With another 1,000 points on offer this week at the Western & Southern Open, the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin continues to heat up as players vie for the eight available spots at the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals.

Fresh off his quarter-final run in his home city of Montreal, Felix Auger-Aliassime is in position to make his debut at the year-end showcase. Sitting at seventh in the Race with 2,645 poins, the Canadian can create some separation from the chasing pack with a strong performance in Cincinnati. Seeded seventh, he will face either Alex de Minaur or qualifier Henri Laaksonen in his opening match, with a potential meeting with Race leader Rafael Nadal looming in the quarter-finals.

From the the 22-year-old down to Montreal champion Pablo Carreno Busta in 11th place, fewer than 600 points separate five players competing at this week’s ATP Masters 1000 event. That group also includes returning finalist Andrey Rublev, Montreal runner-up Hubert Hurkacz and American Taylor Fritz, with the latter seeking his second Masters 1000 title on home soil this season following his breakthrough triumph in Indian Wells.

Also within striking distance of a Top 8 spot this week are Matteo Berrettini, Cameron Norrie, Jannik Sinner and Marin Cilic, all of whom could reach eighth place or better with a title, depending on other results.

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At the top of the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, Nadal’s 5,630 points give him a healthy buffer from second-place Carlos Alcaraz on 4,290. Nadal will become the first player to qualify for Turin if this week he reached the semi-finals in Cincinnati. Alcaraz cannot pass Nadal this week, even with a title, but will instead be focussed on fending off a challenge from third place Stefanos Tsitsipas and fourth place Casper Ruud.

In fifth, Daniil Medvedev can pass Ruud this week with the title, but would require an early exit from the Norwegian, who leads him by 840 points.

Follow the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, which updates after each match completes.

Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka wrote another chapter into their long-running rivalry on Monday at the Western & Southern Open, where the Scot advanced with a hard-fought 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-5 victory in Cincinnati.

The former World No. 1 showed his fighting qualities during the two-hour, 34-minute first-round match as he scampered around the baseline to hang in points. He also caused damage with his backhand, while he rallied from a break down in the third set to improve to 13-9 in their ATP Head2Head series.

“The court is pretty lively when the weather is like this. Physically I feel tired,” Murray said in his on-court interview. “I had some issues with cramp during the match, the same as Washington, so that is something I need to get on top of.

“I tried to take the ball on a little more and finish points at the net. I wasn’t that successful when I came up, but the intention was there. I was a little more offensive on the second-serve return. Last game I was just fighting, trying to find a way through.”

Following his epic two-hour and 54-minute win, the Scot now holds a 35-14 record in Cincinnati, having lifted the trophy in 2008 and 2011. The 35-year-old will look to taste further success at the hard-court event when he faces Cameron Norrie in the second round after the ninth seed edged #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4.

“He is very different to how Stan plays, being a lefty,” Murray said when looking ahead to his match against Norrie. “Flat on the backhand, heavy topspin on the forehand. We have spent a little bit of time on the court together, so there won’t be many surprises out there for me.”

Murray arrived in Ohio off the back of a disappointing first-round exit in Montreal last week. However, the 46-time tour-level champion has shown signs of promise this season, reaching finals in Sydney and Stuttgart, helping him rise back into the Top 50 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time since 2018.

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In a tight battle in Ohio, there was little to separate World No. 47 Murray and Wawrinka in the first set. The Scot consistently found depth on his watertight groundstrokes as he looked to force the 37-year-old into mistakes, who combined moments of magic with erratic play. After both remained strong on serve, a tie-break was left to decide the opener, with Murray clinching the set when Wawrinka fired a forehand long.

Wawrinka refused to go away in the second set, though, and was rewarded for his attacking play in the eighth game when he broke to lead 5-3. After failing to serve out the set, the three-time Grand Slam champion finally levelled when he broke Murray again in the 12th game.

