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Sinner Claims Debut Win In Sofia

  • Posted: Nov 10, 2020

Jannik Sinner survived a late comeback attempt from Martin Fucsovics to book his place in the Sofia Open second round on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old broke serve on five occasions to eliminate last year’s runner-up 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 37 minutes. Sinner, who led 6-2, 4-1, was forced to save break point at 4-4 in the second set, before breaking serve in the final game of the match.

“For everyone, first-round matches are not easy,” said Sinner. “I tried to be solid. In the beginning of the match, we were both playing quite well and moving well… In the second set, I was a break up and he recovered. It was just two or three points in each set that decided the match.”

Sinner improved to 15-11 this year with his first ATP Head2Head victory against Fucsovics. In his only previous match against the Hungarian, the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion fell in straight sets at the Australian Open in January.

The Italian will meet Marc-Andrea Huesler of Switzerland for a place in the quarter-finals. Huesler advanced to the second round on Monday after saving two match points against seventh seed Nikoloz Basilashvili.

“I know that he is lefty, serving well and going to the net. It is not an easy match for sure, especially when you don’t know a guy and you have to play against him,” said Sinner. “It is never easy. I am going to try to be focussed from the first point and then we will see.”

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Richard Gasquet also earned a victory on his Sofia debut. The 34-year-old saved three of his four break points to overcome Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain 6-3, 6-4. Gasquet will meet #NextGenATP Czech Jonas Forejtek in the second round.

Gilles Simon joined his countryman in the second round after beating Andrej Martin of Slovakia 6-2, 6-2. The Frenchman will meet Nur-Sultan champion John Millman for a spot in the quarter-finals.

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Next Gen ATP Finals: A Springboard To Top 10 Success

  • Posted: Nov 10, 2020

After just three editions of the event, the impact of the Next Gen ATP Finals has been clear to see on the ATP Tour.

Through the highly competitive ATP Race To Milan, the top 21-and-under talents have had a clear goal in their sights each year since the start of the 2017 ATP Tour season and have seen their popularity rise under an intense spotlight. But the tournament has not just provided the most promising young talents with an opportunity to showcase their skills to a greater audience, it has also proven to be a springboard for future success.

Five former #NextGenATP talents have cracked the Top 10 in the FedEx ATP Rankings since their appearances in Milan. In fact, three of those players have also gone on to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in London.

NextGenATPFinals.com takes a closer look at the #NextGenATP alumni who have taken their game to new heights since their trips to Milan.

Stefanos Tsitsipas
After attending the inaugural edition of the event in 2017 as an alternate, Tsitsipas returned to Milan one year later as the top seed and won each of his five matches to become the second winner of the tournament. Since then, Tsitsipas has raised his game and become an established member of the Top 10.

The Greek star opened his 2019 season in top form and reached his maiden Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open. Shortly after his run in Melbourne, Tsitsipas reached back-to-back finals in Marseille (d. Kukushkin) and Dubai (l. to Federer) to crack the Top 10 for the first time. Tsitsipas reached six finals in 2019 (3-3) and ended last season with a milestone triumph.

Just 12 months after his title run in Milan, the Athens native earned wins against Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Roger Federer and Dominic Thiem to capture the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals crown. Despite a shortened 2020 calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsitsipas has also reached three championship matches this season (1-2) and qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for the second straight year.

Daniil Medvedev
As the final direct qualifier for the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals, Medvedev posted a 2-1 round robin record to reach the semi-finals in Milan. The Russian pushed eventual champion Hyeon Chung to a deciding set in the last four, but he fell short of booking his spot in the championship match.

In his next season on the ATP Tour, Medvedev claimed 2018 titles in Sydney, Winston-Salem and Tokyo to soar from No. 65 to No. 16 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. The 6’6” right-hander made greater progress in 2019, as he reached a Tour-leading nine championship matches (4-5) and qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.

Medvedev cracked the Top 10 on 15 July 2019 and entered the Top 5 just five weeks later. During an impressive run of results at North American hard court events, Medvedev became the first former #NextGenATP star to reach a Grand Slam final at the US Open (l. to Nadal). The Moscow native has also captured three Masters 1000 crowns. Medvedev won back-to-back titles at the level last year at the Western & Southern Open and Rolex Shanghai Masters and also claimed this year’s Rolex Paris Masters trophy.

Andrey Rublev
Rublev was the only player to compete at the opening two editions of the Next Gen ATP Finals. On both occasions, the Moscow-born star made it through the round robin stage to reach the last four. Rublev finished as runner-up in 2017 and ended the 2018 edition in third place, but the Russian has since made a habit of ending tournaments with a trophy in his hands.

Just one year ago, Rublev arrived at his home event — the VTB Kremlin Cup — at No. 31 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. The home favourite ended a two-year title drought, on his 22nd birthday, to earn his second ATP Tour crown and it didn’t take long for Rublev to add further trophies to his resume in 2020.

Rublev opened this year with back-to-back crowns in Doha and Adelaide to become the first man since Dominik Hrbaty in 2004 to win a pair of titles in the opening two weeks of an ATP Tour season. Following the ATP Tour suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rublev earned 15 consecutive wins at ATP 500 level to clinch titles in Hamburg, St. Petersburg and Vienna. The 23-year-old broke into the Top 10 for the first time on 12 October and confirmed his spot at this year’s Nitto ATP Finals with his title run in Vienna.

Denis Shapovalov
The Canadian narrowly missed out on a place in the semi-finals during the 2017 edition of the tournament, but he has since made his mark on the ATP Tour.

After failing to claim a victory in his opening seven tour-level semi-finals, Shapovalov broke the streak and claimed his maiden trophy at the 2019 Stockholm Open without dropping a set. Shapovalov has also been a consistent performer at Masters 1000 level since his appearance in Milan.

The 21-year-old, who finished as runner-up at the 2019 Rolex Paris Masters, has reached the semi-finals or better at four Masters 1000 events since 2018. Following his most recent Masters 1000 semi-final run at this year’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, Shapovalov climbed into the Top 10 for the first time on 21 September.

Karen Khachanov
Like Shapovalov, Khachanov finished his only appearance at the Next Gen ATP Finals with a 1-2 round robin record in 2017. But that did not stop the Russian from enjoying a breakthrough 2018 ATP Tour season.

Khachanov claimed the first three titles of his career in the year that followed his Milan debut. The 6’6” star won three ATP Tour crowns on indoor hard courts, including ATP 250 trophies in Marseille and Moscow. Khachanov’s greatest result came in his final match of the 2018 season, when he became the first former #NextGenATP player to capture a Masters 1000 title.

Khachanov claimed four consecutive Top 10 wins to claim the 2018 Rolex Paris Masters trophy. Following victories against John Isner, Zverev and Thiem, Khachanov stunned Novak Djokovic in straight sets to clinch the biggest title of his career. Khachanov earned his place in the Top 10 after reaching his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros in 2019.

Outside this group of past and present Top 10 stars, Borna Coric and Alex de Minaur have also enjoyed consistent success on the ATP Tour. Coric reached a career-high No. 12 on 5 November 2018 after a stellar run of results. The Croat stunned Roger Federer to win his second ATP Tour trophy at the 2018 NOVENTI OPEN in Halle and once again defeated the Swiss en route to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final at the 2018 Rolex Shanghai Masters.

Two-time runner-up De Minaur claimed the first three tour-level crowns of his career after his debut appearance in Milan in 2018. The Aussie won 2019 titles in Sydney, Atlanta and Zhuhai and climbed to a career-high No. 18 on 28 October 2019. Taylor Fritz, Hubert Hurkacz, Casper Ruud and Ugo Humbert have also picked up their first titles and cracked the Top 30 for the first time following their debut appearances at the Next Gen ATP Finals.

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Gorman’s Act Of Sportsmanship Remarkable 48 Years On

  • Posted: Nov 10, 2020

In our ongoing series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Nitto ATP Finals, ATPtour.com talks to Tom Gorman about his selfless sportsmanship in Barcelona in 1972.

In the final weeks of 1972, the Cold War raged, as the U.S. and the Soviet Union performed nuclear tests, U.S. President Richard Nixon and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt were both re-elected, peace talks in Vietnam commenced, and the co-founder of Atari released Pong, the first commercially successful video game. And very late on the first Friday night in December, an American tennis player distinguished himself with an act of sportsmanship that’s still remembered nearly half a century later.

The player was Tom Gorman, then 26. His opponent was his countryman and good friend, Stan Smith. The venue was the semi-final match of the ATP’s third season-ending Masters tournament, then called the Commercial Union Assurance Masters, which was played at the recently opened Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona that year, after stints in Tokyo and Paris.

It was Gorman’s first time qualifying for a tournament he dearly wanted to win. Gorman had made whirlwind trips in the closing weeks of the 1971 season to South Africa and Argentina in order to qualify for the Masters and was thrilled when he won a match on clay in Buenos Aires to book his ticket, or so he thought.

“Later on, they told me there was some fine print on how you got into the tournament,” Gorman recalled in a recent interview from his home in Atlanta.

The fine print was a rule that at least one player from the host country, in that case France, had to qualify, and so Gorman’s good friend, Pierre Barthès made the tournament instead of him. It was a bitter pill that also gave the American “an extra incentive” to enter lots of tournaments in ’72 in the hopes of making the Masters.

Tom Gorman (file photo)
Tom Gorman won 46 matches during the 1972 season. (Getty Images/file)

He did just that, winning 46 ATP matches during the season, including a Masters round-robin victory over future Hall of Famer Manuel Orantes, which helped book his passage into the semi-finals. He knew his next opponent, who was 11 months his junior, quite well. “I first met Stan when we were 16 or 17, when he came up to the Pacific Northwest to play the junior tennis circuit,” Gorman said. “That was the start of losing to him many, many times.”

Gorman came into the match with a professional career mark of 1-9 against the lanky California native, but on this night, Gorman played the match of his life. It was the second match of a Friday night twin billing; the first tapa, Ilie Năstase versus Jimmy Connors was served at 10 p.m., late anywhere but in Spain, where sport must not interfere with siestas, fiestas or dinner.

It was best-of-five sets in those days, and even with Năstase’s straight-sets win over Connors, the players took the court shortly after midnight to an appreciative capacity crowd of 4,000, that was prepared to stay up all night.

With his fluid, graceful serve, Gorman was playing excellent serve-and-volley tennis on both his first and second serves, as he took a two-sets-to-one lead. “It was as good a match as I had played in my career, probably next to beating Borg to win Stockholm and beating Laver at Wimbledon the year before,” Gorman remembered. But mid-way through the fourth set, Gorman aggravated a back injury he first sustained in that Laver match. His level of play dropped, and he planned to retire from the match after what he assumed would be a lost fourth set.

But Smith’s level dipped a bit as well and Gorman found himself with a golden opportunity to close out the match at 30-30, up 5-4 in the fourth set. Smith directed his first volley out wide, and the Seattle native lunged for it and hit an improbable backhand passing shot winner up the line to set up a match point that was never played.

“I hit that backhand as hard as I could and it went in,” Gorman said. “I completed the follow through and walked straight to the umpire because I knew what I was going to do.”

Gorman knew that the back injury would prevent him from playing the final, so he retired in order to ensure that the tennis season didn’t end with a default.

“I knew it would be more fair to have a final,” he said. “I think it was 2:40 a.m. Most of the crowd was still there… they started whistling because they didn’t know what was going on. I think Stan was a little dazed too.”

