Several #NextGenATP stars have continued to make their moves in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race, with maiden tour-level titles, breakthrough wins and career-high rankings the story of the second quarter of the 2023 season.

Frenchman Arthur Fils lifted his maiden tour-level trophy on home soil in Lyon, while Ben Shelton earned his first tour-level wins on clay and grass. Dominic Stricker, Hamad Medjedovic and Alex Michelsen have all tasted success, clinching crowns at ATP Challenger Tour events.

NextGenATPFinals.com looks at some of the most notable #NextGenATP accomplishments of the second quarter of the season.

Fils & Shelton Continue To Set Pace
Frenchman Fils, who is aiming to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals, is currently fourth (693 points) in the Live Next Gen Race. The 19-year-old enjoyed impressive results on the European clay, advancing through qualifying to reach the second round at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome before he captured his maiden tour-level title in Lyon. Having started the season outside the Top 250, Fils’ results lifted him to a career-high No. 58 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in June.

“I will remember this forever,” Fils said following his title triumph in Lyon. “It has been a great week. It has been amazing. I am happy with the win and now I want more.”

Shelton has also continued to make good progress after a standout start to the season, highlighted by his run to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open. The 20-year-old American made his tour-level debut on clay and grass in the second quarter of 2023, earning two tour-level wins on both surfaces. Aiming to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals, fifth-placed Shelton (645 points) will be seeking strong results during the North American hard-court season. Last year he reached the third round in Cincinnati, upsetting Top 5 star Casper Ruud.

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Ben Shelton
Luca Van Assche
Arthur Cazaux
Arthur Fils
Hamad Medjedovic
Bu Yunchaokete
Dominic Stricker
Jakub Mensik

Frenchmen Van Assche & Cazaux Impress, Stricker In Contention
Frenchmen Luca Van Assche and Arthur Cazaux are sixth (487 points) and ninth (348 points), respectively, in the Live Next Gen Race. The 19-year-old Van Assche, who won an ATP Challenger Tour title at the start of April, captured his maiden Grand Slam match win at Roland Garros, defeating Marco Cecchinato.

Van Assche spoke to ATPTour.com before Wimbledon on how he is finding life on Tour.

“Now on the ATP [Tour] I am taking another step. It’s more complicated because every player wants to win for their life. And they’re all very, very good, so you never have an easy match. It’s a different world, but I’m enjoying my, my life on Tour and it’s only the beginning,” said Van Assche, who is No. 75 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. “I am learning a lot of things at lots of different new events.”

Cazaux, 20, had never competed on grass prior to this season but showed his pedigree on the surface when he advanced to the final at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Nottingham. The Frenchman, who lost against former World No. 1 Andy Murray in the final, also reached the semi-finals at a Challenger event on the lawns in Ilkley.

Swiss lefty Stricker, currently seventh (371 points) is chasing his second appearance at the Next Gen ATP Finals. The 20-year-old, who reached the semi-finals at the 21-and-under event last year, lifted his second Challenger Tour trophy of the season in Prague in May before he captured his first major match win at Wimbledon.

Chasing Pack
Serbian Medjedovic, American Michelsen and Czech Dalibor Svrcina have all won Challenger Tour titles in the second quarter of the season, while Italian Flavio Cobolli has continued to impress.

The eighth-placed Medjedovic (353 points) triumphed at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Austria and is into the quarter-finals at the ATP 250 in Gstaad this week. The 11th-placed Michelsen (286 points) earned victory on home soil in Chicago and then defeated Maxime Cressy in Newport to earn his first tour-level win on Tuesday. The 12th-placed Svricna (272 points) won a title in the Czech Republic, while 10th-placed Cobolli (337 points) advanced to the quarter-finals at the ATP 250 event in Munich.

#NextGenATP Serbian Hamad Medjedovic moved past former World No. 3 Dominic Thiem 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 on Wednesday at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad to reach his maiden tour-level quarter-final.

The 20-year-old was aggressive throughout the two-hour, 15-minute encounter, forcing Thiem into forehand errors with his weight and depth of shot at the ATP 250 clay-court event.

With his third tour-level win of the season, Medjedovic has climbed two spots to eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race. The Serbian, who is aiming to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals, will next face fourth seed Yannick Hanfmann. The German defeated Daniel Altmaier 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Thiem has tasted success in Gstaad before, lifting the trophy in 2015. He leaves Switzerland holding an 8-16 record on the season, with his best result quarter-final runs in Estoril and Munich.