With both players tiring in a physical third set, it was Murray who found an extra gear despite receiving multiple medical timeouts. The Scot battled from 0-2 down as he stood close to the baseline and stayed in rallies, eventually breaking to lead 6-5 before successfully holding to triumph. Murray let out a roar and raised his arms aloft when he sealed the match on his third match point

Wawrinka was aiming to earn his first hard-court match win since the 2021 Australian Open. The Swiss star was competing at the ATP Masters 1000 event for the 13th time, with his best result a run to the semi-finals in 2012.

In other action, John Isner overcame Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi 7-6(11), 3-6, 7-6(4). The American, who fired 31 aces, saved three set points in the third set before he eventually booked his spot in the second round after two hours and 25 minutes.

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Isner will face Montreal finalist and doubles partner Hubert Hurkacz in the second round.

Two players have cracked the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time after winning ATP Challenger Tour titles this week.

Argentine Camilo Ugo Carabelli went on an impressive run, dropping just one set this past week en route to winning the Directv Open Lima while Roman Safiullin continued his hot streak, during which he has won 12 of his past 13 matches to claim his third Challenger title at the Chicago Men’s Challenger.

Ugo Carabelli, 23, defeated three of his countrymen back-to-back-to-back in Lima, Peru, including a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory against 21-year-old Thiago Agustin Tirante in the final to claim his third Challenger Tour title and second this season (Buenos Aires). The third seed’s title extends Argentina’s lead to 16 Challenger titles this year and lifts Ugo Carabelli to 96 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

In a two-hour, 47 minute semi-final battle, the Buenos Aires native avenged his two previous losses to Tomas Martin Etcheverry (Santiago and Concepcion 2), ending the top seed’s hopes 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Ugo Carabelli made his Grand Slam debut in May by qualifying for the Roland Garros main draw, where he then took out World No. 41 Aslan Karatsev in the first 10-point match tie-break in Roland Garros history, a format that all four Grand Slams have recently adopted.

Safiullin’s title in Chicago, Illinois, propels him to a career-high 97 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after ge defeated 19-year-old Ben Shelton in the final 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

In the past four weeks, Safiullin has captured two Challenger titles, the first coming in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Earlier this season, the 25-year-old earned a pair of victories at the season-opening ATP Cup before achieving his career-best win in February, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 in Marseille.

Chicago finalist Shelton has been building upon his NCAA singles title in May, reaching two Challenger finals and climbing to a career-high 229 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. The University of Florida standout has received a wild card into the ATP Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati and the US Open.

Bernabe Zapata Miralles claims his fourth Challenger Tour title in Meerbusch.

Bernabe Zapata Miralles went on a ruthless run in Meerbusch, Germany, taking down Austrian Dennis Novak 6-1, 6-2 in 50 minutes to claim the Rhein Asset Open. The top seed dropped just one set all week to win his first title of the season and fourth overall, climbing to a career-high 74 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

After advancing through the Roland Garros qualifying draw in May, Zapata Miralles took out three Americans: Michael Mmoh, Taylor Fritz, and John Isner to make the Round of 16 before falling short to third-seed Alexander Zverev. The 25-year-old became the first Spanish qualifier to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam.

Pavel Kotov en route to his second Challenger Tour title.

Pavel Kotov edged home favourite Matteo Arnaldi 7-6(5), 6-4 to win the San Marino Tennis Open, earning his second Challenger title of the season.

However, it didn’t always look promising for the 23-year-old in San Marino, Italy. In his semi-final match against Italian Marco Cecchinato, the Russian was down a set and a double-break before rallying to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Kotov’s run to the title brings him to a career-high mark of 115 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Kotov has earned three Challenger trophies, all in Italy.

Casper Ruud’s standout 2022 continued with a semi-final run in Montreal that sees the Norwegian jump back into the Top 5 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. It was Pablo Carreno Busta who lifted the trophy at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers, however, and the Spaniard’s maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown powers him back into the Top 20.

ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week, as of Monday, 15 August.

