to prepare young athletes aged 13-16 for life as professional tennis players.

The School content is available online for all players. Interactive live classes will also be held at 10 of the biggest European junior tournaments in 2020, where boys and girls can learn about topics including:

By supporting the project, the ATP can now contribute to the selection and creation of content tailored specifically for young male players, send experts to Junior School classes, and advise on a wide range of topics in the Junior School curriculum.

Ross Hutchins, ATP Chief Player Officer, said: “Expanding our player education programmes and reaching the world’s best players at a young age is a key priority for the ATP. We look forward to working with the Tennis Europe Junior School with the objective of ensuring that emerging talents are as well‐equipped as possible to deal with the future demands of life on the professional Tour.”

Tennis Europe CEO Thomas Hammerl initiated the project in 2018 and commented, “We are delighted to have the collaboration of the ATP for this project, which means we are now working with both governing bodies, the ATP and WTA. Education is a vital part of our strategy and with this agreement we ensure that players receive consistent and correct information on important topics for their professional careers. The feedback from players, parents, coaches and federations has bee fantastic and motivates us to continue to invest in this area.”

The Tennis Europe Junior Tour consists of more than 400 tournaments held in 48 European nations for the 12, 14 and 16 & Under age groups, and celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2020. Over 20,000 registered players are eligible to compete on the Tour, with the top 8 qualifying for the season-ending highlight, the Junior Masters in Monte‐Carlo.

The Junior School adds an educational aspect to formative on‐court experiences provided by the Tour. All scheduled classes in 2020 can be found here https://www.tenniseurope.org/cookies/?returnurl=%2fpage%2f36514%2fTennis-Europe-Junior-School.

All good things must come to an end, but some of them thankfully take much longer to reach their conclusion.

Twenty-nine years after playing his first ATP Tour event, Leander Paes is bringing his storied career to a close this season. The Indian doubles legend will play select tournaments throughout the year as part of a farewell tour that he’s calling ‘One Last Roar’.

The first ATP Tour stop in his swan song takes place this week at the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune. Paes isn’t content to merely wave goodbye to his fans at home, though. The 46-year-old, partnering Matthew Ebden, upset second seeds Divij Sharan/Artem Sitak 6-2, 7-6(5) to reach the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

”I’m trying to go through this year without getting emotional. I don’t think I’ll succeed,” Paes said in a video posted on the tournament’s Facebook page. “Knowing this will be my last [ATP Tour event] in India will not be easy. I’ve won this event several times, done well in singles and doubles, played with many partners. I’ve played in stadiums that were packed and screaming my name. I really am very appreciative for all the years of support.”

”Coming to Pune is a really emotional tournament for me… In this farewell year, I will call it ‘One Last Roar’. I hope I can roar really loud for my fans and all the tennis lovers out there in the country.”

#OneLastRoar pic.twitter.com/WwALCVF5LO

— Leander Paes (@Leander) December 25, 2019

Paes has been a staple at the highest level in doubles for four decades. He’s spent 39 weeks at No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Doubles Rankings, racked up 768 tour-level victories and won 55 ATP Tour doubles titles, including eight Grand Slam men’s doubles crowns. Paes has also picked up 10 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, in addition to completing the Career Grand Slam in both men’s doubles and mixed doubles.

There’s been plenty of success in singles as well. Paes earned a tour-level title in 1998 Newport and a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Although the fact that Paes could remain in the Top 100 of the doubles rankings at age 46 is an achievement in itself, he started to ponder retirement at the end of last season. After consulting with friends and family, he decided on a farewell tour that he views as a way to show gratitude to everyone who helped shape his career.

”In September 2019, I started looking at the best way to retire,” Paes said. “I asked my whole team, my parents, to give me suggestions. They were all in unity that I need to do one last roar, that I need to play one more year… The majority of them said [it was] to go out there and have a chance to thank the other players that I’ve played with for four decades, thank the tournaments and fans all around the world.

”It’s been a very humbling experience to have such a long career. Whether it’s the 18 Grand Slam titles, the 97 Grand Slam appearances… It’s the people that have made the difference. The people I’ve interacted with through these 30 years have been really special. With tennis being such a global sport, to bring a little bit of happiness to people is something I’ve always strived to do.”

