Call them the odd couple of ATP Officiating: Tom Barnes, the poker-faced former marine who would hold his own in a stare down with Clint Eastwood, and Thomas Karlberg, the mild-mannered softly spoken Swede. The career-long friends and colleagues were both honoured for their lifetime of service in December as part of the ATP Officiating department’s year-end meetings in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Barnes, who lives in Fresno, California, worked his last event at the 2021 Nitto ATP Finals. Karlberg stepped away after officiating in Basel in October this year.

At first glance, they seem as different as topspin and slice. But peel back the surface layer and you’ll find an underlying dichotomy that connects them.

“Tom is a very, very good friend,” Karlberg said. “He may scare most of the people around him, but that’s just on the surface. If you look under his skin a little bit he is a golden-hearted person and very fun to be around.”

Similarly, Barnes said that first impressions of the genial Karlberg don’t paint the full picture. “He’s probably the strongest one out of all of us even though he doesn’t look or act like he is,” Barnes said. “He’s a very strong character, critical thinker, friendly guy and good to be around.”

Barnes’ career has spanned the birth of the ATP Tour in 1990 through to its newest events, including the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals. Photo: Getty Images.

Barnes worked his first event in Guam in 1990 and completed his tournament report on three laminated pieces of paper. Known by many as ‘Baaaaarnes‘ after being given the moniker by former World No. 4 Brad Gilbert, the Californian said that over the years he bonded with some of the game’s more prickly players.

“I tend to get along better with the difficult players than the not-so-difficult players,” he said. “Why, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because of my marine corps background. It’s all personal relationships.

“We have one goal in mind and that’s to provide good tennis. The Supervisor is in charge of everything and is the final authority on site. The most challenging part of the job is to keep everything in balance and make judgments when it’s important. I always try to consider what is best for the tournament, players, and spectators.”

Karlberg was a Supervisor for the Men’s International Professional Tennis Council and Tournament Director of the Bastad ATP event before joining ATP in 1991, the year after the Tour was formed. Having worked alongside thousands of players from Jimmy Connors to Pete Sampras to Carlos Alcaraz, Karlberg said that to preserve impartiality he would be friendly to players, but would not seek to become their friends.

“It’s like a circus with everyone travelling around, players, coaches, officials, and everyone else, so it’s inevitable that you develop relationships, but you have to be clear where the line is,” Karlberg said. “Of course we will have friendly conversations with players and their teams, but we wouldn’t go out for breakfast or dinner.”

“Every Supervisor and Chair Umpire currently working for ATP has been mentored by Tom and Thomas,” said Ali Nili, ATP Senior Director, Officiating Administration. “They are an institution in Officiating and there will never be another Tom Barnes or Thomas Karlberg. They will be truly missed, but their legacy will live forever.”

While elements of the job have evolved through the continued growth of technology, Barnes said that the key quality he looks for in good Supervisors has not changed in his 30 years in the job.

“Common sense is the number one thing,” he said. “We constantly have to make decisions and some of them are pretty significant, like defaulting a guy. You can easily make the wrong choice in either direction. You have to have a mindset that can look at incidents and shut out all the other noise and think about what the situation deserves.

“The most challenging thing is to keep everything in balance and make judgments when it’s important. Always try and consider what is best for the tournament, players, and spectators.”

Karlberg added: “Knowing how to deal with people is also very important. To be calm when something goes wrong, to listen to other people, show respect to the players and the people you work with.

“And there’s no substitute for having full knowledge of the rules. When you’re called out on court in the heat of the moment with thousands of spectators looking on, you can’t reach for the rulebook.”

Thomas Karlberg sends Rafael Nadal back to the locker room during a rain delay at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. Photo: Getty Images

Both men have been privileged to sit courtside for thousands of matches, watching the game’s greatest champions up close. But they don’t view matches in the same manner as fans.

