The partnership between Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who will compete in the Miami Open presented by Itau doubles final Saturday, was more than 20 years in the making.

The first time they met was in the second round of the 2001 Roland Garros boys’ singles second round. Gonzalez, who had defeated Marcos Baghdatis in the first round, earned a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

“It was okay. I didn’t have a lot of expectations at that time, so I was happy to play because I qualified, I didn’t have a wild card,” Roger-Vasselin said. “I remember I qualified and I passed one round, so for me it was already good.”

They would not meet again until the first round of 2008 US Open qualifying, where Roger-Vasselin triumphed 6-1, 6-2. In doubles, their earliest clashes were in Newport two years later and then in Rome in 2014.

They were colleagues on Tour, but not close friends. So how have Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin, who are third in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, become one of the best teams in the world? In a way it came down to coincidence.

Ahead of last year’s BNP Paribas Open, neither player was going to make the cut for the year’s first ATP Masters 1000 event.

“You’re not going to get in, I’m not going to get in. So we might [as well] play together because we have no other option,” Roger-Vasselin recalled. “This is how we really started to know each other, to play together.”

They made the final at Indian Wells. The same thing happened later in the year in Cincinnati and they advanced to the semi-finals.

“He’s a great player so his type of playing on court and my type of playing are getting along very well on court. So after good results we [earned] in Indian Wells and Cincinnati, we beat so many good teams,” Gonzalez said. “So we knew we can beat anyone.

“After that, at the end of the year I was playing good also with [Andres] Molteni. But I was talking to Eddie, we played good together, [we said] maybe we can try next year. We started talking a little more and then we decided to give it a try this year. It’s working well so far. Hopefully it’s just the start and we can keep it going.”

The Mexican-French team is a combined 79 years old. Gonzalez is 40 and Roger-Vasselin is 39. They boast 43 tour-level men’s doubles titles between them. How are they still playing so well this deep into their careers?

“That’s a good question!” Gonzalez said. “If you asked me that three or four years ago, I’d be like oh by the time I’m 40, I was thinking I’d be done with tennis. But now the last two years for me, I was playing a very good level, probably my best level from the last 10 or 15 years.”

“We don’t know and we don’t want to know!” Roger-Vasselin joked. “Personally I like that someone is pretty relaxed on the court and off the court. I think it’s good also long term it suits me well to have someone pretty relaxed and that’s what I like. Also obviously we need good results, but it’s something that’s worked well so far.”

Two years ago, Roger-Vasselin underwent hip resurfacing surgery on his right hip, the same operation Bob Bryan and Andy Murray had. When he decided to go through with it, the Frenchman was struggling to play soccer with his son, who was seven at the time. Now, dad is able to return the favour.

“Yes, badly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s pissed now. Now I’m competing with him, he’s getting better, but I’m giving him no chance for him to beat me,” Roger-Vasselin said, cracking a laugh. “[I am feeling] much better, much better. When I came back I was missing the matches, the rhythm, but still I improved also physically. I didn’t know it was going to take so long to improve, but I can say that I’m feeling much better now compared to last year.”

It also helps that the veterans get along well on and off the court. They enjoy playing golf together.

“Now we know why it works well!” Roger-Vasselin said. “I have to improve because he’s better than me. Usually with my other French guys I’m always better, so now I have to improve my game and this is why I push myself to beat him also on the golf course.”

Both also have two children, and are hoping to bring the Miami trophy home.

“Especially now with my [son], he’s into tennis now. When I told him, ‘Oh maybe I’ll retire in one or two years’ he said, ‘No, no, don’t retire’,” Gonzalez said. “He wants to still be around the tournaments, be around the players. I’m doing it for me and for him a little bit.”

Do we have an early three-way battle for year-end World No. 1 on our hands?

In charging into his fifth consecutive final in Miami Friday, Daniil Medvedev surpassed Novak Djokovic in first place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

Defending Miami champion Carlos Alcaraz, who is third in the Race, can also pass Djokovic and pull to within just 80 points of Medvedev should he win his fourth ATP Masters 1000 title on Sunday. Should that scenario play out, just 200 points will separate the trio.

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin

The Race is an indicator of which eight players will qualify for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals, to be played 12-19 November in Turin, and who will be crowned Year-End ATP No. 1 presented by Pepperstone.

A topic of heated discussion among tennis fans in recent weeks has been who out of Djokovic and Alcaraz is most likely to finish the year No. 1 following the Spaniard’s blistering form since returning from injury in February. But in reaching his fifth straight final – and winning 23 of his past 24 matches – Medvedev has emphatically inserted himself into the year-end No. 1 debate.