Paes said he isn’t certain of his exact schedule this year, but hopes to play the remaining three Grand Slams and reach 100 total appearances in major championships. It’s almost a guarantee that he’ll remain closely linked to the sport when his playing career ends, but for now, he’s focussed on getting the most out of his final events.

”I know there will be a whole second life for me to live, to build other champions, to do other great things and entertain in many other ways,” Paes said. “But for Leander Paes, the professional tennis player, this is where the train stops.”

Felix Auger-Aliassime was pushed but eventually held off three-time ATP Tour titlist Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia & Herzegovina 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday at the Open Sud de France.

The #NextGenATP Canadian hit 11 aces and broke six times to reach the second round in Montpellier. Auger-Aliassime is the fifth seed at the ATP 250 and is looking to rebound after his first-round loss at the Australian Open to Latvian Ernests Gulbis.

The 19-year-old Auger-Aliassime will next meet Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who beat Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 7-5.

Swede Mikael Ymer avenged his 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals loss to Italy’s Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-4. Sinner beat Ymer last year in Milan in group play 4-0, 4-2, 4-1, but Ymer broke the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion four times to advance.

The 21-year-old will next face seventh seed Filip Krajinovic, a 6-4, 6-4 winner against French qualifier Enzo Couacaud.

Finland’s #NextGenATP talent Emil Ruusuvuori earned his first tour-level win of the season, beating Austrian Dennis Novak 7-6(3) 4-6, 6-2. The 20-year-old Ruusuvuori is projected to make his debut inside the Top 100 of the FedEx ATP Rankings on Monday.

He will next play Slovakian Norbert Gombos, who beat sixth seed Pablo Carreno Busta on Monday.

Albert Ramos-Vinolas kicked off his week in style at the Cordoba Open in Argentina. The fifth-seeded Spaniard outlasted local qualifier Facundo Bagnis 6-4, 7-6(3) to reach the second round on Tuesday.

Ramos-Vinolas let slip a match point on his serve at 6-5 in the second set, but recovered to advance after two hours. His next match will be an all-Spanish affair with Pablo Andujar, who cruised through Slovakian Filip Horansky 6-2, 6-2.

#NextGenATP Frenchman Corentin Moutet continued his outstanding start to the year by defeating Brazilian Thiago Monteiro 6-4, 6-3. Moutet, who reached his first ATP Tour final last month in Doha (l. to Rublev), will now face second-seeded Argentine Guido Pella.

Andrej Martin fought back from 2-4 in the opening set to move past home favourite Federico Coria 7-6(5), 6-4. Spanish qualifier Pedro Martinez kept up his strong form by rallying to defeat Italian Federico Gaio 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The 22-year-old scored his maiden tour-level win last month at the Australian Open. He’ll play fourth-seeded Serbian Laslo Djere in the next round.

Eighth seed Juan Ignacio Londero looks to delight the home crowd when he begins his title defence in the night session against Italian Marco Cecchinato. The winner will face Argentine wild card Pedro Cachin, who raced past Bolivian Hugo Dellien 6-1, 6-1 in just 58 minutes.

Leander Paes will wrap up his 29-year ATP Tour career this season, but as he proved on Tuesday at the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune, he won’t be content with a mere nostalgia moment.

The former doubles World No. 1 and eight-time Grand Slam men’s doubles champion, teaming with Matthew Ebden, kicked off his final year with a victory by defeating second seeds Artem Sitak/Divij Sharan 6-2, 7-6(5). Ebden/Paes will play Purav Raja/Ramkumar Ramanathan or Egor Gerasimov/Sumit Nagal in the next round.

Doubles at its best!

Well played, @Leander & @mattebden ?@MaharashtraOpen | #TOM2020pic.twitter.com/42V1xxRmYb

— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 4, 2020

”Playing in India, on home soil, is always something special to me,” Paes said. “To motivate the youngsters to be the best they can be is something I’ve strived to do my whole career. I hope we can have a great turnout this week.”

At the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, top seeds Kevin Krawietz/Nicolas Mahut started their week with a tight 7-6(4), 4-6, 10-4 win against Adrian Mannarino/Hugo Nys. They’ll take on Nikola Cacic/Mate Pavic in the quarter-finals. Ivan Sabanov/Matej Sabanov saved set points in both sets to defeat Pablo Carreno Busta/Joao Sousa 7-6(7), 7-6(8).

