A LOOK BACK
Play In Challenger Lille (Lille, France): It has been home cooking for Gregoire Barrere in the two editions of the ATP Challenger Tour event in Lille. The Frenchman once again took advantage of the home support at the Tennis Club Lillois Lille Metropole, successfully defending his title on Sunday.

Barrere overcame Yannick Maden to secure the trophy, prevailing 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in one hour and 46 minutes. Last year, the 25-year-old took the title in the tournament’s inaugural edition. And on Sunday he secured his third Challenger crown, completing an impressive week on home soil. At No. 120 in the ATP Rankings, he continues his push towards a Top 100 debut.

In 2018, only two players retained Challenger crowns. We have already arrived at that total this year, with Barrere joining Newport Beach champion Taylor Fritz with successful title defenses.

Maden, meanwhile, remains in search of his maiden title. On the cusp of a Top 100 breakthrough of his own, the 108th-ranked Stuttgart native is also closing in on his first trophy. He was appearing in his sixth final.

Zhangjiagang International Challenger (Zhangjiagang, China): Marc Polmans entered the three-week Chinese swing on a 4-11 run, having failed to string together multiple wins since October. But the Aussie has flipped the script in a flash, following a quarter-final run in Shenzhen with a title in Zhangjiagang.

Polmans fended off Lorenzo Giustino 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4) in three hours and 12 minutes to claim his second ATP Challenger Tour title. It is the longest final thus far in 2019. After dropping the second set, the 21-year-old saved three break points midway through the decider and rallied from a 2/4 deficit in the ensuing tie-break. He would reel off the final five points, including a sublime backhand winner and a perfect volley on match point.

Polmans notched his second Challenger title and first since February 2018, when he triumphed on home soil in Launceston.

Your champion in Zhangjiagang… @marcpolmans!!

What a way to finish… Back-to-back winners clinches a second #ATPChallenger title for the ?? pic.twitter.com/Puv9m5iSlV

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) March 24, 2019

A LOOK AHEAD
Two European tournaments highlight the final week of March, with an indoor hard court event in Saint-Brieuc, France, and a clay-court stop in Marbella, Spain. It is the first of seven straight weeks with clay-court Challengers in Europe, leading to Roland Garros qualifying.

Top seed Ricardas Berankis is the reigning champion in Saint-Brieuc and is joined by Lille finalists Maden and Barrere as the second and third seeds. It will be the 16th edition of the tournament.

Meanwhile, the second edition of the Casino Admiral Trophy is held in scenic Marbella, on the southern coast of Spain. Benoit Paire heads the field, with Pablo Andujar and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez leading the Spanish charge. #NextGenATP stars Rudolf Molleker and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are seeded.

Nick Kyrgios pulled out all the tricks in his bag on Sunday at the Miami Open presented by Itau. The Aussie was entertaining and efficient in securing a 6-3, 6-1 win over Dusan Lajovic under the lights on Stadium court.

Kyrgios gave the Miami faithful their money’s worth, producing underarm serves, no-look volleys, scorching forehands and a rolling, spirited conversation with a fan, who was ultimately ejected for his part in the first-set exchange. He ousted Lajovic in just 57 minutes, firing 25 winners, including seven off his forehand wing. 

Exactly one year after the Aussie and the Serbian first met on the ATP Tour, Kyrgios replicated his straight-set victory from the 2018 first round. He now leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head 2-0.

“I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring on the tennis court, but I’m going out there and having fun,” said Kyrgios. “I served well and returned well and I’m really happy. Today it was a pretty good all-around performance.”

Kyrgios looked to be on the ropes as proceedings got underway on Sunday night, with Lajovic earning three break points in the first game. But the Canberra native was clutch in the big moments, denying all three with aces. 

Three games later, Kyrgios had a break of his own, taking an early lead and consolidating for 4-1 with an underarm serve – an ace and his first of two successful underarm serves in the match. The magic would continue in the next game, as he punched a no-look volley into the open court.

Kyrgios would streak to 6-3 and refused to look back, breaking twice in the second set before securing the victory on his first match point. He dominated points under five shots throughout the affair, to the tune of 48-23.

Miami has become a happy hunting ground for the World No. 33, who advances to the fourth round for a fourth straight year. A semi-finalist in both 2016 and 2017, he also reached the Round of 16 last year, before falling to Alexander Zverev.

