In April 2021, Rohan Bopanna was wondering why he was still playing tennis. The Indian star had just lost a match in Estoril with Alexander Bublik. He had lost all seven matches he had played to start the season and won only one set.

“I was sitting near the ocean and I was telling myself, ‘What am I even doing? I’m not even winning matches, I have a family at home. Should I just call it a day and just go back?’” Bopanna told ATPTour.com. “Our daughter was four years old right now and I thought, ‘Why not? Let’s do that.’”

Instead, Bopanna continued on and is playing some of the best tennis of his career. On Thursday, the 43-year-old became the oldest Grand Slam doubles finalist in the Open Era. Bopanna and Matthew Ebden will play Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury Friday for the US Open title.

The Indian has won five ATP Masters 1000 titles with five different partners, but never a men’s doubles trophy at a major. Not bad for someone with no cartilage in his knees.

“It’s worn out completely. It’s just worn out. It’s not a tear. Both my knees have no cartilage and in 2019 I was on two, three painkillers a day,” Bopanna said. “[In] 2020 I started Iyengar yoga, and that actually made a tremendous difference. I went from two, three painkillers a day to no painkillers today. I think the only time sometimes I take an anti-inflammatory is from playing two matches a day. At that time the body says, ‘Hello, please slow down, you still have no cartilage.’”

Bopanna became interested in Iyengar yoga during the Covid-19 pandemic, when professional tennis was suspended. He did 90-minute sessions four times a week.

“It really made the difference,” Bopanna explained. “I said ‘Okay’. Then when I started playing, I felt pain-free. And then that was a whole new ballgame.”

Today, the 24-time tour-level doubles titlist does a shorter period of yoga in the morning.

“I think the yoga kind of helped align the body better, helped the mind as well [stay] calmer,” Bopanna said. “And then having the right team, I’ve had Scott Davidoff traveling with me for 12, 13 years now and that has made a huge difference to understand how I’m playing. I’ve invested in myself in terms of bringing a good physio on board this year. Last year, I didn’t have that.”

Bopanna in January began working with Rebecca Van Orshaegen, a Belgian physio. Everything together has helped him compete at the highest level. Bopanna and Ebden will climb to first place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings if they win the US Open title.

Bopanna reached his first major final at the 2010 US Open alongside Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. Since then, he has competed at the Nitto ATP Finals three times with three different partners, and at Roland Garros in 2017 captured the mixed doubles crown with Gabriela Dabrowski. But when he steps on court Friday, he will be playing in his first men’s doubles major final in 13 years.

“I definitely believe that I am playing much better right now. Because I think over the years, playing with various different partners brought in so much experience, learning from especially when I was starting my career, when I started with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, then I played with Mahesh Bhupathi a lot. I played with Daniel Nestor a lot,” Bopanna said. “So I learned I felt so much from them, which I could bring in over the years to my journey and today I don’t feel rushed on the court.

“Initially, I feel that I’m much calmer. And then I can think much better and that just kind of really enhanced the game. Earlier in the day, I used to do a lot of serve and volley, now I don’t do that as much. Obviously that is due to the physical conditions of having no cartilage on my knees in order to change that up.”

Cartilage or not, Bopanna is flying high. And with his wife and daughter by his side, the Indian star is excited to try to bring his family his biggest trophy yet.

“I’m extremely proud. Anytime there’s a record set, I get it. But it is not something I’m focussed on, like looking to get or something,” Bopanna said. “If it happens along the way, yes, extremely happy with it. But the pure goal when I play is to go win the match, win the tournament, and that is it.”

One word to describe Ben Shelton’s game is electric. From his thunderbolt serve to his aggressive game style, the 20-year-old brings everything that a fan would want to watch in a tennis match. His magnetic smile and willingness to involve the crowd have made him a showstopper.

Part of the Shelton box-office package at this US Open has been a signature celebration. After winning his matches, the former University of Florida star has pretended to pick up the phone and listened for a moment before slamming it back on the receiver.

“Our home phone when I was growing up in Atlanta was one like that. If I wanted to talk to my friends or call their home phone, see if they wanted to go outside and throw a football, that was what I did,” Shelton said. “But for me it’s kind of like I’m saying I’m dialled in.”

Shelton explained that the celebration was inspired by another former Gator, Grant Holloway, a track star who has won several world championships in events including the 110-metre hurdles and the 60-metre hurdles.

“For me, when I pick up the phone, it’s kind of just letting everybody know I can hear you talk,” Holloway told ATPTour.com. “Just know I’m always going to answer and I’m always going to deliver. As Ben said, you stay dialled in.

“Obviously, on that day, anything can happen. So it’s just one of the things where we just let everybody know, you can say whatever you want about me. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to go out there and compete and I’m going to stay dialled in no matter what.”

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^{Photo: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour}
Holloway became friends with Shelton through his brother, another Florida track star, MJ Holloway. They would grab food, chat and inspire one another to chase greatness. It has been “amazing” for Holloway, who won the 110-metre world championship two weeks ago, to watch his friend take the US Open by storm. Now the 2022 NCAA singles winner will face 23-time major titlist Novak Djokovic for a place in the final.

“When you have a close friend ripping up the scenes on the tennis court and playing some of the idols that we used to joke around with [each other about], I think it’s pretty remarkable because he’s living out his dream,” Holloway said. “I think most people get caught in the hype, obviously, when they’re young, when they start to play some of the idols. They start to respect them too much.

“I was one of those people before, so it’s my goal to really challenge him and tell him, ‘Respect is earned and not given.’ So really, just to go out there and just to demand respect on his name.”

One thing nobody will need to worry about is whether Shelton will walk onto the court inside Arthur Ashe Stadium ready for a battle.

“He’s a fierce competitor. Obviously you guys are starting to know that now. But obviously his close friends always knew it was only a matter of time until he busted on the scene,” Holloway said. “[He needs to] continue just to believe, continue to stay dialed in and it’s just one of the things where it’s only a matter of time until he’s at the top spot.”

Shelton’s competitive fire is nothing new. The American has shown it since well before tennis was his main focus. Kenny Thorne grew up competing with Ben’s father and coach, Bryan Shelton. They both played at Georgia Institute of Technology, went out on the ATP Tour and eventually coached at their alma mater, where Thorne led — and still is the head coach of — the men’s team and Shelton the women’s.

Thorne vividly remembers tennis camps at Georgia Tech where Ben, who was not yet 10, would leave his mark in team tennis competitions.

“He was just this little 10-and-under kid and we had [kids] all the way up to age 18. And you could hear him from point one. His whole team somehow was fired up by this little 10-year-old out there competing, and he honestly just loved competing,” Thorne said. “I know he played a lot of other sports and did a lot of things. But when it came to competition, you tried to get some people to embrace it. He just naturally embraced it. He loved the moment, he loved being out there. And it wasn’t about him being the centre of attention. It was just that he enjoyed it.”

Bryan Shelton became the head men’s tennis coach at the University of Florida in 2013 and at the time, Ben still played other sports, including football and baseball. One of Shelton’s assistant coaches, Scott Perelman, would watch Ben play football and marvel at his fearlessness taking on players twice his size.

“His enthusiasm for life, his competitive spirit, his athleticism have always been somewhat off the charts,” Perelman said. “And once he grew into that body of his, as you can see, one special thing after another started happening.”

There are many pieces of Shelton’s tennis that stand out, especially his monstrous serve. But how he handles big moments is almost as important. Many players need years of experience to grow accustomed to the pressures of playing in front of thousands of fans in a stadium and millions across the world. Shelton handles the pressure like he’s been dealing with it for decades. Part of the reason why is the joie de vivre with which he plays.

“This is not work to him, this is like a joy to him,” Perelman said. “And you can see it with the way he plays, the way he handles himself, the way he deals with pressure. It just puts him in a pretty, pretty rare air in my opinion.”

The Thorne family and Shelton family remain close, and Kenny has watched Ben grow from camper to world-class player, and even coached against him at the college level in individual tournaments when Shelton competed for his father’s team at Florida.

“I know he loves the game of tennis, but I think he loves competing as much or more than any of the sports,” Thorne said. “You can tell when somebody enjoys competing. And you can tell when people shy away from it. And he’s never shied away from a young age from competing. And that’s something that I don’t think you can really teach.”

So when Shelton stands across the net from Djokovic on Friday evening, he will pick up the phone and dial in for work. He may or may not win, but there is no doubt the lefty will leave it all out there.

“Ben is a generational talent, obviously, we all see that,” Holloway said. “This is one of the things now where he continues to shock the world.”

Gilles Cervara is well aware of the challenge his player, Daniil Medvedev, will face Friday when he plays defending champion and top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals. According to the Frenchman, players need to find a level beyond their best to compete with the likes of the Spaniard.

“To beat the best you have to play probably over your level, you have to find something different. You have to be in almost the best day of your year, and you have to create the conditions for this,” Cervara told ATPTour.com. “I think and I really believe as a person and as a coach that you have to find something deeper inside yourself, to be someone stronger and stronger.

“If I use an example, you probably know Dragon Ball Z. Superhero. You have to find this power inside yourself to be like a superhero, to be over the best you can do. That’s what I think. And sports in general, I’ve always seen this all over the years. The No. 1 is almost unbeatable but someone is able to play over his best this day to beat him. And I think tomorrow is the day like this.”

In other words, a player needs to go into Super Saiyan mode. Medvedev will try to do just that as he tries to level his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Alcaraz at 2-2.

“I really believe that it’s really possible if you find this energy, this mentality, this fire,” Cervara said. “Of course in your game, your game becomes stronger and stronger and then your opponent looks not to be at his best this day also because you are over this.

“Daniil is one of the players able to do it.”

According to Cervara, Medvedev does not necessarily need to prepare differently for a challenge like playing Alcaraz or Novak Djokovic. It just requires a different level of focus.

“It’s just your margin of error or the margin of the good or the bad choices are getting like this,” Cervara said, pinching his fingers together. “You can always find something against lower players. Against the [best players]… your margin is very, very thin.”

Medvedev defeated close friend Andrey Rublev in straight sets in the quarter-finals, but made use of his margin for error earlier in the tournament, when he lost a set to Christopher O’Connell and Alex de Minaur. For the fourth time in the past five years, the 2021 champion is into the US Open semi-finals.

“It’s great to be there. First of all, in general, it’s very good to be there anywhere, and especially when you didn’t win so many matches. For guys like Daniil, every time you play a tournament, especially [ATP] Masters 1000s, you want to go to the final or to win the tournament for sure,” Cervara said. “And when you lose before those guys, maybe not all of them, but a guy like Daniil, then it becomes very, very tough every day. So everything can be difficult and you have to manage this every day.

“So it’s a lot of pressure, a lot of tension. And even if, from my perspective, as a coach, I always try to give the good side of what happened.”

Cervara felt that even in Medvedev’s quarter-final loss in Toronto (to Alex de Minaur) and third-round defeat in Cincinnati (to Alexander Zverev), there were plenty of positives from which the World No. 3 could be confident.

“But inside the player, he just sees that he doesn’t win, so it’s s***. And then you have to manage this negative feeling even if you feel that it’s not that bad. And you can feel the good things. So it makes the work very, very tough,” Cervara said. “When finally at the end during the major he plays good, you feel much better and you feel that yeah, my point of view was the good one, it was the right one.”

On Thursday morning Cervara went for a boxing session, an activity he enjoys throughout the world. The Frenchman felt his performance was not good enough and the coach told him he was being too hard on himself.

“I was laughing in my mind, because I was like, ‘Yeah, I know exactly how Daniil feels in that moment’, and I was like, ‘Yes’,” Cervara said. “But also, this dissatisfaction is also the engine to do better and better. But at the same time it puts you always in tension and frustration.”

So what flip did Medvedev switch at Flushing Meadows to raise his level and battle into the last four at the season’s final major, finding the form that helped him win five titles earlier in 2023?

“It’s tough to talk about this now because tomorrow we play a semi-final, so the tournament still is going on and I want to focus on the next step,” Cervara said. “And it’s a huge, huge step.”

When Madison Keys arrived home from Roland Garros this year following a second-round loss, she asked her fiancé, Bjorn Fratangelo, for help. The American’s coach had split with her after Charleston and she competed in Europe alone.

“It didn’t go so well. She had some tough losses, and she came home and asked for my help. And the first thing I said was like, ‘Are you sure?’” Fratangelo told ATPTour.com. “Because we’ve done a great job of kind of staying out of each other’s careers over the seven years we’ve been together. And she said yes.”

Since the Monday of the second week of Roland Garros, Fratangelo has served as Keys’ coach. The former No. 99 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings is still an active player and recently qualified for the ATP 500 event in Washington, but has been focussed on helping the US Open semi-finalist.

“I’m honestly pretty chronically injured. D.C. just happened to be because the list dropped,” Fratangelo said. “I hadn’t really been practising, if I’m going to be completely honest.”

The 30-year-old figured he might as well take the opportunity to compete there. But the World No. 638’s performance in Washington was not the start of a surge back towards the top of the sport.

“It was nice in a way and it was also a little bit sad, because since then things have kind of gone downhill with the injury and stuff, it’s in my foot. So I really haven’t hit much since. I played [an ATP Challenger Tour event in] Cary afterwards and I haven’t really hit much since then,” Fratangelo said. “It’s actually both feet. I have some genetic problems with some bones in my big toes. And I’ve actually fractured both of my sesamoid bones in both toes.”

 

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In a way, working with Keys in a coaching capacity has been a welcome distraction.

“It was a blessing to kind of have some other things to focus on. I did some coaching stuff for the USTA while I was out last fall with the juniors and stuff and I really enjoyed it. And that was kind of the first time that I thought like, ‘Wow, this coaching stuff is actually a little bit more fun than I thought it would be,’” Fratangelo said. “When she asked if I could go to the grass-court season with her and do Eastbourne and Wimbledon, of course I said yes. I wasn’t doing much and I didn’t expect to have the success that we’ve had and she’s had.

“She’s done an unbelievable job winning Eastbourne, quartering at Wimbledon, and now, kind of taking the momentum in the summertime. It’s been great.”

After the first couple days of standing behind Keys on the practice court and telling her what to do — which he does not like to do — it has been “pretty easy” for Fratangelo to adjust to his coaching role.

He has had to work on scouting the Hologic WTA Tour players since he does not know the women particularly well. And it has taken getting used to days dragging when he is not the one warming up, hitting, going through a pre-match routine, doing physio work and so on.

“You have a lot to think about, planning how to play,” Fratangelo said. “For instance, [against Marketa] Vondrousova tonight, I was second-guessing myself. ‘Is it the right way? Should I watch more?’ You just have a lot more time to think about kind of nothing. It makes the day a little bit long.”

But overall, Fratangelo has enjoyed the experience, especially with Keys.

“I think I have a good mind for the game and I’ve taken it myself as far as I’ve gone,” Fratangelo said. “I think that maybe even some of my frustration over the years of maybe not surpassing my career high or whatever it’s been, is just not being able to do the things that I think I need to do. So to put that on someone else has actually been quite awesome. Because it kind of just solidifies how I think of the game or how I see the game so far.

“And obviously look, we’re best friends. She’s my fiancée. There’s nothing we keep from each other and it’s been very collaborative and it’s been a lot of fun I think for both of us.”

An exciting two weeks at the US Open has clinched key milestones for several rising stars on the ATP Tour, most notably American Ben Shelton. The 20-year-old has produced a career-best performance to climb 28 spots to a career-high No. 19 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

The 2022 NCAA singles champion, who was No. 173 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings this time last year, will clash against Novak Djokovic in Friday’s semi-finals. Shelton is the youngest US Open men’s semi-finalist since Michael Chang in 1992.

Italian Matteo Arnaldi is another bright young star who enjoyed a standout run at the American Slam, launching himself inside the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings for the first time. A competitor at last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals, the 22-year-old survived Frenchman Arthur Fils in five sets and upset 16th seed Cameron Norrie to reach the fourth round.

Dominic Stricker made a splash at Flushing Meadows by stunning seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a five-set, second-round match. The Swiss lefty struck 78 winners throughout the four-hour, 10-minute encounter and maintained his form to make the fourth round, setting him up for a Top 100 debut on Monday.

Borna Gojo and Rinky Hijikata found success at the season’s final major, earning them a spot in the Top 100. The Croatian Gojo, who is No. 76 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, advanced through qualifying en route to a fourth-round appearance. Hijikata also reached the round of 16, lifting him to No. 81 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

On the ATP Challenger Tour, Thiago Seyboth Wild was crowned champion at last week’s Challenger Citta’ di Como in Italy to also seal his Top 100 breakthrough this coming Monday. The 23-year-old has collected three Challenger trophies this season and earned his career-best victory at Roland Garros, where he upset Daniil Medvedev.