A number of the world’s leading coaches, players and sports scientists, including Toni Nadal, Gilles Cervara, Magnus Norman and Tommy Haas will meet for the third World Tennis Conference, to be held virtually from 30 March – 2 April.

Organised by the Global Professional Tennis Coaches Association (GPTCA) and the Segal Institute, WTC3 will feature 68 speakers from 28 countries, including ATP World No. 1 players, Grand Slam champions and tennis legends. The event’s third edition continues its effort to connect the world’s top high-performance tennis coaches and sports scientists with other coaches and people around the world.

Visit World Tennis Conference Website To Sign Up

The four-day programme is thoughtfully designed to raise the level of understanding surrounding player development, while helping ambitious tennis coaches develop. The conference is dedicated to education, training and assisting professional tennis coaches globally — whether they work in a local club or are travelling on the ATP and WTA Tours.

A star-studded line up will see Pat Cash, Frederic Fontang, Brad Gilbert, Wolfgang Thiem, Liam Smith, Craig O’Shannessy, Jordi Vilaro and Neal Skupski give speeches during the event.

Each attendee will be able to participate in a Q&A webinar with some of the main speakers in ‘Meet The Speaker Room’ and will receive a WTC3 WorkBook with Top 10 recommendations of each presentation.

New to 2023 is the NextGen Tennis Coaches programme, promoting 12 young coaches, aged 30 or under who will receive free registration to WTC3.

Officially certified by the ATP Tour, the event is organised by the Global Professional Tennis Coaches Association (GPTCA) and the Segal Institute (SI), and will be powered by the educational platform CoachTube.

Luca Van Assche and Max Purcell etched their names into the ATP Challenger Tour record books this week.

Van Assche, 18, saved two championship points against countryman Ugo Humbert to win the longest Challenger final in history (three hours, 56 minutes) at the Terega Open Pau Pyrenees. The Australian Purcell extended his winning streak to 15 by triumphing for a third consecutive week in India. American Aleksandar Kovacevic also collected a title of his own at the Texas Tennis Classic.

In the Pau Challenger 125 final in southern France, home hope Van Assche rallied from a double break down at 0-3 in the final set and again from 4/6 in the deciding-set tie-break before winning four consecutive points to survive Humbert 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(6) and capture his second Challenger title.

“It was a crazy match, an amazing fight against Ugo,” Van Assche said. “I’m very happy. A lot of emotions during this match. I was leading, then losing. I was match point up, then match point down. It was a fantastic match with great support from the crowd.

“At 4/6 in the tie-break, I was hoping he wouldn’t hit an ace! I was playing point by point, just focussing on every point. I was a little bit exhausted so I was not thinking too much, just playing my game.”

Van Assche, who won the Maia Challenger in 2022, is the fourth Frenchman to win multiple Challenger titles before turning 19, joining Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils, and Fabrice Santoro. The Belgian-born player is the fifth #NextGenATP Challenger champion of the year and joins Arthur Fils as the only teenage champions of 2023.

En route to the title, Van Assche needed deciding sets in four of his five matches and ousted the Top-3 seeds Arthur Rinderknech, Humbert, and Gijs Brouwer. The teen rises to a career-high No. 110 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Luca Van Assche triumphs at the Challenger 125 in Pau, France. Credit: Alexis Atteret

There was no stopping Max Purcell at the Pune Metropolitan Region Challenger. After dropping the opening set in his first-round match, the 24-year-old didn’t lose a set the rest of the week to claim a third consecutive Challenger title (Chennai, Bengaluru). In the championship match, the third seed defeated 19-year-old Italian Luca Nardi 6-2, 6-3.

“It’s great to win three in a row,” Purcell said. “In tough, hot conditions too, I recovered well since the first week and now I’m thrilled to move into the Top 100.”

Three weeks ago, Purcell was No. 203 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, but following his trio of titles in India, the Sydney native climbs to a career-high 95.

Max Purcell in action at the Challenger 100 event in Pune. Credit: Pune Metropolitan Region Challenger

The 2022 Wimbledon doubles champion (w/ Matthew Ebden) is the 14th player to claim three consecutive Challenger titles and the first since Ben Shelton did so this past season (Charlottesville, Knoxville, Champaign). Purcell is the first Australian to achieve the feat in Challenger history.

At the Texas Tennis Classic in Waco, third seed Kovacevic dropped just one set en route to his second Challenger title of the season. The 24-year-old defeated Alexandre Muller in the final 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

In the semi-finals, the American avenged his loss from last week’s Monterrey Challenger to Borna Gojo, who defeated him in the quarter-finals in Mexico en route to the title.

This past month, Kovacevic won his maiden Challenger title in Cleveland, where he defeated Wu Yibing in a thrilling championship match before the Chinese star won the ATP 250 event in Dallas the following week.

Now at a career-high 107, the former University of Illinois standout Kovacevic sets his sights on cracking the Top 100 at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells, where he received a main-draw wild card.

An action-packed week featuring events on three continents ended with Alex de Minaur, Daniil Medvedev and Nicolas Jarry lifting ATP Tour titles in Acapulco, Dubai and Santiago, respectively.

ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings as of 6 March 2023.

View Pepperstone ATP Rankings

No. 18 Alex de Minaur, +4
A pair of stirring comebacks earned the Australian the biggest title of his career at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC. De Minaur dropped the first set in both the semi-finals against Holger Rune and the final against Tommy Paul, but stayed rock-solid to turn around both matches and claim his maiden ATP 500 crown. The 24-year-old has jumped four spots to No. 18 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings as a result, his highest ranking since August 2021 and just three shy of his career high. Read Acapulco Final Report & Watch Highlights.

No. 6 Daniil Medvedev, +1
Daniil Medvedev’s completion of a hard-court hat-trick has lifted the 27-year-old one spot to No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Medvedev backed up his Rotterdam and Doha victories with a perfect run at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where he did not drop a set all week. The third seed ended Novak Djokovic’s unbeaten start to 2023 in the semi-finals, before racing past 2022 winner Andrey Rublev with a clinical championship match display for his 14th consecutive tour-level victory. Read Dubai Final Report & Watch Highlights.

No. 8 Holger Rune, +2 (Career High)
A semi-final run on his Acapulco debut has lifted the 19-year-old Rune, who only broke the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings just over 13 months ago, to a career-high No. 8. The Dane moved past fellow #NextGenATP star Ben Shelton, Nuno Borges and Matteo Berrettini in Mexico before falling to eventual champion De Minaur.

On Monday I will reach my new career high as number 8 🤩
Thank you to my team, my family and sponsors for your ongoing support and trust 🙏🏽 let’s continue the good work 🦾

— Holger Rune (@holgerrune2003) March 4, 2023

No. 19 Tommy Paul, +4
Paul’s strong start to 2023 continued in Acapulco, where the 25-year-old reached the biggest final of his career with a series of victories against fellow Americans. The Australian Open semi-finalist saw off Michael Mmoh (his 100th tour-level win), Mackenzie McDonald and World No. 5 Taylor Fritz en route to the championship match in Mexico, a run that has returned him to the Top 20 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after just two weeks away.

No. 52 Nicolas Jarry, +35
Home favourite Jarry completed a memorable run at the Movistar Chile Open, where he lifted his second ATP Tour trophy with a hard-fought comeback win against Tomas Martin Etcheverry. It was a continuation of strong form from the 27-year-old — he arrived in Santiago off the back of a run to the Rio de Janeiro semi-finals, where he pushed Carlos Alcaraz to three sets.

Jarry, whose aunt Catalina Fillol is the tournament director of the clay-court ATP 250 in the Chilean capital, has surged 35 spots to No. 52 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings as a result of his title run, 100 places higher than he started the season. Read Santiago Final Report & Watch Highlights.

Other Notable Top 100 Movers
No. 14 Alexander Zverev, +2
No. 36 Tallon Griekspoor, +3 (Career High)
No. 53 Mackenzie McDonald, +9
No. 57 Mikael Ymer, +2 (Career High)
No. 58 Jaume Munar, +8
No. 60 Lorenzo Sonego, +7
No. 61 Tomas Martin Etcheverry, +15 (Career High)
No. 77 Ugo Humbert, +12
No. 95 Max Purcell, +21 (Career High)

One of the stories of the year in all of sports came in February when Matija Pecotic, the 33-year-old Director of Capital Markets for a real estate investment company, stunned former Top 10 star Jack Sock at the Delray Beach Open. The Croatian took the tennis world by storm after surging from qualifying, where he was an alternate, to the second round of the main draw.

Following from across the Atlantic Ocean was Marcus Willis, tennis’ original Hollywood script writer, who is making a comeback in doubles. In 2016, the lefty battled through Wimbledon pre-qualifying and then defeated Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev in qualifying to reach the main draw. After the World No. 772 stunned Ricardas Berankis in the first round, Willis played Roger Federer on centre court, losing in straight sets.

“I was just happy. It’s a weird thing. I was just happy for the guy more than anything. It’s nice in sport, in tennis, when stuff like this happens. A lot of guys get to 200 and don’t have that break,” Willis told ATPTour.com of Pecotic. “His life is really interesting right now.”

Pecotic climbed as high as No. 206 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2015. But after suffering from a staph infection, attending Harvard Business School and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, he traded hopes of a full-time career for a desk at the office. Willis is one of few people who can understand the whirlwind the Croatian went through in Delray Beach.

“He got significantly higher than I did in the singles rankings. So in a way, it’s not that I didn’t deserve it because I had the ability, but he really deserved that. He got lucky because he got in, but I saw that story and it took me back a little bit,” Willis said. “I think you can be misled sometimes. Certainly with my story… a lot of people sort of got the impression that I was just a random tennis coach who decided to sign up for Wimbledon one day.

“[Pecotic’s story] was kind of being spun like this guy goes to work in an office and he turned up and beat Jack Sock. Not only is that a discredit to Jack Sock, but it’s kind of a discredit to him for all the work he’s put in.”

^{Federer and Willis depart Centre Court after their match in 2016. Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images.}
After competing in two tournaments in Greece in November 2020, Willis came to the realisation that continuing on was “financially impossible”. The Briton had “lost a bit of love for the sport” and in early 2021 he announced his retirement.

Willis thought: “I’ve got a family here, I can’t keep chasing this dream anymore.”

It had not been a perfect end to his dream journey.

“Post Wimbledon I remember I played a few more tournaments that year and I got injured. I think 2018 was my last singles match, but I sort of got myself into quite a negative mindset. I kind of told myself that nothing would ever be that good again, so what’s the point? I struggled,” Willis said. “I struggled with the comedown after Wimbledon. It was difficult. I put on a load of weight, I was struggling.

“I had to go and get some help. I had to go speak to a professional. It’s something I continue to do. It’s something I stay on top of because I don’t want to venture back to where I was.”

The lefty, who is in a much better place now, turned to coaching at a local club five to six days per week. Every so often he would take a private hit in London or work a clinic and do a Q&A session to speak about his incredible run at Wimbledon and facing Federer.

That all changed at the end of 2021, when he played an exhibition a friend was holding locally.

“One of the guys watching, who is obviously now a friend, said ‘I can sponsor you to go back on Tour if you want to play,’” Willis recalled. “I didn’t need asking twice. So I had to get myself in shape, because I was a little out of shape. It’s luck again. Someone saw something in me, saw ability.”