“It is a nice perk of the job, but I don’t watch tennis like my wife does,” Barnes said. “I’m looking at it from a technical standpoint and not really from the artistic level. I’m making sure the ballkids are doing what they’re supposed to do, linespeople, chair umpire are doing things correctly and the players aren’t misbehaving.”

With both men spending decades on the road away from their families and homes, Karlberg and Barnes paid tribute to their wives, Eva and Debbie, for the sacrifices they made that allowed them to pursue their careers with the ATP.

“I didn’t realise when I started this job what my life would become,” Karlberg said. “I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll try that’. Now I’ve had more than 30 years with the ATP. My wife has always supported me to do this; she realised I really loved to work in tennis. I thank her very much. I realise that she has done a hell of job raising three kids and working at the same time. I have her to thank.”

Barnes said of his wife, Debbie: “She’s my rock. We made the decision together that I would pursue this as a full-time career. I did it a little later in life, our son was already off in college so no young ones at home to worry about, which may have made it a little easier.”

Both men are also thankful for the friendships they made on the Tour, in what Roger Federer once called his “second family”.

“The relationships that I’ve developed, the friends that I’ve made is something I will always treasure,” Karlberg said.

Barnes added: “With my colleagues, everyone, travelling and seeing different countries and meeting different people, I learned a lot from that. It’s like we live together; in many cases guys spend more time with each other than their own family, especially in the beginning when you work 30 weeks in a year.”

Now both men can enjoy plenty of family time at home.

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the ATP Tour returns to Auckland from 9-15 January for the ASB Classic. Last held in 2020, the ATP 250 event will be headlined by World No. 3 Casper Ruud.

The Norwegian — who signed off on the 2022 ATP Tour season by reaching the Nitto ATP Finals title match — will lead the Auckland field, with Turin alternate and World No. 11 Holger Rune also set to compete. Former Nitto ATP Finals competitors Cameron Norrie and John Isner will also play for the title in Auckland, with Isner bidding for his third title at the event after triumphs in 2010 and 2014.

Four Argentines are also among the direct entrants, with Top 30 players Diego Schwartzman and Francisco Cerundolo joined by Sebastian Baez and Pedro Cachin. Alexander Bublik, Jenson Brooksby, David Goffin and Fabio Fognini are among other players on the initial acceptance list.

Former Champ Rublev, Home Favourite Kyrgios In Adelaide
Andrey Rublev, winner of the inaugural Adelaide International 2 title in 2020, leads the field this year at the ATP 250. The World No. 8 reached the Turin semi-finals at the close of 2022, and will be eager to take that form to Australia in the new year.

Nick Kyrgios also qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals last season as a doubles player, and the Australian joins Rublev and Karen Khachanov among the singles direct entrants.

Four Spaniards and four Americans will also compete for the title. The Spaish contingent is led by World No. 13 Pablo Carreno Busta and World No. 21 Roberto Bautista Agut, while Tommy Paul, Sebastian Korda, Maxime Cressy and Brandon Nakashima will represent the United States.

The ATP Challenger Tour travelled far and wide to host tournaments every week this season. From the world’s largest cities, to intimate settings in remote areas, the Challenger circuit brought high-quality tennis to all corners of the globe.

This season finished with a record-setting 184 tournaments across 38 countries. While players work hard for points, prize money, and the chance of launching their career, tournament directors, supervisors, and volunteers also put in hard yards to run the events.

ATPTour.com reviews Challenger tournaments in Finland, Bosnia, Lithuania, South Korea, and Japan, where special milestones were celebrated this year.

In July, the Tampere Open, which is the longest-running event on the Challenger Tour, became the first tournament to celebrate its 40-year anniversary.

Led by tournament director and former World No. 48 Veli Paloheimo, a native of Tampere, the tournament has become a beacon on the Challenger Tour and a summer staple in Finland.

“Of course we’re proud of it,” Paloheimo said. “This is the biggest tournament in Finland, so it is nice that we have this here for so long in Tampere. It is a full effort with a few hundred volunteers every year. Coming together as a community is what makes this so special for everyone.”

