You don’t have to look hard to find enticing early-round contests at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour 175 event in Bordeaux, France.

Several Grand Slam champions are among the Bordeaux field, including Dominic Thiem, who rallied from a set down Tuesday to escape Benoit Paire at the BNP Paribas Primrose. Stan Wawrinka also earned a victory to set a blockbuster clash against Andy Murray.

The Austrian Thiem overcame early serve trouble to get past home favourite Paire 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 at the clay-court event. After winning just seven of 14 points off his first delivery in the opening set, Thiem dropped just six first-serve points the rest of the match.

The 2020 US Open champion, who was a semi-finalist at last week’s Challenger event on home soil in Mauthausen, will next face another Frenchman, eighth seed Corentin Moutet.

Paire also enjoyed a strong run at a Challenger event last week, reaching the final at the Francavilla al Mare Challenger.

In other Bordeaux action, Wawrinka needed just one hour, seven minutes to oust qualifier Ugo Blanchet 6-3, 6-1 and set up a must-watch second-round clash against former World No. 1 Murray (NB 5:45 p.m. local Wednesday).

Wawrinka and Murray, who are each three-time major champions, have met on the biggest stages of the sport, including in two tour-level finals (2008 Doha, 2019 Antwerp) and two Grand Slam semi-finals (Roland Garros 2016, 2017). They’ve also met at the Nitto ATP Finals, in Davis Cup, and at the Olympics. Across 22 tour-level meetings, Murray leads Wawrinka 13-9.

Watch Match Of The Day: Andy Murray vs Stan Wawrinka (NB 5:45 p.m. local)

Earlier this month, Murray captured the Challenger 175 title in Aix-en-Provence, where he beat World No. 17 Tommy Paul in the final. The second seed Murray and Wawrinka are among a stacked bottom half in the Bordeaux draw, alongside Richard Gasquet, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Ugo Humbert, and Mikael Ymer.

In a battle of #NextGenATP Frenchmen, Luca Van Assche survived wild card Harold Mayot 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. In the deciding set, Van Assche fended off seven of eight break points to escape the first round.

Turin:
Several upsets occurred Tuesday at the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo. Home hope qualifier Federico Gaio defeated eighth seed Oscar Otte 6-4, 7-5 after winning 28 of 35 first-serve points and Salvatore Caruso rallied to upset sixth seed Yosuke Watanuki 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Challenger 175 event.

Wild card Flavio Cobolli and 28-year-old Stefano Napolitano were among the Italians to earn victories on home soil. #NextGenATP star Cobolli cruised past Ukrainian Aleksandr Braynin 6-3, 6-3 while his countryman Napolitano escaped three-time Challenger Tour champion Otto Virtanen 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

Dominik Koepfer, who was a finalist at last week’s Prague Challenger, needed just one hour, eight minutes to down Giulio Zeppieri and set up a second-round meeting against third seed Juan Pablo Varillas.

Dominik Koepfer in first-round action at the Turin Challenger. Credit: Francesco Panunzio

Lucky loser Gianluca Mager added to Tuesday’s upsets with a 6-1, 7-6(9) victory against seventh seed Aleksandar Kovacevic. The Italian Mager converted his six match point to defeat the World No. 113 Kovacevic, who fought back from 2-5 down in the second set to force a tie-break.

Top-2 seeds Sebastian Baez and Daniel Elahi Galan will begin their Turin campaign on Wednesday.

First round secured 💪

Qualifier Salvatore Caruso takes out No. 6 seed Watanuki 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in Turin#ATPChallenger | @federtennis pic.twitter.com/qFyrUZV9zm

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 16, 2023

“The main priority is to get into the main draw, to play with the big guys. That’s the pressure.”

So says Yannick Hanfmann, who gave a stark reminder of the strength-in-depth of the ATP Tour on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where the World No. 101 upset sixth seed Andrey Rublev 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 to reach his maiden ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in Rome.

Hanfmann is accustomed to having to earn the right to take on Top 10 opponents like Rublev. The No. 101-ranked German has qualified for a Tour-leading six main draws in 2023, including at back-to-back Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome. His two-hour, 33-minute fourth-round win against the World No. 6, the biggest win of the 31-year-old’s career, was his sixth match in nine days at the Foro Italico.

