Carlos Alcaraz, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Holger Rune were all drawn in the top half of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers draw Friday.

Wimbledon champion Alcaraz, who is looking for his first match win at the ATP Masters 1000 in Canada in his second appearance, could add another chapter in his budding rivalry with Rune in the quarter-finals, the same round that Tsitsipas may meet seventh seed Jannik Sinner.

Boasting a season-leading 47-4 match record, the World No. 1 Alcaraz will open against #NextGenATP star Ben Shelton or countryman Bernabe Zapata Miralles.

In the bottom half of the draw, Daniil Medvedev, who triumphed in Toronto in 2021, is seeded to meet Taylor Fritz for just the second time in the last eight. Andrey Rublev and Casper Ruud could clash in the quarters.

Gael Monfils and Christopher Eubanks will light up Toronto with their shotmaking during an exciting first-round clash, the winner earning a second-round contest against Tsitsipas. Playing in Canada for the fifth time, Tsitsipas is aiming to go one step further than his run to the 2018 final and capture his first ATP Masters 1000 crown away from Monte-Carlo.

In other opening-round action, 15th seed Hubert Hurkacz, who was a finalist last year in Canada, will open against Alexander Bublik and 11th seed Cameron Norrie drew World No. 19 Alex de Minaur.

10th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime will look for a season turnaround on home soil, where he starts against a qualifier and should he advance, he will face Lorenzo Sonego or three-time major champion Andy Murray.

Former World No. 3 Milos Raonic will make his first appearance at the Canadian Masters since 2019. Playing in just his third tournament since returning from injury in June, the 32-year-old Raonic will play ninth seed Frances Tiafoe in the opening round.

Potential second-round matches include an all-Italian battle between Sinner and Matteo Berrettini and a third tour-level meeting between Britons Norrie and Daniel Evans.

In vintage form, Dominic Thiem saved five match points Friday to oust fifth seed Laslo Djere 6-7(3), 7-5, 7-6(8) at the Generali Open and reach his first tour-level final since the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals.

The former World No. 3 thrilled the home crowd with fearless backhand winners and held his nerve on serve throughout the thrilling three-hour, 30-minute battle. Thiem was unbroken, fending off all 12 break points faced to survive his third consecutive match from a set down. The Austrian saved a trio of match points on serve at 5-6 in the third set and another two in the decisive tie-break.

“I don’t know if I can still produce some good words,” Thiem said in disbelief post match. “It was probably the longest best of three match I’ve ever played in my life, including when I was a kid. I think even then I didn’t play that long for a best of three match.

“It was a very tough and intense match. So close every set, every single game. I knew it straight from the beginning that it would be so close, first three or four games were 20, 25 minutes. It was just an incredible atmosphere again.”

Should Thiem win his 17th tour-level crown, it would mark his first trophy at any level since the 2020 US Open. He will next meet Sebastian Baez in the final, where he will look to avenge last year’s Bastad loss to the Argentine.

Thiem lost nine of his first 10 matches in 2023, and came into this tournament No. 116 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. He was 6-5 during the clay swing through Roland Garros but went winless during the grass swing, which included a valiant fifth-set tie-break loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round of Wimbledon.

Suffering a tear in his right wrist that forced him to miss nine months from June 2021-March 2022, Thiem is looking for his second title in Kitzbühel (2019).

“It’s very special today, my first final on the tour since my wrist injury. I couldn’t be happier that it’s here in Austria at home,” Thiem said.

The 29-year-old is up to No. 89 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings and could crack the Top 80 if he wins Saturday’s championship match.

Mackenzie McDonald and Ben Shelton mounted a comeback Friday at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, saving two match points to reach the Washington final.

The Americans ousted third seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara 3-6, 6-3, 12-10 after one hour, 17 minutes. The British-Finnish pair held a 9/7 lead in the Match Tie-break before McDonald and Shelton tallied five of the next six points to advance. Glasspool will rue letting slip a match point by double faulting.

McDonald and Shelton, who are teaming for the fourth time this season, won 61 per cent of their second-serve points, compared to their opponent’s 45 per cent. The wild cards will next face Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen or Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni in the ATP 500 final.

