Bellingham friendship & partying in Ibiza – Alcaraz in the hotseat
Defending Wimbledon champion Carlitos Alcaraz talks to BBC Sport about his friendship with Jude Bellingham & his partying in Ibiza after winning the French Open.
Defending Wimbledon champion Carlitos Alcaraz talks to BBC Sport about his friendship with Jude Bellingham & his partying in Ibiza after winning the French Open.
#NextGenATP Learner Tien and Gabriel Debru will not soon forget their Sunday triumphs on the ATP Challenger Tour. The American Tien claimed the Cranbrook Tennis Classic in Michigan while Debru won on home soil at the Internationaux de Tennis de Troyes, becoming two of the three youngest champions on the ATP Challenger Tour this year.
Tien, 18, needed a deciding set in all five of his matches, earning a final victory against 19-year-old countryman Nishesh Basavareddy 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to claim his maiden ATP Challenger Tour crown. In just the third final in Challenger history to feature two American teenagers, Tien fought back from a set and a break down to lift the trophy.
“Fifteen sets in five matches, went the distance in all of them. I was just really happy and relieved to get through all of them,” said Tien, World No. 267 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. “I’m really happy to get my first Challenger. That was one of the goals that I wanted to cross off my list this year.”
[ATP APP]A two-time major boys’ singles finalist, Tien is the youngest American Challenger champion since 2016, when an 18-year-old Frances Tiafoe won in Granby, Canada. Tien, who arrived at the Bloomfield Hills Challenger after three consecutive trophies at ITF M15 level, is the 10th-youngest American Challenger champion since 1990.
The lefty is up 14 spots to eleventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah. Tien is aiming for his maiden trip to the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, which runs from 18-22 December in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The 18-year-old Debru became the youngest French Challenger champion since 2017 by winning in Troyes. The home favourite, 25th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, ousted Kazakh Timofey Skatov 6-3, 6-7(1), 7-5 in the final.
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/07/08/13/51/debru-troyesch-2024.jpg?w=100%25&hash=8F2DDEA8381036A7A4DC0FF25A37206D” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Gabriel Debru is crowned champion at the Troyes Challenger.” />
Gabriel Debru is crowned champion at the Troyes Challenger. Credit: Internationaux de Tennis de Troyes
The only Frenchmen to win a Challenger title at a younger age than Debru are Richard Gasquet, Fabrice Santoro, Gael Monfils and Corentin Moutet.
Youngest ATP Challenger Tour champions in 2024
| Player | Age | Title |
| Joel Schwaerzler | 18 years, three months | Skopje |
| Gabriel Debru | 18 years, six months | Troyes |
| Learner Tien | 18 years, seven months | Bloomfield Hills |
In other ATP Challenger Tour action, Murkel Dellien captured his first title at that level with a dominant run at the Ion Tiriac Challenger in Brasov, Romania. The Bolivian, who did not drop a set all week, downed Kazakh Dmitry Popko 6-3, 7-5 in the championship match. A 2021 graduate of Wichita State University, the 26-year-old Dellien is up to No. 164 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, setting him up for a Top 200 debut.
Slovakian Jozef Kovalik earned his third Challenger title of the season at the Tennis Open Karlsruhe in Germany. Seeded second, the 31-year-old defeated Argentine Camilo Ugo Carabelli 6-3, 7-6(2) in the final to become one of five players to win a trio of Challenger titles in 2024.
Third Challenger title of the year 🔥
Jozef Kovalik lifts the trophy in Karlsruhe after beating Ugo Carabelli 6-3, 7-6(2)#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/rp7K7d6sjl
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) July 7, 2024
Kovalik is up to No. 103 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. The nine-time Challenger champion is aiming to return to the Top 100 for the first time since February 2019.
Albert Ramos-Vinolas collected his eighth Challenger crown and first since 2015 at the Modena Challenger, where the top seed overcame Italian Federico Arnaboldi 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the final. The 36-year-old Spaniard is the oldest Challenger champion this season.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Top seeds and two-time finalists Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos cruised into the Wimbledon quarter-finals Monday with a convincing 6-3, 6-3 win over Sebastian Baez and Dustin Brown.
The Spaniard and Argentine, who finished runners-up in 2023 and 2021, await the winner of Tuesday’s clash between Americans Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow and Germans Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz.