The recent champion at the ATP 500 event in Acapulco, Kyrgios is in the midst of a 7-1 run and will be pushing for a Top 30 return in the ATP Rankings. Coming up next is a blockbuster Tuesday date with Borna Coric. 

“Borna is an unbelievable competitor and one of the best players in the world,” Kyrgios added. “He knows how to win matches and is an unbelievable athlete. He moves incredibly well and I know he won’t give me a single point. I’m not going to think about it right now though. I have a day off tomorrow.”

Coric completed the last match of the day on Sunday, rallying past Jeremy Chardy 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-3 in two hours and 36 minutes. 

Wesley Koolhof and Stefanos Tsitsipas produced the upset of the doubles tournament at the Miami Open presented by Itau. The Dutch-Greek tandem stunned second seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 on Sunday afternoon on Court 6.

Competing in their second tournament together, they had dropped a tight opener to top seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in Indian Wells. But Koolhof and Tsitsipas found their chemistry in a flash in Miami, following a straight-set win over Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev with the dismissal of the second seeds.

Koolhof and Tsitsipas will next face John Isner and Sam Querrey in the quarter-finals, after the Americans rallied past Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 5-7, 7-6(2), 10-7. The duo has reached three ATP Masters 1000 finals together and clinched the title in Rome in 2011.

Elsewhere, Maximo Gonzalez and Horacio Zeballos stunned 2014 finalists Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 to reach the quarter-finals. Zeballos has been a force on the doubles court this month, having lifted the BNP Paribas Open trophy with Nikola Mektic a week ago. He and countryman Gonzalez recently took the title in Buenos Aires after finishing runner-up in Cordoba.

In other action, Ivan Dodig and Edouard Roger-Vasselin set a meeting with Matwe Middelkoop and Diego Schwartzman, after the Croatian-French team defeated Marc Lopez and Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-3. Middelkoop and Schwartzman also progressed on Sunday, needing 65 minutes to dismiss sixth seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus 6-4, 6-3.

Arguably the most efficient victory of the day was provided by Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov, who routed Marcel Granollers and Nikola Mektic 6-1, 6-2 in just 52 minutes. They could potentially face the five-time champions and third seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in the quarter-finals. 

Reigning champion John Isner battled into the fourth round of the Miami Open presented by Itau on Sunday, defeating Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-5, 7-6(6).

Isner was broken to start the match. But the seventh seed responded in Ramos-Vinolas’ second service game to dig into the match. He saved the next four break points he faced and struck 16 aces en route to a one-hour, 53-minute victory.

Ramos-Vinolas has been a tricky opponent for Isner in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with the players splitting three-setters in Rome in the past two years. But those clashes were on clay, and while five of their six previous sets went to tie-breaks, Isner needed just one in the second set to advance.

“I did a lot of things well today,” Isner said. “I played a good first set, even though I didn’t start it off well. In the second, it wasn’t quite as clean. I’ll talk to my coach and try to iron things out. But I’m into the Round of 16 of a big tournament and I’m happy.

“Playing him on clay is a different animal, but I learned a few things from Rome last year. There were many tactical things that I needed to change. I did that today.”

The 2018 Nitto ATP Finals qualifier has found a good string of form after losing his first two matches of the season. Isner reached three consecutive ATP Tour semi-finals in New York, Delray Beach and Rio de Janeiro before losing to then-World No. 13 Karen Khachanov in the fourth round at Indian Wells.

“When the sun is out, the court is more lively,” Isner assessed. “But I enjoy the shade, especially when the sun is beating down on me. This whole tournament is fantastic though. I heard that some 40,000 fans came in yesterday. It’s all about bringing fans into the tournament and that’s what they did yesterday. It is my tournament to defend, but it does have a different feel to it.”

Isner will next face 19th seed Kyle Edmund. They have already practised together in Miami and split their two FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, both in 2016. Isner prevailed on the clay of Roland Garros, with Edmund getting revenge on the hard courts of the US Open.

On Sunday, the British No. 1 continued his stellar start to the tournament with an efficient 6-4, 6-4 win over Milos Raonic. He needed one hour and 34 minutes to prevail, overcoming 21 winners off the Canadian’s racquet, while striking 15 of his own.