🎶 It’s a party in the USA 🎶@mackiemacster & @BenShelton reach the doubles final, saving 2 match points to defeat Glasspool/Heliovaara 3-6, 6-3, 12-10! A maiden ATP final for Shelton 👏#MubadalaCitiDCOpen pic.twitter.com/KZYW8YYtOY

— Mubadala Citi DC Open (@mubadalacitidc) August 4, 2023

Home Hopes Advance In Kitzbühel
Top seeds Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler pulled double duty Friday to reach the final at the Generali Open. The Austrians started the rain-hindered day by defeating Ariel Behar and Adam Pavlasek 7-6(9), 6-4 in the quarter-finals before moving past third seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul 7-5, 7-6(13) in the last four, where Erler and Miedler avoided a Match Tie-break by saving six set points to close the match in straights.

Erler and Miedler, who won in Kitzbühel in 2021, will meet Gonzalo Escobar and Aleksandr Nedovyesov in the final after the Colombian-Kazakh team rallied past Francisco Cabral and Rafael Matos 4-6, 6-3, 10-7.

Aiming for their fifth tour-level team title, Erler and Miedler will be part of an all-Austrian championship Saturday, when Dominic Thiem competes for the singles title before the top doubles seeds take court.

Casper Ruud’s first time attending a Major League Baseball game was a memorable experience. In Canada gearing up for next week’s National Bank Open Presented by Rogers, the 24-year-old Ruud threw the ceremonial first pitch Thursday at the Toronto Blue Jays vs. Baltimore Orioles game.

“It’s my first ever live baseball game, so I’m really excited,” Ruud said in a social media post produced by the Blue Jays. “I’m a bit nervous and hopefully I can throw a good pitch.”

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A post shared by Toronto Blue Jays (@bluejays)

If Ruud was nervous, there no were signs of it as he delivered a fastball over the plate, with Blue Jays player Erik Swanson catching the pitch.

The Netflix Break Point star Ruud is making his third appearance at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers. Currently eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, Ruud is aiming to return to the Nitto ATP Finals, where he was a finalist last year. The 10-time tour-level titlist was a semi-finalist in Canada last year and will look for another deep run to put more distance between him and other Turin hopefuls.

🎾⚾️👊 https://t.co/JIXaNg9hxA

— Casper Ruud (@CasperRuud98) August 3, 2023

Sebastian Baez prevailed in a bruising all-Argentine semi-final battle Friday on the clay of Kitzbühel, where the World No. 72 overcame top seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 at the Generali Open.

Baez held his nerve in a two-hour, 41-minute encounter of fine margins at the Austrian ATP 250, converting three of five break points he earned to reach his fifth tour-level championship match. Despite a difficult start to the second set that saw him drop four games in a row to the World No. 34 Etcheverry, Baez rediscovered his rhythm in time to claim the decider via a break to love in the ninth game.

“It’s always difficult to play with a friend,” said Baez. “We’ve known each other all my tennis life, so I know him, I know he’s a very good player who has had a big year. Congrats to him for this semi-final and for this year, but I tried to fight every time and every point.”

The FINAL is set 🏆@sebaabaez7 vs. @domithiem

Saturday at the #GeneraliOpen! pic.twitter.com/ADa2BLGedK

— ATP Tour (@atptour) August 4, 2023

Baez improved his season record to 20-19 with Friday’s victory. The 22-year-old arrived in Kitzbühel with one win in his previous five tournaments, but has dropped just one set en route to the final on his debut in the Austrian Alps.

“I’m very happy, because the last weeks I didn’t have big results, so happy to be in the final,” said Baez, who lifted ATP 250 crowns on clay in Estoril in 2022 and Cordoba earlier this year. “It will be tough for sure. Now I will just focus on the recovery, and we will see.”

The Buenos Aires native will take on Dominic Thiem in Saturday’s championship match after the Austrian saved five match points to beat Laslo Djere 6-7(3), 7-5, 7-6(8). Baez leads Thiem 1-0 in their Lexus ATPHead2Head series.

Baez had lost only one of his five previous ATP Tour semi-finals — to Etcheverry in Santiago in February — and he now leads his countryman 2-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series. He is set to return to the Top 50 as a result of his run in the Alps, having already risen 25 spots to No. 47 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings with his charge to the final.