No. 5 Casper Ruud, +2 (Joint Career High)
Ruud’s run to his first semi-final at the Canadian Masters 1000 event featured contrasting wins against Roberto Bautista Agut and Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Norwegian rallied for a hard-fought three-hour, 17-minute third-round triumph over Bautista Agut before dashing home hopes in style with a 6-1, 6-2 quarter-final win against Auger-Aliassime. Hubert Hurkacz proved too strong in the semi-finals, but Ruud rises two spots to No. 5 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

View Latest Pepperstone ATP Rankings

No. 14 Pablo Carreno Busta, +9
A dream week in Quebec for Carreno Busta saw the Spaniard reel off a series of high-quality wins to clinch his maiden Masters 1000 crown. Matteo Berrettini, Holger Rune, Jannik Sinner and Jack Draper were all dispatched in straight sets by the 31-year-old, before he showed his mettle in deciding sets against Daniel Evans and Hubert Hurkacz to lift his first tour-level trophy of the season. Carreno Busta jumps nine spots to No. 9 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Read Montreal Final Report & Watch Highlights.

No. 23 Daniel Evans, +16
Daniel Evans’ charge to his second Masters 1000 semi-final in Montreal lifts him 16 spots to No. 23 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, just one shy of his career high. The Briton’s strong showing in Canada included upsets of Andrey Rublev and Taylor Fritz and a dramatic three-set comeback win against Tommy Paul, before semi-final defeat to eventual champion Carreno Busta.

No. 28 Nick Kyrgios, +9
One of the in-form players on the ATP Tour, Nick Kyrgios notched his second career victory over a World No. 1 by taking out Daniil Medvedev in the second round in Montreal. The Australian was ultimately undone by a huge serving performance from Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-finals, but Kyrgios rises nine spots to No. 28 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings having been outside the Top 100 as recently as March.

No. 55 Jack Draper, +27 (Career High)
A breakthrough week at Masters 1000 level for Draper, who qualified for his tournament main draw debut in Canada before claiming his maiden Top 10 win by defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets in the second round. The #NextGenATP Briton rises 27 spots to No. 55 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings following his quarter-final run in Montreal, where his journey was ended by the inspired Carreno Busta.

Other Notable Top 100 Movers
No. 31 Tommy Paul, +3 (Career High)
No. 63 Adrian Mannarino, +7
No. 74 Bernabe Zapata Miralles, +15 (Career High)
No. 90 Tomas Martin Etcheverry, +4
No. 96 Camilo Ugo Carabelli, +25 (Career High)
No. 97 Roman Safiullin, +25 (Career High)

It rained on and off for most of Sunday in Cincinnati, but Karen Khachanov and Denis Shapovalov made the most of it in more ways than one.

The singles stars enjoyed the delays with the centre court crowd, even briefly dancing to the music during a delay before battling past Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop 7-6(6), 6-7(12), 10-6 to reach the second round of the Western & Southern Open. 

“Seriously thanks to all the fans who stayed late and through the delays!!” Shapovalov wrote in an Instagram story. “Your energy the entire match was 🔥.”

In singles action, Botic van de Zandschulp set a second-round meeting with World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev when he overcame American Maxime Cressy 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

The Dutchman, who is making his debut in Cincinnati, fired seven aces and broke Cressy five times to advance after two hours and four minutes in a rain-disrupted clash at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

The 25-year-old now holds a 29-20 record this season, having enjoyed a run to his first tour-level final in Munich. Van de Zandschulp advanced to the second round in Montreal last week and will be aiming to go one step further in Ohio.

However, he faces a difficult second-round test against Medvedev, who leads their ATP Head2Head series 2-0. The 26-year-old ended van de Zandschulp’s dream US Open run at the quarter-final stage last season, when the Dutchman sat outside the Top 100. With his victory over Cressy, van de Zandschulp is up to No. 24 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

American wild card Mackenzie McDonald defeated Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-0, 6-1 in the only other singles main draw match of the day. Players who qualified included Lorenzo Musetti, Thanasi Kokkinakis, David Goffin and Lorenzo Sonego. 