The Challenger Tour is the springboard to success for the stars of tomorrow and the Tampere Open has seen players such as Carlos Moya, Robin Soderling, David Ferrer, Richard Gasquet and David Goffin all compete at the clay court event before rising to decorated careers.

The Srpska Open, located in Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina, celebrated their 20th year anniversary in August. With a population centre of just 138,000, Banja Luka is one of the smallest cities to host a Challenger tournament for 20 years or more. The Banja Luka Challenger is the longest-running men’s professional tennis tournament in the Balkan region of southeast Europe.

Top professionals such as Felix Auger-Aliassime, Diego Schwartzman, Fabio Fognini and Janko Tipsarevic have all competed at the Challenger in Bosnia before climbing to the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. The clay court event has carved its own identity on the Challenger Tour for the past two decades and has left a strong impression on players.

“I really enjoyed my time in Banja Luka,” said 2021 champion Juan Manuel Cerundolo. “The tournament is very nice. The people there are very warm and welcoming and a lot of fans come to watch the tennis. To win there was very significant, it put me very close to the Top 100 and it gave me the momentum to reach the Top 100 a few weeks later. Congratulations to them for this 20th anniversary.”

In the 45-year history of the ATP Challenger Tour, Lithuania had never hosted a Challenger tournament. That all changed in October, when the Challenger circuit turned its eyes to the country’s capital city, Vilnius. Lithuania became the 91st different country to welcome a Challenger tournament.

The SEB Arena, host venue of the Vilnius Challenger. Credit: SEB Arena

The Challenger 80 event is held at the largest indoor tennis complex in central Europe, the SEB Arena. The state-of-the-art facility boasts 28 indoor tennis courts and a recent expansion project included the construction of a stadium court for the debut tournament.

After nearly a decade of dreaming and brainstorming what the Vilnius Challenger would look like, tournament director Ramūnas Grušas was delighted to see it come to fruition this year.

“We started to think about having a Challenger in 2013,” Grušas said. “We made a trip to some Challengers in Europe and talked to the organisers there and finally, we are doing it. We are really happy and excited.

“It’s really important to show people that we are here. We have high-quality facilities, I think it’s showing that we are going in a good direction. We are not looking at this tournament for a really commercial side. We are looking to have good quality.”

Following a near three-year absence due to the pandemic, the Challenger Tour returned to South Korea and Japan in the latter part of this season. A three-week swing in South Korea was capped off by the Challenger 125 event in Busan.

The final five weeks of the season featured four tournaments in Japan, including in Kobe and Yokkaichi, where home favourite Yosuke Watanuki captured back-to-back titles.

Bourbon Beans Dome, home of the Kobe Challenger. Credit: Kathryn Riley

The 2023 Challenger Tour season is set to begin 2 January with five tournaments during opening week, including events in Australia, New Caledonia, Thailand, Argentina, and Portugal.

Juan Carlos Ferrero has been voted Coach of the Year in the 2022 ATP Awards for his efforts in helping Carlos Alcaraz achieve a record-breaking season on Tour.

The 19-year-old Alcaraz became the first teenager and youngest player to finish No. 1 in the 50 editions of the year-end Pepperstone ATP Rankings following a standout season that saw him capture two ATP Masters 1000 titles and his maiden Grand Slam crown at the US Open.

What an amazing year it was for @juankiferri 👏 Excited to see what 2023 brings!#ATPAwards pic.twitter.com/gwP5u5Pbig

— ATP Tour (@atptour) December 14, 2022

The Spaniard, who also won titles in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona, finished the year holding a 57-13 record. Under the guidance of Ferrero, Alcaraz also made the biggest jump to year-end No. 1 in history, rising from No. 32 at the end of 2021.

“This year has been an amazing year,” said Ferrero, upon his selection by fellow coaches as the ATP Award winner. “Gladly, all the hard work has been rewarded with results and now with this amazing prize. I’m extremely happy to win the ATP Coach of the Year award. Thank you all of you for the support.”