In earlier action Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs clawed past Jurij Rodionov 7-6(8), 4-6, 7-6(4) in two hours and 56 minutes. The 24-year-old will next meet second-seeded Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, who wrapped up Wednesday’s play with a 7-6(4), 6-1 win against Dominick Stricker. 

Kecmanovic, a top two seed at an ATP Tour event for the second time, is through to his 24th tour-level quarter-final and his sixth of 2023.

A semi-finalist at last season’s Next Gen ATP Finals, Dominic Stricker has boosted his hopes of returning to the 21-and-under event this year after he earned his major maiden win at Wimbledon.

The 20-year-old Swiss has climbed one place to seventh (371 points) in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race after defeating Australian Alexei Popyrin at SW19, before he fell against 10th seed Frances Tiafoe.

Stricker is looking to move further this week when he competes on home soil at the ATP 250 in Gstaad. The lefty defeated fellow #NextGenATP star Arthur Fils (693 points) in the first round.

American Alex Michelsen has also climbed after winning his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in Chicago. The 18-year-old, who is aiming to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals, is 11th in the Live Next Gen Race (286 points). Michelsen is in action at the ATP 250 tournament on grass in Newport this week. He defeated big-serving American Maxime Cressy in three sets in his opening match to earn his first tour-level win.

The 20-year-old American Ben Shelton (645 points) and 19-year-old Frenchman Luca Van Assche (487 points) are fifth and sixth, respectively, and remain on course to qualify for the 21-and-under event. Van Assche is in action at the ATP 250 in Bastad, where he advanced to the second round.

Dutchman Gijs Brouwer was born in Houston, where his parents lived for 10 years. His father, Idso, worked for companies in the American city. But Idso and his wife, Jolanda, decided to move home to the Netherlands just a couple of months after Gijs was born.

From a bustling city, they moved to Hoogkarspel, where they lived in a house on a canal.

“Very small, very local. Not a lot of people dreaming big things,” Brouwer told ATPTour.com. “Just people kind of small-minded, living in their little village.”

Brouwer does not fit that description. The 27-year-old is travelling around the world competing against the best tennis players in the world.

His journey in the sport began when he would watch the Australian Open on television as a child. His parents did not have a tennis background, but enjoyed watching the sport, and Brouwer caught on. The lefty told his parents he wanted to try playing tennis, so they took him to a local tennis club.

“They just gave me to the teacher and said, ‘Hey, entertain this little kid and let’s see if he likes it,’” Brouwer recalled. “I do remember some vague memories from starting at the club. Just me hitting the ball with a group of eight young kids really starting out on artificial grass.

“My parents told me I immediately liked it and I wanted to keep playing a couple times a week, maybe twice a week because I had lessons.”

Brouwer also did gymnastics and drumming until age 12. But from then on, he focussed on tennis. The Dutchman said he was “decent” for his age in the Netherlands, but did not earn notable honours internationally as a junior, so he was unable to compare himself to the best players from his age group in the world. He remained in school until he was 19.

The moment things changed was when Brouwer won the national championships in The Netherlands aged 17.

“That’s when I started playing a little bit better and I just really enjoyed it and I didn’t really like what I was doing at school,” said Brouwer, who studied sports marketing and communications. “I studied for one year in university back in the Netherlands. But I didn’t really like the subjects and the topics. So I decided well, I’m just going to aim high and go for the pro tennis life and ended up here.”

Brouwer’s biggest breakthrough came last year in Houston, where he was born. The lefty made the quarter-finals as a qualifier in his qualifying and main draw debut on the ATP Tour. From No. 361 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings he surged into the Top 300 in a week and has been on the rise ever since.

The Dutchman just qualified for Wimbledon for the first time and challenged former World No. 2 Alexander Zverev in the first round. The German triumphed in straight sets, but needed two tie-breaks.

“Of course it was amazing. It was a close match, I played really good. It was just amazing. That’s what I’ve been working for all these years,” Brouwer said. “To be on a big court at Wimbledon was very, very nice.”

Brouwer on Tuesday continued his grass success with a convincing 6-4, 6-1 win at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open against Max Purcell, who was part of the winning Wimbledon men’s doubles team last year.