Medvedev won three consecutive titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai before reaching the BNP Paribas Open final in Indian Wells, where he fell to Alcaraz. In advancing to the Miami Open presented by Itau championship match, Medvedev has now reached the final of all six ATP Masters 1000 hard-court events.

He won titles in Cincinnati and Shanghai in 2019, Paris (2020) and Toronto (2021). He also won the Nitto ATP Finals in 2020. Medvedev, who is gearing up for his eighth Masters 1000 final on Sunday, leads the ATP Tour with 28 match wins on the year.

On Thursday at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar, Rafael Nadal received a replica of the sculpture that was unveiled at Roland Garros in May 2021.

Gilles Moretton, President of the French Tennis Federation, and Amelie Mauresmo, Director of Roland Garros, travelled to Spain to present the replica to Rafa in person.

The replica (1/10 scale of the original piece) has been given a special location in the Rafa Nadal Museum, which houses all the trophies Rafa has won throughout his career.

Nadal said, ”Roland Garros is the most important place in my career and I’m very happy to have that statue there. Being able to have this replica here, in my home town, at the Museum and in a place that is so close to me, for my family and for my team makes it even more special. I’m very grateful to everyone who has made it possible and it is now here, alongside my trophies, so that everyone can come and see it.”

Mauresmo said, “The values and the spirit at the Rafa Nadal Academy are exactly what Rafa as a person is: Humble, well educated and a hard worker. Those are among the values that makes him what he is as a player and as a human being. The players we saw at the academy are in very good hands and on a personal level, I am very happy to have had the chance to share these special moment with Rafa himself.”

Moretton said, “Since many years, Roland Garros and Rafa Nadal live a privileged and special relationship and we found here at the Academy what he is, with his values. We always had very constructive and friendly discussions with Rafa to make tennis bigger, and it’s an honor to have him as an ambassador of the game. Rafa Nadal and Roland Garros have become something inseparable.”

Mauresmo and Moreton also had an opportunity to visit the facilities at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar and get a close look at the daily work of the children taking their tennis and academic studies at the high-performance centre and, of course, they enjoyed a meal at the “Roland Garros” Restaurant, an eatery within the academy whose ambiance is inspired by the French Grand Slam and whose decoration includes photos of some of the biggest names in the history of the tournament, such as Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg and Rafa Nadal.

Starting today, any tennis fan can now enjoy this work of art by visiting the museum in Manacor.

Daniil Medvedev reached his second consecutive ATP Masters 1000 final on Friday when he clawed past long-term friend Karen Khachanov 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3 at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

Medvedev has passed Novak Djokovic and moved to top spot in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. He will look to continue his strong season in Sunday’s final as he aims to challenge Carlos Alcaraz and Djokovic for the No. 1 Pepperstone ATP Ranking this season.

Medvedev, who rose through the junior and professional ranks with Khachanov, now leads the 26-year-old 4-1 in their ATP Head2Head series. The fourth seed will meet Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner in the championship match on Sunday in his fifth consecutive final.

The 27-year-old is 28-3 on the season, having won 23 of his past 24 matches. Medvedev, who lifted trophies in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai during that run, has now advanced to the final at all hard-court ATP Masters 1000 events. He lost to Alcaraz in the championship match in Indian Wells earlier this month.

“I think I made six finals [in a row] in 2019, so I have some margin,” Medvedev said when reflecting on reaching five consecutive finals. “It is a pity it is clay season after, but I am going to try. I am really happy with my results so far but it is not over. Final on Sunday and I have to be at my best to try to win it.

“I have to believe in myself. I know I am capable of winning big titles. I know I can play well and beat anybody. Carlos is on fire right now but you can’t win 100 matches in a row. At one moment someone is going to put the water on the fire. It might be Sinner today, it might be me on Sunday, it might be someone else next tournament. You have to believe in yourself. You have to try your best. I am going to enjoy their match and be prepared for the winner.”

In a tight clash in South Florida, Medvedev recovered from a second-set dip and survived an attacking bombardment from Khachanov to earn his 28th win of the season. The fourth seed hit his flat groundstrokes with consistency to force Khachanov into errors in the third set, while he absorbed the 14th seed’s thunderous forehand to triumph after two hours and 17 minutes.

“In my opinion, it was a top match,” Medvedev said. “In the first set when we lost our serves, it was just a good game from the returner. In the second set I had one bad game and he won the set. I had one break point, I could have done better. He had a break point in the first game of the third set, I managed to play well. He had one bad game in the third set, I managed to take it and I am really happy to be through. It was a very tough match.”

