Nick Kyrgios is one of the biggest basketball fans you’ll find. From shooting hoops to wearing basketball jerseys at practice and watching the NBA on television, the Aussie loves the sport.

That made his trip to the 2016 Truist Atlanta Open, where he lifted the trophy, extra fun.

Before the tournament began, Kyrgios, Taylor Fritz, Reilly Opelka and Christopher Eubanks visited McCamish Pavilion at nearby Georgia Tech University to test their basketball skills.

The four young ATP Tour stars wide-eyed past jerseys of former Georgia Tech stars who became successful NBA players, including Chris Bosh and Jarrett Jack. They practised among the NCAA Tournament banners of former Yellow Jacket teams. The four tennis players also played a little hoops themselves, sweating through their shirts after competing for more than 90 minutes.

“It was a lot of fun coming here and just seeing what it was like to get on a court like this,” said Kyrgios. “Hopefully we can continue to play… It was unbelievable.”

Who was the best player on the court?

“Fritz started off pretty cold but he played well,” said Kyrgios, a Boston Celtics fan who wore a “Basketball Never Stops” T-shirt for the occasion.

The hot hand rotated throughout play. During some stretches, Eubanks couldn’t miss. “This guy’s feeling it out there. He’s shooting like Bradley Beal!” said Kyrgios, comparing Eubanks to the Washington Wizards star.

Two days later, Kyrgios visited the NBA TV studio for a segment on the network’s flagship program “GameTime” with hosts Vince Cellini and former NBA player Steve Smith. The trio talked about the Truist Atlanta Open, which Kyrgios called, “a massive tournament for me”.

Kyrgios was in awe throughout the trip, taking his time to look at the glossy logos throughout the studio.

“This is unbelievable right now. This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Kyrgios, who snapped a photo of the Boston Celtics logo, became a fan of that team as a kid because he played an NBA video game and thought the Celtics logo – a leprechaun balancing a basketball – looked cool.

“I’m enjoying my time in Atlanta,” Kyrgios told the NBA TV crew. “There’s obviously plenty of basketball hoops around where I’m getting some shots up.”

In basketball terms, Kyrgios’ result on the tennis court that week was a slam dunk. The Aussie beat home favourite John Isner 7-6(3), 7-6(4) for the title.

The ATP Coach & Player Fan Experience initiative has drawn to a close, raising more than US$225,000 in support of members of the ATP Coach programme affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

The auction, which ran across a six-week period, saw players, coaches and tournaments combine to create some unique fan experiences. The second round of auctions and prize draws, which ended on Monday 27 July, was highlighted by a US$51,850 winning bid for a once-in-a-lifetime experience with Andy Murray at Wimbledon. The winner will spend one hour on court with the former World No. 1 at the All England Club during the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, receive two tickets to the men’s singles final and enjoy a private lunch in the members’ enclosure.
 

One winner bid US$27,000 to spend two hours on court with three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka and his coaching team, Magnus Norman and Dani Vallverdu. Other fans bid US$10,500 to hit with 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov and US$7,500 to join Feliciano Lopez for a training session at the Mutua Madrid Open.

One of 539 entrants will be the lucky winner of a special prize draw — a framed collection of signed racquets from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray — which added more than US$8,000 to the overall pool. Other auctions featuring former World No. 1 Carlos Moya and star coaches Severin Luthi and Toni Nadal brought the overall total to US$226,000 including more than US$90,000 from the first round of bidding, which concluded on 29 June.

“It has been uplifting to see everybody pulling together to help out the coaches, who play such a big role in tennis. Everybody that I reached out to for help said yes,” said Vallverdu, ATP Coach. “This shows the impact coaches and players can make and I hope it’s a platform for many more collaborations in the future. When we all work together, we can really achieve some big things for the sport.”

“It’s heartening that during such an unprecedented global situation, the tennis community has come together and found creative ways to help each other,” said Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman. “Importantly, this innovative initiative has also succeeded in delivering something unique to our fans, and our thanks go to everyone who contributed.”

A part of the proceeds raised will also be donated to support the UNICEF Coronavirus Children’s Crisis Appeal. This support initiative follows the creation of a Player Relief Fund earlier this year by the governing bodies of world tennis, which came together to raise in excess of US $6 million aimed at supporting more than 800 players who are particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

To donate to the UNICEF Coronavirus Children’s Crisis Appeal: https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/covid-19/donate.

When Mardy Fish wanted to create an unforgettable moment in one of his last ATP Tour events, he brought one of his closest friends since high school out of retirement.

Fish, then 33, delighted fans by teaming up with Andy Roddick in doubles at the 2015 Truist Atlanta Open. Roddick hadn’t competed since calling time on his career at the 2012 US Open, while Fish confirmed plans to retire at that year’s US Open and was only competing in his third tournament since August 2013.

The former No. 7 in the FedEx ATP Rankings had been candid about his struggles to get back on court. He underwent an operation in June 2014 to correct misfiring electric pulses with his heart and opened up about battling an anxiety disorder, but was determined to finish on his terms.

“With Mardy’s comeback, it’s been a pretty amazing story. The fact that he’s going to pursue that even more this summer is really exciting,” Roddick told USA Today. “We’ve been friends for a long time and we just wanted to play together one last time. I wanted to play with my friend and share in his comeback a little bit.”

In front of a packed Wednesday night crowd in Atlanta, Fish and Roddick turned back the clock with a 7-6(2) 6-4 win over Yen-Hsun Lu and Jonathan Marray. Although the Americans lacked match play, they were able to lean on their previous success together. They had compiled a 20-6 tour-level record and won two titles together, including an ATP Masters 1000 crown at the 2009 BNP Paribas Open.

“When you don’t play for that long, you don’t know what to expect,” Roddick said. “I had a blast. I wanted to win that really badly. It was a lot of fun at the end when we realised we had won. I had fun and I think Mardy did too. There was a lot of rust out there, but we masked it well.”

“It was a blast out there,” Fish said. “The crowd was great. It’s good to do it here in Atlanta.”

Roddick also tried to give Fish a boost in singles, albeit with less success. When Fish needed a fresh pair of socks during his first-round match, Roddick offered his own.

“I wear the low socks and my shoes were really wet, so I was asking for my trainer to run back and get some socks,” Fish explained. “Andy was nice enough to take his off his feet and try to get them to me, and I threw them away. I don’t want those!”

Although they fell in the quarter-finals to Eric Butorac and Artem Sitak, their brief run in Atlanta helped kickstart Fish’s final lap on Tour. He picked up the first singles victory of his comeback three weeks later in Cincinnati and won a round in his final event in New York.

Defending champion Daniil Medvedev is one of 16 Top 20 players on the entry list of next month’s 2020 Western & Southern Open, the first tournament to be played since the ATP Tour was suspended in early March. The ATP Masters 1000 tournament will take place from 20-28 August at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 24-year-old Russian won his first Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati last year, rallying past World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals before defeating Belgian David Goffin for the trophy.

Four more former Western & Southern Open champions are on the singles entry list: Djokovic (2018), World No. 2 Rafael Nadal (2013), Grigor Dimitrov (2017) and Marin Cilic (2016).

The list also includes World No. 3 Dominic Thiem, reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, #NextGenATP stars Felix Auger Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov and Alex de Minaur, three-time Masters 1000 champion Alexander Zverev and 2019 breakthrough star Matteo Berrettini.

The top eight seeds will receive a first-round bye. Twelve players will be added to the field through a two-round qualifying event that will be held from 20-21 August. The entry deadline for qualifying is 3 August. Four men will be awarded wild cards in the coming weeks.

Two-time champion Serena Williams (2014-15) will join Madison Keys (2019), Kiki Bertens (2018), Garbiñe Muguruza (2017) and Karolina Pliskova (2016) as past WTA champions in the Premier 5 field.

The US Open (31 August-13 September) will begin three days after the conclusion of the Western & Southern Open.