To this day, everyone in Drummondville remembers the moment they witnessed the future of Canadian tennis. In fact, there is a poster commemorating the historic encounter between Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime on display at the Challenger Banque Nationale de Drummondville.

It was on 19 March 2017 that Shapovalov, 17, and Auger-Aliassime, 16, battled in front of the home fans, in what was the youngest ATP Challenger Tour semi-final in nearly 30 years. At the time, they were relatively unknown teens, ready to introduce themselves to the world.

On Saturday, two new fresh faces will assume that role on the clay of Trieste, Italy. Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti will duel for a spot in the championship match at the Tennis Club Triestino. It will be the youngest semi-final on the Challenger circuit since that momentous all-Canadian encounter three years ago.

Watch On Challenger TV – Not Before 11:30am CET

At the age of 17 years and three months, Alcaraz is making waves in his first full season as a professional. He enters Saturday’s semi-final after dropping just one set from qualifying. That’s five wins in seven days for the Juan Carlos Ferrero pupil. Alcaraz is already no stranger to the big moment, having triumphed in his ATP Tour debut in February in Rio de Janeiro. At 3:00am, he stunned countryman and World No. 41 Albert Ramos-Vinolas for his first Top 50 win.

Armed with a mammoth forehand that leaps off the clay and a laser backhand, Alcaraz is fast becoming one of Spain’s top #NextGenATP prospects. He will meet Musetti for the first time, in what could very well be the birth of a new raucous rivalry.

Musetti, aged 18 years and five months, is ready for a breakthrough of his own. A spot in his first Challenger championship is on the line and the Carrara native will be bolstered with the home crowd on his side.

Musetti has also not dropped a set in the main draw in Trieste, capped by a routine 67-minute win over Juan Pablo Ficovich in Friday’s quarter-finals. The Italian is already battle-tested at this level, having competed in 17 Challenger events in 2019. His lone previous semi-final came in Milan, where he fell to eventual champ Hugo Dellien.

The 2019 Australian Open boys’ champion has proven his game translates to all surfaces. The agile Musetti boasts big groundstrokes that slice through the court and impressive court awareness for a teenager.

It is sure to be a must-watch encounter on Saturday afternoon, when Alcaraz and Musetti duel at 11:30am CET in Trieste.

Perfection is no easy feat, and Novak Djokovic’s undefeated record this season was certainly put to the test late Friday afternoon.

The World No. 1 fended off apparent neck discomfort and an unrelenting opponent to beat eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(0) in three hours, one minute en route to the Western & Southern Open final. Djokovic is now 22-0 on the season.

“[It was a] very strange match, I must say. I don’t know how I won it, to be honest. He was the better player,” Djokovic said on court after his triumph. “I just didn’t feel good on the court at all, in any aspect of my game and of the body. But somehow, I managed to pull this one through.”

Djokovic only served three times in the final-set tie-break and each of them was an ace. Regardless of how solidly Bautista Agut played throughout the marathon, Djokovic went into “lockdown mode” when it mattered most to seize his victory. He has won 19 of his past 20 tie-breaks dating back to winning three of them against Roger Federer in last year’s Wimbledon final, including all 10 this season.

For a large portion of the memorable match, Bautista Agut was doing to Djokovic what the Serbian does to the rest of the ATP Tour. The Spaniard dug into baseline rallies and forced the top seed to do something special to beat him. Djokovic carved many drop shots to try to get Bautista Agut off his game, and in many instances that didn’t work. 

“It’s a balance between patience and [playing with] controlled aggession,” Djokovic said. “When you have a chance you have to go through it. You have to not only move him around left and right, but forward and backwards, mix it up with pace, spin and depth. You just have to put a lot of variation in the game. He’s a very consistent player.”

Even still, Djokovic took control and appeared on the verge of victory when leading 5-2 in the third set. But Bautista Agut never went away, rallying to serve for the match at 6-5. Djokovic did not panic, getting back on serve to force the deciding tie-break.

Djokovic snapped a three-match hard-court losing streak against the 32-year-old. Bautista Agut was trying to become one of only three players to win four consecutive hard-court matches against Djokovic, joining Andy Roddick and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. 

“I was very close to winning. I served for the match and
I was two points away [from winning],” Bautista Agut. “[I can be disappointed or] I can take the other
way and think that I made a good comeback to the tour-level. I played really good matches this week, and I was
serving for the match against the No. 1.”

The top seed is pursuing his second Career Golden Masters. Djokovic has won all nine Masters 1000 events at least twice, with the exception of the Western & Southern Open. He is also trying to match Rafael Nadal’s record of 35 Masters 1000 trophies.

The 33-year-old will play former World No. 3 Milos Raonic in the championship match, in which the Canadian will chase his first Masters 1000 title. The World No. 1 leads the pair’s ATP Head2Head series 10-0.

“[He has a] huge serve,” Djokovic said. “He’s playing well, he’s confident and let’s hope for a good final.”

A key moment came at 1-2 in the second set, when Djokovic received a neck adjustment from an ATP physio. That seemed to give the Serbian a burst of energy. Instead of bailing out of rallies against the Spaniard, he increased his aggression and with his high level of play took the match from Bautista Agut, who was trying to reach his second Masters 1000 final.

The eighth seed was gritty, rallying from a break down in the second set to get back on serve. But at 4-5, the Louis Armstrong Stadium roof was closed, with predicted rain closing in. Djokovic broke in the next game to force the decider.

Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski advanced to their first ATP Tour championship match as a team on Friday, defeating Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 7-5, 6-3 at the Western & Southern Open.

The British pairing saved both break points it faced to eliminate the Australian Open champions after 84 minutes. Murray and Skupski will attempt to lift their first tour-level team title on Saturday, more than a year after triumphing at the Arizona Tennis Classic — an ATP Challenger Tour event — on their team debut in March 2019.

The unseeded duo has now defeated three seeded teams en route to the final. Alongside their win against Ram and Salisbury, Murray and Skupski also upset top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the first round and sixth seeds Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies in the quarter-finals.

Murray and Skupski will meet Pablo Carreno Busta and Alex de Minaur in the final. The Spanish-Australian tandem moved past wild cards Steve Johnson and Austin Krajicek 7-5, 6-4. Carreno Busta and De Minaur are making their team debut this week. Like Murray and Skupski, the unseeded pairing has survived two Match Tie-breaks en route to the championship match.

Milos Raonic advanced to his first ATP Masters 1000 final in four and a half years on Friday with a 7-6(5), 6-3 victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The unseeded Canadian won 90 per cent of first-serve points (35/39) to reach his fourth Masters 1000 championship match (0-3) after one hour and 37 minutes. Raonic is through to his first final at the level since his runner-up finish to Novak Djokovic at the 2016 BNP Paribas Open final in Indian Wells.

“It would be incredible [to win an ATP Masters 1000 title]. Just generally as part of my career, it’s not just the past six months coming back [and] playing. Just with everything else, I want to go to heights I haven’t achieved yet and this is a part of it,” said Raonic. “This is what I’ve worked hard for with very clear, specific goals and I hope that I can get that step closer and maybe make a difference tomorrow.”

In January, Raonic did not face a break point to defeat Tsitsipas 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(2) in his first ATP Head2Head contest against the Greek. After picking up his second win in as many matches against the reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion, Raonic has won each of his 28 service games against Tsitsipas and faced only one break point.

Since reaching a career-high No. 3 in the FedEx ATP Rankings on 21 November 2016, Raonic has consistently struggled with injuries. Last year, the Canadian withdrew from 10 events due to injury. But now, after the five-month suspension of the ATP Tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a fresh Raonic has returned to peak form.

“I’m feeling good about my tennis,” said Raonic. “I took the time to train, to try to do things right, to get myself to a stage I haven’t been before with my tennis, with my health. I hope it can keep paying off for me because I’ve put in the work and let’s see what the future holds.”

Prior to his victory against fourth seed Tsitsipas, Raonic beat Sam Querrey, Daniel Evans, two-time champion Andy Murray and Filip Krajinovic to reach the semi-finals. In his quarter-final against Krajinovic the Canadian was forced to save match point at 4-5, 30/40, in the deciding set.