Third seeds Jurgen Melzer/Edouard Roger-Vasselin enjoyed an easier day with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Feliciano Lopez/Marc Lopez in just 49 minutes. Next up for them are Tomislav Brkic/Ante Pavic, who defeated Simone Bolelli/Roman Jebavy 6-4, 6-4.

The Cordoba Open in Argentina saw third seeds Marcelo Demoliner/Matwe Middelkoop cruise past Pedro Cachin/Juan Pablo Ficovich 6-1, 6-1 in 41 minutes. Awaiting them in the last eight are Federico Gaio/Pablo Martinez, who defeated Federico Coria/Cristian Garin 7-6(5), 6-1. Facundo Bagnis/Guido Pella rounded out the day with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Pablo Cuevas/Hugo Dellien.

#NextGenATP Finn Emil Ruusuvuori announced his arrival on Tuesday by scoring his first ATP Tour win against Dennis Novak at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier. The 20-year-old, currently No. 101 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, took a quieter approach to his rapid climb by racking up wins on the ATP Challenger Tour before graduating to tour-level events this year.

ATPTour.com takes a look at five things to know about this rising Finn.

1. He’s Dominated In Challenger Events
Ruusuvuori came alive on the ATP Challenger Tour in the second half of last year. From June-November, the Finn won his first four titles at that level and posted a 32-8 record. He started this year with a runner-up showing in Bendigo, where he defeated 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals champion Jannik Sinner in the second round.

The future of Finnish tennis has arrived ??

20-year-old Emil Ruusuvuori is the champion in Mallorca @rnadalacademy, claiming his second title of the year. At just 50 minutes, it is the shortest final this season. pic.twitter.com/c454BTJXRu

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) September 1, 2019

2. He Has Musical Skills
The current #NextGenATP class includes several piano players, including Felix Auger-Aliassime and Ugo Humbert, but Ruusuvuori’s hidden talent is that he plays the drums. His favourite musician is rap icon Eminem. 

3. He Enjoyed An Outstanding Junior Career
Ruusuvuori peaked at No. 4 in the ITF Junior Rankings in 2017. His highlights that year include winning the ITF Junior Masters and reaching the boys’ singles semi-finals at the US Open.

4. He Trained With Nadal
As a reward for taking the title last September at the Rafa Nadal Open, an ATP Challenger Tour event held at the Spaniard’s academy in Mallorca, he hit with Rafael Nadal during the off-season.

On September 1st @EmilRuusuvuori became the champion ? of the #RafaNadalOpen by @sothebysrealty in Manacor. Three months later, Emil is back at the #RafaNadalAcademyByMovistar for his preseason‼️ And today he practiced with someone very special! ? pic.twitter.com/wouCRAPZAU

— Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar (@rnadalacademy) December 13, 2019

5. He’s Already Beaten The World’s Best
Ruusuvuori made his first win against a Top 100 player an unforgettable one by convincingly beating Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-2 in a Davis Cup tie last September between Finland and Austria. The confidence he took from that victory sparked two more ATP Challenger Tour titles in his next four events to finish out the year.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran picked the ideal setting for his first tour-level win of 2020 on Tuesday. India’s top-ranked singles player beat Germany’s Yannick Maden 7-6(4), 7-6(5) at India’s ATP Tour event, the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune.

Gunneswaran reached the third round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells last year and will look to surpass his career-high of No. 75 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, which he achieved in April, this season. The 30-year-old left-hander, currently No. 122, will next face fourth seed Soonwoo Kwon of South Korea.

Italian Roberto Marcora won a battle of qualifiers to book a second-round meeting with top seed Benoit Paire of France. Marcora didn’t face a break point and beat Czech Lukas Rosol 6-3, 6-2.

The two seeds in action also were victorious. Sixth seed James Duckworth of Australia beat 2017 Moselle Open champion Peter Gojowczyk 7-6(5), 6-4. The Aussie will next meet the winner of Indian wild card Sasikumar Mukund and Japan’s Taro Daniel.

Eighth seed Egor Gerasimov of Belarus beat Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-2, 6-3. Gerasimov made the second round of the Australian Open, falling to eventual semi-finalist Alexander Zverev of Germany.

Gerasimov will next play Serbian qualifier Nikola Milojevic, a 7-6(5), 6-4 winner against France’s Antoine Hoang.

A new coach arrives, the player starts playing better than ever. All credit lies with the coach, right?

