Tsitsipas Seeks Second Nitto ATP Finals Title
Tsitsipas Seeks Second Nitto ATP Finals Title
Tsitsipas Seeks Second Nitto ATP Finals Title
Seeking Six: Djokovic Chasing History In Turin
When American Ben Shelton fell short in the Tiburon Challenger final this past month, the teenager left California frustrated that he had lost in all three ATP Challenger Tour finals in which he had competed this year. But a new mindset aided Shelton this week as he grabbed his maiden Challenger crown.
Shelton, who is one of five Challenger champions this week, defeated close friend Christopher Eubanks 7-6(4), 7-5 in the final at the Jonathan Fried Pro Challenger in Charlottesville, Virginia to capture his long-awaited title.
“I started to realise that when I looked back on the film, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was,” Shelton said. “I really tried to focus on the things I can control, stop worrying about the little things such as how well I’m hitting my forehand and instead just compete really hard.”
After runner-up finishes in Rome (Georgia), Chicago, and Tiburon, the 20-year-old dropped just one set all week in Charlottesville en route to the title. The former University of Florida standout is the fifth player to win the NCAA singles title and a Challenger title in the same season and the first since Steve Johnson in 2012.
“I went in [to this week] with a mindset that I was going to out compete everybody,” Shelton said. “I was going to bring more energy than everyone I played. I think that was a really big part of my success this week.”
Ben Shelton celebrates winning his first ATP Challenger Tour title. Credit: Allen Hoover
Shelton is the third #NextGenATP American to claim a Challenger title this year (Zachary Svajda, Emilio Nava). The lefty rises to a career-high No. 128 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
In Charlottesville doubles action, Britain’s Julian Cash and Henry Patten triumphed to win a season-leading seventh Challenger title, the first time a duo has captured more than six Challenger titles in a season since Max Purcell and Luke Saville (7) in 2019.
In Bergamo, Italy, Finland’s Otto Virtanen advanced through qualifying en route to claiming his maiden Challenger title, defeating Jan-Lennard Struff 6-2, 7-5 in the final at the Trofeo Perrel – Faip.
The 21-year-old is the first Finnish Challenger champion since Emil Ruusuvuori in 2019. Virtanen is just the second player from Finland to win a Challenger title in the past 10 years.
“I had a chance of not even coming here,” Virtanen said. “I played the doubles final Saturday in Brest and I had to fly here to play my first match Sunday. Day-by-day, I kept playing better.”
Otto Virtanen is crowned champion in Bergamo, Italy. Credit: Antonio Milesi
Virtanen, who was competing in his first Challenger final, was a semi-finalist at the Surbiton and Liberec Challengers earlier this season. Virtanen joins a strong list of former champions in Bergamo including the previous three titlists: Holger Rune, Jannik Sinner, and Matteo Berrettini.
The title at the indoor hard court event lifts the #NextGenATP youngster to a career-high 195.
German Daniel Altmaier completed his run of capturing back-to-back titles at the Challenger Ciudad de Guayaquil. The 24-year-old, who won the Lima Challenger a week prior to Sunday, took down Federico Coria 6-2, 6-4 to extend his match-winning streak to 10.
Daniel Altmaier triumphs at the Guayaquil Challenger. Credit: Jose Alvarado
“This week was very positive for me,” Altmaier said. “I finished today with the title and that makes me very happy. I played against Coria last week and I felt quite comfortable. I had a good plan to play until the last point so I was always fighting, playing well until I won.”
Altmaier, who also won the Heilbronn Challenger in May, is one of five men to claim a trio of Challenger titles this season: Quentin Halys, Constant Lestienne, Luca Nardi, and Wu Yibing. Pedro Cachin and Jack Draper have claimed a season-leading four Challenger titles.
At the NSW Open in Sydney, Australia, Yu Hsiou Hsu earned his maiden Challenger title. The 23-year-old from Chinese Taipei defeated home favourite Marc Polmans 6-4, 7-6(5) in the final.
Hsu, who is a three-time Grand Slam boys’ doubles champion (2017 Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open), was competing in just his sixth Challenger event of the season. Hsu didn’t drop a set all week en route to the title and climbs to a career-high 226.
Australian Christopher O’Connell took down home hope Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3 to win the Yokohama Keio Challenger.
Chris O’Connell in action at the 2022 Yokohama Challenger. Credit: Yokohama Keio Challenger
“Obviously I’m pretty happy,” O’Connell said during the trophy presentation. “This is my fourth Challenger win, it’s always good to get the win, especially in Japan, I love playing here.”
O’Connell, who has won eight of his past nine matches, is a three-time Challenger finalist this season, including in Split, Croatia, where the Aussie won his first of two titles this year. At his home Slam in January, the Sydney native upset 13th seed Diego Schwartzman before falling to Maxime Cressy in the third round. The title in Japan lifts the 28-year-old to a career-high 84.
Did You Know?
Holger Rune won the Rolex Paris Masters to become the second player this season to win a Challenger and a Masters 1000 title, joining Borna Coric. Coric’s title in Cincinnati marked the first time the feat has been done since 1993, and now the Danish teen and the Croat have combined to make history.
When Italian Mattia Bellucci earned his first Pepperstone ATP Rankings points in 2018, the youngster relished seeing his name amongst the stars he watched on TV, such as his idol, Rafael Nadal.
This season, the 21-year-old added his name to a new list. Bellucci advanced through qualifying en route to capturing his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title at the Saint-Tropez Challenger in October. He didn’t stop there.
At the Vilnius Challenger, the lefty dropped just one set all week en route to claiming back-to-back titles. Winning 12 straight matches was a welcome sight to Bellucci.
“I remember playing my first Futures in 2017 or 2018 and I got my first two [ranking] points and it felt amazing,” Bellucci said. “Being in the same rankings as my idols, even if I was like 1,000 something, it felt special.
“I started this season [2022] around 680 in the rankings. I was playing only Futures events, it was a good start. At the beginning of the season, I was also a bit stressed because of how it would go with my new coach [Fabio Chiappini]. I’m super, super happy with the level I’ve played at.”
After claiming five ITF Futures titles in the first half of the year, Bellucci transitioned to the Challenger Tour and found quick success. The title in Saint-Tropez, France was Bellucci’s eighth Challenger event.
Bellucci is one of seven Italian #NextGenATP youngsters who have claimed a Challenger title in 2022: Matteo Arnaldi, Flavio Cobolli, Francesco Maestrelli, Lorenzo Musetti, Luca Nardi, and Francesco Passaro have also triumphed this season. Bellucci and Nardi, who has three Challenger titles this year, are the only Italian #NextGenATP players to score multiple Challenger titles in 2022.
“When I won the tournament in Saint-Tropez, I felt super, super tired,” Bellucci said. “I had to travel the same day to home and the day after to Vilnius. I said, ‘Okay it could be a first round [loss]’. Because when you win a tournament playing seven matches with such a good level and then going indoors, and without practising indoors once before the tournament. I was super stressed because I was coming from a win and I said, ‘Okay, let’s see how it goes!’”
“To double up in Vilnius was super special. At the beginning of the year I wasn’t even playing Challengers. When I won, I said to myself, ‘Now, something changes!’”
Mattia Bellucci poses with the ballkids at the 2022 Saint-Tropez Challenger. Credit: Alexander Hergott
Bellucci became the youngest Italian to win Challenger titles in back-to-back weeks since 19-year-old Stefano Pescosolido in 1991. Hailing from a country rich in tennis history, Bellucci hopes to combine with the other Italian youngsters to continue the country’s long success.
With three Italians in the Top 25 (Matteo Berrettini, Jannik Sinner, Musetti) of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Bellucci looks to follow a similar path as his close friend, Musetti, to climb up the rankings.
“We are simulating each other,” Bellucci said. “I know Musetti really well. We played the same tournaments when we were younger, but he was way better than me so he went up first.
“I’m like, ‘Okay, if we had the same past, playing the same tournaments when we were younger, then why not [me]?’ We [Italy] have a lot of younger players, ages 20-22 who play at a really high level.”
Mattia Bellucci in action at the 2022 Vilnius Challenger. Credit: Saulius Čirba
Born and raised in Busto Arsizio, which is near Milan, Bellucci started playing tennis at four-years-old with his father, who coached at a local club. His father, Fabrizio, coached him until the start of the 2022 season, when Mattia started working with Fabio Chiappini. Both coaches have played a key role in developing Mattia into the player he is today.
“I think I’m a good server for the height I have,” Bellucci said. “I always love to variate, starting with the slice, being aggressive, especially on hard courts. My groundstrokes are at a different height. My backhand is super flat and my forehand has a lot of spin.”
Boasting a 15-9 Challenger-match record in 2022, Bellucci is set to close out his season at the Helsinki and Andria Challengers before embarking on chasing his goal for the 2023 season: cracking the Top 100.