Raonic will meet World No. 1 Djokovic or Roberto Bautista Agut for the title. The eight-time ATP Tour titlist owns a 0-10 ATP Head2Head record against Djokovic and is unbeaten in five ATP Head2Head encounters against Bautista Agut.

“For me I’ve got to find a way to first ball,” said Raonic. “I put a lot of pressure on guys with my serve. I’ve got to make them play, I’ve got to make them think on their serve. If I’m giving too many free things away, it makes my service game harder and also takes a lot of pressure that I build up with my service games off of them.”

In a first set which featured only one break point, Raonic ran around his backhand at 5-6, 30/40, to save set point with a series of powerful forehands. In the tie-break, the Canadian recovered from a mini-break down and hit back-to-back forehand winners at 5/5 to clinch the first set.

“[The set point] was tough. It was a long point, I didn’t get the free point on the serve. I had to play it out, but I played it right and I stuck to my intentions the whole way through and it paid off for me. I stuck to my game and thankfully things came together.”

Raonic continued to use his forehand to break through the defence of Tsitsipas early in the second set and, on his first break point at 2-1, the World No. 30 became the first player to break Tsitsipas’ serve this week with a low backhand passing shot. Raonic held his advantage and served out the match to love, claiming victory with a strong serve into his opponent’s backhand.

During the ATP Tour suspension, Raonic worked hard to return to peak fitness and elevate his game to new heights. The 29-year-old began his preparations for the resumption of the ATP Tour in March, completing three six-week training blocks across 22 weeks.

“We did a pre-season for six weeks of training and I did three blocks of that,” said Raonic. “I did one right after we got shut down on March 11 or 12. I took 10 days off, started around the 24th… I did six weeks, took two weeks off, another six weeks, took two weeks off, and another six weeks leading up to here.”

Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan will be the first ATP Tour players to automatically qualify for inclusion on the International Tennis Hall Of Fame ballot.

Due to policy amendments that were instituted in 2018, the most accomplished team in doubles history will be on the Class of 2025 ballot. This is the first possible ballot for entry into the Hall Of Fame for the Bryan brothers, who captured 119 tour-level trophies as a team, due to the organisation’s five-year retirement policy.

The Automatic Inclusion Policy states that players whose record of achievement meets the following criteria will be automatically placed on the first eligible ballot: 

Singles: Must have won three major singles titles and have been ranked World No. 1 for a minimum of 13 weeks; Or, have won five major singles titles.

Doubles: Must have won 12 major doubles titles and have been ranked World No. 1 for a minimum of 52 weeks; Or, have won 15 major doubles titles.

As a pairing, the Bryans lifted a team record 16 major doubles titles and spent 438 weeks atop the FedEx ATP Doubles Team Rankings.

The brothers will still have to be voted in by the International Tennis Hall Of Fame voting group, but they will not be subject to the multi-level nomination process and committee review that takes place ahead of getting on the ballot each year.

David Mercer, the sports commentator and 1984 Wimbledon final umpire, passed away suddenly on Wednesday aged 70. He was part of the Wimbledon commentary team for 35 years and, from 1994 until 2019, was also emcee at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, an ATP 500-level event.

In an 11-year career as a chair umpire, he took charge at Wimbledon of the 1983 men’s doubles final and the 1984 singles final. He also officiated at numerous other tournaments — including at The Queen’s Club — and Davis Cup ties.

As a freelance sports broadcaster for BBC Wales from 1979, by the time he umpired the 1984 Wimbledon final, he was in line to become one of the first two professional touring umpires. But as he officiated over John McEnroe’s 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Jimmy Connors, he’d already accepted a full-time job with the BBC as a sports correspondent.

He joined BBC Television in 1992 and remains the only person to have umpired a Wimbledon final and subsequently commentated on the finals for both radio and television. McEnroe, who later worked with Mercer as co-commentators for the BBC, once said: “My God, they’re giving me an umpire!”

Mercer also worked for BT Sport and Eurosport, co-founded the Tennis Radio Network, and reported from every major tennis tournament. He was a former chairman of the Lawn Tennis Writers’ Association and member of the Sports Council for Wales.

Mercer won the Welsh junior doubles title in 1968 and captained the tennis team at Nottingham University, where he graduated with a law degree. He began practising in Swansea, south Wales, in 1973, the year he first umpired at The Championships, and ran his own law firm for nine years.

Mercer was almost elected to Parliament in 1979, as a Conservative candidate in the safe Labour seat of Swansea West. He came within 401 votes, nearly winning it on the tide that swept Margaret Thatcher to power, second to long-time MP Alan Williams. During the 1983 General Election, he assisted in the Prime Minister’s private office.

A keen sportsman, who also commentated on badminton and rowing for the BBC at Olympic and Commonwealth Games, he enjoyed going to the theatre with his wife, Sue, who survives him, along with one daughter, Caroline, and two step-children, Liz and Chris.

David Mercer, solicitor, sports commentator and umpire, born April 1950, died 27 August 2020

Stefanos Tsitsipas has already overcome big servers this week, but it’s the memory of Milos Raonic’s performance in January that gives the fourth-seeded Greek food for thought ahead of their Western & Southern Open semi-final on Friday.

Raonic has proven time and again this week that when he’s fully fit, he is a major force. And if their only previous ATP Head2Head meeting is anything to go by, tennis fans globally could be in a for a treat when they watch their semi-final at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Raonic hit 55 winners, including 19 aces, to knock out Tsitsipas 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(2)  in the 2020 Australian Open third round. Read Match Report

“I had a lot of trouble returning Raonic’s serve at the Australian Open,” admitted Tsitsipas this week in New York. “[The win] was very well deserved from his side because he played unbelievable that day. I was very upset I wasn’t able to find solutions that day. His serve was really a weapon, causing a lot of damage.”

Tsitsipas has shown he’s not afraid of big servers, demonstrating in victories over Kevin Anderson, John Isner and Reilly Opelka en route to his fifth ATP Masters 1000 semi-final, that he will readily use his slice and block returns in order to work his way into points. If he can get the better of Raonic, he’ll reach his third Masters 1000 final (after 2018 Rogers Cup in Toronto and the 2019 Mutua Madrid Open).

But Raonic has played with tremendous focus this week and used his biggest weapon to his advantage. Incredibly, the Canadian has hit 76 aces in four matches and won 140 of his 165 first-service points.

Speaking earlier this week, Raonic admitted he treated the Tour suspension like an off-season in Florida and the Bahamas, saying, “I started treating it like we did pre-season for six weeks of training, and I did three blocks of that. I did one right after we got shut down on March 11 or 12, took 10 days off, started around the 24th. I did six weeks, took two weeks off, another six weeks, took two weeks off, and another six weeks leading up to here.”

Raonic, who recorded the 350th match win of his career over Sam Querrey in the Western & Southern Open first round, has also overcome Daniel Evans, two-time former champion Andy Murray and saved one match point against Filip Krajinovic at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament. Following his loss, Murray praised Raonic, saying: “He serves big and he’s aggressive. It’s not easy. Once you let him get ahead, like I did at the beginning of the match, he plays very well and it’s tough to put pressure on him.”

Raonic also knows what it takes to advance to a Masters 1000 final, having played in three title matches before at the 2013 Coupe Rogers in Montreal, the 2014 Rolex Paris Masters and at the 2016 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. He will be attempting to reach his first hard-court final since February 2017 at the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com.

Prior to the Tour suspension in March, Tsitsipas had lifted his fifth ATP Tour crown at the Open 13 Provence (d. Auger-Aliassime) and finished runner-up at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (l. to Djokovic). He’s delighted to be back in tournament action, saying, “It’s great being back on court. I really feel the joy of being able to compete again and play against the rest of the ATP players. It’s good to be back in my natural habitat, being able to compete at such a high level [and] strive for so much. It’s the adrenaline, the everyday routine that fulfils me, makes me feel like I compete for something important.”

Tsitsipas or Raonic will meet World No. 1 and 2018 champion Novak Djokovic or eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who play in the second semi-final.