Max Mirnyi, who is contesting his 25th season as pro, recorded his 1,000th singles and doubles match win on Friday when he partnered Philipp Oswald to the ASB Classic final.

The 40-year-old Belarusian has now notched 756 doubles victory and 244 as a singles player. He has a 50-44 record in doubles title matches, with his lone singles crown coming at the 2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament (d. Sluiter).

Mirnyi and Oswald booked their places in a second ATP World Tour final as a team (2017 VTB Kremlin Cup) with a 7-6(7), 7-6(6) victory over second seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus in one hour and 39 minutes.

They will take on in-form Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, who captured last week’s Qatar ExxonMobil Open title (d. Murray/Soares), in Saturday’s final. Read Doha Report

Marach and Pavic will look to improve upon their 2-3 record in tour-level finals after they defeated third seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 in 78 minutes.

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Juan Martin del Potro, the charismatic Argentinean star, earned a shot at winning his second ASB Classic trophy on Friday after coming through a keenly contested 11th meeting against four-time former champion David Ferrer.

Already assured of a return to the Top 10 in the ATP Rankings on Monday, second seed del Potro played with great focus to beat seventh seed Ferrer 6-4, 6-4 over one hour and 46 minutes in the Auckland semi-finals.

The 29-year-old will now play fifth-seeded Spaniard and 2016 champion Roberto Bautista Agut in their fifth hard-court meeting. Del Potro, who leads their series 3-1, has won their past three FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.

“I’m happy to have reached the final again, playing good tennis against one of the toughest guys on Tour,” said del Potro. “I’m excited to play the final tomorrow. It will be difficult for me, for sure. I’d like to repeat my 2009 title, but Bautista Agut is a dangerous player, with experience in finals and he has beaten me in the past.”

In a tense opening, Del Potro broke Ferrer immediately, but his lead soon evaporated prior to converting his second break point chance in the seventh game of the 50-minute first set.

Ferrer continued to fight, but was unable to seal two break points in the fourth game, and a further three in the eighth game of the second set. Del Potro seized his chance, crunching a forehand winner to break to 15 for 5-4.

“The difference was a couple of points and I got lucky to break his serve twice in the first set,” said del Potro. “Then I saved break points in the second set and played good tennis, with strokes down the line. I had to take risks against David, who is a fighter. I am tired, but I will be okay for tomorrow and have time to recover.”

The 35-year-old Ferrer is now 31-9 at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament, where he captured the 2007, 2011-13 trophies.

Del Potro beat Sam Querrey for the 2009 Auckland title – his last appearance at the event – and looks to improve his 20-9 record in tour-level finals (16-9 in hard-court title matches).

He will return to the Top 10 at No. 10 next week for the first since 4 August 2014 (No. 10).

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Auckland Doubles Final Set
Top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic will play Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald (pictured) in the doubles final on Saturday.

Marach and Pavic will look to improve upon their 2-3 record in tour-level finals after they defeated third seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 in 78 minutes. Last week, Marach and Pavic lifted the Qatar ExxonMobil Open crown (d. Murray/Soares). Read Doha Report

Mirnyi and Oswald booked their places in a second ATP World Tour final as a team (2017 KTB Kremlin Cup) with a 7-6(7), 7-6(6) victory over second seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus in one hour and 39 minutes. Mirnyi has a 50-44 record in title matches.

You are left-handed. You are serving at 30/40, and naturally opt for the slider out wide in the Ad court to give yourself the highest percentage chance to save break point. Not so fast…

An Infosys Serve & Return Tracker analysis of the eight left-handed players currently in the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings identifies that, from the Ad court, serving wide and serving down the T deliver the same winning percentage, at 78 per cent.

The eight left-handed players primarily served wide on break point with their first serves, but not at the volume our instincts would suspect. The data set comes from 2017 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events and the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals.

First Serves Made at 30/40

Wide = 55%

Body = 11%

T = 34%

Some players, such as Mischa Zverev, stayed true to the traditional lefty pattern of slicing out wide at 30/40. Zverev hit 100 per cent (12) of his first serves there. Denis Shapovalov, Fernando Verdasco and Adrian Mannarino also favoured this primary pattern.

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal mixed it up much more, hitting more body serves (11) at 30/40 than the other seven players combined (nine). Nadal made 18 first serves wide, 15 down the T, and 11 at the body.

Other lefties, such as Feliciano Lopez, Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Gilles Muller actually hit more first serves down the T at 30/40, undoubtedly trying to surprise their opponent who was sitting on a wide delivery.

First-Serve Direction at 30/40

First Serve Win Percentage at 30/40

What’s amazing is that the eight lefties combined to win 78 per cent (75/96) with their wide slider, and 78 per cent (46/59) with the surprise delivery down the T. The body serve actually had a losing record, winning only 45 per cent (9/20) of first serves at 30/40. The main reason for that is that most body serves come back in play, while returners tend to miss much more when defending from the corners of the service box.

Ramos-Vinolas didn’t drop a point serving wide at 30/40, winning eight of eight first serves, while Mannarino was a peak performer down the T, winning nine of 10. This is a great lesson for players at all levels of the game. Surprising the opponent by going to a secondary location can have big benefits when the scoreboard brings extra pressure to the point. 

“Come on, Jimbo!”

Those were the words of encouragement from Rafael Nadal, who showed up in the stands of Court 14 on the Australian Open grounds, to the surprise of Jaume Munar. The young Spaniard was playing his first round Australian Open qualifying match. “Jimbo” ultimately prevailed against Andrea Arnaboldi, 6-2, 6-4, and moved on to the second round of qualifying.

