Denis Shapovalov has had just one week to digest how his summer is unfolding. Junior Wimbledon title… check. First ATP World Tour main draw at the Citi Open… check. First ATP World Tour match win against World No. 16 Nick Kyrgios in front of thousands of screaming home fans at the Rogers Cup… triple check.

Where most 17-year-olds are enjoying their summer months relaxing at the beach and lounging with friends, Shapovalov is spending countless hours on court as he strives towards his professional ambitions. Having experienced a taste of success on both ends of the spectrum, the Canadian understands that developing his skills and building confidence at the Challenger level is imperative.

“My parents told me from the start to not expect this all the time,” Shapovalov told ATPWorldTour.com at the Challenger Banque Nationale de Gatineau. “It’s two wild cards at two dream tournaments, but then it’s back to reality and back to grinding. I expected it and it hasn’t been a problem for me yet. Those tournaments motivated me more than anything. It’s a long way and I just have to keep working. These Challengers give me that opportunity.”

Shapovalov’s longtime coach Adriano Fuorivia agrees that it’s a long process and the ATP Challenger Tour is an important next step for his pupil to return to the big stage.

“Hopefully playing in Challengers against guys in the 100-200 range will continue to push his level and further motivate him to reach for that top level. He won some Futures events in Florida at the beginning of the year, then came off the big win at Wimbledon juniors and now against Kyrgios, so he’s been playing with so much more confidence and is believing that he belongs in a higher category.

“We told him that you have to earn your way there. The wild cards into Washington and Toronto were a nice opportunity, but you have to earn your way back. That means playing more Challengers. I know it’s tough. It’s not easy to play in the spotlight at Wimbledon and night matches in Toronto in front of large crowds. But it’s a learning experience.

“Going back out there every single day and feeling that you have to perform in front of that crowd can be a different pressure. That’s not necessarily Denis’ problem, but these are thoughts in my mind that you have to prepare yourself for. And then you’re back playing on Court 1 or 2 at a smaller event, but that’s just another step in his development at a young age.”

Shapovalov’s tenure on the ATP Challenger Tour got off to an auspicious start in March, with a stunning run to the semi-finals on home soil in Drummondville. His first-round win over countryman Filip Peliwo made him the first player born in 1999 to win a Challenger match, which he proceeded to follow up with a straight-sets upset of second seed Austin Krajicek. Shapovalov would catapult more than 200 spots in the Emirates ATP Rankings to No. 551. It was a week that set the tone for his breakthrough season.

“I played some incredible tennis there and I wasn’t expecting to beat [Krajicek] in the quarters,” Shapovalov reflected. “We actually packed our bags, getting ready to go home before that. When I played Daniel Evans, I played amazing too. Ever since then he’s been in the Top 100 and made the third round at Wimbledon. It gave me so much experience and confidence. Now I need to pump up my fitness and work with Adriano to get ready for a few Challengers in the U.S. at the end of the year.”

“I don’t want to say it was a surprise, but just the level he was playing at was pretty high,” Fuorivia added. “Everything was clicking. His serve, forehand, backhand were all on. I don’t look at who he beats because everyone has an off day. I look at his level. If I feel that the level was looking pretty good, then I know he can play with these guys. And when the level is high, then the ranking will follow.”

The Italian-born Fuorivia, who first started working with Shapovalov four years ago, acknowledges that his pupil’s greatest asset is his mental approach. Where most teens would be looking ahead to an upcoming family vacation in Greece, Shapovalov, who is into his second straight Challenger quarter-final this week in Gatineau, is wired differently.

“He’s very perceptive in that he immediately notices what it takes to compete at this level and say ‘I have to do this better’ or ‘I need a better 1-2 shot’. He’s never played a junior game. It’s always been a ‘go for it’ game.

“The transition to playing the pros was easier for him. His serve improved and his attacking ball got better. I’m not saying he’s there, but it wasn’t so hard for him to stay in points because he goes for his shots. There’s so much in him to learn and get better.”

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Abierto Mexicano Mifel – Los Cabos, Mexico

Top seed Feliciano Lopez, second seed Bernard Tomic and No. 4 seed Sam Querrey launched the inaugural Abierto Mexicano Mifel with mini tennis on a boat that included a scenic view of El Arco.

Ivo Karlovic, Jeremy Chardy, Santiago Giraldo, Lopez, Tomic, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Marcel Granollers, Pablo Carreno Busta, Fernando Verdasco, Robert Lindstedt, Tim Smyczek and more stars relaxed during the tournament players’ party on Sunday night. Watch

Karlovic, Chardy and Giraldo took a scenic boat ride in Los Cabos for some snorkeling at Playa del Amor. Watch

Carreno Busta, Dusan Lajovic, Adrian Mannarino, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, Sergiy Stakhovsky and Tigre Hank took part in a unique activity when they visited the Wild Canyon adventure park. The players soared above ground on the Monster Ziplines and rode all-terrain vehicles across Los Cabos Canyon Bridge. Read & Watch

Chardy, Dolgopolov, Purav Raja and Divij Sharan participated in kids’ day activities.

