Rafael Nadal is a sporting icon and he provides a role model for fledgling stars who dream of their own career on the professional tour. However, the 22-time Grand Slam champion not only sets an example for young players, he is also a source of inspiration for the veterans

Enrique Ayala is one of them. The nonagenarian tennis player won the Over-90 Spanish Championship in June, defeating Manuel Villanueva in two sets in the final of the event, which was held at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar.

There, on the clay courts of Manacor, as he received his trophy, he was unaware of the misfortune that would soon come his way. After returning from Mallorca, he caught COVID-19 and spent almost two months in critical condition in UCI.

During his time battling with the virus, Ayala received a very special message. Nadal, upon hearing the news, did not hesitate to send him a video of support that, according to the patient himself, had “a great influence” on his recovery, along with the fact that he is so active so late in his life.

In the message, as well as encouraging Ayala, Nadal invited him to a meeting at some point in the future. That meeting happened last week at his Academy.

Four months after claiming his title, Ayala visited Mallorca to meet Nadal, who not only inspires young players, but the odd veteran too.

It is a big week for Holger Rune, who is trying to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.

Instead of wilting under the pressure against former World No. 3 Dominic Thiem on Wednesday evening, the defending champion rose to the occasion with a 6-4, 6-2 victory to reach the third round of the Rolex Paris Masters.

The 20-year-old is eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, the last qualifying spot for the season finale, which begins on 12 November. He is doing everything in his power to hold onto his position, with ninth-placed Hubert Hurkacz 215 points behind.

It has not been the easiest second half of the year for Rune, who has won just four matches since Wimbledon. But with former World No. 1 Boris Becker now his coach, the Dane found form last week in Basel, where he advanced to the semi-finals. And now he is back at the location of his maiden ATP Masters 1000 triumph.

Rune faced an opponent in Thiem who won two qualifying matches and then saved a match point en route to defeating fellow former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in the first round of the main draw. That late-evening encounter ended at 2:22 a.m. Tuesday morning.

The hours on court showed in the game of Thiem, who hit an uncharacteristic number of errors, allowing Rune to escape tight moments in the match. The Austrian battled throughout at Accor Arena, but was unable to overcome letting slip all five break points he earned.

Rune will next play German Daniel Altmaier, who advanced to the third round via walkover when Taylor Fritz withdrew due to injury. It will be the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting, but Rune defeated Altmaier in a final-set tie-break two years ago at an ATP Challenger Tour event played on clay in Italy.

At age 36, Novak Djokovic has accomplished almost everything possible in tennis. The Serbian’s next milestone could be becoming the first player to reach 400 weeks as the World No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

The 24-time major champion, who has held the top spot for a record 397 weeks, shared some of his career-best memories and what has kept his fire ignited in the latest ATP Uncovered ‘Legacy’ feature.

“I was never satisfied with anything else but No. 1,” Djokovic said. “I always wanted to win Wimbledon and be No. 1. Those were the two childhood dreams.”

Watch the full video below to relive what Djokovic said following his first tour-level title in 2006, highlights of several key moments throughout his journey and see how he has climbed the ladder of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek earned a comeback win on Wednesday at the Rolex Paris Masters, where they moved past Frenchmen Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul 3-6, 6-3, 10-4 to reach the quarter-finals.

The top seeds, who have already qualified for this month’s Nitto ATP Finals, fired 10 aces and won 80 per cent (32/40) of their first-serve points to advance after one hour and 30 minutes at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

Dodig and Krajicek are chasing their sixth tour-level title of the season as a team, with their triumphs including a trophy at the Masters 1000 tournament in Monte-Carlo. They reached the final in Paris-Bercy last year, losing against Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski.

In other action, Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin moved past Jamie Murray and Michael Venus 6-4, 6-3 to end the British-Kiwi Team’s Nitto ATP Finals qualification hopes.

Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin are aiming to qualify for the prestigious year-end event themselves and are currently fifth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings. The Mexican-French team will play Koolhof and Skupski or Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals.

Harri Heliovaara and Mate Pavic moved past Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski 7-6(7), 6-4 to reach the second round, while Felix Auger-Aliassime and Sebastian Korda teamed to defeat Sebastian Baez and Lorenzo Musetti 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the same stage in Paris.

Novak Djokovic tightened his grip on the ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone honour Wednesday when he moved past Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-2 to reach the third round at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The World No. 1 leads Carlos Alcaraz by 580 points in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and could extended his advantage to 1,495 points by winning a record-extending seventh title in Paris-Bercy after the Spaniard lost in his opening match on Tuesday.

In front of a packed crowd on Court Central, Djokovic was in complete control against Etcheverry, who has tracked his ATP Pepperstone Ranking position in comparison to the Serbian in recent years.

Started from the bottom now we here 📸 📈 pic.twitter.com/iBsAJM2YWm

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 11, 2023

The 36-year-old hit with precision from the baseline, pulling the Argentine from corner to corner. He broke Etcheverry’s serve three times and committed just nine unforced errors to advance after one hour and 23 minutes. The 96-time tour-level champion holds a standout 46-9 record at the indoor hard-court event.

Djokovic is chasing a record-extending 40th ATP Masters 1000 title and will next play Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor. The top seed, who is 47-5 on the year, is competing in singles for the first time since the Davis Cup in September. He has lifted major trophies at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open this year, while also triumphing in Cincinnati and Adelaide.

Stefanos Tsitsipas passed a stiff second-round test from the resurgent Felix Auger-Aliassime on Wednesday at the Rolex Paris Masters, where the Greek’s serving under pressure helped him seal a 6-3, 7-6(4) triumph.