Willis, who knew he would only play doubles, worked to return to fitness. Last July, he played his first tournament back in Roehampton as a third alternate. His first doubles title came in September in Madrid, the same week Federer announced his retirement. “The news came out and honestly I felt like crying,” Willis said.

 

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Eight months later he is approaching the Top 300 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings. Willis was aiming for the Top 500 by July, four months from now.

The Briton was hoping to be in range of a potential Wimbledon wild card next year. But at the rate he is going, that is not out of the question for 2023. Willis and partner Scott Duncan, who played on opposite teams in Willis’ first tournament back, have won five ITF Futures titles together.

“At the start it was really fun. It’s still fun now, but it’s serious as well. I’ve got my goals. I’ve been doing much better than I thought I would, so now I’m kind of hungrier for every match. I’m going after it,” Willis said. “I love being out there competing, it’s what I love doing.”

Ironically, Pecotic and Willis had played each other twice, in 2014 and 2015, before either man enjoyed his breakthrough.

“When Willis made his run at Wimbledon, I thought the world was thinking the same thing that I was thinking when I saw him for the first time, which was, ‘Who the hell is this recreational player and what is he doing at a professional tennis tournament.’ And it was only when he beat me in straight sets and hit about 14 aces that I realised just how incredibly talented and what a high-IQ tennis player he was,” Pecotic told ATPTour.com. “Seeing him on that run didn’t surprise me at all. I know he plays well on fast surfaces and I remember he moves very well and has a world-class serve and has an incredible backhand slice and has amazing touch and just really good sort of court awareness. It just didn’t surprise me at all.”

His own journey in Delray Beach brought back memories of Willis’ run at SW19.

“I was actually disappointed that he didn’t continue to show the world on the Tour level just how good he could be, because I really thought he had a lot more to give,” Pecotic said. “Who knows, maybe my run in Delray will inspire him to give it one more go.”

Little did Pecotic know that Willis is well on his way.

“In one way I’m very happy how things have gone, but now I’m all about the next step,” Willis said. “I’m taking it in my stride, I’m really happy with where I’m at, but I want more. I have to stop myself and realise I’ve done really well, not expect so much and just take it a match at a time. The other side of me sort of [is wanting to] get where I want to get as soon as possible.”

The cries reverberated through the Santiago night countless times over the course of nearly three hours on Sunday.

“Ole! Ole, Ole, Ole! Nico! Nico!”

Those chants were for Santiago-native Nicolas Jarry, who rewarded his many fans with a performance to remember. The Chilean won the Movistar Chile Open with a memorable 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-2 victory over Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

“It’s really unbelievable. I can’t believe that I’m champion in this historic tournament of my family,” Jarry said after the match with his infant son in his arms. “It means a lot to me, especially for the two weeks in a row. It’s been very tough and I managed to keep on going this week. It’s been amazing.”

Jarry won his last four matches of the tournament in three sets and rallied from a set down in his final three clashes to claim his second ATP Tour title (also 2019 Bastad). After reaching the semi-finals last week in Rio de Janeiro and lifting the trophy at home, he will climb to No. 52 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, 100 spots higher than he started the season.

^{A scenic view during the Santiago final. Photo: Aljaro/Binder}
The Chilean and the home crowd were on the verge of going home disappointed. Although Jarry led 4-1 in the second set, his relative inconsistency compared to Etcheverry, who was pursuing his first tour-level crown, nearly cost him a chance at home glory. He double faulted the break back to the Argentine and trailed by a mini break in the ensuing tie-break.

But Etcheverry, who was within two points of his first ATP Tour title at 5/5 in the tie-break, was unable to take the match from his opponent. Jarry let out a massive roar after forcing a deciding set.

“I think [Tomas] went down a little bit in the third set. I tried to push with all my heart here,” Jarry said. “He played unbelievable tournament, an unbelievable two sets. I managed to win the second tie-break, which I knew was very important emotionally.”

The former World No. 38 had more firepower than his opponent and that proved critical. Jarry crushed a backhand winner to earn two break points in the first game of the third set and then punished a forehand to seize the lead.