It’s been one of those years for Matteo Berrettini, the kind where you don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The Italian kicked off 2022 in style with a career-best run to the Australian Open semi-finals. In February, he retired midway through his first-round matchup with American Tommy Paul in Acapulco due to abdominal woes. After Indian Wells, he sustained an injury to his right hand that necessitated surgery, forcing him to withdraw from the clay-court swing. Berrettini was just getting back into the swing of things on the grass, winning nine straight matches and sweeping back-to-back titles in Stuttgart and The Queen’s Club, when he tested positive for COVID-19. Wimbledon, where he would have been among the favourites, was suddenly out.

“I started to think it was like a prank or something, a joke, because I was feeling pretty good,” said Berrettini, the World No. 15, last week at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers. “It was really tough. I was by myself. I was quarantined. There wasn’t anybody to hug or watch a movie with. It was just me in my room trying not to think about what would happen, think about the future.”

For Berrettini, who dropped his opener against eventual titlist Pablo Carreno Busta in Montreal, 6-3, 6-2, that future is now. A big result this week at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati would do wonders to put him back in the running for a spot at the year-end Nitto ATP Finals. Currently 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, he’ll have his work cut out for him from the first round. On Tuesday, the 12th seed will open against Frances Tiafoe. He hasn’t faced the American since 2018, when he claimed a 6-3, 7-6(1) first-round decision on clay in Rome.

In addition to a personal-best fourth-round showing at Wimbledon, Tiafoe, No. 25 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, has played some of his best tennis this year on home soil, reaching quarter-finals in Houston and Washington, and a semi-final in Atlanta.

“I’m finally starting to play really well again,” said Tiafoe. “I was struggling there for a little bit. Injured earlier this year [elbow]. I was struggling. Wasn’t playing terribly, but wasn’t playing to where I was at the end of last year. From Wimbledon on, I thought I was playing really good tennis, having a lot of great wins, to get that big momentum again.”

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If anyone knows about injuries, it’s Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka. As fate would have it, the multi-Grand Slam champions will meet in the first round in Cincinnati in what will be their 22nd career encounter (Murray owns a 12-9 edge in ATP Head2Heads). The former World No. 1 Murray of Great Britain, of course, has undergone two hip surgeries, while the Swiss Wawrinka has only recently returned after recovering from surgery on his left foot (hence his No. 306 ranking). He’s played just 10 tour-level matches in 2022 (3-7), his best result a Round-of-16 showing in Rome.

Both players have had success on the hard courts of Ohio’s Queen City. Murray took the title in 2008 and 2011, while Wawrinka has reached the quarter-finals or better on four occasions.

The three-time major titlist Murray, currently No. 47 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, is hoping a deep run in Cincinnati will earn him a seeding at the US Open.

Other notable matches on the Tuesday slate include: Denis Shapovalov vs. Grigor Dimitrov, Holger Rune vs. Cameron Norrie, Karen Khachanov vs. Sebastian Korda, Aslan Karatsev vs. Brandon Nakashima, and Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Francisco Cerundolo.

Daniil Medvedev will forever remember the Western & Southern Open, but not just for the reason you would expect.

Medvedev claimed his first ATP Masters 1000 title three years ago in Cincinnati, which will forever remain a special moment for him. But a lot happened behind the scenes that fans did not know at the time.

On Sunday, the 26-year-old revealed that it was unlikely he would make it through one match at the Lindner Family Tennis Center that year. The week before, Medvedev advanced to his first Masters 1000 final in Montreal. He was invited on a charter flight to Cincinnati, but that is where things went awry.

“The plane was delayed, maybe there was a thunderstorm or something,” Medvedev said. “I remember coming to my room and I was the No. 9 seed, so I was just one out from [getting] a bye and playing Wednesday, so I had to play Tuesday. I came [to] my room at like 4:30 in the morning [on Monday].”

Since Medvedev was the ninth seed, he did not receive a bye in Ohio. Therefore, not only did he need to recover from a 4:30 a.m. hotel arrival on Monday to get used to the new conditions — he needed to be ready to play Tuesday.

“I was completely destroyed. I also played the Washington final. I was destroyed and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to try to play’, but I didn’t have [many] expectations,” Medvedev said. “Every match was the same, something was hurting, I was really tired, I was like, ‘Just go through this and let’s see how it goes’.”

The right-hander made it through his first-round match against Kyle Edmund 6-2, 7-5 and never looked back. The only set he dropped was in the semi-finals against Novak Djokovic, who the year before had completed the Career Golden Masters in Cincinnati.

“I have pretty amazing memories, especially playing my best matches, starting from the quarters and of course the match against Novak, where he was one set to love up. Amazing,” Medvedev said. “That’s why I always love coming here. The tournament didn’t really change from three years ago. I love this atmosphere, because I was always playing good here, especially starting from four years ago. I hope to do the same this year.” 

Medvedev arrives following an opening-round loss in Montreal to Nick Kyrgios. However, the recent Los Cabos champion is not stressing that defeat too much.

“Talking about the match with Nick, I played good. I lost the match, so the result was, let’s put it this way, terrible losing first round, if we don’t talk about who I lost and which match,” Medvedev said. “But because of… the last years and the way I’m feeling right now, I’m feeling confident for Cincinnati and [the] US Open itself.

The top seed, who is now a four-time Masters 1000 champion, will try to find the magic again in Cincinnati, beginning with his opening match against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.

“For sure [I] want to try to win as many matches as possible here to grow this confidence of winning matches for the US Open. But we’ll take it match by match. As we see in the draw, I feel that the draw is very, very packed,” Medvedev said. “Sometimes you have somebody retiring here and there, somebody tired from the season, maybe not in the best shape here. When I look at the draw I’m like wow, every match we have, even in the first round, is a tough match.”

The No. 1 team in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Rankings padded its lead on Sunday in the Montreal final. Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski won their sixth title since joining forces this year by edging Daniel Evans and John Peers 6-2, 4-6, 10-6 to claim their second ATP Masters 1000 crown of the season.

The Dutch-British duo dominated the opening set but dropped the second despite clawing back an early break, setting up a dramatic Match Tie-break. They raced out to a 7/2 lead in the tie-break, with Skupski flicking a brilliant lob on the stretch to extend their advantage, then held their nerve to close out the win from 8/6. It was their third Match Tie-break win of the week.

“We played four very close matches [this week],” Koolhof said before the trophy ceremony. “It’s never easy. These days there’s no such thing as easy matches anymore. Very happy with the way we played, our second Masters 1000 title of the year. Things are going great so let’s keep this run going.”

Skupski sealed the victory for the third seeds with a backhand return winner down the line as the pair improved to 6-2 in tour-level finals this season by notching its 45th match win. The red-hot duo has also claimed titles this year in Melbourne, Adelaide-2, Doha, Madrid and ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

“I think we’re still learning,” Skupski said of their blossoming partnership. “We’ve been together seven or eight months now, but it’s really going well. I love being on the court with Wes, it’s been a good partnership so far. Hopefully we can just keep working, progressing. It seems like we’re going to be able to go to Turin eventually and we’re looking forward to it.”

The duo, both individually in the Top 5 of the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, entered Montreal on a three-match losing streak but got back to winning ways at just the right time to win the title at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers. They dominated on first serve in the final, winning 79 per cent of points behind their first delivery.

“It sounds very cocky but we didn’t experience losing three in a row this year so far,” Koolhof said. “We were doing great, playing great. We already had five titles before that three-match losing streak. If you win every match, it’s tough. Mektic/Pavic did it last year. But sometimes to lose is also good to learn again. I think we found the right way again and let’s keep this up towards the end of the year.”