Stan Smith
Stan Smith pushed Ilie Nastase to five sets in the final. (Photo: FC Barcelona/Autor Horacio)

After receiving treatment from a masseuse, Gorman returned to the hotel, and as he passed Năstase’s room at about 4:30 a.m., he decided to wake him up. “I just thought to myself, ‘Stan’s been up late and Ilie’s going to have a big advantage, I think I’ll wake him up.’ I told him I won… they had a great five-set match the next day.”

The Romanian prevailed, taking the first prize of $14,400. Gorman was given a sportsmanship award and a cheque for between $1,500 and $2,500, to go along with his $7,500 in prize money for the event. Gorman and Smith later served as best man in each other’s wedding ceremonies, though he doesn’t recall if Smith took him out for a meal or bought him a drink for retiring in that match. He says he would have done the same for any opponent because he felt a sense of responsibility to the tournament, its sponsors and the sport.

“There was more friendliness between players at that time,” he said. “If it came to a double bounce or double hit, a player would admit it. We didn’t have the teams or entourages in those days, so we traveled together and stayed in the same hotels together, and often had dinner together so there was a real sense of camaraderie.”

Gorman beat Năstase at the Masters the next year in Boston, but didn’t make it out of the round-robin stage. In the semi-finals, Aussie legend John Newcombe suffered a leg injury on an overhead smash while up 5-3 in the final set against Dutchman Tom Okker. He followed Gorman’s example and retired on match point up, paving the way for Okker to reach the final, where he lost to Năstase. Newcombe explained his decision after the match. “I could have played one more point but knew that I could not play tomorrow.”

Nitto ATP Finals 50th Anniversary Content

  • Djokovic’s Shanghai Reality Check Fuelled His Finale Success
  • Stan Smith: From First Masters Champ To Boot Camp…
  • At Madison Square Garden, ‘Ivan Was The Truth’
  • Two Years To Rule Them All: Hewitt Soars In Sydney And Shanghai

     

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How Shanghai Reality Check Fuelled Djokovic's Dominance

  • Posted: Nov 10, 2020

Reality checks for a young, highly touted prospect usually arrive with a thud, often when least expected and in stark contrast to any hyped early success beforehand. Two of Novak Djokovic’s most profound wake-up calls came with his debut appearance at the Tennis Masters Cup – an event he would eventually go on to dominate – in 2007.

It was in Shanghai where the baby-faced 20-year-old – already the World No. 3 – had qualified for the first time. Pitted against David Ferrer, Richard Gasquet and World No. 2 Rafael Nadal, Djokovic made an inauspicious start to an event he has since claimed five times, as he failed to win a set in the round-robin stage.

Oozing with personality and undeniably gifted on the court, Djokovic was building quite the following before he touched down in China. He was already deemed the man most likely to shake up Roger Federer’s and Nadal’s growing dominance, and with good reason: He had beaten the Top 3 in succession, including Andy Roddick, to claim the Rogers Cup in Montreal only months early.

If this was the era of Djokovic’s emergence, it was also his era of player impersonations – Nadal, Roddick and Maria Sharapova, to name a few. On the eve of his Tennis Masters Cup debut, however, Roddick handed him a reality check of a different kind.

Having completed his pre-tournament media commitments, Roddick made a point of stopping by Djokovic’s table, where he was was answering questions from a handful of reporters. “Why don’t you wait until you win something of signficance before you start poking fun at people who have,” Roddick lectured.

Shanghai 2008

Two months later the Serb made good on Roddick’s advice as he won his maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. The impersonations dried up and Djokovic continued to deliver as he capped a stellar 2008 with victory in just his second Tennis Masters Cup appearance.

“[It’s] right up there next to Slams. Obviously, the [Nitto ATP] Finals is probably the biggest event that we have in our sport,” Djokovic told Tim Henman in an interview for ATPTour.com. “It’s probably the ultimate challenge in a season: facing the Top 8 guys of the year in a group-stage format…

“Back in 2008 was my first win in Shanghai. That was the last year the World Tour Finals was held there and that was very special, obviously. That skyrocketed my confidence and allowed me to believe that I belong at the top of the men’s game with all these guys.”

After 12 showings at the event now known as the Nitto ATP Finals, the Serb has landed the trophy five times against his best seven peers of the season and it was his 2012 title run, which stood out in a recent interview with Henman and fellow five-time winner, Pete Sampras. Not only did he defeat his great rival, Federer, in the final that year, but the nature in which he did so etched a significant mark in his memory.

“I think winning against Roger in two very close sets. I remember winning the match… with a backhand down the line passing shot on match point,” Djokovic said of the 7-6(6), 7-5 result. “That was definitely one of the best shots under such occasion for me to hit, so that’s probably the one I’ll remember the most.

“And I won against Rafa as well in 2013, and I played a great match. I had some really great success in that tournament and I was fortunate to experience great tennis there.”

When Henman reminded the World No.1 he had again beaten Federer in straight sets for the 2015 trophy for the loss of just seven games, Djokovic was unswayed. Nikolay Davydenko in 2008, Federer – in 2012, 2015 and in 2014 via a walkover – and Nadal in 2013 had all tried and failed to beat him in the Nitto ATP Finals title match. Only Andy Murray in 2016 and Alexander Zverev two years ago managed to beat him for the trophy.

“Yeah I mean… I’ve been fortunate to win all of my finals in straight sets, so I’m trying to pick one,” he said. “But I guess the one against Roger in 2012 stands out.”

In a measure of his consistency in the final event of the season each year, 2019 marked only the fourth time in his career Djokovic failed to progress beyond the round-robin stage, following defeats to Federer and Dominic Thiem. Not since his dominant 2011 season had he missed out on the knockout stages.

Boasting a 36-14 record at the Nitto ATP Finals, of the eight times Djokovic has qualified for the semi-finals, only once – a 2010 defeat to Federer – has he failed to reach the final. This month he will attempt to tie the Swiss star’s all-time mark with a sixth title in the last Nitto ATP Finals to be staged at London’s O2 arena. That would nicely complement his feat earlier in the month of tying Pete Sampras’ record six year-end No. 1 finishes in the FedEx ATP Rankings.

Success, it seems, has been achieved.

Nitto ATP Finals 50th Anniversary Content

  • At Madison Square Garden, ‘Ivan Was The Truth’
  • Two Years To Rule Them All: Hewitt Soars In Sydney And Shanghai

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It would be a telling triumph in arguably one of the toughest years on tour, and the icing on a smaller-than-usual cake, Having secured a record-tying sixth year-end No. 1 finish in the FedEx ATP Rankings earlier this month, Djokovic returned to that 2012 season – the year in which he edged past Federer with that backhand down the line – as the most rewarding of his ranking-best runs.

“I feel like every season is really different, and obviously this season is very unordinary and strange,” Djokovic said. “I would probably take out the 2011 and 2015 [seasons]. I think those were my most dominant years on the tour, winning three Grand Slams in both of those seasons and just playing many finals in a row, grabbing a lot of titles and securing the No.1 spot very early, relatively early, in the season.

“So those were the ones that I would say would stand out, from the perspective of the quality of tennis and just the dominance that I felt. But in terms of suffering and really getting to that No.1 and ending at No.1, in the like last tournament or last match, it would probably be, I would say in 2012. When I won against Roger in the finals there in London, I think until the very last match I didn’t know whether it was going to happen for me or not.”

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From Tokyo To Fort Ord In 11 Days, Stan Smith Was First Masters Champion

  • Posted: Nov 10, 2020

Fifty years may have passed, but for Stan Smith the memories of the 1970 Pepsi-Cola Masters [now named the Nitto ATP Finals] remain crystal clear — the cavernous and cold arena, the single light bulb in the locker room, Jack Kramer leading fans in a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to mark the inaugural champion’s 24th birthday, and the frantic dash from Tokyo to return home and start basic training in the U.S. Army.

As the likes of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal prepare in their personalised locker rooms next week and head out through dry ice onto the main arena at The O2 in London, venue of the Nitto ATP Finals for the final time, they will pay homage to Kramer, the most influential person in the sport for more than 60 years. In 1969, Kramer worked alongside Philippe Chatrier, the then vice-president of the French Tennis Federation, and the first sports agent in tennis, Donald Dell, to hash out a futuristic plan for what was to eventually become an ATP Tour, 21 years later, and one of the sport’s crown jewel tournaments, the Nitto ATP Finals.

During a period of enormous political struggle, when rival circuit promoters looked to sign the very best players, Kramer sought to bring the sport together. The great champion and former pro tour promoter wanted to solidify the game, give every player an opportunity to earn a decent living, not just a select few, and make the decision to switch to Open tennis pay off. So with the backing of the BBC, which agreed to finance the total television coverage that was broadcast by Fuji Television in Japan, and a title sponsor in Pepsi-Cola, the first top-level officially sanctioned tennis tournament came to a developing market — almost 40 years after the first head-to-head pro tours of Asia.

Fifty years on, Smith told ATP Tour.com, “There were six of us, initially, in the first year, but later the number increased to eight players in 1972, shortly after all the players came together to form the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) at Forest Hills [the former venue of the US Open]. Kramer, naturally, was one of the ATP founders and its first Executive Director.”

Cliff Richey, who had led on the 1970 Pepsi-Cola ILTF Grand Prix bonus pool — the forerunner of the FedEx ATP Race To London — the week before in Stockholm, arrived in Tokyo as a spent force. “Having played 40 weeks that year, he slept for 17 hours a day, and visited a doctor who thought he had hepatitis,” said Smith, who was in fifth position in the bonus pool. “He was simply exhausted and returned home to Dallas. John Newcombe was called for, but Jan Kodes ultimately stepped in to make up the elite group.”

1970 Pepsi-Cola ILTF Grand Prix Rankings / Bonus Pool – Top 8
Twenty tournaments were graded into three categories – Class A, comprising the Grand Slam championships, Class 1 and Class 2 – to determine the number of ranking points available. Additionally, a bonus pool of US$150,000 was available for the Top 20 players of the 1970 Grand Prix circuit.

Position Player Points Titles Bonus Prize Money (US$)
1) Cliff Richey (USA) 60 2 $25,000
2) Arthur Ashe (USA) 55 3 $17,000
3) Ken Rosewall (AUS) 53 2 $15,000
4) Rod Laver (AUS) 51 4 $12,000
5) Stan Smith (USA) 47 3 $10,500
6) Zeljko Franulovic (YUG) 35 1 $9,500
7) John Newcombe (AUS) 35 1 $8,500
8) Jan Kodes (CZE) 33 1 $7,500

“Some of my rivals, who had arrived in Japan, went on a whistle stop tour of Sapporo and Kyoto to play exhibition matches,” says Smith. “I remember hanging out with Zeljko [Franulovic] and Arthur [Ashe] a bit and visiting the Imperial Palace. There was no way that I thought it was the start of something special, when I stood alongside Ashe, Zeljko, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and Kodes in the lobby of Hotel Okura. We listened to Kramer and the President of Pepsi-Cola Japan [Russ Mooney], who sat in front of the flags of the United States, Australia, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.”

Each day, Smith and the other players trained on the brown clay courts of the Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club, the second oldest club in Japan. They later arrived at the Metropolitan Gymnasium — scene of the first year-end championship — for matches on a fast rubberised court that attracted almost 10,000 fans each evening, courtesy of newspaper publicity and the visits of Her Imperial Highness Princess Chichibu. Imagine today, the elite eight practising on grass courts only to play their matches on the indoor hard of The O2 in London.

“Trestle tables and fold-up chairs lined each side of the rubberised court, which was connected together and set in the middle of the huge arena,” remembers Smith of the 9-15 December 1970 event. “It really did seem like a throw-back to the pro tours. The venue also didn’t have any heating, so the Japanese spectators were wrapped in blankets, fur coats and scarves to keep warm. It must have been like sitting in a refrigerator for them. To this day, I still remember the stark, single light bulb in the locker room, which only had a small gas-heater to keep our muscles from seizing up as we prepared to go out onto the court.”

Rosewall

Smith played title-favourite Rosewall in his penultimate match of the round-robin tournament on 14 December, the occasion of his 24th birthday, knowing that whomever won would clinch the inaugural trophy. “As I served for the match, the court came apart,” recalls Smith, who used his slice serve to great effect in the Deuce court. “‘Muscles’ wouldn’t continue until the court was fixed, so we endured a 20-minute wait in the locker room, until it was glued back together. I went on to win 6-4, 6-5, when a nine-point tie-break was played at 5-5, with a sudden death point at four-all.

“Afterwards, Kramer came on and led the fans in a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’. I also received a paddle tennis bat and a bouquet of flowers. It was also the day I got my final draft notice, and I was told to report on 16 December.”

Smith adds, “While I lost my final match to Arthur, which started at 7 p.m., in a third set tie-break the next day, I finished with a 4-1 record, identical to Laver. I knew I had earned the title by virtue of beating the ‘Rocket’ [Laver, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4] earlier in the week. Having played with Arthur the week before in Stockholm, we also teamed up to win the doubles round-robin too, and after that week in Tokyo, I definitely started to feel like I was one of the top players.”

Ashe

Just as the 20-tournament Grand Prix circuit of 1970 had begun, shortly before Roland Garros, Smith had learned that his draft number had been called, for what would become a two-and-a-half year tour of duty in the U.S. Army. So as he criss-crossed the globe in search of bonus points on the 1970 tennis circuit to become one of the lucky few to compete in Tokyo, Smith knew that he’d soon be drafted. “I was in Paris, during the French Open, when I read in the International Herald Tribune that they were doing the lottery and bringing the ping pong balls out of the bag,” recalls Smith, 50 years on. “I checked it out and saw that the letter ‘S’, for my surname, would be one of the last ones out of the bag. But then I realised that the key number for the draft was my birth-date and that translated to 23, so I would be definitely called.”

The first prize for 1970 Pepsi-Cola Masters was a cheque for $15,000, a fortune at the time, but nothing compared to the $1,564,000 that an undefeated champion will take home at the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals. But Smith had little time to celebrate, as he headed to Tokyo airport for a flight at midnight.

“I got to L.A.on the morning of the 15th, got home within an hour to Pasadena, then the next morning I had to go back to L.A. to go to the draft board for 9.a.m.,” says Smith, who is now the President of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. “I took the physical and the guy who swore me in was a USC graduate and he said: ‘You have two choices: you can go on the bus outside and got to Fort Ord to prepare for basic training to begin on 26 December, or you can go home and have excess leave, but you won’t get paid.”

Smith decided to drive home for Christmas, and actually turned up at Fort Ord on 27 December, after 11 days excess leave with no pay.

While the Californian quickly finished his other Tokyo prize, a bottle of Pepsi-Cola, he still cherishes to this day the small trophy that he was presented at the Metropolitan Gymnasium. “I am very proud to be the first winner of the Masters event, which was also at a critical stage of my career,” said Smith. “I also feel proud of the fact we got the players together for the Tour we have today.”

Nitto ATP Finals 50th Anniversary Content

  • At Madison Square Garden, ‘Ivan Was The Truth’
  • Two Years To Rule Them All: Hewitt Soars In Sydney And Shanghai

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Mannarino Survives In Sofia

  • Posted: Nov 09, 2020

Adrian Mannarino recovered from a set down to book his place in the Sofia Open second round on Monday.

The Nur-Sultan runner-up struck 10 aces and broke serve on four occasions to outlast Martin Klizan 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 in two hours and nine minutes. Mannarino, who is making his fifth straight appearance in Sofia, improved to 8-3 since the start of last month’s bett1HULKS Championship in Cologne.

Mannarino will face Egor Gerasimov for a place in the quarter-finals. The Belarusian saved two of three break points to beat Viktor Troicki 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in one hour and 43 minutes.

In his first match on the ATP Tour, Jonas Forejtek stunned eighth seed Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-2 to reach the second round. The #NextGenATP Czech converted four of his five break points to eliminate the former World No. 3 in 66 minutes.

Lucky loser Marc-Andrea Huesler saved two match points to overcome seventh seed Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(6). The Swiss landed 22 aces throughout the match to reach the second round. Huesler will face Marton Fucsovics or Jannik Sinner for a spot in the quarter-finals.

[WATCH LIVE 2]

Vasek Pospisil also required a final-set tie-break to earn his first victory of the tournament. The 30-year-old, who recovered from 0/40 down at 5-5 in the final set, saved eight of 10 break points to beat Ilya Marchenko 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(5).

Pospisil will meet fourth seed Jan-Lennard Struff in the second round. The Canadian is tied at 1-1 in his ATP Head2Head series against Struff.

Salvatore Caruso produced a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 comeback victory against Bulgarian wild card Dimitar Kuzmanov. The 27-year-old will meet second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in his next match.

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Shapovalov: ‘I Am Able To Compete With Anyone’

  • Posted: Nov 09, 2020

Ahead of his debut appearance at the Sofia Open, Denis Shapovalov took a moment to reflect on his career progression in 2020. The 21-year-old may not have added to his trophy collection this year, but he has earned three Top 10 wins and a career-high position in the FedEx ATP Rankings.

Last year’s Stockholm champion advanced to his first Grand Slam quarter-final at the US Open and cracked the Top 10 for the first time with a semi-final run at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in September. Shapovalov’s Top 10 breakthrough has provided the Canadian with added confidence and he will be hoping to rejoin the elite group with a strong run this week in the Bulgarian capital.

“I feel like I have been playing some really good tennis [this year]. I am really happy with the way the season has went… I think I played really well throughout the season and I am really happy with where my game is.

”I feel like I have definitely improved and I feel like my level is with these [top] guys. If I am not able to reach Top 10 again this season, I will definitely try to go for it next season. The important thing is, I feel like my level is there with these guys and I am able to compete with anyone.”

Shapovalov has enjoyed success since the resumption of the ATP Tour in August, but the 6’1” left-hander will aim to end a three-match losing streak in his opening match in Sofia. The Canadian No. 1 will face Radu Albot of Moldova for the first time on Tuesday.

“I feel great. I had a good break, so I am fresh and feeling good. [I have been] practising well, so I feel good and [I am] excited for the tournament.

“[Radu] is a very tough opponent. The draw is very difficult. Every tournament this year has been pretty stacked, so it is definitely not an easy match… I am excited to get going.”

Shapovalov is not the only Canadian aiming to take the trophy in Sofia. The top seed is joined in the draw by second seed and good friend Felix Auger-Aliassime. The 20-year-old arrived late to Sofia after picking up his maiden ATP Tour doubles trophy alongside Hubert Hurkacz at the Rolex Paris Masters on Sunday.

“It is definitely great for Canada and for tennis in Canada. It is amazing to see us both [in] the top [positions] of the draw and hopefully this continues, inspires a lot of Canadian kids and keeps advancing the sport in the country.”

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Two Years To Rule Them All: Hewitt Soars In Sydney And Shanghai

  • Posted: Nov 09, 2020

ATPTour.com is this week celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Nitto ATP Finals. Today, we look at Lleyton Hewitt’s back-to-back titles in Sydney and Shanghai.

In a city still buzzing in the afterglow of an extraordinarily successful staging of the Olympic Games one year prior, the stars were again aligning in the Harbour City in the first year of the new millennium. It was Sydney’s turn in 2001 to host the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup and two of Australia’s favourite sporting sons, Lleyton Hewitt and Patrick Rafter, were among the best eight to qualify.

There was a heavy sense of anticipation a home champion would be crowned and World No. 2 Hewitt seemed the most likely to be that player. The 19-year-old had parted ways with the blond ponytail from a year ago, but the backwards cap and trademark grit had not budged.

In an interview with Tim Henman for ATPTour.com to mark the 50th anniversary of the Nitto ATP Finals, Hewitt recalled the immense pressure of playing at home with so much at stake in 2001. Only months prior he had throttled the great Pete Sampras to win his first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows and now the World No. 1 ranking was up for grabs on home soil.

Hewitt’s coach at the time, Darren Cahill, cut a composed figure from the player’s box through each match, amid a packed Sydney Superdrome. Little more than 12 months earlier, the 17,000-seat venue played host to the Olympic basketball and gymnastics competitions.

Pitted against Sebastien Grosjean, Andre Agassi and compatriot Rafter in his group, Hewitt’s equation was relatively straight forward – win the title and he was assured of ascending to No.1. It was the same, however, for two of his rivals.

2001 Tennis Masters Cup field

“Yeah absolutely [I felt extra pressure],” Hewitt said. “Plus going into 2001 [Tennis Masters Cup] it was a three-horse race who could finish the year No. 1. At the time I hadn’t got to No.1, I was No.2 after winning the US Open, Gustavo Kuerten was No.1 and Andre Agassi was No.3. It was basically in each of our control. If we went out and won the Masters Cup at the time we would finish No.1.”

Hewitt stood unbeaten following a three-set win over Grosjean before a convincing victory against Agassi. By virtue of this straight-sets result the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place sooner than expected as a twist in the race to No. 1 emerged.

“It all sort of changed all of a sudden,” Hewitt said. “The other two actually didn’t qualify for the semi-finals so then I had to play my last round-robin match against my good mate – he was like an older brother to me – in Pat Rafter.

“And so for me it was a weird feeling. I only had to win that last round-robin match to clinch the World No. 1 [ranking] for the final time that year and I was going out there playing my good mate and we were pairing up a week later to play the Davis Cup final. It was a surreal feeling but for me one of the most special experiences in my career, especially to do it in my home country, in Australia.”

Victory over Rafter secured top spot and a first Tennis Masters Cup semi-final berth, where his opponent, Juan Carlos Ferrero, managed to salvage just six games. In a rematch against the Frenchman Grosjean, Hewitt had well and truly hit his straps as he secured a fifth straight win and with it the trophy, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

It capped a dramatic rise for the Australian. Only 12 months earlier he had qualified for his maiden Tennis Masters Cup in Lisbon and while far from overawed, he failed to make it out of the round-robin stage.

Having reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at the US Open in 2000, an 18-year-old Hewitt avenged that defeat to Sampras in Lisbon but losses to world No.1 Marat Safin and Spain’s Alex Corretja ended his campaign.

The hunter had become the hunted in 12 short months and in 2002, Hewitt added a second Grand Slam trophy at Wimbledon. As top seed he was not afforded the luxury of underdog status this time round and when the Tennis Masters Cup made its Shanghai debut later in November, the Australian remained the man to beat.

Despite a loss to world No. 5 Carlos Moya, two punishing three-set victories over Albert Costa and Safin were enough to see the defending champion through the group stages, where he narrowly denied Roger Federer for a place in the final.

That for me was one of my most pleasing events because every match I played in the round-robin stage and the semi and final felt like epic matches,” Hewitt said. “I actually lost one of my first matches in the round-robin stage and knew I had to win every single match then to finish No.1 again, but also to win the title. I ended up beating Federer in the semis, 7-5 in the third, and then the next day I had to back up against Juan Carlos Ferrero.”

For the second straight year he held off the Spaniard, although this in a far closer affair this time round. His 7-5, 7-5, 2-6, 2-6, 6-4 triumph ensured back-to-back Tennis Masters Cups and back-to-back year-end No. 1 FedEx ATP Rankings.

“There was a lot of special memories of playing those matches against great players of my era,” Hewitt said. “I was really fortunate to play really well in the tour finals.”

Having failed to qualify in 2003, Hewitt contested what ended up his final Tennis Masters Cup in Houston in 2004, where he again reached the final. After victories over Moya and Gaston Gaudio in the group stage and Andy Roddick in the semi-finals, new World No. 1 Federer backed up his round-robin win with a straight-sets triumph for the title to leave Hewitt with a 13-5 record at the event.

In four appearances he had prevailed over former No. 1s and Grand Slam champions Sampras, Agassi, Federer, Safin, Roddick, Moya, Rafter and Ferrero. But it was his Shanghai triumph over Ferrero that stood out.

“It was probably beating Ferrero in the final in Shanghai because the semi-final against Roger was so physically gruelling,” Hewitt said. “We were the last match on the night before as well so I had to come back mid-afternoon the following day and back up that win.

“I had to dig deep and find something there in the fifth set. Once you are No.1 guys are hunting you, so it’s a totally different mindset to going in there and being the underdog so for me that was one of my most pleasing wins.”

Editor’s Note: The Nitto ATP Finals begins Sunday 15 November in London.

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ATP Legends & Current Stars Team Up To Celebrate 50th Anniversary Of Nitto ATP Finals

  • Posted: Nov 09, 2020

The ATP has brought together legends of the past and present to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Nitto ATP Finals ahead of this year’s season finale, which begins Sunday at The O2 in London.

An entertaining video series hosted by former World No. 4 Tim Henman pairs participants of different eras to retell some of the tournament’s memorable stories and trace the evolution of the showpiece of the ATP Tour season.

Five-time tournament champions Novak Djokovic and Pete Sampras come together for an engaging discussion about their tournament recollections and the sacrifice and commitment needed to finish as year-end No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, which is presented each year at the event. The Serb this year has matched Sampras’ record of six year-end No. 1 finishes, with Djokovic marvelling at how the American was able to achieve the feat over six consecutive years (1993-98).

Other champions featured in the series include Stan Smith, the first winner in 1970 in Tokyo, Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Lleyton Hewitt and Roger Federer, who has won a record six titles. From today, the video series will roll out across ATP’s social media channels and websites.

Also today, ATPTour.com will commence its Nitto ATP Finals 50th anniversary content series, which will include features on the tournament’s greatest champions and unusual moments, such as the double disqualification of Arthur Ashe and Nastase in Stockholm in 1975 and a tale of remarkable sportsmanship by Tom Gorman.

The series also takes a look at the tournament’s 13-year stay at Madison Square Garden in New York, 10-year stay in Germany and extended stay in London, where The O2 will host its 12th and final edition this year before the tournament moves to Turin in 2021.

Nitto ATP Finals Gold Partner Infosys will also unveil a special data visualisation feature to compare how the tournament’s greatest champions stack up against each other.

2020 DRAW:
The draw for the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals will take place on Thursday, 12 November. Further details will be published in due course.

2020 GROUP NAMES:
This year’s Nitto ATP Finals round-robin groups will be named as follows:

In Singles:
– Group Tokyo 1970, the inaugural year of the Nitto ATP Finals, will feature the No. 1 seed
– Group London 2020, the 12th and final year at The O2 in London, will feature the No. 2 seed

In Doubles:
– Group Bob Bryan, the 2003-04, ‘09 and ‘14 winner, will feature the No. 1 seed
– Group Mike Bryan, the 2003-04, ’09, ’14 and ‘18 winner, will feature the No. 2 seed

To celebrate the anniversary, ‘50 Years’ and ‘1970-2020’ will be painted onto the Centre Court at The O2.

To mark the event’s final year in London, the ATP is running the Ultimate Prize Draw in aid of Cancer Research UK, an initiative giving tennis fans the chance to win exclusive signed memorabilia, a once-in-a-lifetime Nitto ATP Finals experience in 2021, and more. For your chance to win, enter here.

In line with UK Government guidance, the 2020 season finale will be contested behind closed doors due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Nitto ATP Finals, featuring the best eight singles players and doubles teams, has been held in London since 2009 and has successfully established itself as one of the major annual sporting events worldwide. The tournament is broadcast in more than 180 territories with global viewership reaching an average of 95 million each year. The event will be held in Turin, Italy, from 2021-2025.

Nitto ATP Finals 50th Anniversary Content

  • At Madison Square Garden, ‘Ivan Was The Truth’
  • Two Years To Rule Them All: Hewitt Soars In Sydney And Shanghai

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At Madison Square Garden, 'Ivan Was The Truth'

  • Posted: Nov 09, 2020

Ivan Lendl was a creature of habit. Harken back to the 1980s, when the shorts were impossibly short and tight and the racquet technology was flat earth, and conjure an image of Lendl in his argyle-patterned shirts plucking his eyelashes and sprinkling sawdust on his racquet grip before tossing the ball three miles high in the air for a first serve. The Lendl habit you may not recall was him making it to the final of the Masters a record nine times in a row, which is one of his most impressive feats in a storied career.

Back in the glorious ‘80s, big hair, Walkmans and Rubik’s Cubes were in and
Lendl owned the Masters in New York City. He won five of those nine consecutive finals and each year he faced one of the sport’s best in the final: Borg. Gerulaitis. McEnroe (three times). Becker (three times.) Wilander. He played in the event 12 times, compiling a remarkable 39-10 record against the game’s best players.

Lendl was dynamite under the lights—during one stretch in the early ‘80s he won 66 consecutive indoor matches, suffocating opponents with a power baseline game that was ahead of its time. In 1986, when the tournament was held twice, in January and again in December, he won the title both times without losing a set, beating Becker on both occasions. Lendl’s worst Masters results were reaching the semi-finals in 1989, 1990, and 1991, losing to all-time greats Stefan Edberg (twice) and Pete Sampras.

Lendl was particularly fierce at New York’s historic Madison Square Garden, going 33-7 there from 1981-1989. In a recent interview with British tennis great Tim Henman for ATPTour.com, Lendl said that his home base in nearby Greenwich, Connecticut gave him an edge. “I liked my own bed,” he explained. “I liked my own cooking. I just didn’t like staying in New York City; it’s just too noisy for me.”

Ivan Lendl

Lendl may have enjoyed the familiar surroundings but, ever a man of routine, he told Henman that he wasn’t happy when the tournament switched from a round-robin format to single elimination from 1983 until (January) 1986, while enlarging the player field from eight players, alternating from 12 to 16 men, before going back to the traditional eight-man, round-robin format in December 1986.

“I didn’t like this (change of format) at all,” said Lendl, still seemingly a little miffed by it. “I felt it was more special with only the top eight players in the world.”

When the format went from 12 players back to 16 in January 1986, Lendl took his irritation out on his hapless countryman, Tomas Smid, one of his good friends, beating him 6-1, 6-0 in the first round.

“I was so ticked off by the format that I played extra hard,” he said.

Lendl faced an uphill battle in terms of fan support, particularly early in his career, especially in the U.S. as the Cold War was still raging and he was perceived by some as a no-nonsense character from an Eastern Block country who was challenging popular stars like Borg, Connors, McEnroe, and later Becker and Edberg. As tennis writer Joel Drucker once wrote, “Borg was the Beatles, McEnroe was the Stones, and Lendl was Led Zeppelin, the guy who crushed the magic of the ‘70s golden age with raw, ugly power.”

In his first five Masters finals in New York, he faced uber-popular Borg in ‘81 and then local guys from Queens (a borough of New York City) four years in a row—Gerulaitis in ’82, and McEnroe in ’83, ’84, and ’85. Asked by Henman what it was like to face hometown favorites in New York, Lendl coolly batted away the question like one of his trademark buggy-whip forehands down the line, betraying no hard feelings.

“It was always loud, no matter who you played,” he said. “But yeah, playing John (McEnroe) over there, it was interesting as well.”

Lendl’s success at the Masters in the early ‘80s—he won back-to-back titles in ’82 and ’83—came before he broke through to win any of the eight majors he’d eventually claim. He told Henman that a turning point in his career came while on a flight in 1984.

“I had been number two or three or four in the world for about four years,” he said. “But I wasn’t happy with where I was. I hired a new coach, Tony Roche, I got some opinions from other guys on the tour, and I got a track and field coach to help me. I also watched a movie, Rocky (IV) on Delta Airlines, and they had a Versa climber, which I already had at home. Ivan Drago (the Russian villain who fought Rocky) was training on it all the time, and I said to myself, ‘I’ll be damned if I lose another match in my life because the other guy is fitter than me.’ And that was the turnaround.”

And there’s the beauty of Ivan Lendl—he’s the same guy whose idea of a good passing shot was a 100 mph forehand to his opponent’s head— he doesn’t care what you think about him finding inspiration in a Cold war villain. Leaving Rocky aside, Lendl’s total commitment to fitness and nutrition that he embarked on in ’84 revolutionised the game. The Czech master ushered in a new era of tennis where only the fittest could rise to the top. Perhaps modern-day players can thank or blame him for the fact that they can no longer eat pizzas and drink beer with impunity while skipping the gym after practice, as some may have gotten away with B.L. (Before Lendl).

Always respected, often feared by opposing players but not always necessarily embraced by his rivals and fans, Lendl’s stock has risen since he retired. Many who rooted against him because he was dominating one of their favorites back in the day now realize how underappreciated he was. Tennis writer Steve Tignor calls it “the resurrection of Lendl” and says that he “became a Lendl fan 20 years late.” And the Lendl bandwagon hasn’t been confined to the tennis world; even Snoop Dog is apparently a fan. “He was sharp…an old schooler”, the rapper said of Lendl in 2004. “Ivan was the truth.”

Nowhere was that “truth” more apparent than at the Masters, particularly in New York. Lendl, who turned 60 in March, still remembers how he saved match point against Gerulaitis down two sets to love and came back to win in ’82. And how about beating Jimmy Connors four times at the tournament during his 17 consecutive wins against the American southpaw?

“That was enjoyable, I’m not going to lie,” said Lendl, who became a U.S. citizen in 1992.

Being the perfectionist that he is, some of Lendl’s losses in New York still give him nightmares. In 1988, he made it to the Masters final against Boris Becker just eight weeks after having a secret shoulder surgery. “He beat me 7-5 in the fifth set tie-breaker,” Lendl recalled. “We had a 37-shot rally that he won (on match point) with a let cord winner down the line.”

Henman asked him what loss in his career he might like to replay, but Lendl wouldn’t go there.

“It pisses me off till today that I lost some of the matches I lost. I could give so many examples. But no, you can’t. You do the best you can. It doesn’t make sense to beat yourself up over losses.”

Editor’s Note: The Nitto ATP Finals begins Sunday 15 November at The O2 in London.

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