It must be nice to end a season and see your career-best ranking next to your name. Hello, Marin Cilic. Hello, No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

The 6’6” Croatian had a breakout season back in 2014, winning the US Open and three ATP World Tour titles while compiling a 54-21 record. This year, he went 49-24 and won two ATP World Tour crowns, including his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati. But in many ways, for Cilic, the past 12 months have been a more impressive body of work than his 2014.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Cilic’s booming first serve identifies it as the centerpiece of his powerful game, with opponents having a near impossible task of breaking him once he gets ahead on the scoreboard.

Consider this: In the past two seasons, Cilic has forged ahead 40/0 on serve 460 times. He won all 460 of those service games. In 2016, he led 40/15 on serve 324 times. He won 323 of them.

When Cilic got ahead by even just one point at the start of his service games, moving the scoreboard to 15/0, his winning percentage in 2016 was 92 per cent (495/539). It was pretty much lights out when he won the next point and got to 30/0 as well. He won a mind-boggling 99 per cent (337/342) of those service games.

Marin Cilic 2016: Ahead In The Point Score When Serving

When facing break point in 2016, Cilic saved a dominant 74 per cent (106/144) of them when he landed his first serve. If he missed his first serve, that win percentage plummeted to about 49 per cent as he saved just 61 of 125 break points behind his second serve.

For Cilic to continue to climb the Emirates ATP Rankings in 2017, a focus point should be simply to make more of his potent first serves. Cilic finished the 2016 season impressively ranked sixth on the ATP Stats LEADERBOARDS Serve Rating, powered by the Infosys Information Platform, but was surprisingly 69^th best on tour in getting his first serve in, at 55.3 per cent.

Cilic collected only 135 points in his first three events of 2016: Brisbane, the Australian Open and Montpellier. That personal-best ranking may be getting even better in the not too distant future.

At just 17 years of age, Alex de Minaur defied nerves and overcame the pressure of making his ATP World Tour qualifying debut, successfully booking his spot in the main draw at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp on Sunday.

In front of the home fans, the Sydney native was not rattled, even after dropping the first set against #NextGen star Frances Tiafoe, rallying for a 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 victory in two hours and 19 minutes. It was the latest of a slew of impressive victories for the rising talent, having won three straight meetings with players ranked inside the Top 150 of the Emirates ATP Rankings. He opened his qualifying campaign in Brisbane with a straight-set win over World No. 89 Mikhail Kukushkin.

De Minaur was left speechless.

“I’m playing really good tennis, and at the moment I couldn’t feel any better,” the teen exclaimed. “It’s unbelievable. Such a tough match, especially how hot it is outside. I’m really happy to get off the court with a win. At the end of the day, the first set was tough, so I knew hopefully I was going to get some chances in the second. I just made a big effort to stay in that match at all points and ended up getting my opportunity and I took it.”

De Minaur will hope his junior success, having ascended to No. 2 in the world, translates to a fruitful career on the ATP World Tour. The World No. 348 has already begun plotting his assault on the Emirates ATP Rankings, soaring nearly 200 spots with a run to the final at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Eckental, Germany in November. It was just his third Challenger main draw.

The Aussie teen has the attention of his peers and even former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, who was in attendance for his Brisbane qualifying win on Sunday.

“It’s been good,” said Hewitt. “I’ve done a lot of work over the summer with Alex. He’s a great young kid. A 17-year-old playing a young 18-year-old American, it was pretty good tennis out there. Three extremely tough sets in really tough conditions.

“I’m happy for Alex. He gets an opportunity now to play in a main draw of an ATP World Tour event. What a way to start the new year. He has a lot of ability, he wants to work hard and puts in a lot of hard hours. The training that he’s done in November and December, coming in here, that’s the main reason he was able to win today and he was able to back it up from yesterday.”

De Minaur’s roots extend throughout the world. The 17 year old was born in Sydney, has a Spanish mother and a Uruguayan father, and speaks English, French and Spanish. Having lived in Alicante, Spain, until he was five, his family moved to Australia for his father’s restaurant business. There, with the support of Tennis Australia, he began looking towards a career in pro tennis.

Now, into his first ATP World Tour main draw, he is relishing the opportunity and is excited to have the support of Hewitt. The two worked together during the teenager’s offseason training block in Australia.

“So many times he’s come back from tough matches,” De Minuar added. “I’m happy I could do that today in the heat, especially having him out there. It means a lot.”

De Minaur opens his Brisbane main draw campaign against 29-year-old Mischa Zverev, with a potential second round clash against fifth seed Rafael Nadal looming large.

Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic officially launched the 2017 ATP World Tour season on Sunday ahead of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha.

Murray and Djokovic played a game of mini-tennis and posed for photos on a specially-constructed elevated court in front of the Museum of Islamic Art, with the backdrop of the Doha skyline.

“It was amazing with an amazing view,” said Murray. “We are very lucky to go to some of the nicest places in the world and it’s a good way to start the year. Novak and I have played many big matches over the years, competing for the sport’s biggest prizes and hopefully it will be the same this year.”

“It is great to start off the season in Doha, returning with memories from 2016 when I started the year in the best possible fashion,” said Djokovic, the defending champion at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. “I’m looking forward to starting well and continue the good tempo of preparation that I’ve had in the past few weeks. Andy had an incredible 2016, especially the second part of the year, and deserved to be crowned year-end No. 1 [in the Emirates ATP Rankings]. It’s great to have him at the tournament, which has always attracted the top players in the world.”

The top two tennis players in the Emirates ATP Rankings are set to resume their battle for the No. 1 spot in the very first week of the season. They brought the curtain down on the 2016 season at The O2 in London by contesting the ATP Finals championship match, which saw Murray prevail to clinch the year-end No. 1 mantle for the first time.

Nine Top 10 players are in action across three ATP World Tour 250 tournaments in the first week of the season. No. 10 Tomas Berdych joins Murray and Djokovic in Doha; No. 3 Milos Raonic, No. 4 Stan Wawrinka, No. 5 Kei Nishikori, No. 8 Dominic Thiem and No. 9 Rafael Nadal feature in a star-studded field at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp; while No. 6 Marin Cilic headlines the Aircel Chennai Open.

The 2017 ATP World Tour season spans 64 events in 31 countries, offering players a record prize money of close to $120 million. New events will see the Tour travel to Budapest for the Hungarian Open, Antalya in Turkey for the Antalya Open and Milan for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals. The ATP World Tour is also set to return to Lyon for the first time since 2009 with a new event, the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon, the week of 21 May.

Home favourite Jordan Thompson kicked off the 2017 ATP World Tour season with his first win at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp.

The 22-year-old Thompson, who’s playing at a career-high ranking of No. 79, beat #NextGen player Elias Ymer of Sweden 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday in a battle of wild cards. The Sydney native won 93 per cent of his first-serve points and saved one of two break points faced. He’ll face countryman Bernard Tomic or eighth seed David Ferrer in round two.

“It’s always good to start off a new year with a win, especially here in Brisbane,” Thompson said. “I didn’t make too many errors. I returned pretty well, and movement was good.”

Aussie wild cards also advanced in doubles as Sam Groth/Chris Guccione beat Serbian Viktor Troicki and German Mischa Zverev 6-1, 3-6, 10-8. American Steve Johnson and Argentine Diego Schwartzman made quick work of the French team Stephane Robert/Gilles Simon, winning 6-2, 6-1 in 54 minutes.

Action on the ATP Challenger Tour is set to take off as the 2017 season gets underway this week with a trio of tournaments. NextGen stars begin their quests in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, with Noumea, Happy Valley and Bangkok playing host to the opening-week events.

For the 14th consecutive year, the French territory of New Caledonia kicks off the season. The island paradise, located off the eastern coast of Australia, welcomes players to the Ligue de Tennis du Ouen-Toro in the capital city of Noumea. Defending champion Adrian Mannarino is the top seed and bidding for a third title in five years, while Next Gen ATP Finals contenders Duckhee Lee, Quentin Halys and Noah Rubin feature in a stacked draw.

Why would anyone want to come Noumea?….?? pic.twitter.com/TjiI57kFmR

— Noah Rubin (@Noahrubin33) December 30, 2016

Lee, seeded third, reached his first Challenger final in Kaohsiung in September, while Halys, seeded fourth, is seeking a second title (Tallahassee ’16).

View Draws: Noumea | Happy Valley | Bangkok

Meanwhile, Michael Mmoh kicks off his campaign in Happy Valley, Australia, where countryman Donald Young is the top seed. The 18-year-old Mmoh is surging with confidence after clinching his maiden Challenger title in Knoxville in November, climbing inside the year-end Top 200 of the Emirates ATP Rankings at No. 198. An American has won the title in Happy Valley in both its previous editions – Ryan Harrison (2015) and Taylor Fritz (2016).

The season-long Emirates ATP Race to Milan will see the world’s best up-and-coming talents battle to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals, taking place from 7-11 November, 2017. The Top 7 players born in 1996 or later will qualify automatically, while the eighth spot will be reserved for a wild card.

Watch Free Challenger Live Streaming

Finally, the KPN Bangkok Open is back for a ninth year, with former World No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic seeded fifth. Three past champions have returned, as 2015 winner Yuichi Sugita is the top seed and 2013 titlist Blaz Kavcic and 2011 champ Cedrik-Marcel Stebe also present.