“It’s showing that I’m on the right track, at least that I’m doing what I wanted to do all these years [and] that I’m capable of really competing with the Top 100 guys,” Brouwer said. “That’s where I see one of my big goals, to make it to the Top 100.”

To reach that goal, he is focussing on match by match and blocking out the rest. In the end, the battle is between him and his opponent across the net. That is his favourite part of the sport.

“If you win, it’s all you. If you lose, it’s all you,” Brouwer said. “It’s not really anybody else that can do it for you.”

Australian James Duckworth is competing this week at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open in Newport, where he will play #NextGenATP American Alex Michelsen for a place in the quarter-finals.

ATPTour.com caught up with the 31-year-old to learn about the Australian off the court and find out what Roger Federer does when he sees Duckworth.

If you could have dinner with any three people who would they be and why?
My favourite golfer is Jordan Spieth. I’ve been following him closely the last few years so maybe him. Have got to go with an NFL player, so I’ll go [with] Josh Allen. And then Andrew Johns, a rugby league player.

If you could switch places with anyone for a day, who would it be?
I was just in Chicago last week. It would have been pretty cool to be Michael Jordan there when he was in his prime.

Do you remember watching him play?
I’ve only watched on YouTube and highlights and I obviously watched The Last Dance.

What was your pinch me moment on Tour?
Playing Roger for the first time, that was pretty cool, at the Aussie Open. It was weird [to play] someone that I’d watched on TV for years and years and someone that I’d looked up to for so long. It was also a similarly strange feeling [when] I played Lleyton [Hewitt] at the Aussie Open as well. That was just odd a little bit.

I have heard a story about Roger quacking at you. What is the story behind that?
Yeah, Rog does that when he sees me. When I played him at the Aussie Open the crowd was quacking and he thought it was pretty funny.

What is your favourite non-tennis memory?
One of the coolest things that I ever went to was the World Cup Qualifying Match [when] Australia played Uruguay in Sydney in 2004 or 2005. We won in a penalty shootout. That was a pretty cool atmosphere being there for that.

What is something fans might not know about you?
[I do] cooking at home. My fiancé never cooks, so I do all the cooking.

What is your favourite dish to cook?
Nothing fancy. It’s usually some sort of meat and vegetables. I think I do a pretty good balsamic brussel sprouts. They’re pretty good.

If you could achieve one thing what would it be?
Win a Grand Slam.

What’s the coolest perk of being a pro tennis player?
Just playing the big tournaments, big crowds, playing in front of the fans.

Have you ever gotten to go to like a certain game because you’re a tennis player?
I mean yeah, I’ve been to a few rugby games to support the team of Newcastle, a few of their games.

Sweden’s Leo Borg picked the perfect venue to claim his first ATP Tour match win Tuesday, triumphing on home soil at the Nordea Open in Bastad.

Borg, the 20-year-old son of 11-time Grand Slam winner Bjorn Borg, defeated countryman Elias Ymer 7-6(5), 6-3 after saving two of the three break points he faced.

“I have worked so hard for this for so many years and today was the day I got the result,” Borg said. “I’m very happy with my performance today and how mentally strong I was. Elias and I have a good relationship and overall it was good tennis.”

The six-foot right-hander, who did not even have a match win at ATP Challenger Tour level (0-13 career) before this week, will next play Argentine Federico Coria.

The World No. 437 was playing just his third tour-level event and had competed exclusively at the ATP Challenger and ITF Men’s World Tennis Tour level this year before this week.

#NextGenATP Americans Alex Michelsen and Ethan Quinn earned their first ATP Tour wins on Tuesday in Newport.

The 18-year-old Michelsen, who claimed his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title on Sunday in Chicago, upset defending champion Maxime Cressy 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-5 to reach the second round of the Infosys Hall of Fame Open.

“I knew he was going to go out there and bomb serves,” Michelsen said. “When I was down break point at 3-4 [in the final set] I got a little worried, but I came up with a good serve and just kind of found a way today.”

Michelsen arrived in Newport in the early hours of Monday morning after his breakthrough triumph the day before, when he won two matches to lift the trophy. The Chicago victory helped him climb 60 spots to a career-high No. 190 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

The teen’s confidence showed against Cressy, one of the biggest servers in the sport. Michelsen withstood 23 aces from his opponent to triumph after two hours and 49 minutes and earn a clash against James Duckworth, who battled past Constant Lestienne 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.