Looking at only the timing of their relationship, Russian Mikhail Youzhny played a major role in helping Denis Shapovalov of Canada turn around his 2019 and start 2020 as well as he did at the ATP Cup.

Youzhny started working with Shapovalov in August at the Winston-Salem Open. The 20-year-old was 17-18 on the season and in the middle of a 2-6 stretch. But after connecting with Youzhny, Shapovalov finished the season 21-10.

Youhzny, however, a former World No. 8 who retired in 2018 after 20 years as a professional, says the dynamic of a player hiring a new coach and immediately playing better is far more complex than it might seem.

“It doesn’t work like this. It’s not magic work. It’s not like you’re coming, you say something, and he’s starting to play better, like really better,” Youzhny told ATPTour.com.

All kinds of things influence how someone performs on court, Youzhny said, and Shapovalov’s career trajectory had always been up and up and up. Five months before their partnership began, the Canadian cracked the Top 20 in April after making his third ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in Miami (l. to Federer).

But under Youzhny, there’s no questioning that Shapovalov’s game has reached another level. The #NextGenATP left-hander won his first ATP Tour title at the Stockholm Open (d. Krajinovic) in October and made his maiden Masters 1000 final (l. to Djokovic) at the Rolex Paris Masters in November.

At the inaugural ATP Cup, Shapovalov started 2020 with two Top 10 wins against Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev, and he pushed Novak Djokovic to a third-set tie-break at the Final Eight in Sydney.

The 20-year-old happily admits that Youzhny has had a positive effect, but also concedes that his recent rise is more complicated than it looks.

“I don’t think it’s anything specific. I just have been working over the years and just kind of building my game. Of course, Mikhail has helped me a lot, but it comes from before then. Even when I wasn’t getting a lot of wins, when I was struggling, I was still going to the court, working every single day as hard as I could,” Shapovalov said.

“I don’t think it comes from something magical. The end of last season it was kind of starting to click for me. The way I started, it’s great. So hopefully I can just keep up my form and just keep improving. Still, I’m only 20 years old, and I feel like there is a lot of room to grow and areas where I can work on.”

Youzhny has been impressed with Shapovalov’s talent, but more so with his willingness to grow and try new ideas.

“He can do everything on court, like volley, backhand, serve. That’s why for me it’s interesting to work with him,” Youzhny said.

“What I like, if you ask him something to try, he’s always tries to try… This is very good because he never said, ‘This? I don’t need at all. This, for what I need this one? Blah, blah, blah.’ He’s open for something new. This is really important because this is the thing that can bring you to a new level.”

For instance, at Youzhny’s urging, Shapovalov has incorporated backhand slices into his game to get more returns in play. The tactic especially helped him at the end of 2019.

“Me and Mischa worked on blocking it a lot more to kind of start the point, and it’s a tricky shot for the opponents,” Shapovalov said. “I feel like it’s a really big improvement in my game.”

Players who hire new coaches, such as Shapovalov, can often be more open to new ideas, Youzhny said, which can help them improve at a quicker rate once the new mentor comes on board. Simply by deciding to bring a new coach onto the team, the player has shown he’s ready to listen to a new voice and new ideas.

“He changed his mentality, he changed his mood… he changed already by himself,” Youzhny said. “Even if you say the same things [that he’s heard] 100 times, 1,000 times before but from other persons, but working in a different way, it’s feeling like something new.”

Shapovalov has appreciated Youzhny’s new approach but also his familiarity with the left-hander’s game and his opponents. Youzhny won 10 ATP Tour singles titles and went 499-416 before retiring at the 2018 St. Petersburg Open.

“I just really like the way he works. He’s always making me work that little bit of extra. Whenever I think practice is over or I’m going to get a drink, he makes me do those five, 10 extra minutes of ball feeding or serves and stuff like this. And I think stuff like this goes a far way,” Shapovalov said. “He really understands me, understands what I’m going through, and I really feel that from him.

“I feel like he can really help me with the players, too, in terms of what they don’t like, what to do in matches.

“I think the combo has been really good. I feel like from the first day he’s really understood how I play my game and how I see myself playing. He’s really helped me get there and helped me become a good tennis player.”

Shapovalov reached a new career-high of No. 13 in the FedEx ATP Rankings last month. At this rate, by season’s end, he could be matching Youzhny’s career-high of No. 8. Together, as player and coach, they could share the glory, both deflecting praise to each other.