Medvedev will rise to No. 4 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings if he wins his fifth ATP Masters 1000 title and fourth trophy of the season in South Florida.

Competing inside Hard Rock Stadium, Medvedev had the opportunity to close out the first set when he led 5-3, but failed to convert a set point on serve, with Khachanov breaking back. Medvedev quickly regrouped, though, and capitalised on a missed forehand from his opponent at 5/4 in the first-set tie-break to clinch the opener.

Medvedev left the court after the first set to change clothing and struggled to find the same intensity on return, with Khachanov soaring into a 3-0 lead. The 14th seed didn’t let up, striking 17 winners and committing four unforced errors in the second set to level.

With a third set left to decide the match, it was Medvedev who found a way, winning 82 per cent (14/17) of his first-serve points in the set to reach his eighth ATP Masters 1000 final.

Khachanov was aiming to advance to his first ATP Masters 1000 final since 2018, when he triumphed at the Rolex Paris Masters. Despite Friday’s loss, Khachanov stated that the margins between winning and losing were slim in the high-quality quarter-final contest.

“To be honest with you, I think it was really one of the greatest matches lately,” Khachanov said. “I felt from the beginning until the end in terms of level, in terms of speed, intensity, attitude, everything, from the beginning till the end… It was a really, really close, equal match.”

The 26-year-old is choosing to keep his head high after climbing five spots to No. 11 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings following a strong Miami run.

“I must say it’s maybe a little bit unlucky in a way, but of course [Daniil] deserves totally to win,” Khachanov said. “I think both of us really showed our best today. We fought hard. I mean, we gave [a] good match for the crowd.

“In a way, it’s a pity that I lost, but I’m happy and proud of myself the way the things are right now.”

Taylor Fritz knew he would be in for a fierce battle Thursday when he met World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz for the first time. But perhaps it was a more eye-opening experience than the American initially thought.

The Spaniard needed just one hour, 18 minutes to down Fritz 6-4, 6-2 in Thursday’s quarter-final at the Miami Open presented by Itau. Following the match, the 25-year-old was full of praise of the 2022 US Open champion’s repertoire.

“It’s what I have seen for a while now. I said it a year ago when I watched him play, for how young he is, he just has all the tools,” Fritz said in his post-match press conference. “He can come to net, dropshot you, lob you, he’s incredibly fast, he has all the power, his forehand is good, his backhand is good.

“It’s very rare to see someone so young so developed in their game and not really have anything that they need to work on so much. He has tonnes of different ways to play, and he can incorporate tonnes of different game plans to play different players because he has so many tools to win a match.”

A five-time tour titlist, Fritz said there was never a ‘gimme’ moment from Alcaraz as the Spaniard used every inch of the court to display superb shotmaking.

“He doesn’t give you much for free so you have to work a lot to win pretty much every point,” Fritz said. “I think all the important points of the match he won, so it made a big difference.

“I did feel the level of the first three games was absolutely unbearable. He was hitting clean winners off of 110-mile-an-hour second serves I was hitting into his body. I’m stepping up and crushing backhands cross, and he’s going open-stance backhand line winners off of that.”

The American No. 1 has clashed against each of the Big Three: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic. When the California native was asked how he would compare his encounter against Alcaraz to his meetings against the Big Three, Fritz again commented on the 19-year-old’s lethal style of play.

“I definitely felt like I had more breathing room against those guys than in this match,” Fritz said. “It’s different game styles. Novak will have these long rallies, but he’ll kind of slowly get you out of position and overwhelm me. I still feel like I can hang in these rallies for a long time and get more chances to attack.

“[Alcaraz] just [hit] winners and shots that hurt me off of a lot of shots that people normally aren’t hurting me off of.”

For the second time this month, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner will face off in the semi-finals at an ATP Masters 1000 event when they meet on Friday at the Miami Open presented by Itau. (Watch the semi-final from 7pm ET/1am CET)

At the BNP Paribas Open, the 19-year-old Alcaraz overcame the 21-year-old Sinner in straight sets, before he defeated Daniil Medvedev in the final to triumph in Indian Wells and rise to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Fast forward two weeks and Sinner will be eager for revenge in the latest chapter of their growing rivalry.

Aiming to become the youngest player to win the ‘Sunshine Double’, the defending champion Alcaraz has continued to bring the heat in Miami. The top seed has blitzed through the field at the hard-court event, not dropping a set en route to his fourth semi-final of the season. After defeating Facundo Bagnis and Dusan Lajovic in his first two matches, Alcaraz crushed seeds Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz to set a blockbuster semi-final against Sinner.