A quartet of first-time ATP Head2Head meetings kick off the 2022 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals on Tuesday, when all eight competitors at the 21-and-under season finale will seek a fast start at the Allianz Cloud in Milan.
View Schedule | View Draw
The highest-ranked player in the event, World No. 23 Lorenzo Musetti will take to court for his Red Group battle against Chun-Hsin Tseng in confident mood following an impressive run of late-season form on European hard courts.
The 20-year-old won his second Tour title in Naples in October and took out Casper Ruud en route to the quarter-finals in Paris last week. He also has experience with the event’s innovative first-to-four-games, best-of-five-sets format, having gone 1-2 in the round-robin stage in 2021.
As Musetti was making his Milan debut last November, Chun-Hsin Tseng was well outside the Top 200 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. The 21-year-old from Chinese Taipei has made great strides since, surging to a career-high No. 83 in August off the back of some strong performances on the ATP Challenger Tour. Can Tseng upset one of the pre-tournament favourites on opening day?
A hard-hitting lefty battle rounds out the Day 1 schedule in Milan as Briton Jack Draper tests himself against Dominic Stricker. The 20-year-old Draper has enjoyed a rapid rise this season, with winning four Challenger Tour titles and reaching a maiden ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in Montreal among the highlights.
World No. 41 Draper sits 70 places higher than Stricker in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, but he will be aware of his Red Group opponent’s history of going toe-to-toe with the best. The 20-year-old Swiss Stricker defeated former World No. 3 Marin Cilic on his ATP Tour debut in 2021 and has beaten four Top 40 opponents in 2022 alone.
Like Musetti, 2021 semi-finalist Brandon Nakashima is returning to play in Milan for the second time. Unlike Musetti, the American will not enjoy vociferous home support when he returns to compete at the Allianz Cloud, where local fans will be hoping Nakashima’s opening-match opponent Matteo Arnaldi can spring an early upset.
Fourth seed Nakashima knows all about the impact of a supportive crowd — he lifted his maiden ATP Tour title in his hometown of San Diego in September — and Arnaldi arrives for this Green Group clash with some promising recent Challenger Tour showings in the bank. They include a run to the final in San Tropez in mid-October, but can the Italian make his mark in this battle of 21-year-olds?
Francesco Passaro began the 2022 season outside the Top 600 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, but on Tuesday he will fly the flag for the home nation in the opening match at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals. The 21-year-old has already shown he can handle the pressure of performing on home soil. He won his maiden Challenger Tour title in Trieste in July and registered his maiden tour-level win in Florence in October.
His first opponent in Green Group, Jiri Lehecka, knows a thing or two about meteoric rises himself. The fifth-seeded Czech reached the semi-finals as a qualifier in Rotterdam in February, having never previously won a tour-level match.
Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals begins Tuesday in Milan. But first, the 21-and-under stars took a walk outside the Allianz Cloud for this year’s official group photo.
As the seasons change in Milan, the players posed in front of a resplendent stretch of leaves a block away from the tournament venue.
From left to right, the players competing in this year’s Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals are Francesco Passaro, Chun-Hsin Tseng, Brandon Nakashima, Lorenzo Musetti, Jack Draper, Jiri Lehecka, Dominic Stricker and Matteo Arnaldi.
Green Group consists of Nakashima, Lehecka, Passaro and Arnaldi, while Red Group features Musetti, Draper, Tseng and Stricker.
Six of the eight competitors are tournament debutants, with the exception of home favourite Musetti and 2021 semi-finalist Nakashima. The tournament runs 8-12 November.
Great Britain’s ‘underdogs’ are drawing on past success – and coffee and humour – to inspire them at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Glasgow.
#NextGenATP stars Jack Draper and Dominic Stricker have been practising hard in Milan as they prepare to make their debuts at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals.
The Briton and Swiss lefty will both compete in Red Group at the 21-and-under event. However, before the action starts, the pair got to know each other at the weekend when they shared jokes while walking the streets of Milan.
“I am a cool guy,” Stricker told Draper when describing his personality. “In my free time I like to play games with my family and video games.”
“I would say I am a pretty chilled guy,” Draper replied. “Tennis is a big part of my life, but I like to be home and be with my family and friends. I like to chill and do normal things and be a normal 20-year-old.”
Draper will play Stricker in his opening match on Tuesday night. Both players feel they have what it takes to lift the trophy in Milan at the fifth edition of the event.
“I think I can win because I am playing good tennis,” the 20-year-old Draper told Stricker. “I feel I am in good shape. I know everybody here is a very good player but I think I can compete well and hopefully win the tournament.”