The Chilean never looked back, riding his momentum to the finish line, much to the joy of the Santiago faithful. After holding to love to close out the match, thousands simultaneously leapt to their feet as Jarry celebrated his two-hour, 47-minute victory.

Jiri Lehecka began the 2022 season as the No. 141 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Little did the Czech know that 14 months later, he would be one of the most dangerous players on the ATP Tour.

Plenty of people have taken notice of the 21-year-old, who is into the world’s Top 50 after advancing to the Australian Open quarter-finals and the Doha semi-finals. One of those people is former World No. 4 Tomas Berdych, who spent a couple days with his countryman in Dubai.

“He’s very young. But what I’ve seen, it’s really the way he’s composed with his game. I think it’s very good,” Berdych told ATP Media in Dubai. “What I like is his fitness preparation or his body being strong and some of the young kids, they might struggle with it. They need more muscles or lack power. That’s definitely not his case, which I like.”

Watch Lehecka Train With Berdych:

Berdych even compared Lehecka to himself, calling his game and that of the 2022 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up “very similar”. That is high praise from a man who earned 640 tour-level wins and 13 titles during his illustrious career.

“Even he mentioned it many times, so it’s nice to hear for me when somebody took a bit of that inspiration,” Berdcyh said. “It’s funny to hear, he was 10, 11 when we won the Davis Cup, so he was really [a] kid and we were doing really well. So you already start to see those differences in ages, but other than that, very good. I think he has a bright future ahead of him.”

Berdych was returning home from vacation and decided to stop at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships to get a closer look at Lehecka. He is friends with Lehecka’s coach, Michal Navratil, so it was natural. Although Berdych sat in Lehecka’s box for his match against Alexander Zverev, there are no plans for collaboration at this time.

“I was always the guy going by the instinct and by the constant feeling at the moment, so we will see how things develop, how it goes,” Berdych said. “[There are] not any commitments put on the table yet, which I don’t think is necessary. His team is good, is strong. They’re doing well, they’re doing a good job, so just maybe in the right time, right moment, we will see.”

For now, the 37-year-old is happy to see a man from his country surging. For a long time, Berdych and Radek Stepanek carried the Czech flag near the top of the sport. Will Lehecka be next?

“I think after a bit of a slow period after maybe myself and Radek — we stopped and we left the stage to the other guys — then I think he’s definitely the one that should carry the flag and go forward,” Berdych said. “That’s also one of the reasons [why I went to Dubai]. I just want to stop by and see him more personally, closely. We’ll see how things develop, how things go. Good stuff.”

For the second straight night in Acapulco, Alex de Minaur stormed back after losing the opening set against a red-hot opponent. On Saturday, his effort against Tommy Paul earned him the seventh and biggest title of his career at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC.

The Australian claimed his first ATP 500 crown with a battling 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory, his heart and staying power again making the difference in the Acapulco humidity.

“It feels great, it feels amazing,” De Minaur said just before the trophy ceremony. “I know the hard work that’s put in to be here and it’s good to see the results. It’s not always that you win the tournament and you get to finish a week unbeaten, so I’ll definitely cherish this going into Indian Wells and Miami.”

After methodically working his way back into the match in set two, De Minaur landed what proved to be a decisive blow by saving five break points in a marathon five-deuce game to open the final set. When De Minaur fought off those chances with a combination of big serves and steely baseline play, Paul could not recover as the Aussie rattled off seven straight games.

“Just to kind of stay in the match, especially in the second set… I just dug deep, managed to scrap my way through it,” the 24-year-old said of the turnaround. “And then the first game of the third set was exactly like my semi-final against Holger [Rune]. So I had that in the back of my mind, I just told myself to keep pushing. If I could keep pushing myself and get out of that game, the momentum was going to switch. I’m very happy I was able to get out of that.”