Ferrero first set eyes on Alcaraz at the Equelite Sport Academy when the 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals champion was just 13 years old. He witnessed the Spaniard earn his first ATP Tour point aged 14, before the pair started officially working together in 2018.

“I saw him at 13,” said Ferrero. “He came to the academy, we trained one day, he was very small, but everyone was talking about him. He had everything he has now, but in miniature. Officially, I saw him when he got his first ATP point at 14 years of age, then you could see how he competed.

“When he arrived at the academy at 15, he was a stick, he was fast but didn’t have any muscles. Even so, we saw something very special.”

_{^{Photo Credit: Julian Finney/Getty Images}}
Alcaraz’s rise to the top of men’s tennis has caught the world’s attention. However, it has not come as a surprise to Ferrero, a former World No. 1.

“It’s happening very quickly, it’s a surprise to everyone, except to me, because I train with him every day and I know what he can do,” Ferrero said following Alcaraz’s US Open triumph. “I was sure that if it wasn’t this year, it would be the next. Now we want to keep going.”

Netflix on Wednesday released a teaser for Break Point, the upcoming tennis series created by the team behind F1: Drive To Survive. The series will premiere on 13 January.

“I think it’s going to make a great show, and I think we gave them some good content,” Felix Auger-Aliassime said. “For me the main goal is that it can help tennis. It can help tennis overall. That would be amazing if we could see a rise in the number of fans and attention for our sport by airing this series.”

The show follows some of the best players in the world on both the ATP Tour and the Hologic WTA Tour throughout the 2022 season to give fans an insightful look into their lives on and off the court.

“It’s great for the game, moving the game forward,” Frances Tiafoe said. “I’m happy I was part of it and some other guys got a chance to be part of it as well.”

As some of tennis’ legends reach the twilight of their careers, this is the chance for a new generation to claim the spotlight. Break Point gets up close and personal with these players over a year competing across the globe.

From career-threatening injuries and emotional heartbreak, to triumphant victories and personal moments off the court, viewers will get a behind the scenes look at the pressure-tested lives of some of the best tennis players in the world.

After missing a year due to a shoulder injury, Borna Coric’s determination to rediscover his best tennis became one of the 2022 ATP Tour season’s most inspirational storylines. The Croatian’s achievements after overcoming adversity have now been recognised by his fellow players, who have voted Coric as the Comeback Player of the Year in the 2022 ATP Awards.

“I’m super happy to win the ATP Comeback Player of the Year award,” said Coric. “Obviously it does mean a lot to me after a very, very hard season, and after my shoulder surgery. So all I can say is thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. It does mean a lot to me and obviously I hope that my next season is going to be even better.”

Since undergoing surgery in May 2021, Coric has had to spend between 30 and 90 minutes a day working on his right shoulder to maintain it. Considerable off-court commitment is necessary for the Croatian to even make it onto court, let alone to start winning matches on the ATP Tour.

That hasn’t stopped the 26-year-old from surging back up the Pepperstone ATP Rankings this year. Having dropped as low as No. 278 in May, Coric ended the season at No. 26.

After making his comeback at Indian Wells in March, Coric was understandably rusty. Yet an ATP Challenger Tour title won in Italy in June was a sign that he was starting to find his feet again, and the former World No. 12 then charged back into the ATP Tour winners’ circle in style at the Western & Southern Open in August.

“I have no words, to be honest,” said Coric after taking out five Top 20 players in a row, including Rafael Nadal, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Stefanos Tsitsipas, to claim a stunning maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati. “It’s just an unbelievable feeling… I thought I could play well. I was training hard, and I knew I could play good tennis, but that I could play this level tennis, I was just not aware. I’m just super happy.”

Coric was nominated in the Comeback category alongside three other players who have overcome injury to re-establish themselves as a major force on Tour — Dominic Thiem, Stan Wawrinka and Wu Yibing.

ATPTour.com’s annual season-in-review series looks back at 2022’s best matches, biggest upsets, most dramatic comebacks and more.