“I’ve played against him in the final rounds of tournaments. That means he is playing a great level,” said Alcaraz, who will have 24 hours less recovery time than the Italian due to rain disrupting the Miami quarter-final schedule. “I am sure that we are going to play for big things in the future. I can’t wait to see our [improvement].”

View Schedule | View Draw

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Alcaraz Trying To Retain World No. 1, Chance For Top 10 Shakeup

Friday’s clash in Miami will be the sixth meeting between the former Next Gen ATP Finals champions. Alcaraz leads Sinner 3-2 in their ATP Head2Head series and has won their past two meetings on hard courts. At the 2022 US Open, the Spaniard won one of the matches of the season when he saved a match point in an epic five-set five-hour, 15-minute quarter-final victory which finished at 2:50 a.m. Alcaraz then defeated Sinner 7-6(4), 6-3 in Indian Wells earlier this month. The Spaniard went on to win both titles and will hope history repeats itself this weekend.

Sinner is aiming to break new ground in Miami, where he chases his first ATP Masters 1000 crown. The seven-time tour-level champion holds an impressive 12-2 record at the hard-court event, having advanced to the final on debut in 2021 and the quarter-finals in 2022. Like Alcaraz, Sinner has crushed everyone in his path this fortnight, not dropping more than four games in a set. The Italian is up two spots to No. 9 in the Peppestone ATP Live Rankings and will rise to No. 6 if he captures the crown.

The 10th seed, who has defeated seeds Grigor Dimitrov and Andrey Rublev in South Florida, is once again relishing the opportunity to face friend and foe Alcaraz.

“I [am] happy to play against him again because I look forward to these kind of matches,” Sinner said when looking ahead to the clash. “I feel like he makes me a better player. Here the court is fast. I think we both feel good here on these courts.”

Another top-class performance from @janniksin as he moves on to the semi-final

Taking a look👀at some of his return numbers 📊from what was his best return performance of the tournament so far 👏

The combination of court position, pace & consistency on second serve return‼️… pic.twitter.com/te6HQOMmeJ

— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) March 30, 2023

If their previous encounters are to go by, fans can expect a heavyweight clash between two of the best movers and cleanest ballstrikers on Tour. Both men bludgeon the ball with unrelenting force and will look to demonstrate their incredible speed and athleticism to repel each other’s attacks.

Alcaraz, who will look to use the drop shot to outmanoeuvre Sinner, believes the key to their rivalry is the respect they have for each other off court.

“We have a good relationship outside the court. We wave [at] each other, we talk. When we are out of the court, we practise a few times together as well,” said Alcaraz. “He’s a really nice guy. I think that’s really important, as well, to be a nice person. We share a lot of great moments outside of the court.”

Alcaraz needs to win his fourth ATP Masters 1000 title this weekend to remain at No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. His quest continues against Sinner not before 7 p.m. local time (1 a.m. CET) on Miami stadium court.

View Alcaraz and Sinner’s full ATP H2H series.

We are pleased that all players will have an opportunity to compete at Wimbledon and LTA events this summer. It has taken a collaborative effort across the sport to arrive at a workable solution which protects the fairness of the game. This remains an extremely difficult situation and we would like to thank Wimbledon and the LTA for their efforts in reaching this outcome, while reiterating our unequivocal condemnation of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Daniil Medvedev joked about being a hard-court specialist at the BNP Paribas Open. His next opponent, longtime friend Karen Khachanov, has proven a tough foe at the biggest hard-court tournaments in the world over the past six months.

“When you go deep in this tournament, you don’t have big time to prepare on clay unfortunately,” Khachanov said in response to a question about his clay-court preparation. “But it’s at the same time fortunate because you are playing well here, so it’s like a sweet problem to have, I would say.”

Khachanov has now made the semi-finals at three of the biggest tournaments in the world over the past six months: last year’s US Open, this year’s Australian Open and now the Miami Open presented by Itau.

The 14th seed lost a set in his opening match of the tournament against Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry, but he has not looked back. The 26-year-old has not dropped a set since, including wins against Australian Open quarter-finalist Jiri Lehecka, second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and 2022 Miami semi-finalist Francisco Cerundolo.

“The confidence and self-belief and all these things, they appear stronger,” Khachanov said. “Now I’m happy that I can show that level constantly and more consistently.”

All four of Khachanov’s ATP Masters 1000 semi-finals, including this run in Miami, have come on hard courts. His lone title at the level came at the 2018 Rolex Paris Masters.

If Khachanov manages to claim his second crown at this level, it will also mark his first title of any kind since that triumph. Already up to No. 11 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, Khachanov will ascend to a career-high World No. 6 if he lifts the trophy.