Milos Raonic made a winning return to the ATP World Tour on Tuesday after a seven-week absence. The Canadian settled quickly on Centre Court at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, where he is a three-time finalist (2012-14), to triumph 6-3, 6-4 and extend his FedEx ATP Head2Head lead to 6-1 over Viktor Troicki of Serbia. Third seed Raonic struck 16 aces, breaking serve in the sixth game of the first set and third game of the second set in a 72-minute encounter.

“It was a good match for me in a lot of ways, disciplined and competed well – considering the circumstances,” said Raonic. “I couldn’t hit over a backhand, but I made the most of it.”

Raonic, who underwent left wrist surgery in August [the week between the Western & Southern Open and the US Open], is now 28-11 on the year that includes two final runs at Delray Beach (W/O vs. Sock) and Istanbul (l. to Cilic).

“The injury developed over the past 10 years, the pain had been manageable, but I hit a breaking point and the pain was not tolerable,” said Raonic. “The surgery was not structural, more taking away swelling. It’s been frustrating, having more than a dozen injuries that have kept me away from tennis.”

He will next face 2015 Tokyo runner-up Benoit Paire of France or Japan’s Yuichi Sugita, who is enjoying a career-best season.

France’s Richard Gasquet won his third straight match in four meeting against sixth seed Sam Querrey, to dent the American’s hopes of adding valuable points in the Emirates ATP Race To London for a place at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November.

Gasquet, the 2007 finalist, saved all five break points he faced to knock out Querrey 6-4, 7-6(2) in 89 minutes for his 22nd match win of the season. Querrey is currently No. 10 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, with eight other contenders – competing this week in Tokyo or at the China Open in Beijing – all hoping to join Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the English capital.

Gasquet will now await the winner of Japanese wild card Taro Daniel or Yen-Hsun Lu Chinese Taipei.

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Cameron Norrie entered the final week of July at No. 275 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. What the Brit has done since is nothing short of remarkable. Norrie clinched his second ATP Challenger Tour crown on Sunday in Tiburon, soaring to a career-high No. 136. He has now won 21 of his last 25 matches, including a 6-2, 6-3 win over Tennys Sandgren for the title. The former Texas Christian University standout had won his maiden title in Binghamton two months ago.

Take a bow, @cam_norrie! Champion at @TiburonChallngr with a 62 63 win over Tennys Sandgren. Second #ATPChallenger ? for the ??. pic.twitter.com/7MWMZv0LPH

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) October 2, 2017

A second trophy for you, Cam. Compare where you are now to where you were before Binghamton.
Ranking wise, I feel I am making improvements. I am coming forward a bit more and my volleys have gotten better. I just feel way more confident now and there’s a place in the Top 100 that I have a very good chance of making. I’m enjoying my tennis and working to improve every day. I’m in a good place mentally.

On a grander scale, how is your body holding up in doing this week in and week out?
My body is perfect. It’s been a physical week and it’s good shape. I haven’t really given myself a chance to test it mentally because I haven’t played too many tournaments in a row. In the grass-court season, I did it slightly but it’s different because they weren’t many Challengers. I’m going to see how these tournaments pan out and I know I’m going to go away mentally at some point, but I’ll test it and see how far I can go while sustaining my level. It will be a good learning curve over the next couple of tournaments and going into the indoor swing as well. I’m looking forward to that.

In the Tiburon final, you’ve known that Tennys has the ability to track down many balls. It looked like he was struggling with depth early and you were being more aggressive. Then, it switched early in the second set. What adjustments did you have to make?
At the end of the first and start of the second, I was winning the majority of the longer rallies. That’s what [coach] Facu [Lugones] told me. Tennys enjoys those long points and that’s how he wins most of his matches. He started to overpress slightly and that’s how I broke him. At the start of the second, he came at me very aggressively and I managed to absorb his pace and battle through a couple of tough service games. It was a good match and very clean for me.

It looked like a routine scoreline, but it was far from it. What happened with all those double faults? You had six in two games.
I have no idea where that came from. My second serve completely went away there. I tightened up a little bit and started thinking about the future and about winning the tournament. I need to stay in the present and relax a little bit. I’ve hit millions of second serves in my life. I know I can do it, but I managed to bring it back mentally. I didn’t hit any more at the end of the match. I’ve been struggling with double faults all tournament, but I managed to bring it back each time. I’m really proud with where my focus is.