From huge serving and defiant defence to rapid reactions and razor-sharp volleying, the ATP Tour’s doubles action offers non-stop intensity and excitement to fans around the world.

Despite playing a format where each point, game, set and match can be decided by the finest of margins, some pairs have found a way to consistently rise above the rest in 2022. Today, ATPTour.com looks at some of those best-performing teams from an action-packed season on the doubles circuit.

Koolhof/Skupski Shine In First Year Together
Seven tour-level titles, a 56-19 match record, and the year-end No. 1 doubles crown. As first seasons playing together go, Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski could hardly have asked for more.

“We win together, lose together, share moments on and off court together… In January the click was there from the beginning,” said Koolhof after the pair were crowned ATP Doubles No. 1 presented by Pepperstone at the Nitto ATP Finals in November. Their achievements in a whirlwind first year as a team included three ATP Masters 1000 titles, won in Madrid, Montreal and Paris.

Even changes in surface or conditions did little to slow the Koolhof/Skupski winning machine. Their overall tally of seven tour-level titles included triumphs on outdoor hard courts, clay, grass and indoor hard. They also performed strongly at the majors, reaching the quarter-finals at three of the four Grand Slams, including a championship match run at the US Open.

Those stellar performances as a team propelled both Koolhof and Skupski to the top of the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings. Dutchman Koolhof hit top spot on 7 November following the duo’s Rolex Paris Masters triumph, before Great Britain’s Skupski joined the Dutchman as joint World No. 1 a week later.

Ram/Salisbury Built For The Big Stage
Few teams more consistently brought their best to big occasions in 2022 than Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

The American-British pair lifted its second and third ATP Masters 1000 titles with high-class displays at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (Ram and Salisbury’s first tour-level title together on clay) and at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. They backed up those successes by becoming just the second team to successfully defend the men’s doubles title at the US Open, after legendary ATP Tour duo Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.

“Those [Masters 1000s and Grand Slams] are the ones we want to win, the big ones,” Salisbury told ATPTour.com prior to November’s Nitto ATP Finals. “Even if it’s only a couple a year, those are the ones we are going for. I think it’s good we perform our best at those bigger tournaments.”

The pair successfully continued that trend with its fourth and final tour-level of the year in Turin, where it went undefeated to claim its maiden Nitto ATP Finals crown in style and finish a standout year on Tour with a 37-14 record.

Just like Koolhof and Skupski, both Ram and Salisbury rose to become No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings for the first time in 2022. Salisbury held the position from April until the beginning of October, when his partner Ram took over top spot until Koolhof’s ascent five weeks later.

‘Special Ks’ Light Up Doubles Circuit
“We definitely don’t practise doubles at all,” said Nick Kyrgios prior to making his Nitto ATP Finals debut alongside Thanasi Kokkinakis in November. “We don’t do any doubles drills or anything like that. Maybe it can be an advantage, maybe a disadvantage at times, because we only do our own thing.”

One of the most uniquely gifted pairs to grace the doubles court in 2022, Kokkinakis and Kyrgios began their season in style by charging to victory at their home Grand Slam, the Australian Open. A semi-final run in Miami and a second tour-level title as a team in Atlanta followed as the pair racked up a 20-7 record across the eight tournaments it played.

Yet those results only tell half the tale of Kokkinakis and Kyrgios’ time on the doubles court. The pair revelled in putting on a show for fans, who were engrossed by its exciting blend of big-serving, outrageous shotmaking, and joyous celebrating. The bigger and louder the atmosphere, the more energised the duo seemed to become.

Despite playing relatively few tournaments across the season, Kokkinakis and Kyrgios qualified for their Nitto ATP Finals debut in Turin as one of the eight best-performing teams on Tour. Kokkinakis believes it was a reward for simply sticking to their natural game.

“I think we bring our singles strengths onto the doubles court,” he said in Italy. “If we try and be doubles players instead of playing our [natural] game, it’s not going to come out too good for us… I think we are going to continue to play singles on a doubles court.”