Julien Benneteau, Austin Krajicek and Carreno Busta are among the stars who met fans and signed autographs on site. 

The moment Victor Estrella Burgos waited years for has finally arrived, and the Dominican can hardly breathe. He lies collapsed face down, his head buried in the red clay of Quito, his body shaking from disbelief.

Estrella Burgos has just beaten four-time titlist Feliciano Lopez, then No. 14 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, to win the 2015 Ecuador Open Quito. At 34, he has made history, becoming the oldest first-time ATP World Tour winner in the Open Era. He’s also become the first player from the Dominican Republic to win an ATP World Tour event.

By this time, though, Estrella Burgos had already made a career of shattering obstacles. As a boy, he taught himself how to play tennis. In his 20s, he taught the sport for years to fund his future career and achieve Dominican tennis history. When he could finally afford to go pro at the age of 26, people laughed at him. “It’s too late,” they told him.

But he has proved them wrong year after year, and when he retires, he’ll try to accomplish one more ambitious goal. The lifelong Santiago resident wants to make sure his story is never repeated. He wants everyone in the Dominican Republic with an interest in tennis to have the ability to pursue the sport.

“I don’t want the younger kids to have the same problems as me, like what I had before,” he said. “I want to change everything.”

Had it not been for his abundance of energy, who knows if Estrella Burgos’ own tennis talent would have been discovered. When he was eight, his dad asked a tennis teacher at a local club if he had anything that could keep his son busy.

“I was the ball boy,” Estrella Burgos said.

For about three hours every day, after and sometimes before school, Estrella Burgos would dash around the court, acting like a human tennis bucket, gobbling up balls while watching people play. During downtime, he’d grab a racquet and play like the people he saw: right-handed.

That’s why, almost 30 years later, even though Estrella Burgos writes with his left hand, he still hits a forehand with his right hand. “I didn’t have anybody to show me [how to play],” he said. “I saw the people play with their right hand, I took the racquet and I started.”

As a nine year old, Estrella Burgos won a junior tournament at the club, which upped his interest and landed him some advice. “So many people started to help me,” he said.

He gradually kept improving, becoming a top junior in the Dominican Republic and eventually teaching at the club. Through international competitions, including the Pan-American games and Davis Cup matches, Estrella Burgos soon believed he had the talents to compete among the best in the world.

As a 23 year old, for instance, he faced Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas, then 18, in a Davis Cup match. Estrella Burgos, No. 1,110 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, swept past the future Top 20 player 6-4, 6-3, 7-5. “I knew I had the level,” Estrella Burgos said.

But he lacked the finances to spend months and years on tour. So he kept working and teaching lessons at the club, squirreling away funds to someday launch his pro career.

No one from the Dominican Republic had done what he was trying to do – have a successful Top 100 career on the ATP World Tour. Yet Estrella Burgos was committed, and in 2006, as a 26 year old, he finally felt comfortable enough to give it a go professionally. He moved away from Santiago and relocated to Miami to practise with more people on a regular basis.

“Everybody thought, ‘It’s too late to start.’ But I think it’s never too late,” he said.

Read More: First-Time Winner Spotlight: Estrella Burgos

Estrella Burgos sweat it out at Futures events, his ranking in the low 900s of the Emirates ATP Rankings. By 2010, he had climbed to No. 211. By 2013, he had overcome torn cartilage in his right elbow to win multiple ATP Challenger Tour events for the first time in his career, including the Quito title, the start of his successful streak there.

The next year, Estrella Burgos hit his prime. In March, he became the first Dominican to crack the Top 100. In July, he reached the semi-finals in Bogota, beating then No. 14 Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals before falling to eventual champion Bernard Tomic in a third-set tiebreak in the semi-finals.

In late 2014, Estrella Burgos became the oldest player to make his main draw debut at the US Open. He also became the first player from his country to play in the Grand Slam championship’s main draw.

The achievements kept coming and coming, but the best came in February 2015 in Quito, when he won five consecutive matches to take the title. In July 2015, he also reached a career best No. 43 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Earlier this year, as a 35 year old, he won five more matches in Quito to become a two-time ATP World Tour champion.

“Quito is just special for me,” he said. “I feel very confident. I feel I play very good and thank God I won the tournament again.”

He’s not done yet, either. “I think I can get better and better this year,” said Estrella Burgos, who turned 36 earlier this month.

How many titles, though, would Estrella Burgos have if he had turned pro when he was 18? How high would he be in the Emirates ATP Rankings?

These are questions he doesn’t want another Dominican to have to consider, so when he retires, he plans to start a foundation that will help promote tennis across the country. To start, Estrella Burgos, who moved back to Santiago after a handful of years in Miami, wants to work with the government to build public tennis courts in Santiago, which has a population of 550,753. When he was a kid, the city had nine public courts. Now, he said, it has zero.