What did you learn about going from Binghamton to Lexington in July, in terms of how you comport yourself the week after winning a Challenger?
It’s going to be tough and I’ve played a lot of matches. In Lexington, I didn’t play a great match right after winning the title, so I know what to expect now. I just want to take this momentum into the next tournament. I know not to panic. In my first match in Lexington I was getting down on myself, so I know to just relax and focus on my game and let things happen. There’s going to be ups and downs.

What are you doing to celebrate?
I’m going to San Francisco with one of my good friends, one of my old teammates at TCU. Then, I’m leaving for [the Challenger in] Stockton. I’ll enjoy it now and get back on the road to prepare for my next match. Not much celebrating, but hopefully after the next tournament.

For Steve Darcis, the future is now. The Belgian isn’t dwelling on a mid-season slump, during which he won just two of nine matches from Roland Garros through Wimbledon. He’s also not thinking about what could have been due to lost time.

On Monday, Darcis cruised past Emirates ATP Rankings No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of the China Open, continuing his reversal of fortune. Last week, Darcis defeated Ze Zhang before falling to World No. 4 Zverev, 6-4, 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in a tightly contested second-round match at the Shenzhen Open.That performance followed his Davis Cup heroics, where he pushed Nick Kyrgios to five sets before winning the decisive rubber against Jordan Thompson to lead Belgium into the Davis Cup final against France.

Monday’s victory over the recent US Open semi-finalist Carreno Busta is the result of a two-year effort to produce better outcomes as Darcis enters the next phase of his career. In May, at 33, Darcis achieved a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 38 after reaching the Istanbul quarter-finals and winning the Bordeaux Challenger. And although he endured lean times in June through August, Darcis seems to have recaptured some of his best form.

“Physically, I’ve improved with my new coach,” Darcis said. “We’re a good fit. Since I’ve improved physically, I’ve also managed to better my on-court game.”

Instead of lamenting the heart-breaking loss to Zverev in Shenzhen, Darcis is instead focusing on what he can accomplish this week in Beijing. “You have to fight all the time,” Darcis said. “Sometimes, you suffer a tough loss, like I did last week against Zverev. Of course, that loss stays in your mind, but you have to move past it as soon as possible. The key is to have no regrets and to fight as hard as you can.”

Darcis might have a chance to erase that result from his memory and exact revenge against Zverev should both players reach this week’s semi-finals. Zverev, the China Open’s second seed, meets England’s Kyle Edmund, and is positioned in the same half of the Beijing draw as Darcis.

Darcis would relish the opportunity to face the rising star again, rather than back down from it.

“It’s a big deal; that’s why you take up tennis — to play big matches on the big courts,” Darcis said. “One day, [Zverev] will be the World No. 1. Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish off last week’s match, despite so many chances, but I was very happy with how I played.”

Besides Zverev, Darcis fancies his chances against other Top-10 players. “There isn’t much of a difference between Top-10 and Top-30 players,” Darcis said. “[Top-10 players] are just more stable throughout the year; that’s why they are in the Top 10. I have chances against a lot of guys; I can cause problems against a lot of my opponents. Even though I lost against ‘Sascha’ last week, I still feel like I accomplished something.”

The recent return to form comes after Darcis missed a significant chunk of the summer swing due to injury and personal matters. The Belgian was forced to retire during his second-round match against David Ferrer at Wimbledon due to a back injury. He remained inactive for a month before returning at the Meerbusch Challenger in Germany.

“This year, it wasn’t so much the injuries,” Darcis said. “I had a back problem at Wimbledon, but my daughter also had surgery and I had to attend to that. When you have a family, you have to be at home. It’s family first, then tennis.”

Through it all, Darcis has managed to remain strong, play at a high level and maintain a solid spot in the Emirates ATP Rankings. “I’m happy to be able to have stayed in the Top 100, considering the few number of tournaments I was able to play,” Darcis said. “It’s good to have my family’s support — and it also helps when you’re winning.”