History-Making Arevalo/Rojer’s Big Impact
An 11-match winning streak sparked first-year pairing Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer’s 2022 season into life. The duo lifted back-to-back ATP Tour titles in Dallas and Delray Beach in February before a championship match run in Acapulco to announce its arrival as one of the most complete teams on the circuit.

That early-season form laid the foundation for a stellar year for the Salvadoran-Dutch pair, which went on to clinch its maiden Grand Slam title at Roland Garros and a fourth tour-level title of the year on the indoor hard courts of Stockholm in October.

_{^{Rojer & Arevalo lift the trophy at Roland Garros. Photo Credit: Adam Pretty/Getty Images}}

Their biggest title triumph of the year almost never happened. Arevalo and Rojer saved three championship points against Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the Roland Garros final before completing a 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-3 win that etched both their names in the history books — Arevalo as the first Grand Slam men’s doubles champion from Central America, and Rojer as the oldest Grand Slam men’s doubles champion in the Open Era.

“I really want to thank my partner,” the then-40-year-old Rojer said after the dramatic victory in Paris. “We spent a lot of time living and training in Miami and we decided to play together. I know this kid has a big heart. He showed it today and I thank him. I am glad he trusts me, and I am so happy and proud of this moment here.”

Mektic/Pavic Masterclass Continues
Having a successful debut season together is one thing. Backing it up is another.

Yet Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic had no problems doing just that this year. The 2021 year-end No. 1 pair in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Teams Rankings added five ATP Tour titles to their tally with some typically classy performances across a range of surfaces.

Clay-court crowns in Rome (their fourth together at ATP Masters 1000 level) and Geneva were followed by victories on grass at The Queen’s Club and Eastbourne during a red-hot run that saw the Croatians win 24 of 26 matches across six tournaments in May and June. That included a run to the final at Wimbledon, where they fell just one win short of completing an incredible defence of their 2021 Wimbledon title despite Pavic playing with a fractured wrist from the first set of their semi-final.

“We gave our best and we gave it a fight,” said Pavic after Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell prevailed 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(10-2) in a marathon championship match at SW19. “I think we can be very proud of ourselves for those two matches.”

There was to be no stopping Mektic and Pavic in October at the Astana Open, however, where they lifted their fifth and final title of the season at the indoor ATP 500 event. The pair then rounded out an impressive 51-21 season with a run to the championship match at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, their 21st tour-level final appearance in just two seasons together.

Read more from our Best Of 2022 series

Continuing our annual season-in-review series, ATPTour.com revisits the biggest rivalries of 2022. Today we feature Daniil Medvedev vs. Nick Kyrgios.

Big serving, huge forehands and no shortage of outrageous shotmaking. There are few better spectacles on the ATP Tour than a free-hitting showdown between Daniil Medvedev and Nick Kyrgios.

After three years without a tour-level meeting, fans were treated to three installments of the Medvedev-Kyrgios rivalry in 2022. While Medvedev notched an impressive victory at the Australian Open, it was Kyrgios who secured bragging rights for the season with a pair of hard-fought wins on North American hard courts, in Montreal and at the US Open.

At the end of a year in which Medvedev rose to World No. 1 for the first time and a rejuvenated Kyrgios put together some of the best results of his career, ATPTour.com looks back on how one of the Tour’s blockbuster rivalries played out in 2022.

Australian Open, Second Round, Medvedev d. Kyrgios 7-6(1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
The 2022 Grand Slam action was just four days old when Medvedev and Kyrgios collided in a heavyweight second-round clash at January’s Australian Open.

For the first half of the match it appeared that second-seeded Medvedev was on track to claim his first victory in three attempts against the Australian in style. His top-quality return game helped him claim the first two sets on Rod Laver Arena, but Kyrgios roused the home fans with some typically majestic shotmaking en route to the third.

“I thought the atmosphere was awesome,” Kyrgios later said. “That’s what sport is. You’ve got the most entertaining player playing in his home slam on Rod Laver. You’d expect the crowd to be like that.”