“I had like an hour and a half of practice before I went on that court,” Michelsen said. “But I went over to Europe before Chicago and played a bunch on grass, so I think that definitely helped me a bit today to get a little grass experience and I played grass last year as well, so it’s not like it’s completely foreign to me.”

Michelsen was a lucky loser in Mallorca, where he played Christopher Eubanks in the first round of the ATP 250. Eubanks won that match 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-5 before winning the tournament and reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals. 

Quinn also claimed his first tour-level victory with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Mukund Sasikumar. The Indian defeated the American two weeks ago at an ATP Challenger Tour event at Bloomfield Hills, but Quinn cruised in just 59 minutes to earn his revenge. Another player who earned his maiden ATP Tour win was Li Tu, who eliminated Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 7-6(6). Tu will try to maintain his momentum against fourth seed Mackenzie McDonald.

Kevin Anderson played the first singles match of his return from retirement (May 2022) and eased to a 6-3, 6-2 victory. The former World No. 5 hit 11 aces and won 92 per cent of his first-serve points.

John Isner also moved on with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 win over Alex Bolt. The 38-year-old is a four-time Newport champion.

Alexander Zverev was made to work for a winning return to clay Tuesday at the Nordea Open in Bastad. The fifth-seeded German held his nerve for a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 first-round triumph against Alex Molcan at the clay-court ATP 250.

Competing on clay for the first time since his run to the Roland Garros semi-finals in June, Zverev stayed alert to fend off a Molcan comeback in the deciding set of the pair’s second Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting. The 19-time tour-level titlist Zverev, who defeated Molcan in straight sets in the second round of his Roland Garros run, failed to serve out the match at 5-3 in Bastad but notched a decisive break in the 12th game to wrap a two-hour, 25-minute victory.

“Obviously it’s the first clay-court match back after the grass-court season and it’s never easy,” said Zverev. “He’s an opponent that plays extremely well and at the end of the day I’m happy to be through to the second round. That’s the most important thing.”

Now 27-17 for the year, Zverev will take on Thiago Monteiro next as he chases his first ATP Tour crown since returning to action at the start of the year after a long-term ankle injury. The 26-year-old Zverev reached the semi-finals on his only previous appearance in 2015 in Bastad, where this year he arrived off the back a 5-2 grass-court season.

Zverev’s fellow seeds Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Sebastian Baez could not join the German in the second round. Slovakian qualifier Jozef Kovalik upset seventh seed Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 6-4, while Federico Coria downed eighth seed Baez, a finalist in Bastad last year, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5).

Coria’s second-round opponent will be home wild card Leo Borg, the 20-year-old son of ATP Tour legend Bjorn Borg. Competing in his third ATP Tour match, Borg notched his first win at that level by downing his fellow Swede Elias Ymer 7-6(5), 6-3 after saving two of the three break points he faced.

Top seed and 2021 Bastad champion Casper Ruud will face Alexander Shevchenko in his opening match after the World No. 96 beat Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3, 6-3. The 22-year-old Shevchenko has delivered strong performances on the clay already this season, reaching the third round as a qualifier at the ATP Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome.

The morning after winning Wimbledon, Carlos Alcaraz’s telephone is still ringing off the hook. Messages continue to flood in on WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter; everyone from Serena Williams to Will Smith, Fernando Alonso, Michael Phelps, Naomi Osaka, Ben Stiller and Sebastián Yatra, have sent their congratulations to the new champ.

However, there is one message that stands out from the rest; that of 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, one of the 20-year-old’s heroes.

“Congratulations on the win!”, the Mallorcan wrote to the new Wimbledon champion. “Enjoy it because these moments are magical and unique,” added the Spanish star, who also sent Alcaraz a message before the final to wish him luck for his clash with Djokovic.

Enhorabuena @carlosalcaraz . Nos has dado una alegría inmensa hoy y seguro que nuestro pionero en el tenis español, Manolo Santana, también ha estado animando allá dónde esté como de Wimbledon al que hoy te has unido.
Un abrazo muy fuerte y a disfrutar del momento ¡¡¡Campeón!!!… pic.twitter.com/y0j2GowX3O

— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) July 16, 2023

This is the new reality of the World No. 1, and it is one that will continue to grow with every new conquest. On Sunday, during the final against Djokovic, Brad Pitt, Emma Watson, Rachel Weiss, Daniel Craig, James Norton and King Felipe VI of Spain were among the spectators on Centre Court, enjoying the title match.