Coming from a family with a motorsports background, Mark Lajal was likely set to follow the same path. But life had something else in the cards for the 20-year-old Estonian who won his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in June.

At a career-high No. 224 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Lajal spent his early years with his hands on handlebars before he ever picked up a racquet.

“I wasn’t really supposed to be a tennis player. I come from a family in motorsports,” Lajal told ATPTour.com. “My dad was a motocross racer and my grandpa was a rally driver. I come from a very sporting family, but a very extreme sporting family. When I was younger, from like three years old, I started racing motorcycles. I raced them until I was eight or nine years old.”

With a unique background detached from tennis, it begs the question: How did Lajal first start playing the sport in which he is now a professional?

“When I was six years old, my dad went on a road trip with his motorcycle… I was with my mom in the summer and my mom didn’t want to take me to motocross races because she didn’t like it, so she put me into tennis,” Lajal said. “So I started playing tennis on the side and I liked it obviously. When I was nine, I chose tennis over motocross and now I’m here.”

Lajal stated that he still has an interest in motorsports, most notably Formula One. His upbringing is not the only thing that sets Lajal’s story apart from others. What may also catch fans off guard is his distinct dreadlocks.

“I’ve had them for a very long time. I think now it’s been like 12, 13 years,” Lajal said. “It has kind of become a big part of me and my image. A lot of people know me just from my dreads. I enjoy it and I think it’s cool.

“The real reason why I did it was because my older sister she did them and I saw them and I was so fascinated. I was like, ‘Mom, I want to do it!’ She was like, ‘Do it, it’s your hair, whatever happens, happens’. So I did them and I loved them, so I kept them.”

Mark Lajal at the 2023 Little Rock Challenger.” />
^{Credit: Nelson Chenault}

Making a rapid rise on the ATP Challenger Tour, Lajal said he is inspired by fellow Estonians Anett Kontaveit, Kaia Kanepi and Jurgen Zopp, stating, “They have showed me everything is possible coming from a small tennis country.”

The Tallinn-native Lajal has competed in less than a dozen Challenger events, triumphing in June in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was competing in just his sixth outing at that level.

“It felt really good. It kind of gave me reassurance when I won it because it showed me that I have the level to beat some really good guys and get some good matches in,” Lajal said. “It gave me a lot of confidence. I was really happy after that win.”

Still early in his young career, Lajal has always dreamed big since he first began playing tennis.

“My mom remembers me telling her at age seven or eight, ‘I’m going to win the US Open!’” Lajal said. “When I was really young I had the passion and when I started playing tournaments, that’s when I wanted to be a professional tennis player.”

Mark Lajal claims his maiden ATP Challenger Tour trophy in Little Rock, Arkansas.” />
^{Mark Lajal wins the ATP Challenger Tour 75 event in Little Rock, Arkansas. Credit: Nelson Chenault}

Persistence paid off for Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday at the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo.

The top seed held his nerve to down Nicolas Jarry 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-2 in Los Cabos and reach the semi-finals on his debut at the hard-court ATP 250. Tsitsipas had to hang tough as Jarry held the upper hand in the first half of the two-hour, 58-minute encounter, but a strong second-set tie-break display proved pivotal before the Greek dominated the decider.

“Sometimes you feel like those kinds of matches are very important for your continuation in a tournament,” said Tsitsipas. “You get to play at a high intensity and a very high level, and it kind of brings the best out of you. I hope to move forwards stronger from this point onwards, to learn from this match, and take away as much as I can.”

Jarry’s big serving had helped him defeat Tsitsipas in the pair’s previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting in June on the grass of Halle. The Chilean found good rhythm behind his delivery again on the Mexican Pacific coast, but he began to struggle physically in a deciding set in which Tsitsipas converted both break points he earned.

“He was serving big, and in important moments where I had the chance to break, he was always coming up with a big serve,” said Tsitsipas of the need to stay patient on return. “It was something that made it a bit difficult. Those moments that I had to convert, I was trying to get behind the ball and the ball was constantly on the line. There isn’t much you can do.”