“It can go two ways,” Hanfmann told ATPTour.com earlier this month when asked about competing as a qualifier in main draws. “It can be a little bit like [you are] wearing out, playing tough matches in qualifying, and then maybe it’s a little bit of a negative.

“But [in Madrid, for example], I qualified [with] two fairly straightforward matches. So [I felt] good. I [knew] the conditions at an event where it’s tough to play. So I think that’s definitely to my advantage.”

Hanfmann was one of three Germans to play qualifying in Madrid who impressed in the main draw. He was beaten by lucky loser and eventual quarter-finalist Daniel Altmaier in the second round while another lucky loser, Jan-Lennard Struff, went on to reach the final (after beating qualifier Aslan Karatsev in the semi-finals).

With Hanfmann’s subsequent dream run to the last eight in Rome, a qualifier or lucky loser has reached the quarter-finals or better in four straight ATP Masters 1000 events.

“The satisfaction is definitely there [after qualifying for the main draw], but it’s short-lived,” explained Hanfmann. “Because then once you’re there, you want to keep going. I think what helped me in the past is to get in to a match rhythm and go far into the tournament because I’ve shown that when I get my matches, that I’m actually dangerous.

“I won my first round in Houston and I went far (to the semi-finals), and in Santiago I went far (quarter-finals). It’s nice to have that, to get into a rhythm and then just be dangerous.”

Qualifiers/Lucky Losers To Reach Quarter-Finals At Past Four ATP Masters 1000 Events

That approach has worked again for Hanfmann in Rome. He produced a rock-solid display of baseline hitting on Tuesday to outlast Rublev and clinch his second Top 10 victory of the event after his second-round win against Taylor Fritz. Hanfmann’s fierce forehand in particular was decisive to him prevailing in a tense final set, during which he saved six of seven break points he faced.

In 2022, Hanfmann’s opportunities to challenge the best on Tour were more scarce. He played in six ATP Tour main draws all season, two via qualifying. Now with a 12-6 record for 2023 and a quarter-final against Daniil Medvedev or Alexander Zverev to look forward to in Rome, does he feel like something has changed?

“It’s a great feeling to step on the court against a player like [Rublev] and it doesn’t scare me anymore,” said the German after his thrilling triumph on Tuesday. “It used to, maybe. I would be like, ‘Wow, OK, I don’t know how I can play with him’, but now I know I’ve beaten those guys. I’m old enough to see what I can do on the court, especially on clay, and I feel dangerous against anyone.”

In front of a full crowd on Pietrangeli, top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski survived a second-round test Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

The Dutch-British duo ousted home favourites Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6-4, 7-6(5) to advance to the Rome quarter-finals. Despite serving for the match at 5-4, Koolhof and Skupski were pushed to a second-set tie-break before moving past last year’s semi-finalists.

Koolhof and Skupski, who collected seven team titles in 2022, are aiming for their first trophy this season. They reached the final in Indian Wells and in Barcelona, but fell in a Match Tie-break on both occasions. Koolhof and Skupski will look to reach their second ATP Masters 1000 semi-final of the season when they meet Australian duo Alex de Minaur and Jason Kubler.

In Tuesday’s quarter-final action, Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski defeated Americans Mackenzie McDonald and Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6(2) after winning 38 of 43 first-serve points. Robin Haase and Botic van de Zandschulp rallied to escape Jamie Murray and Michael Venus 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-6.

Tennis Data Innovations (TDI) has engaged Champion Data to develop the Tennis Sport Data Platform (TSDP), a critical piece of its technology framework set to transform the way tennis data is collected, analysed and consumed.

Champion Data is a company with more than 20 years’ experience delivering sports data and related services to broadcasters, sports organisations and betting providers across multiple sports including football, golf horse racing, AFL and lacrosse. The collaboration marks the latest step in TDI’s growth plans, which include delivering significant enhancements to tennis data capabilities alongside major growth in the value of its rights deals.

The TSDP will enable TDI to ingest, merge and distribute multiple live data sources from professional tennis, including umpire scoring and player & ball tracking data, at ultra-low latency. This puts TDI in position to directly serve the needs of its customers, including media, betting partners, players and fans as well as the capability to service other tennis bodies in future. Players and fans alike will benefit from the rich stream of content generated by the platform, as the stories behind pivotal moments in tennis are told through data.