If you want to play tennis but don’t belong to one of the three private clubs in Santiago, he said, you have nowhere to play. “That’s why everything is hard, because we don’t have the facilities,” he said. “If you are not a member, you cannot practise… That’s why everybody decides to play baseball, basketball, or another sport, not tennis.”

Estrella Burgos, who still lives in the home he grew up in, also wants to make sure kids who show tennis talent at a young age can gain the proper instruction. “I know so many of them play good but they don’t have any help or anybody to help them to make tournaments,” he said. “With my experience, with my ideas and everything, I have to help.”

He has seen how his historic career has generated interest in tennis in the Dominican Republic, and he wants to make sure he’s not the first and the last player from his country to win titles and break ATP World Tour records.

“This is my dream, to make a foundation,” he said. “We can make something different.”

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from next week’s Western & Southern Open due to a left wrist injury. It is the only ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament he has yet to win.

“I am very sad to announce that I won’t be able to play this year in Cincinnati at the Western & Southern Open,” said Djokovic, a winner of a record 30 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles. “I have a recurring injury that has taken its toll on my body due to a very busy and active schedule this year. I have played many matches and I have to take some rest in order to heal. I always have my hopes high on returning to Cincinnati and winning the only trophy I am missing in the Masters [1000] series.”

Djokovic, who has finished runner-up in Cincinnati on five occasions, is not expected to play until the US Open, the final Grand Slam championship of the year, beginning on 29 August. The 29-year-old Serbian has a 51-5 match record on the 2016 season, including seven titles.

If you are an athlete in New Zealand, there’s a good chance that rugby is your sport of choice. Internationally heralded, the All Blacks garner most of the sporting attention in the South Pacific island nation.

But if Finn Tearney has his way, tennis will soon be in the spotlight.

At No. 388 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, New Zealand’s No. 1 singles player sent shockwaves around the ATP Challenger Tour on Tuesday, following an upset of top seed and #NextGen star Quentin Halys in Gatineau, Canada. A qualifier at the $75,000 event, Tearney maintained his composure in rallying from a set down to stun the 19-year-old Frenchman after a grueling one-hour and 37-minute battle. The Kiwi reeled off the final eight games of the match to claim his first main draw victory on the ATP Challenger Tour this year.

“I’ve been struggling a bit in Challengers and lost in the last round of qualies two or three times recently,” Tearney told ATPWorldTour.com in Gatineau. “It’s nice to be able to get through this week. I knew he’s been struggling the last couple of tournaments as well and if I hung in there, I could get on top. In the third set I ran away with it. I just relaxed a bit. I was missing some shots I usually make. I knew that if I could just execute a few more, my confidence would grow from there.”

“I lost to Darian King in Binghamton, who went on to win the tournament,” he added. “It’s not like I’ve been getting thumped every week, but it’s just about taking little steps and to keep believing that you can beat these guys. It’s really nice to get a win like this, because obviously he’s a good player.”

Steadily moving up the Emirates ATP Rankings, Tearney is finding his form after shoulder surgery sidelined him in 2014, following his graduation from Pepperdine University in California. Up to a projected career-high No. 360 with Tuesday’s victory, Tearney says he defines success as playing to the best of his abilities. It’s a simple, yet necessary philosophy.

“If I play good tennis, my ranking will take care of itself. I’m trying to play the way I want to play. If I play my tennis and beat good players, my ranking will improve. As simple as that,” said Tearney. “It’s about being consistent. This is my first Challenger main draw win this year.”

“After I beat Somdev Devvarman [in Burnie] last year, I thought that if I’m playing someone ranked in the 900s, I should win. But that’s just not how it works,” he reflected. “Everyone here is good.”

With tennis in New Zealand steadily growing in popularity, as evidenced by Michael Venus’ climb to No. 40 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings, Tearney is now motivated more than ever. Venus, who has notched four ATP World Tour doubles titles this year, is a major source of inspiration for his countryman.

“Michael is a good friend of mine. We practise all the time at home. He’s been someone I look up to for overall professionalism and the way he trains. I’ve learned so much from him,” said Tearney. “He’s Top 50 in doubles now and playing great. I’ve had some tough losses recently and he’s sent me some nice messages. He’s pretty inspiring. It’s great to see how his career has really flourished.”

The 25-year-old Auckland native was seven when he first picked up a racquet and started taking lessons two years later. Tearney admits that while his professional aspirations didn’t fully develop until he went to college. Despite the large disparity in the level of competition, he is steadily adapting to life on the ATP Challenger Tour.

“Going to college was the best decision. I developed physically and mentally. But it’s completely different. The overall quality is a big step up here and the same from Futures to Challengers. It’s just a matter of getting used to it,” said Tearney. “Players are much more aggressive and if you drop it short in the court, they’ll take you on. I need to stop thinking about the result and trust in the process. I’m trying to be more aggressive and not worry about the outcome as much.”