“I’m not used to it!” explains Alcaraz on Monday morning, his Wimbledon trophy sitting on the windowsill. “When you’re playing in the match you don’t realise so many people have gone to see it. Of course, I saw the King of Spain, but not many others. Once everything was over, I was looking at my phone and I couldn’t believe so many artists were at the final supporting and watching tennis.”

In the house Alcaraz and his loved ones have stayed in during the two weeks of Wimbledon, just a few metres from the All England Club, the Spaniard’s family are packing their bags while most of his team climb in to an official car to the airport. It is the day after the historic final, and many are keen to return home as soon as possible after a long night of celebrations and almost an entire month in London.

“We finished very late, so I haven’t had much time to rest,” explained Alcaraz, who despite everything is showing no visible signs of tiredness. “This morning I’ve had things to do from early, but I’m fine, I’m still on cloud nine. I think I’ll be there for many days. Winning Wimbledon is a dream come true, it’ll be hard to come down from the clouds.”

Alcaraz started his ascent to those clouds in September last year, when he won his first Grand Slam at the US Open, becoming the youngest No. 1 in Pepperstone ATP Rankings history in the process. It seems impossible, but at just 20 years of age, he has already won 12 titles, including Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid (twice), the US Open and Wimbledon.

“Everything’s going very fast,” agreed the Spaniard. “I’m achieving my dreams at breakneck speed. A lot of things are happening to me in a short space of time, but I’m working very hard for it. I’ve sacrificed certain things to be in my current position. This is how things have turned out and it’s wonderful. Achieving the dreams I’ve had since I was little, at 20 years of age.”

Even though things are going lightning fast, Alcaraz is doing nothing to stop it. Quite the opposite. He is working harder than ever to ensure things do not change, and the results are there for everyone to see. After losing his Roland Garros semi-final to Djokovic, where he was unable to compete as he would like in the third and fourth sets due to the cramps that were caused by his nerves, the Spaniard promised to do just what he always has: to learn for next time. And he proved he had done just that at Wimbledon.

“I’m a guy who learns from his mistakes,” said Alcaraz. “When I do something wrong, I try to learn from it so that next time it doesn’t happen again. Before the match, I handled it differently, I prepared differently,” he added. “I also approached the match from a different angle. I think that was how I was able to hold on and beat Djokovic. It really helped me, that kind of resistance is purely mental.”

That mental strength was never more evident than in the fifth set, when the Spaniard sat on his bench before serving for the championship.

“I was trying to be calm and serene,” admits Alcaraz. “Keeping my mind blank. When I got up, I felt butterflies in my stomach and my legs. It’s difficult to handle. I thought about getting the first serve in and… I was thinking in my head that it was normal to feel nervous closing out the match,” he added, before revealing something else that crossed his mind; the two match points Roger Federer had in 2019 to win Wimbledon, which Djokovic saved heroically before taking down the Swiss.

“I’ve watched a lot of tennis,” explained the Spaniard. “For someone like Federer to lose that final… I think that’s so tough. I told myself: ‘Please, don’t let that happen to you. Do whatever it takes.’ But I did think about it at that moment.”

Then, of course, came the sweet moment of triumph; match point, victory, joy.

“Probably the best moment was after winning,” said Alcaraz. “When it was over, I wasn’t thinking, my mind was blank, I simply went through the motions: I threw myself to the ground and just wanted to hug my team, celebrate it with my people. My mind didn’t say ‘Wow, I’ve won Wimbledon, I’ve achieved my dream.’ It was simply a question of going through the motions.”

Despite having beaten Djokovic in the fifth set of the Wimbledon final, the Murcia native is in no doubt that this does not mark the beginning of a new era.

“No, no,” he replied assuredly. “As long as Rafa and Djokovic are still playing there can’t be a change of era. When they retire, then maybe we can talk about it again, but now is not the time. As I always say, I don’t play for anyone, just for myself, for my family and my team. I don’t do it so that a new era starts. I try to avoid people’s expectations, because that’s more pressure. If I pay attention to all of that… After the match my feeling is that I’m ready to handle these kinds of situations, to play epic matches with great legends on the big stages.”