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Swiss Indoors Basel – Basel, Switzerland

Benoit Paire took some time off ahead of his second-round clash against Roger Federer at the Swiss Indoors Basel. The Frenchman visited the “Läckerli House” in Basel’s old town and prepared the famous cookie specialty. The Basler Läckerli is a traditional hard, spice biscuit made of honey, hazelnuts, almonds, candied peel and Kirsch. After a nice walk through the old town, Paire arrived at the shop and helped bake some Läckerli.

“This is a very nice experience. The biscuits are very tasty and it was fun to prepare them. It’s not easy, almost more difficult than playing Roger Federer. I will offer some of my biscuits to him on court tomorrow,” Paire said with a big smile.

“I know a lot of Swiss specialities, but this is the first time I tasted the Basler Läckerli,” the Geneva resident added. “Last night I had some Raclette, a dish I like a lot.”

Marin Cilic and Marco Chiudinelli participated in the Champions of Tomorrow clinic with junior players from all over Switzerland Sunday morning. The 20 junior players enjoyed the clinic with the two stars. Defending champion Cilic even gave them some advice in German.

Erste Bank Open 500 – Vienna, Austria

Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev took to the streets of Vienna on Saturday for some improvised street tennis in front of the famous landmark St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Zverev and Thiem also assisted with the draw ceremony.

“This city is amazing. I think it is an old fashioned, European city like we have in my home country, in Germany,” Zverev said. “It is such a beautiful place… I think we all enjoyed it.”

Vienna ?? @ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/ORDNmzu0DX

— Karen Khachanov (@karenkhachanov) October 21, 2017

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kevin Anderson, Sam Querrey, David Ferrer, Pablo Cuevas, Jamie Murray, Bruno Soares, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan took a cooking class in Vienna on Monday evening at “Plachuttas Gasthaus zur Oper”. After learning how to prepare Wiener Schnitzel last year, it was all about the Kaiserschmarrn (shredded pancake), a traditional Austrian dessert, this time around. After completing their own desserts the players were treated to a three course meal, which of course included the traditional Wiener Schnitzel.

“I usually don’t make a lot of food, but it was a blast. Last year, we made a Schnitzel, and this year we learned to make another dish, so I can make two dishes now,” Mike Bryan said. “I would say Jo was the strongest. He says he cooks a lot at home for his wife and baby. I was lagging behind. I was probably the worst…Bruno got the certificate for best forehand. He was the best whipper, but there was a lot of talent.”

Andrey Rublev celebrated his 20th birthday on Friday in Vienna, and was presented with a Next Gen cake and cake pops by Erste Bank Open 500 Tournament Director, Herwig Straka.

Two-time champion Juan Martin del Potro won his fifth consecutive match on Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, beating Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-1, 4-6, 6-1. The Intrum Stockholm Open champion (d. Dimitrov) won 83 per cent of his first-serve points and saved both break points faced in the third set.

Delpo improved to 19-4 lifetime at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament. He also bolstered his chances of qualifying at the Nitto ATP Finals (2008-09, ’12, 13) for the fourth time. The right-hander is in 13^th place in the Emirates ATP Race To London, with 2,160 points, 490 points behind Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, who holds the final qualification spot.

But if Delpo wins his third Basel title this week and Carreno Busta loses his second-round match against Argentine Diego Schwartzman at the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna, Delpo will climb into the final spot.

The Argentine might have a tough ask in the final, though: top seed Roger Federer, who is a seven-time champion and has a 29-2 record in Basel since 2010. Good news for Delpo, however: Both of those losses have come in finals against the Argentine.

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Seventh-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, this season’s finalist at the Antalya Open (l. to Sugita) and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 (l. to Goffin), withstood 18 aces from Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium to win 7-6(0), 4-6, 6-1 in two hours and three minutes. Mannarino now plays Canadian Denis Shapovalov, a Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier, in the second round.

Shapovalov’s fellow Next Gen ATP qualifiers had a mixed day. Croatian Borna Coric set a second-round meeting with countryman Marin Cilic by putting a first-set tie-break behind him to advance 6-7(8), 6-1, 6-3 against Swiss wild card Henri Laaksonen.

American Jared Donaldson, though, was outdone by Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics 6-0, 6-1 in only 56 minutes. Fucsovics saved five of six break points and won nearly 60 per cent of his second-serve points.

Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, winner of the Aircel Chennai Open (d. Medvedev) and Winston-Salem Open (d. Dzumhur) in 2017, defeated Ryan Harrison of the United States 6-3, 7-6(1) in one hour and 39 minutes. The Spaniard will next meet Frenchman Julien Benneteau, who beat Donald Young of the U.S. 6-4, 6-2.