Both De Minaur and Paul played physical, three-set semi-finals that ended less than 24 hours before the final, with De Minaur’s comeback win against Holger Rune finishing near 3 a.m. But those previous exertions were not apparent in a high-quality match Saturday night — until Paul showed signs of wear late in the two-hour, 27-minute contest, with De Minaur adding to his torment with a slew of drop shots.

Paul started brightly after his three-hour, 25-minute win against World No. 5 Taylor Fritz, keeping tight to the baseline and pulling De Minaur around the court to secure an early break. But the match began to turn when the Aussie escaped a 0/30 hole to go up 3-2 in the second.

As De Minaur began to take the intiaitive in the rallies, he secured his first break on his sixth break point of the match in the following game — only for Paul to snap back and level at 4-4. Still, the tenor of the match had changed, and De Minaur made it count with another break in the set’s final game.

While the Aussie dominated the final set, Paul battled until the end, saving two match points and getting on the board with a hold at 5-0. But there would be no stopping De Minaur from becoming the second Australian champion in Acapulco, after Nick Kyrgios’ 2019 triumph.

De Minaur moved up four places to No. 18 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Ranking this week, leaving him three spots off his career high of No. 15.

“Like everything in my career, it’s been step by step,” he said of his return to the Top 20. “I just want to keep pushing, keep getting the most out of myself. I know I might not play unbelievable tennis every day but I know I’m going to fight to the end.

“I’ve got a whole lot of heart in this little body of mine and I enjoy competing, so I’m very happy with it.”

Paul, just over a month since his run to the Australian Open semi-finals, is also set to return to the Top 20. He moved up four places to No. 19 this week in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. The 25-year-old was seeking his second tour-level title (Stockholm 2021) in his second final.

After being two points from defeat in their opening match at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC, Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler finished the week with another dramatic win to claim the doubles title in Acapulco. It is the third ATP Tour title for the team and their first outside of their native Austria.

The Austrians edged Americans Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow 7-6(9), 7-6(3) in Saturday’s final, saving six set points in the opening set and another in the second.

“It feels great,” said the 26-year-old Miedler. “After winning both titles in Austria, that was our next goal, to win one somewhere else. Mexico will always be in our hearts.”

After missing out on a set point at 5-4 in the first set, Erler/Miedler erased a 2/6 deficit in the tie-break and fought off two further set points at 8/9 before claiming the set. They denied Lammons/Withrow as the Americans attempted to serve out the second set at 5-4, saving a set point at 40/40, and never trailed in the second tie-break.

With the victory, the Austrians extended their perfect record in ATP Tour finals to 3-0. They improved to 20-13 overall and 9-6 on the 2023 season. 

“We are really happy. It was a great week,” said Erler, 25. “We’re improving on and off the court. It feels really special and we hope to come back next year.”

One for the memories 🏆

Erler and Miedler pose with their trophies in sombreros!@abiertotelcel #AMT2023 pic.twitter.com/TFTB8p02eI

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 5, 2023

To reach the Acapulco final, the unseeded champions upset third seeds Jamie Murray and Michael Venus in the first round and top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski in the semis, both in Match Tie-breaks. The pair, which ended the 2022 season at No. 36 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Teams Rankings, won its previous titles on home soil Kitzbuhel (2021) and Vienna (2022). 

Both Erler and Miedler moved up 14 spots this week in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Live Rankings, to No. 42 and No. 43, respectively. Both men are set for new career highs on Monday in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings.

Asked about their greatest strength as a team, Erler spoke about the pair’s complementary games and personalities.

“We are completely different on and off the court,” he said. “I think everybody who knows us knows that we are two [different] types of people but that obviously fits very good together. Probably that’s our best strength, that if we have some weaknesses the other guy can cover it.”

Lammons/Withrow fell to 1-4 in finals as a team, having won the 2022 San Diego title on home soil. The 29-year-olds ended last season at No. 32 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings.