Can Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek’s impressive late-season form carry them all the way to the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin?

The Croatian-American pair showed no sign of slowing down in its pursuit of a spot at the season finale on Thursday, when it registered a 6-4, 6-3 quarter-final victory against top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

It was a sixth consecutive tour-level win for Dodig and Krajicek, who lifted their second ATP Tour title of the season on Sunday in Naples. They remain in ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, but Thursday’s 73-minute triumph moved Dodig and Krajicek within 180 points of eighth-placed Tim Puetz and Michael Venus.

With a seventh-place finish required to guarantee qualification for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals, Dodig and Krajicek will seek to boost their chances further when they meet Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov in the semi-finals in Basel. The Kazakh duo advanced to the last four with a 7-5, 6-3 win against Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez.

Francesco Passaro will look to thrill his home fans in Milan next month after qualifying for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals.

The Italian is the seventh player to earn his spot in the eight-player field at the 21-and-under season finale, which will be played at the Allianz Cloud from 8-12 November. Only one place remains at the event, which will also feature Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Brandon Nakashima, Jiri Lehecka and Chun-Hsin Tseng.

This will be the first time two Italians — Musetti and Passaro — compete in the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in the same edition. Italian Jannik Sinner won the tournament in 2019.

Passaro began the season outside the Top 600 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, but has soared as high as World No. 122. He reached the final at ATP Challenger Tour events in Sanremo and Forli as a qualifier, then advanced to another championship match at that level in Milan before claiming his first Challenger trophy in Trieste.

The 21-year-old earned his first tour-level match win earlier this month in Florence, where he defeated Zhang Zhizhen. Passaro then qualified for another ATP Tour event the following week in Naples.

Nestled amongst high-rise buildings and a short walk from the Pacific coast lies the host venue of the Lima-2 Challenger: Club Terrazas de Miraflores.

You could go to the beach, try surfing, visit some of Lima’s famous parks such as ‘Paruqe del Amor’, taste the Peruvian cuisine, and enjoy the ATP Challenger Tour tournament all without needing public transportation.

While that may seem like a dream getaway for many, tournament director Luis Horna, former World No. 33, strives to bring a home feeling to the competitors at the Lima-2 Challenger.

“It doesn’t matter where the players come from, we always meet them with our arms wide open and try to give them a good treatment,” Horna said. “That’s a key for us. As I used to be a player, I know the way I used to feel at a tournament.

“Miraflores is a well located district here in Lima. All the restaurants, shopping malls are here. There’s always a good atmosphere around the tournament. Not just the local players but also for the guys that are coming from other countries.”

The Lima Challenger, celebrating its 11th edition, is the fifth longest running active South American Challenger tournament, only behind Montevideo (20), Guayaquil (17), Santiago (15), and Campinas (12).

After a 14 year drought of no Peruvians in the Top 100, home hero Juan Pablo Varillas climbed to a career-high No. 97 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in August, becoming the fifth Peruvian player to crack the Top 100. While Varillas is carrying the torch for tennis in Peru, the four-time Challenger champion’s heart is set on doing it with humility.

“When I started going up in the rankings, started improving, the kids needed a tennis player and a figure to follow,” Varillas said. “I love the role I play. There is a bit of pressure because I want to be a good example. It’s a really nice motivation for me to be a really good role model. Not only as a tennis player but also as a person.”

Varillas has been playing his home tournament since 2013 and is a two-time semi-finalist in Lima. The 27-year-old has a special relationship with Horna, who is also Peru’s Davis Cup captain.

Luis ‘Lucho’ Horna (left) and Juan Pablo Varillas at the 2022 Lima-2 Challenger. Credit: Grant Thompson

“My first professional match that I saw when I was young was ‘Lucho’ [Luis Horna] playing Davis Cup,” Varillas said. “He has been a great motivator for us and a role model to follow. Now that I work with him and his management agency, he is my friend also. It’s a really nice relationship we have.

“Lima was my first Challenger that I played when I was in juniors. It’s a great feeling to be at home and it’s been a nice journey playing nine years in a row at this event. At the beginning it was tough for me, the first six years I didn’t win a match. Since 2019, it’s been good. I love the energy of the crowd. Sometimes there is extra tension because there are not many tournaments here in Peru. It’s a bit different but I like it.”

Horna, who claimed two Tour-level titles (Acapulco 2006 and Vina del Mar 2007), said he has seen tennis become more popular since the pandemic and now, almost every tennis academy in Lima is full of students eager to learn. Having Varillas make history also played a role in growing the game In Peru.

“Juan Pablo is a great, hard-working, humble guy,” Horna said. “He has a great family around him, it’s a pleasure to work with him not only in tennis but also as a manager. He’s a player that still has a lot to give to the ATP. I hope in the next couple years, he can explode and make the Top 50, I think he has the chance.

“The image of Juan Pablo is getting bigger and bigger. We also have two juniors that are going very high on the Challenger Tour: Ignacio Buse and Gonzalo Bueno. They are making a good step, everything is going in a good direction.”

Since Horna retired from pro tennis in 2009, he has remained in the sport in a variety of ways. Between being Peru’s Davis Cup captain, running his academy (Academia Lucho), his work at IGMA sports (sports management agency), and directing the Challenger event, Horna stays busy with his life post professional tennis.

Club Terrazas de Miraflores, host site of the 2022 Lima-2 Challenger. Credit: Adam Roberts

“I have always been involved in the sport somehow,” Horna said. “I love to do it, tennis has given me everything in my life, my family, friends. It’s a way to keep in touch with the players and help them. I’m always pleased to do that.”

While ‘Lucho’ is constantly seen giving back to the sport, he acknowledges that the ATP Challenger Tour is vital to professional tennis. The Challenger 80 events (August and October) in Peru’s capital city are a great example of players making their pathway to the highest level.

“Everything starts on the Challenger Tour,” Horna said. “We had [Marco] Cecchinato here three years ago and the next year he made the semi-finals at Roland Garros. We had [Diego] Schwartzman playing here, the first Challenger quarter-final of his career (2012), then he became a Top 10 player.

“Many of the players make their first steps on the Challenger Tour and very quickly they adapt and start to play Tour events. There’s no ATP without the Challenger Tour.”

Located on the Pacific coast and rich in South American culture, Lima has been hosting a great Challenger Tour event for over a decade. Peru’s capital city is the fourth largest city in South America, behind São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro. When Horna and Varillas were asked what to eat in Lima, they laughed and answered the same: ceviche and japanese food.

Did You Know?
Five former Top 50 stars hailing from South America are running Challenger tournaments in their home countries: Horna (Lima), Andres Gomez (Guayaquil & Salinas, Ecuador), Diego Perez (Montevideo, Uruguay), Santiago Giraldo (Pereira, Colombia), and Nicolas Lapentii (Ambato, Ecuador).

Carlos Alcaraz raced through the finish line on Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel by winning the final six games of a competitive match against Botic van de Zandschulp.

The 6-4, 6-2 scoreline belies the hard-fought nature of Alcaraz’s victory. After a tight opening set that was decided by a single break, Alcaraz found himself behind 0-2 in the second as the Dutchman made his first breakthrough.

Five games in the second set went through deuce, but Alcaraz won four of them before serving out the match to love in just under 90 minutes. His late surge prevented another three-set match after his comeback win against #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper on Monday.

The Spaniard is now 3-2 since his US Open triumph last month, which earned him his debut atop the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Alcaraz currently holds a 740-point lead over Rafael Nadal in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. Through to his 11th quarter-final of the season, Alcaraz is seeking to add to his ATP Tour-leading five titles in 2022. His seven finals are joint-most, alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Alcaraz awaits the winner of the late-evening matchup between fifth seed Pablo Carreno Busta and home favourite Dominic Stricker.

Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop made a strong start to their Erste Bank Open campaign on Wednesday, defeating Argentine duo Pedro Cachin and Diego Schwartzman 6-1, 6-3. In the process, the Indian-Dutch pair kept alive its outside chance of reaching November’s Nitto ATP Finals.

Bopanna and Middelkoop are currently 15th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, and likely require deep runs this week in Vienna and next week at the Rolex Paris Masters to have a chance of qualifying for November’s season finale in Turin. Their second-round opponents in the Austrian capital will be Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni, who downed second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski 7-6(6), 7-5.

Daniel Evans and John Peers also charged into the second round in Austria by upsetting top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury at the ATP 500 event. Montreal finalists Evans and Peers converted four of seven break points en route to a dominant 59-minute win against Ram and Salisbury, the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, respectively.

Dodig/Krajicek Make Confident Start In Basel
At the Swiss Indoors Basel, Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek extended their winning streak to five with a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Matthew Ebden and Jamie Murray.

Last week’s Naples champions Dodig and Krajicek dropped just six points behind serve in their 71-minute first-round win, which lifted the Croatian-American pair one spot to ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings. Their next test in Basel is a second-round clash against top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer.

There was disappointment for another duo looking to seal a spot in Turin, Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara, after Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov downed the fourth seeds 7-5, 4-6, 10-3. Despite the loss, Glasspool and Heliovaara remain in sixth in the Race To Turin, with a seventh-placed finish required to guarantee qualification for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals.

Felix Auger-Aliassime hit a new milestone Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where he defeated Marc-Andrea Huesler for his personal-best ninth consecutive tour-level win. Yet the Canadian was pushed all the way for his 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 victory.

Huesler strung together a series of high-class points to charge to the first-set tie-break in his maiden tour-level meeting with Auger-Aliassime. As the vocal home crowd cheered on the Swiss and his big-serving lefty game, the third seed had to remain dialled in to clinch the sole breaks of the second and third sets and earn a two-hour, 18-minute first-round triumph.

“I think matches like this are tougher mentally, in a way,” said Auger-Aliassime in his on-court interview. “Playing indoors, quick points, both of us serving really well. You need to stay locked in and focused for two hours… If you are able to seize one opportunity, you take a break.

“I was able to serve it out well at the end. It was tough to keep my focus, he was serving great, and being really aggressive. Not an easy match, but really happy to get through.”

FAA makes it through in Basel! 🔥

The number 3 seed defeats Marc-Andrea Huesler 6-7 6-4 6-4.#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/CT2IGqVHw6

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 26, 2022

Auger-Aliassime’s nine victories in a row have propelled the 22-year-old into a strong position as he seeks to qualify for November’s Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. Currently seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, the Canadian is chasing his third ATP Tour title in as many weeks following his wins in Florence and Antwerp.

Auger-Aliassime next takes on a familiar face in Miomir Kecmanovic. He trails the Serbian 1-2 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series, but won their most recent meeting in September in the Davis Cup.

“We are around the same age, and we have played each other since we were juniors,” said Auger-Aliassime of Kecmanovic. “The [whole] record is more than three matches, so we know each other really well. It’s always been tough matches for my part.

“I was able to get the win last time, but he’s a very complete player. He moves well, he’s explosive and has a great forehand and backhand. He can do anything, from cross-court, down the line, mix it up really well. He’s serving better and better, so I’ll see. It’s not going to be an easy one.”

The potential matchup many had circled in the Erste Bank Open draw is now a reality. With his opening win on Wednesday, Daniil Medvedev set up a Thursday showdown with home favourite Dominic Thiem in Vienna.

The top-seeded Medvedev eased into the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Nikoloz Basilashvili, breaking early and late in both sets. The 26-year-old improved to 30-10 on hard courts this season as he seeks his second title of 2022 (Los Cabos).

Making his second appearance in the Austrian capital, Medvedev will seek to match his 2020 quarter-final run with a victory against Thiem. The Austrian saved two match points against Tommy Paul on Tuesday to advance to the second round on home soil.

Thiem holds a 3-2 edge in his ATP Head2Head against Medvedev, though Medvedev won their most recent meeting by coming from a set down in the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals title match. Before that, Thiem won their 2020 US Open semi-final in straight sets on the way to his first Grand Slam title.

Denis Shapovalov also advanced on Wednesday in Vienna with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win against Taylor Fritz. The defeat deals a blow to the American’s Nitto ATP Finals hopes, as he remains on the outside looking as the eighth-placed man in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

Through to the quarter-finals after his second win on the week, Shapovalov will face Daniel Evans next.

Stefanos Tsitsipas settled in at the Erste Bank Open as he improved throughout his opening win on Wednesday at the ATP 500 in Vienna.

In a 7-6(2), 6-2 victory against home favourite Dennis Novak, the second-seeded Greek instantly recovered a mid-set break in the opening set. After two straight love holds, Tsitsipas was broken to love as he fell behind 3-4. He then let slip a 0/40 opening in the ensuing game before converting on his fourth break chance and never looked back, dominating the second set to advance to the second round for the third straight year in the Austrian capital.

The victory sets up a rematch of the Cincinnati final, which he lost in Borna Coric. The Croatian earned a three-set win against France’s Quentin Halys on Monday.

Tsitsipas leads the ATP Tour with 57 match wins this season and is also co-leader (with Carlos Alcaraz) with seven finals, including runs to the title match each of the past two weeks in Astana and Stockholm.

Sitting third in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, the 24-year-old has already secured his fourth straight trip to the Nitto ATP Finals, an event he won in his 2019 debut.

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Sixth seed Jannik Sinner also advanced on Wednesday, easing to a 6-3, 6-2 win against Cristian Garin. The Italian improved to 27-8 on hard courts this season, including quarter-final runs at the Australian Open and US Open. 

Seeking to better his run to the 2021 Vienna semis, Sinner will next met Francisco Cerundolo. At 15th in the Race, trailing the seventh-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime by nearly 900 points, Sinner will likely need to sweep the titles in both Vienna and Turin to have a chance of qualifying for Turin.