Tsitsipas saved six of seven break points he faced in his one-hour, 48-minute victory to improve his Lexus ATP Head2Head record against Auger-Aliassime to 6-3. He rallied from 2-5 in the second set, fending off four set points overall before clinching his first win against the Canadian since 2021.

In it to WIN it 🫡@steftsitsipas saves FOUR set points in the second set before moving past Auger-Aliassime and into the third round! @RolexPMasters | #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/v3FJ8QObrt

— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 1, 2023

Although last week’s Basel champion Auger-Aliassime fired 25 winners, including nine aces, to Tsitsipas’ 18 on Court Central, the seventh seed kept his cool to register his 49th tour-level win of 2023. The 25-year-old will next look to hit his half century for the season when he takes on 10th seed Alexander Zverev, who rallied from 2-4 in the third set to defeat Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-6(5) in three hours and 29 minutes and break the hearts of a passionate French crowd.

“I would love to have finished in two sets, but this added to the drama,” said the German, who saved 11 of 13 break points faced. “I’m very happy to be through. It was a fantastic and entertaining battle.” 

With Tsitsipas sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Turin and Zverev seventh, Thursday’s match has significant implications for qualification for the Nitto ATP Finals.

Fellow Turin hopeful Hubert Hurkacz also enjoyed a second-round win on Wednesday in Paris, where he eased past Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 6-2 to advance. The Pole’s display included 19 aces, a tally which took him past 1000 aces in a single ATP Tour season for the first time.

The World No. 11 Hurkacz has now won 14 of his past 16 matches at ATP Masters 1000 events, a tally that includes a title run at the Rolex Shanghai Masters in October. His next opponent in Paris, where he reached the semi-finals in 2021, will be Francisco Cerundolo. The Argentine defeated Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-4 to end the Norwegian’s Nitto ATP Finals hopes.

Wednesday marked the end of another hopeful’s bid for a Turin spot. Botic van de Zandschulp downed Tommy Paul 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 to confirm the American is out of the running for a Nitto ATP Finals debut this year.

Van de Zandschulp has dropped just one set across four matches in Paris, where he came through qualifying. His next challenge in the French capital is a third-round meeting with fifth seed Andrey Rublev.

Hubert Hurkacz hit a milestone Wednesday at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he surpassed 1,000 aces this season during his second-round match against Roberto Bautista Agut.

The 26-year-old had 985 aces going into the match and hit an additional 19 on the day, becoming the first player to hit 1,000 aces in a season since Americans John Isner and Reilly Opelka in 2019, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

“I’m really excited about hitting 1,000 aces this season,” Hurkacz told ATPTour.com. “Hopefully there are still a couple more to come, but didn’t expect it at the beginning of the year, so definitely the serve has been working a little bit. Just excited, hopefully it’s going to help me to put a couple of more good results this year and really proud of the work with the whole team.”

At ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, Hurkacz is averaging 15 aces per match this season, in which he has claimed titles in Marseille and last month in Shanghai.

The 6’5” Pole is the first player shorter than 6’8″ to hit 1,000 aces since Canadian Milos Raonic fired 1,107 aces in 2014.

*ATP began recording ace tallies in 1991

Grigor Dimitrov dug deep to complete a prompt revenge job Wednesday at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The Bulgarian battled to a 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(2) triumph against Daniil Medvedev to reach the third round at the ATP Masters 1000 event in the French capital. Dimitrov led by a set before falling to defeat in the pair’s second-round clash in Vienna just six days ago, but he made no mistake this time around as he powered 48 winners to Medvedev’s 22 for his first victory against the World No. 3 since 2021.

Dimitrov struggled to serve out the match after maintaining the upper hand for much of the deciding set. He led 5-2 before letting slip four match points on his own serve at 5-4 and then another two on return at 6-5, but the World No. 17 kept his composure admirably to dominate the deciding tie-break and seal a two-hour, 54-minute win.

SEVEN match points later! 😜⭐️

Grigor Dimitrov | #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/J9eL4wGEPg

— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 1, 2023

“At 5-4 and 40/15, I just didn’t go enough for my shots,” said Dimitrov. “That’s it, and against a player like him, he’s going to take it, simple as that. I could have done a few things differently. Obviously, it’s very different when you see it from the outside now, but I’m going to watch a little bit for sure.

“I want to see what I could have done a little bit better since I was playing a good game and to get up to 5-4, 40/15, I thought I played an excellent game with very good shot selection. It slipped there, but a good outcome in the end.”

Dimitrov had already shown great mental strength to move ahead in the third set after Medvedev had blunted the Bulgarian’s fast start with a rock-solid second-set showing. The 2020 Paris champion Medvedev could not carry that momentum into the decider, although he did not go down without a fight — the six match points he saved included a 47-shot rally that ended with Dimitrov netting a backhand.

“It’s extremely difficult,” said Dimitrov, when asked how he regathered himself after missing the match points. “You have to accept [it], there is not much to do. The moment has passed. In the end, I had to just remain in the game, looking after my shots and trying create some opportunities again.

“I knew I might have another one. We both were fairly tired. In the end we had some crazy rallies and amazing points. It came down to a few points here and there, just like the last match [in Vienna].”

Now 38-20 for the season, including a 6-10 record against Top 10 opponents, Dimitrov will take on Alexander Bublik next in Paris-Bercy, where he reached the semi-finals in 2019. The 32-year-old, who reached a championship match in Geneva earlier this year, is chasing his first ATP Tour title since he won the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals.