A U.S. summer of success continued for Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow on Saturday at the Winston-Salem Open.

The American duo downed second seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Neal Skupski 6-3, 6-4 in the final at the hard-court ATP 250 for their third tour-level title as a team, all of which have come on American soil in the past six weeks.

Having triumphed back-to-back in Newport and Atlanta in July, Lammons and Withrow did not drop a set en route to the trophy in Winston-Salem, where they also defeated top seeds Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury in the first round and third seeds Hugo Nys/Jan Zielinski in the semi-finals.

Saturday’s victory against British duo Glasspool and Skupski was based on a rock-solid serving performance. Lammons and Withrow did not face a break point in their 63-minute triumph as they won 89 per cent (31/35) of points behind their first delivery.

In contrast, it was a lapse on serve that cost Glasspool and Skupski dearly at the business end of the first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting between the teams. Two double faults from Glasspool helped Lammons and Withrow break for 5-4, and the Americans made no mistake in serving out to improve to 3-3 in tour-level championship matches in 2023.

Another successful week in their homeland sees Lammons and Withrow continue their mid-year charge towards the qualification spots for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals. The duo, which is now 37-20 for the year, remains 12th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings but is just 265 points shy of Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen in seventh.

Nicolas Jarry’s first-round win at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati was ordinary. The Chilean’s life ever since has been anything but.

Instead of taking the court for his second-round clash at the ATP Masters 1000 event against Alexei Popyrin last week, Jarry rushed home to await the birth of his second child.

“It wasn’t that much of a surprise. I already had said with my wife that if something happened, she would be monitoring herself and the baby already since Toronto. And whenever the doctor said that it was close, I would just get a flight,” Jarry told ATPTour.com. “And the day after I won, she went to the doctor and they told her that it was better if I can go home because it could go any day. She already was having contractions. So that was enough. I went.”

Last Friday Jarry’s wife, Laura, gave birth to their second son, Santiago. They also have a 17-month old, Juan.

“[I got there with] two days, so I had time to be with her,” Jarry said. “I arrived and everything was very, very smooth. She didn’t want to be alone if something happens. So that gave her mental [calm].”

For fans who have closely followed the ATP Tour this season, they will know the Chilean won his first tour-level title in nearly four years in Santiago. Ironically, that is when his family discussed potential names for Santiago.

“It was during the Santiago tournament, the Chilean Open. And we were thinking about the names. My wife said she liked Santiago, she asked one of my sisters. And without her knowing she said Santiago,” Jarry said. “Then she went to another person and that other person said Santiago. It was right before the final of the Santiago Open. So after I won it, she told me this story.

“It was like okay, maybe it can be, but I didn’t want him to have a name after a tournament I won. I wanted it to be a little bit bigger than that. And then she said that Santiago also meant Jaime, that is my grandfather’s name. So it’s like, okay, you have a little bit of everything and that’s a good reason for me to name him Santiago.”

Jarry enjoys bringing his family to tournaments, but they are currently home given how young Santiago is. Jarry, who is at a career-high No. 24 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, has done everything possible to stay close to his wife and children despite being in New York for the US Open, where he will begin his tournament against #NextGenATP Frenchman Luca Van Assche.

“I try to whenever I can always try to give them a call. Always I try to give a good night to my wife before going to sleep and I try to ask them for a lot of videos on whatever they’re doing, to always be engaged or in touch with them,” Jarry said. “For now, it’s been okay, it’s just been a couple of days, so I’m hanging good. I’m hanging okay. Probably in a couple of weeks, it will be more difficult.”

Argentine Sebastian Baez extended his match-winning streak to nine on Friday when he survived a gruelling battle against top seed Borna Coric in the Winston-Salem Open semi-finals.

The 22-year-old, who won the ATP 250 event in Kitzbühel three weeks ago, defeated Coric 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(2) after three hours, 19 minutes. Baez dropped just one point behind his serve in the opening set and displayed all-court coverage as he struck the ball confidently to reach his first tour-level final on hard courts.

“[The crowd’s] energy was amazing,” Baez said in his on-court interview. “Of course [I am] tired, but happy because it was a great battle. Happy to be in the final.”

After a fast start, it seemed Baez was going to cruise in the second set as well. Baez held a 3-1 lead before he suffered a nosebleed that stopped play, forcing him to visit with the physio. He then was broken in his ensuing service game before Coric raised his level to win an exciting one-hour, 23-minute second set.

“I think at that time, the match changed,” Baez said of the nosebleed. “Every point, he was better than me. After three hours, I think I have to take a rest and be focussed on tomorrow. I am happy but I have one more match.”

As the match wore on, both players showed great stamina as they endured lengthy rallies, with Baez often playing deep beyond the baseline. Coric came forward to pressure Baez, but it was the the sixth seed who held his nerve in the closing stages of the match.

Though Baez won his maiden Lexus ATPHead2Head meeting against Coric, the Croatian will have another crack at the Argentine when they meet next week in the US Open first round.

At World No. 35 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, the Buenos Aires native will next aim for his fourth tour-level trophy against Jiri Lehecka, who advanced to the ATP 250 final after third seed Sebastian Korda withdrew following an ankle injury he suffered in Thursday’s quarter-final.

This week marks the first time Baez has won more than two consecutive tour-level matches on hard court. After ousting Daniel Elahi Galan in the first round, Baez has continued his run by ousting three of the Top 10 seeds: Aleksandar Vukic, Laslo Djere and Coric.

Lehecka will be competing in his first tour-level final. The 21-year-old Czech is at No. 30 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, securing himself a new career-high on Monday.

Frenchman Enzo Couacaud rallied from a set down Friday at the US Open to qualify for his third major appearance of the season.

The 28-year-old defeated Italian Giulio Zeppieri 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 after winning 90 per cent of first serve points. Couacaud, who advanced through qualifying at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, will look to improve upon his first-round appearance last year at Flushing Meadows, where he fell to 25th seed Borna Coric in five sets.

Couacaud won his opening-round match in Melbourne before taking a set against eventual champion Novak Djokovic. 

#NextGenATP Dominic Stricker also qualified on Friday, defeating Argentine Thiago Agustin Tirante 6-2, 6-3. Fourth seed Taro Daniel cruised past Argentine Francisco Comesana 6-1, 6-4. Finland’s Otto Virtanen pulled away Chinese teen Shang Juncheng 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-1 after two hours, one minute. 

Chinese Taipei’s Yu Hsiou Hsu, Brazilian Felipe Meligeni Alves and Kazakh Timofey Skatov also advanced to the main draw. 

In second-round qualifying action, Belgian Joris De Loore upset Maxime Cressy 6-7(11), 6-2, 7-6(9). Czech Tomas Machac defeated former US Open finalist Kevin Anderson 6-4, 7-5. The 17-year-old Czech Jakub Mensik downed Swiss Leandro Riedi 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.

After rain forced several second-round qualifying matches to be moved to Friday, the remaining spots in the main draw will be filled upon the completion of qualifying Saturday.

Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow downed third seeds Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski 7-6(4), 6-4 on Friday at the Winston-Salem Open to reach their sixth tour-level final of the season.

The American duo, who upset top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the opening round, have not dropped a set all week in North Carolina, where they saved all three break points faced in the semi-finals. Currently 12th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, Lammons and Withrow are one win away from their third tour-level title of 2023, having won in Newport and Atlanta.

“I think we are staying very true to our style. We serve big and we play pretty aggressive,” Lammons said. “We’ve played some tough teams and I think that’s helped us stay really focussed. Had a pretty hard road so far to the final, played some tough guys who we’ve lost to before so I think staying true to that aggressive approach has helped us get here.”

They will next meet second seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Neal Skupski or Marcelo Demoliner and Matwe Middelkoop in Saturday’s final.

What was going on in the van back to Manhattan after Frances Tiafoe stunned Rafael Nadal at last year’s US Open?

The American revealed all in a reunion for Season 1, Part 2 of Netflix’s Break Point. Tiafoe joined countryman Taylor Fritz and WTA star Aryna Sabalenka in studio.