The TSDP will also serve as a rich and accessible archive of historical data sets, in addition to providing an open ‘sandbox’ environment to enable third parties to innovate with tennis data.

David Lampitt, CEO of TDI, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Champion Data to create a game-changing platform for tennis data. Our goal is not only to deliver the most accurate and reliable tennis data but also transform the way in which these assets can be managed, enabling new narratives and storytelling possibilities for the tennis industry. Champion Data are specialists in the field, bringing together their extensive experience in data and analytics with our vision for the future of tennis.”

Chris Hume, Director of Champion Data, said: “Champion Data is thrilled to be appointed as the Official Data Platform provider to TDI. To be entrusted to deliver such a progressive and important project, at a pivotal time for the ATP and the world of Tennis, is a privilege. We work closely alongside sports rights holders to enable and support their vision around data integrity, to deliver one source of truth. The power of the platform is in its ability to harness collaboration to generate a rich database of exciting new metrics and creative content for media stakeholders, players, betting partners and tennis fans globally.”

Despite an overnight break in play, Alexander Zverev expertly retained his focus to complete a third-round victory against J.J. Wolf on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

With his 6-4, 7-5 victory, the 19th-seeded German set a blockbuster fourth-round clash against Daniil Medvedev. The pair’s 15th tour-level meeting will take place later on Tuesday at Rome’s Foro Italico.

We will be there no matter what. 🔥@AlexZverev ⚔️ @DaniilMedwed@InteBNLdItalia | #IBI23 pic.twitter.com/BJFAJj3WUz

— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 16, 2023

Zverev had led Wolf 6-4, 3-3 when rain interrupted their maiden tour-level meeting on Monday evening. Upon resumption, neither player forged any break point opportunities until Zverev broke the American to love in the 11th game, and the 26-year-old held firm behind serve to wrap a one-hour, 49-minute triumph.

Zverev offered only one break point in the match against the World No. 54 Wolf, and the 2017 Rome champion will hope for a repeat serving performance as he bids for his first tour-level victory against Medvedev since 2021. The third seed leads Zverev 8-6 in their ATP Head2Head rivalry, including fourth-round ATP Masters 1000 victories in Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo already this year.

Stefanos Tsitsipas joined Zverev in the fourth round by completing a 6-3, 7-6(3) triumph against Lorenzo Sonego.

The fifth-seeded Greek and home favourite Sonego had been forced off court by the rain after the first set on Monday evening. When they returned on Tuesday, the pair played out a tense second set full of extended baseline exchanges and no breaks of serve, although Tsitsipas was forced to save a set point when serving at 4-5 and again at 5-6.

It was 2022 finalist Tsitsipas who kept his cool in the tie-break to advance however, as he reeled off five points in a row from 2/3 to clinch a two-hour, seven-minute triumph.

Tsitsipas will have to beat a second Italian in the space of a day at the Foro Italico if he wants to advance to the quarter-finals. The 24-year-old’s fourth round opponent will be Lorenzo Musetti, who consolidated his overnight 3-2 lead in the deciding set against Frances Tiafoe to seal a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 third-round win in Rome.

Carlos Alcaraz’s early exit from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia has repercussions beyond the Rome ATP Masters 1000 event. It also could have a big effect on the battle for No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

The Spaniard will return to World No. 1 next Monday, but instead of departing the Foro Italico with a sizable advantage, Alcaraz may be left with only a narrow lead if Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev push on to have deep runs in the Italian capital.

Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings

If Djokovic and Medvedev both lose in the fourth round on Tuesday, Alcaraz will lead Djokovic by 950 points and Medvedev by 1,395 points.

But both stars can claim plenty of points on the Italian clay. Djokovic, a six-time Rome champion, can reach 6,775 points by the end of the tournament, which would bring him within 40 of Alcaraz’s 6,815.

Since both men lost in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year and will therefore drop the same number of points (360), that would set up an epic World No. 1 battle in Paris.

But do not count out Medvedev, either. The former World No. 1 has admitted to feeling more comfortable than ever in recent weeks on clay. The 27-year-old would reach 6,330 points with a title in Rome, putting him 485 points behind Alcaraz.