“Having the support of Rafa is very special to me,” Munar told ATPWorldTour.com after the victory. “It wasn’t like I was expecting him to come see me play. I know it isn’t easy for him to get to a match with all the attention he draws, and despite all that he still managed to get up close to the court. It didn’t add any pressure to the match; it took some of the pressure off, actually.

“I get along well with Rafa and I also have an outstanding relationship with his team. We’ve all gone out for dinner several times. Tennis is an individual sport so it means a lot to have Rafa in the stands, as he’s someone close to me and that kind of support goes a long way.”

Nadal, who attempted to go unnoticed through Melbourne Park by wearing a towel over his head, had no problem embracing fans once he made his way to Court 14. The ATP World Tour No. 1 took photos with fans in between breaks on the far side of the stands, in an effort to avoid causing a commotion.

Despite his young age, Munar has been making critical decisions to advance his own progress. In 2017, Munar made a pivotal move, relocating from Barcelona back to his home island of Mallorca to train at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar. Munar said he made the change for several reasons.

“It’s important for me to be close to my family,” the 20-year-old said. “There was a lot going on in Barcelona, and there was a lot on my mind like friends, hanging out, living on my own … It was easier to be distracted. The lifestyle in Mallorca is totally different from Barcelona. I’m antsy; it’s hard to sit still so the calmer lifestyle in Mallorca benefits me. It allows me to be more focused on achieving my goals.”

At the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar, Munar trains under the tutelage of Tomeu Salva, one of Nadal’s best friends and a current coach at the center.

“Tomeu is the kind of person who brings me peace of mind,” Munar said. “He knows a lot about the game from a technical standpoint. He also lived through what I’m going through now, having been ranked in the Top 200. So his life lessons are important. He’s close to Rafa, they’ve been close for a long time, so that helps even more.”

Salva was courtside when Nadal paid his surprise visit to Munar’s match and noticed his student’s positive reaction.

“Jaume was thrilled when he noticed Rafa in the stands,” Salva said. “And Nadal was just as thrilled to be there, and not just because Munar is in the academy. Nadal wants to follow his evolution; he likes to be involved with the young players as they come up. On top of that, both Rafa and Jaume are from Mallorca. He had an opportunity to see Jaume in match play, and Rafa took advantage of it.”

The relationship between Nadal and Munar has been a strong one for some time. The pair played doubles together on the ATP World Tour level at the German Tennis Championships 2015 in Hamburg. This past August, Munar celebrated his Segovia Challenger win by biting the championship trophy as a nod toward Nadal’s celebratory ritual.

Munar might be biting into a lot more trophies in 2018 if he continues to show the poise he demonstrated in his first qualifying match at Melbourne. The Spaniard is aware this is a key year in his career, and he’s put his academic studies on hold to focus solely on tennis.

“For six or seven months now, I’ve realised that tennis is my life, my job, my day-to-day work,” Munar said. “I think this semester will be the last one [with] my studies because I have to focus on what I do to make a living. That doesn’t mean I’m done with school, but the exams, the studying, they make me anxious. I was studying economics and I’ve put that on hold for now, but I know that at any time I can resume that.”

For now, Munar is focused on fine-tuning his game and tweaking small things, which he knows can end up making a big difference in the end. The move back to Mallorca, the harder training regimen and the hours put into analysing his game have helped him become the player he is today. Munar credits his team and his own approach for the positive results.

“There were things I wasn’t doing right, or not as well as I could do,” Munar said. “Like, I changed my diet and as a result, I lost a lot of weight. I’ve always been competitive and in the right state of mind but I lacked weapons from the baseline and it was harder for me to fire shots from there, especially in today’s game when you need heavy fire. We’ve focused on changing those things, and how to position myself more inside the court. Right now, I’m certain in what I’m doing. I’ve found a way to improve and I have these clear ideas of how to keep improving. The outcomes of matches depend on me, and not the other way around.”

If there’s one thing that’s clear in the early stages of 2018, it’s that Munar is forging a way forward.

Germany’s Dustin Brown received a standing ovation after he saved four match points on Thursday to reach the qualifying round at the Australian Open after a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(16) victory over World No. 248 Di Wu of China.

“I’ve only played a long tiebreak like that once in a final set. It was just a very difficult match. He started off so well and I realised I just had to get loose and swing,” said Brown, who led 4/1 in the tie-break. “I tried to make him think. He played unbelievable shots on my match points in the tie-break.”

Brown now plays 18-year-old American Stefan Kozlov, who beat Yannick Hanfmann of Germany 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4.

Watch Live Streaming Of Qualifying From Melbourne Park

Australia’s John-Patrick Smith, currently No. 220 in the ATP Rankings, overcame sixth seed Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-2 for a final round test against American Kevin King, who knocked out Zdenek Kolar 6-1, 7-6(2).

Elsewhere, 25-year-old Barbadian Darian King is one step away from competing in a second Grand Slam championship after he defeated ninth seed Alexander Bublik 7-5, 6-0.

“It feels fantastic,” said King. “I haven’t been feeling very well recently, but everyone assisting me has done a great job to help me play this well.”

Sweden’s Elias Ymer, Czech Vaclav Safranek, Andrea Collarini of Argentina and Americans Denis Kudla and Mackenzie McDonald also progressed to the qualifying round for the major championship, which begins on 15 January. Sixteen matches were completed on day two of qualifying.