Edmund, who opened his campaign at the Hard Rock Stadium with a straight-set win over Ilya Ivashka on Friday, is coming off a fourth round finish at the BNP Paribas Open. The week prior, he lifted the trophy at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Indian Wells, in what was his first tournament in more than a month in his recovery from a knee injury.

The World No. 22 is enjoying his first taste of success in Miami in his sixth appearance, having previously never advanced past the second round. He is in the midst of a 7-2 run in ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, also reaching the quarter-finals in Shanghai in October.

Polish No. 1 Hubert Hurkacz is one of the quieter players on the ATP Tour. Everyone ‘Hubi’ comes across, he greets extremely politely with a smile. Overall, he’s simply a good guy. But while the 22-year-old is quiet, his game is speaking loudly for him.

Entering the BNP Paribas Open, Hurkacz had never won an ATP Masters 1000 match. Not only did he reach the fourth round — including three victories against Top 30 opponents — but he is now into the third round in Miami after stunning Indian Wells champion Dominic Thiem.

“It’s great. I’m just trying to enjoy every moment,” said Hurkacz, who qualified for the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals. “To be able to play that match against Dominic was really special for me. He’s an unbelievable player, so I needed to play at a top level. It happened, and I’m very happy with that.”

Hurkacz began working with a new coach Craig Boynton (also with Steve Johnson) at Indian Wells. The veteran mentor says that it’s his charge’s competitive spirit that has stood out with his success.

“He’s not afraid to win, and that’s a very, very appealing quality. He wants to win, he’s very competitive, he’s a fighter, he’s very resilient. He doesn’t usually let bad moments linger too long,” Boynton said. “Those are all the things that as a coach you look for in wanting to work with. You take that piece of it and he’s a really good tennis player, put those two together and now it’s just filling in the blanks, making everything a little bit better and I’m just excited to get out on the tournament courts with him and see how the Tour’s going to react to playing him.”

The World No. 54’s competitive spirit has been on full display this month. In the California desert, he battled through three-setters against Australian Open semi-finalist Lucas Pouille, Japanese superstar Kei Nishikori and #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov.

Hurkacz, who also defeated Nishikori in Dubai, has won both of his FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against the World No. 6 in three sets. Nishikori is 129-44 in tour-level deciding sets (75%), meaning that nearly five per cent of his losses in matches that have gone the distance have come against Hurkacz.

“That was his competitive spirit there. That was him rising to the occasion that got him out of those situations. It wasn’t like all of a sudden there was a big on-off switch on off and here we go now you’re good, now you go,” Boynton said. “He’s had to fight through and come back and be down and out against some really, really good players to get to where he is now.”

While Hurkacz is quiet off the court, you can visibly see his determination on it. In a way, his competitiveness is not all that different from Boynton’s other player, Johnson, who is known for his battling spirit.

“He is very energetic. He’s very positive. He does a lot of fist pumping,” Boynton said. “He’s not as boisterous as Stevie can be, but he’s within the same positive, let’s rip your heart out, this assassin — if you will — type of energy. They both really want to win.”

Hurkacz stands 6’5”, has a strong first serve, and the Pole said that his backhand was the key to his victory against Thiem.

“I think if you take a look at him, people have said he kind of mirrors Andy Murray a little bit with a similar routine on returns, a little bit of a similar backhand,” Boynton said. “He’s a little taller than Andy. Andy’s movement was phenomenal. But Hubi’s a very good athlete, too.”

Hurkacz is still new to the ATP Tour. Entering the week of Indian Wells last year, he was outside the Top 200 of the ATP Rankings and had never played a match at an ATP Tour event. So while he has proven he can compete on the biggest stages against some of the best players in the sport, there is still plenty to learn.

“We’ve been working on him being present for every point. He’s learning a lot of different concepts, so it’s really for him to avoid the mental letdowns. If he has his ‘A’ game every single point, what a nightmare he’s going to be to deal with,” Boynton said. “You’re going to have to beat him three times to beat him instead of beating him twice. It’s about eliminating those down times and having him locked in for every point and with a purpose for every point.”

Hurkacz will look to continue his surge against another emerging player in #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime on Sunday. He’ll look to speak loudly with his game once again.

“He’s doing recently amazing results. I wish him all the best, because he’s a really great guy,” Hurkacz said. “[But] I’m trying to focus on my game. He’s obviously a great player, a great fighter, so it’s going to be a good level.”