“I think the same,” the 20-year-old Stricker replied. “I am in good shape. I have played well in the past few tournaments and I am feeling good. But everyone here has had a great season. But I am just happy to be here and I hope I can utilise my strengths.”
In a breakthrough season, Draper earned wins against Stefanos Tsitsipas and Felix Auger-Aliassime, while Stricker defeated Top 40 players Maxime Cressy and Botic van de Zandschulp. Both players are targeting further scalps in 2023.
“I would say the next player on my to beat list is Rafa [Nadal] on clay,” Stricker said. “It is a tough one but I think it is something everyone would like to do.”
“Cam Norrie for me,” Draper said. “He has had me twice when I have played him. I would like to play him again and beat him for sure because he has bragging rights over me at the moment.”
For now, their focus will remain on Milan. Lorenzo Musetti and Chun-Hsin Tseng will also compete in Red Group alongside Draper and Stricker, with Brandon Nakashima, Jiri Lehecka, Francesco Passaro and Matteo Arnaldi in Green Group.
Photo Credits: Peter Staples/ATP Tour
For Jiri Lehecka, sporting success runs in the family. His father was a swimmer and his mother was a track and field star. While the Czech has long enjoyed skiing, swimming and running, tennis was always his first passion. Lehecka struck his first shots at three years old with his grandmother, who competed in tennis at a national level, before he turned professional in 2020.
Now the 20-year-old is No. 74 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and is ready to make his mark in the game after enjoying a breakthrough season on the ATP Tour that started in Rotterdam in February.
“For me, [Rotterdam] was an unbelievable week because I started the year pretty fine,” Lehecka told ATPTour.com. “I qualified in Australia. I lost in the first round in four sets, so the season was starting pretty well for me. Then I had two or three weeks where I didn’t play good tennis. I played bad and didn’t feel good on court. Then my coach joined me at Rotterdam. We did some improvements and hard work and in Rotterdam it was an unbelievable week. A little surprising, but I was enjoying every moment there.”
In a confidence-boosting week, Lehecka came through qualifying at the ATP 500 event before he earned his maiden tour-level win against Denis Shapovalov in the first round. He then defeated Botic van de Zandschulp and Lorenzo Musetti before Stefanos Tsitsipas halted his run in the semi-finals.
“In qualifying I beat two good players. If you are playing qualifying at ATP Tour event it is not easy,” Lehecka said. “I beat Corentin Moutet in the final qualifying round. For me, the win against Lorenzo Musetti was the best. It was the win that got me into the Top 100. So all the matches were unbelievable for me and great experiences, but this match for me would be the top one. After I won I did not know I was in the Top 100, but the guy on the post-match interview said to me, ‘Congrats, this match you achieved Top 100’ and I was like ‘Wow, when? Unbelievable’.”
Having earned his place in the Top 100, Lehecka gained entry opportunities into more tour-level events. However, the 20-year-old, who also enjoys playing video games and hiking in the mountains, struggled to achieve his desired results in the weeks following Rotterdam.
Lehecka believes that was to be expected, though, as he adjusted to the increased demands the ATP Tour put on him.
“I am 20 years old so when I got into the Top 100 it had been an unbelievable thing,” said Lehecka. “I didn’t play my best tennis post-Rotterdam. I need to say that honestly, but it was mostly the experience for me. I was enjoying big tournaments for the first time in my life. I played qualifying in Monte Carlo, I won. I got into the main draw. A lot of these were first-time experiences and I was trying to get used to the level. I was trying to get used to all the stuff of being in the Top 100 and then I was trying to feel my game better and better.
“The guys on the ATP Tour, most are crazy experienced and they are so clever on the court. They are so consistent. They don’t give you many chances to build on, so it is very tough to play against them not with the tennis part but the mental part.”
It did not take long for Lehecka to regain his best level, though, with the Czech capturing an ATP Challenger Tour title on home soil in Liberec in August. Having grown up just 30 minutes from the town, the victory meant a lot to him.
“Liberec was a city I was playing when I was younger. I enjoyed it a lot there because there are a lot of people I know there,” Lehecka said. “It is 30 minutes away from my home in the car, so it is very convenient to play there. The fans were just unbelievable. The way they supported me the whole tournament and especially the semi-final and final was something unbelievable and I am so glad I got this experience to play there in front of my home crowd.