_{^{Photo Credit: William West/AFP via Getty Images}}

Those positive vibes could not carry Kyrgios to a famous comeback win, however, as Medvedev slammed the door shut on the Australian in clinical fashion by breaking twice in the fourth set to seal a two-hour, 58-minute win.

“I came to win this match and I am happy I managed to do it,” said Medvedev. “It was a funny match because we both served big. In the second and fourth sets I managed to return a little bit more at the crucial moments.”

Despite the defeat, Kyrgios was happy with how he had performed against eventual finalist Medvedev in just his second competitive match in four months.

“No matter how little I train or how much I play, I’ll always lift for matches like this,” said the Australian. “I’m not going to shy away from it… If I play 95 per cent of people tonight on that court, I think I win, to be honest with you.”

National Bank Open Presented by Rogers, Second Round, Kyrgios d. Medvedev 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-2
In contrast to the meeting in Melbourne, Kyrgios arrived at August’s National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Montreal amid a red-hot run of form that had seen the Australian reach his maiden Grand Slam final at Wimbledon and lift his seventh ATP Tour crown in Washington.

That confidence was plain to see against World No. 1 and defending champion Medvedev in the second round in Canada, where the 27-year-old Australian remained unbroken throughout a two-hour encounter for his 14th win in 15 tour-level matches.

“This is the fourth meeting we’ve had, and I’ve had some success against him in the past,” said Kyrgios after the match. “But he’s beaten me before [as well]. I feel like we know each other’s games well. I’m not the type of player that goes into this match looking at rankings or anything like that, it’s just who I’m playing and what kind of ball they’re giving me.”

Kyrgios’ decision to frequently deploy serve-and-volley tactics against an opponent renowned for his deep positioning on return paid off in Montreal. The Australian won 67 per cent (32/48) of points at the net to claim his second win against a reigning World No. 1, after his 2014 Wimbledon win against Rafael Nadal.

“Today I had a very clean objective of how I was going to play, a lot of serve-and-volley, a lot of aggressive play from the back,” said Kyrgios. “I executed better than he did, that’s all it comes down to.”

“He was great. He was playing good,” reflected the defeated Medvedev. “He beat me fairly, if we can say [it] like this.”

US Open, Fourth Round, Kyrgios d. Medvedev 7-6(11), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2

Fewer than four weeks after his win in Montreal, Kyrgios ended another Medvedev title defence on North American hard courts with an impressive four-set victory at the US Open.

“I just thought I played the right way,” said Kyrgios, who fired 53 winners, including 21 aces, en route to a two-hour, 53-minute fourth-round win at Flushing Meadows. “I returned unbelievable today. Just thought the third and fourth sets were just so free. I was just having a lot of fun, embracing every moment out on Ashe today. [I am] really proud of that.”

_{^{Photo Credit: Sarah Stier/Getty Images}}

Kyrgios sealed his victory despite a bizarre third-set gaffe, later described by the Australian as “probably the most boneheaded play of all time”. At 1-0, 30/30 on Medvedev’s serve in the third set, Kyrgios ran round the net to intercept a high volley from the top seed that was clearly not going to make it to his side of the court.

“I thought it was legal to be honest. I genuinely thought it was legal,” Kyrgios said in an interview with ESPN. “I thought I was playing the concrete streets of my suburb in Canberra… You can see my face… I was so happy. I was like, ‘That’s the best shot ever’ and it wasn’t legal. But it was fun.”

A disappointed Medvedev was impressed with the level Kyrgios had shown as the Australian extended his lead in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series to 4-1.

“It was a high-level match,” said Medvedev, who lost his No. 1 spot in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings as a result of the loss. “[I’ve] played Novak, Rafa. They all play amazing. Nick today played kind of their level, in my opinion.

“He has a little bit different game because he’s not like a grinder in a way. At the same time, he can rally. He’s tough to play. He has an amazing serve… He has every shot. It was a really high-level match from him.”

Read more of our Best of 2022 series