Now 37-13 for the season, Tsitsipas rose above Andrey Rublev to fourth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as a result of his triumph over Jarry. The 2019 Nitto ATP Finals champion, chasing his first crown on outdoor hard courts this week in Mexico, will take on Borna Coric in Friday’s semi-finals as he seeks a third tour-level final of the season.

The fourth-seeded Coric defeated Ilya Ivashka 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals on his Los Cabos debut. Friday’s clash with Tsitsipas will be Coric’s second tour-level semi-final of the season, after he reached the last four on the clay at the Mutua Madrid Open in May.

Alex de Minaur is still perfect, both this season in Mexico and in his Lexus ATP Head2Head against Tommy Paul.

On Thursday at the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo, De Minaur earned a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win against the American to move within two victories of a second title on Mexican soil this season. It was a rematch of March’s Acapulco final, which the Aussie also won in three sets.

De Minaur is now 5-0 in the pair’s budding rivalry. All five of their meetings have come in the past 18 months, and the past three have gone three sets.

Now 8-0 in Mexico this year, De Minaur will next put his his winning streak on the line against Dominik Koepfer in Friday’s semi-finals.

Against Paul, the Aussie overcame a 1-3 deficit in the final set, winning the final five games to secure the victory. His speed and relentless defending frustrated Paul in the late stages, with the third seed overhitting as he struggled to break down his opponent.

After two hours, 25 minutes on the Los Cabos stadium court, Paul finished with 28 winners but was undone by his 17 unforced errors, many coming during De Minaur’s closing surge. The steady Aussie recorded 10 winners and 13 unforced errors but locked in from the baseline down the stretch.

Earlier on Thursday, the seventh-seeded Koepfer secured his second ATP Tour semi-final appearance with a 6-4, 7-5 win against American Aleksandar Kovacevic. The German was playing in his second consecutive tour-level quarter-final after reaching that stage in Atlanta last week (l. to J.J. Wolf).

Novak Djokovic has dominated the ATP Tour’s hard courts throughout his career, and the past 52 weeks are no exception for the 36-year-old.

Across a run that includes titles at the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals and the 2023 Australian Open, the Serbian has posted a tour-leading 91.9 per cent win rate (34-3) on the surface during that span. He also won hard-court titles in Tel Aviv and Astana last year as well as at the Adelaide 1 event to start the current season.

View the full hard-court leaderboard, courtesy of Infosys ATP Stats.

While he missed the North American hard-court swing last year, Djokovic is set to return for the ATP Masters 1000 in Cincinnati later this month — his first scheduled tour-level appearance since the Wimbledon final.

Djokovic lost the Wimbledon title match to Alcaraz, who claimed his maiden major title last September at the US Open. The Spanish World No. 1 is third on the 52-week hard-court leaderboard by winning percentage, with a 78.1 per cent mark (25-7) on the surface.

Daniil Medvedev is second on list by win rate (79.7%) but first by total wins with a 47-12 record. The 2021 US Open champ also leads the way with six hard-court titles in the period, highlighted by his triumph at the Miami ATP Masters 1000.

Felix Auger-Aliassime (42-17) and Taylor Fritz (41-16) are the only others to break the 40-wins mark, while Holger Rune (37-14) and Jannik Sinner (33-12) are among the top six in both win rate and total wins.

Note: All data are as of 31 July, 2023

The biggest match was saved for last on Thursday at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, and the wait will now go on just a bit longer due to rain at the ATP 500 event.

The blockbuster Round of 16 matchup between top seed Taylor Fritz and 15th seed Andy Murray, scheduled for last on Washington’s stadium court, will be pushed back as wet conditions have halted play in the United States capital. Prior to that showdown, home favourite and second seed Frances Tiafoe is set to take on Chinese qualifier Shang Juncheng in the evening opener.

Before the rain, three ATP Tour singles matches and two men’s doubles contests were completed. Fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov began Thursday’s play on the show court with a 6-4, 6-3 victory against Emil Ruusuvuori, while J.J. Wolf was a 6-4, 7-6(5) winner against Michael Mmoh and Ugo Humbert secured a 6-0, 6-2 result against Yosuke Watanuki on John Harris Court.

The American duo of Mackenzie McDonald and Ben Shelton joined Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen as the two doubles winners on the day, with both teams advancing to the semi-finals.