Medvedev reached the fourth round at Roland Garros last year, so he will drop 180 points, which would bring him within 305 points of the Spaniard in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings when play begins in Paris. With the North American summer hard-court season still to come, Medvedev would be in good position to make a charge for No. 1 in the weeks and months ahead.

If Djokovic reaches the Rome final, Medvedev cannot pass him for World No. 2 next Monday. If the Serbian does not, the World No. 3 will have an opportunity to ascend one spot. At the same time, a maiden ATP Masters 1000 title for Casper Ruud could propel the Norwegian to World No. 3 depending on Medvedev’s results.

Nothing that happens the rest of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia can stop Alcaraz from returning to World No. 1. But Djokovic and Medvedev can make the coming weeks even more interesting in that battle with a deep run in Rome.

It is also worth keeping an eye on the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, which serves as a barometre for the year-end No. 1 battle. Alcaraz is first with 3,455 points, but Medvedev (3,390 points) can take his spot with a win over Alexander Zverev or J.J. Wolf on Tuesday evening. Djokovic (2,655 points) would need to win the title to pass Alcaraz’s point total. 

Hungarian Fabian Marozsan’s win against Carlos Alcaraz on Monday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia stunned the tennis world. One of the best Hungarian players in history, Balazs Taroczy, was thrilled with the result.

“It’s an incredible win and it’s an incredible tournament for Fabian,” Taroczy told ATPTour.com. “He had some tough matches and since that he’s winning match after match. Very tough matches. I saw the one against [Jiri] Lehecka. He was down 4/2 in the third-set tie-break and it was 7/4 and I heard that he did the same thing today in the second set.

“It’s an amazing achievement and I think very, very [big] of course to beat Alcaraz when everybody’s just talking that nobody can win sets anymore against him. And suddenly there is an unknown kid from Hungary killing him. That’s fantastic.”

Taroczy understands what it takes to succeed on the world’s biggest stages. He climbed to No. 12 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and No. 3 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, both in the 1980s. The Hungarian partnered Heinz Gunthardt to the 1985 Wimbledon men’s doubles title.

Marozsan is competing in an ATP Tour main draw for the first time.

“I think the whole story is incredible already. I think for him to be in the qualifying of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament was a great achievement. And I think this shows the depth of men’s tennis,” Taroczy said. “Kids, once they get there they can show how good they are. They can make incredible things so I’m sure that it must have given him a lot of confidence that he is much better than he was until now, which was not bad.

“Still he was playing only Challenger tournaments and I don’t know where he is going to jump from now. But he’s very young and very talented, so hopefully he’s going to make great results.”

Taroczy had not seen Marozsan play before his big run in Rome. However, he follows the results of Hungarian players and saw his potential with two big Davis Cup doubles wins. Marozsan partnered Mate Valkusz past Australians John Peers and Luke Saville last year before defeating Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Arthur Rinderknech this year.

“They had two incredible wins in the doubles in the Davis Cup,” Taroczy said. “I think [it] always shows if you are good for me when somebody’s good in Davis Cup and he’s doing surprise wins. [It] shows that he can play because it’s an extra pressure.”

Taroczy pointed out Marozsan was “very gutsy” in the final-set tie-break he played in the second round against 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up Jiri Lehecka. The Hungarian legend called his younger countryman a “great competitor”.

One of the players Marozsan has been able to look up to and learn from is Hungarian No. 1 Marton Fucsovics, who reached World No. 31 in 2019. Taroczy explained that having a role model like Fucsovics has been important for the new generation of players from his country.

“Very, very, very important. And as you said, for a long time, it was Marton in Davis Cup and those tournaments that he was winning,” Taroczy said. “We have three very good promising younger guys: Mate Valkusz, Zsombor Piros, they [did well] in juniors. Both those two. And then Fabian Maroszan. They are all very talented, aged about 23 [Valkusz is 24. And I’m sure that their achievements and their goals are really set because they saw that Marton Fucsovics did.

“Already for I think almost 10 years he’s been around at the big tournaments and in Davis Cup, he was always [playing] very well. So it is always very important to have an idol for the younger generations. I’m sure now the other two are going to be trying much harder. Because now they really see that it’s worth [it] to try.”