“I am so happy that in the Czech Republic we have five or six tournaments on the Challenger Tour and we are able to play there if we want some matches or if we want a home crowd. The Challenger Tour is very important part of everyone’s journey. I won my first Challenger last year in Finland. Winning my first Challenger title was one of the most important moments of my life. It is very important part of tennis.”
Having had his eyes set on competing at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals since the start of the season, Lehecka arrives in Milan determined to finish his breakthrough year strongly after missing out on qualifying in 2021.
“Last year I ended as the first alternate for the Next Gen Finals, so I chose to play another tournament instead of being an alternate, so that was a little bit unlucky,” Lehecka said. “When you have the chance to play the Next Gen Finals it means you had a good year, you gained some points which got you there. When I started my season in Australia this was for sure one of my big plans and dreams to qualify for this tournament.”
Lehecka has fond memories of watching the event, having seen Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz soar to the title in Milan. The 20-year-old is hoping to follow in their footsteps and continue his journey to the top.
“I saw [the event] many times. I watched it from the beginning. Watching how the young guns are doing and playing,” Lehecka said. “For me, it is one of the greatest tournaments and it looks very nice. I am looking forward to it. Of course I will do everything I can to have my best results over there.
“For me to have a chance to be in this kind of position, Top 60, play Next Gen Finals is a big motivation for me. It shows me where I can be when I am 20, 21 years old. It gives me big motivation for the future. I am saying to myself, ‘Here I am now’ and I am really happy and curious to see where I will be when I am 25 or 26.”
Last season, Brandon Nakashima made his mark at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals. The 21-year-old earned round-robin stage victories against Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Holger Rune before he lost to Sebastian Korda in a five-set semi-final thriller.
Twelve months on and the American is excited to be back in Milan where he is aiming to take the next step and triumph at the 21-and-under event.
“I had such great memories in Milan last year,” Nakashima told ATPTour.com. “I think the ATP and the tournament director do such a great job there. The atmosphere with the fans and everything is super nice, super cool. It’s always nice to just play a fun, competitive tournament with people your age. I think it’s going to be another great tournament this year.
“Last year I played Korda and that match was super exciting, [against a] fellow American. I think all these [young] guys have such great games and such unique games that bring different aspects to tennis that makes it so cool.”
After gaining a taste for Milan and the vocal Italian fans last year, Nakashima was determined to qualify again in 2022, making it a priority at the start of the season.
“All the young players coming up, being able to qualify for the Next Gen Finals means that you had such a great year and produced some good results,” Nakashima said. “I think qualifying for that is such a good achievement, especially for young players, to be able to get that exposure at a young age, playing such a high-level tournament is very important.
“The Italian fans are super cool, they are super electric out there. Playing in an indoor stadium with a full crowd is something super special and they really support all the young players out there. I think it’s really cool to see that.”
Nakashima entered 2022 off the back of a strong second half to the 2021 season. The American reached two ATP Tour finals (Los Cabos, Atlanta) last July and by November climbed to No. 62 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
The 21-year-old, who enjoys playing golf and watching football, has continued to build this year, winning his maiden tour-level title in San Diego. Nakashima is proud of how he has handled his second season on Tour.
“I’m very happy with my performance this year,” Nakashima said. “For me, looking at the wins or loss columns doesn’t matter too much. It’s a matter of developing my game and trying to keep improving every day. Coming to these big tournaments and having these experiences is only going to further my experience and make me more confident out here.
“I was always expecting it was going to be a tough year. [The] second year on Tour, a lot of people get familiar with you, with your game a little bit more. You’re not such a surprise to many people as you were your first year. I think I’ve handled it pretty well with the expectations and everything. I try not to think about it too much on my side, just focus on what I can do out there.”
Alongside his title triumph in San Diego, Nakashima performed well at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. He pushed Alexander Zverev hard in the third round in Paris, before he reached the fourth round on the lawns in London.
“That match [against Zverev], I definitely gained a lot of confidence from,” Nakashima said. “Leading up to Roland Garros, I wasn’t winning too many matches on clay and then winning the first few rounds of Roland Garros was super big for my game and confidence. Having that great match with Zverev in the third round, I definitely took a lot from that match, learned a lot. I think it definitely helped me for the next couple weeks.
“I kind of always knew that my game was good for grass. A lot of my coaches always said I could do really well on grass. Leading up to Wimbledon, I had some good matches, good practices, and Wimbledon was such a great experience. It was such a great run for me that I definitely took a lot of confidence from it.”
Holding a 30-22 tour-level record on the season, Nakashima will look to use his experience and become the fifth champion at the 21-and-under event.