“After a win like that you can play anything. I’m losing my mind,” Tiafoe said. “I can go crazy to Nickleback, it doesn’t really matter. But what was playing, I was so amped up.”

One of the interesting features of Tiafoe’s episode, which covered his run to the semi-finals last year in New York, was his relationship with coach Wayne Ferreira. The South African, a former top player himself, was shown to never get too high or too low, but even he enjoyed his charge’s victory according to Tiafoe.

“He was into it. He was going nuts! He was drinking, he was doing the whole thing,” Tiafoe said. “By the time I got to the car, he was already loaded. I’ve never seen him smile so much, so that was pretty cool.”

The players watched clips from the season during their reunion and Tiafoe was reflective in looking back at the biggest moment of his career thus far.

“Reliving those moments, when you’re in it, it’s definitely a bit different,” Tiafoe said. “But watching them back and seeing it in such high def was just crazy. All the hype around it and just seeing all your dreams come true, it was wild to watch.”

Taylor Fritz and Aryna Sabalenka at the Netflix Break Point reunion in Cincinnati.” />
^{Photo: Peter Staples/ATP Tour}
As special a moment the 2022 US Open was for Tiafoe, it was the opposite for Fritz. The No. 1 American was upset in the first round last year by countryman Brandon Holt. Break Point showed the excruciating moments following that defeat.

“It’s tough but I guess it makes me even more excited to go back to the US Open this year and more motivated,” Fritz said. “There’s a lot more fire. But obviously when they were following me after the match and filming after the match when I was in the car I was like ‘This is tough. This is tough.’ But I also understood this is what you want to see, how I guess a loss like that actually impacts you when you put such high expectations on something.”

Zooming into the reunion were Ajla Tomljanovic, who defeated Serena Williams last year in New York, and her inimitable father, Ratio Tomljanovic.

“Ajla was complaining that I was a little bit off and I said ‘No, sorry that’s me. Sorry, I cannot pretend,’” Tomljanovic said. “Even now she told me I have to behave and I don’t know why.”

Want to know what Ajla thinks about her win over Serena 12 months on? Watch the full reunion video.

Novak Djokovic explained on Friday before beginning his chase for a fourth US Open title that World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz is bringing the best out of him.

The pair clashed on Sunday in the Western & Southern Open final and the Serbian needed three hours and 49 minutes to emerge with his record-extending 39th ATP Masters 1000 trophy.

“He’s always pushing me to the limit. I think I do to him pretty much the same thing. That’s why we produced memorable final. It was one of the best, most exciting, and most difficult finals I was ever part of in best-of-three, no doubt, throughout my career,” Djokovic said. “That’s why I fell on the ground after I won the match because it felt like winning a Grand Slam, to be honest. The amount of exchanges and rallies. It was physically so demanding and grueling that I felt very exhausted for the next few days.”

Late in the first set and early in the second set of the epic Cincinnati final, Djokovic appeared to be struggling physically. But the 36-year-old embraced the battle, saved a championship point in the second-set tie-break and found his best tennis from there.

“I love competition. I think the more you find yourself in those particular circumstances where you’re experiencing adversity on the court, where things are not maybe moving the right way for you in terms of the performance of that day, in terms of tennis, or mentally you’re not feeling your best, that’s normally the best possible opportunity for you to grow mentally from that, to learn something,” Djokovic said. “Normally in the face of adversity is where you learn the most.”

Watch Cincinnati Highlights:

Now Djokovic is back in New York for the first time since 2021. That year, he won the first three majors of the season, but fell one match short of becoming the first man to win all four majors in a year since Rod Laver in 1969.

“The first feeling that I have is excitement to come back because it is the biggest arena we have in our sport, the biggest stadium, and definitely the most fun, electric, exciting atmosphere out there in tennis, playing night session in Arthur Ashe, no doubt,” Djokovic said. “I’m very excited that I’ll be able to play the opening night on Monday. Come back in front of probably the loudest fans in sport, tennis fans in sport.

“I’m just very, very [much] looking forward to that. It’s been two years when I played last here and lost finals to Medvedev in ’21, going for four Slams in a year. I haven’t performed well that day in terms of tennis. But what I felt from the crowd, that kind of connection and love and support that they gave me throughout entire match and also in the closing ceremony, was something that I carry still in my heart, and I still feel vibes from that night of the finals two years ago.”

The last major Djokovic played, he suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final. He is keen to bounce back and claim a record-extending 24th Slam crown.

“Grand Slams are the biggest goals that I have in my career at the moment. I always speak about that, that I aim to peak and perform my best in Grand Slams,” Djokovic said. “I don’t know how many more Slams I’ll have. I’ll still keep going. I don’t have an end in my mind at the moment. I also understand that things are different when you’re 36, so I have to be more appreciative, a bit more I guess present, treating every Grand Slam as maybe your last one in terms of commitment and performance.

“I see every Grand Slam that I play right now as really a golden opportunity to make more history. Of course, there’s a big significance to that.”

Djokovic is the second seed in New York, where all eyes will be on him as he continues to chase history. Although he rarely shows it, the 95-time tour-level titlist admitted he gets “nervous as anybody else really”.

“People think that I don’t have any stress or tension. Actually in contrary, I have quite a lot of that. I have to deal with it, manage it,” Djokovic said. “Everyone has their own way of managing the emotions and trying to be in optimal balance emotionally, mentally, and physically in order to perform their best.”

Djokovic will need to reach the final to have a chance to play Alcaraz again this fortnight. Is the Serbian thinking ahead to that potential matchup?

“Carlos is No. 1 in the world. He’s definitely one of the best players in the world the last couple years. Sure, there’s always an eye that follows him from my team, from any other team. I know that the same goes for me probably. We follow each other,” Djokovic said. “I’m sure his team watches my matches. My team watches his matches. It’s no secret. But seriously working on a practice court on something that is related to Alcaraz, it only happens if I get to play him.”

While tennis fans may be looking ahead to a potential Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic final at the US Open, World No. 3 Daniil Medvedev is looking to play the role of disruptor this fortnight.

Medvedev has enjoyed the Alcaraz-Djokovic budding rivalry like anyone else, but with much of the attention on the top seed and the 23-time major champion, the 27-year-old could crash the party.

“I think that’s normal we talk about them. I do think we still talk about me,” Medvedev said in his pre-tournament press conference. “I’m not feeling too bad, but I’m going to try. The goal is after this US Open, that we talk about me, so I’m going to try to do it. I just try to win. That’s the most important. But unconsciously, I feel like many times I was playing good in this role. Hopefully it can help me these two weeks.

“I think it’s great for tennis that we have these two guys playing against each other right now. As I say, it’s a great story, but then the tournament starts and hopefully we can — when I say ‘we’ [I mean] me personally or someone else — we’re going to try to beat them and stop them from playing each other.”

The third seed Medvedev enters the season’s final major boasting a 49-11 match record this year. A highlight of his season came in February and March, when Medvedev won 19 consecutive matches and collected three straight titles: Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai.

Aiming for his sixth trophy of the season and first major title since his triumph in New York two years ago, Medvedev is still finding ways to improve his game.

“Definitely the serve, trying to work on it right now. Serve is a tough shot because it’s such fine margins sometimes,” Medvedev said. “It’s probably the most important shot in tennis because in general, serve can save you many times. You can play not the best match, but serve can save you. You go to the tie-break, then you start playing better. Happened to me many times.

“Everyone went through this stage and sometimes it’s in one week and sometimes it’s in one month where you serve just a little bit worse. In general, I know I can serve very well. Usually, the US Open for whatever reason I was serving even better than I usually do. Hopefully this can help me.”

The 20-time tour-level titlist will open against Hungarian Attila Balazs and is seeded to meet long-time friend Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals. A potential meeting with Wimbledon champion Alcaraz lies in the semi-finals, but Medvedev enters the American Slam with his full attention on one match at a time.

“I’m feeling good right now. Hopefully I can feel like this during the tournament also,” Medvedev said. “How do you cope with this? You try with your team to do the best schedule possible in terms of days off, practices, what you do in your off time. I feel like I’m pretty experienced in this so hopefully I can be 100 per cent starting from the first match.”