[ATP APP]Argentine duo Maximo Gonzalez and AndresMolteni had the toughest path to the quarter-finals Monday, holding out Britons Charles Broom and Arthur Fery 6-2, 6-7(4), 7-5. They will play Australians Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, 6-4, 6-3 winners over Andreas Mies and John-Patrick Smith.
Fourth seeds and recent Roland Garros champions Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic advanced to the last eight with a 6-4, 7-6(1) win over Frenchmen Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul. Arevalo and Pavic have this week climbed past Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori to lead the PIF ATP Doubles Race To Turin.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Novak Djokovic accuses some Wimbledon fans of disrespect as his hot-and-cold relationship with Centre Court takes another turn.
On Saturday, one of Jasmine Paolini, Emma Navarro, Lulu Sun or Donna Vekic will appear in their first Wimbledon final.
Daniil Medvedev is back in the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the second consecutive year. Ahead of the tournament, he played “a great practice set” with World No. 1 Jannik Sinner. But that was training.
On Tuesday, the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings will be tasked with snapping a five-match losing streak against the star who currently holds top spot.
“Look, the funny thing is I lost five times. But if I remember right, four times were really close. Did I get unlucky or not?” Medvedev wondered. “Even Beijing, two tie-breaks. What was it? Vienna, quite a crazy match. Turin, still a close match. I feel like maybe he won it easier, the Australian Open, close match. Then Miami he won easy.
“I feel like I was not far, but great job from him to win it five times in a row. [This will be the] first time we play on grass, I’m definitely going to come up with something.”
As difficult as it is entering a clash knowing he has lost five straight against Sinner, Medvedev still leads the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series 6-5. Seven of those meetings have come since the start of 2023, which Medvedev’s head coach, Gilles Cervara, likes.
“It’s a good thing to have played Jannik so many times the last few months,” Cervara told ATPTour.com. “My feeling is the more times you lose against the same opponent, the more chances you have to beat him the next time.”
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/07/08/21/50/sinner-wimbledon-2024-v-medvedev.jpg” style=”width:100%” alt=”Jannik Sinner hits a backhand at Wimbledon 2024.” />
Jannik Sinner has won five straight matches against Daniil Medvedev, but the players have never met on grass. Photo: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
According to Cervara, time has allowed Sinner to continually improve since his breakthrough on the ATP Tour until now.
“He still has his amazing speed of the ball,” Cervara said of the 22-year-old. “But he controls the ball so, so well now. He looks like he can’t miss now at the speed he plays. Now he has a big first serve that he didn’t have one year and a half ago. And winning gives him more and more self-confidence.”
Medvedev more or less echoed the same sentiments. The fourth seed explained that Sinner “plays better”, but actually misses less.
“When Jannik came on Tour, straightaway everyone was a little bit, not shocked but like how strong he hits, how he can run fast and hit strong from every position of the court,” Medvedev said. “But he was missing a lot and hence, losing some matches. As soon as he stopped missing less, well, now it’s very tough to beat him for anyone. Not only for me. That’s why he’s No. 1 in the world.”
The challenge for Team Medvedev is to find a way to take down this new-and-improved version of Sinner. Cervara is now joined by former World No. 6 Gilles Simon, who was called “The Professor” during his time on the circuit. Earlier this year, Medvedev revealed that Cervara had given Simon a list of players in particular the Frenchman would help find tactics against. Medvedev confirmed Sunday that Sinner is on that list.
“It is always interesting to have an ex-top player’s feeling and vision to share with my coaching experience,” Cervara said. “We communicate together with Daniil.”
[ATP APP]How does the way the team prepares Medvedev change because he has played Sinner so many times lately?
“It changes and doesn’t change,” Cervara said. “You use the different matches to keep [tactics], to change [tactics] or to do better than the last times.”
One notable difference is that they have never played on grass. That could affect some details because speed and movement can be different, forcing adaptation according to Cervara.
Medvedev said: “Small details makes big difference in tennis. It’s definitely tougher to play him now than before. Again, as I said, the matches were close. I had my chances. I’ll try to use them better this time.”
At this year’s Australian Open, Medvedev played three five-setters en route to the final and produced ultra-aggressive tennis to start the final against Sinner. It worked for two sets before he ran out of legs and Sinner found solutions. Which tactic will he use this time?
“I’m going to try to see what I can do to play good, to surprise him, to make him in trouble,” Medvedev said. “He’s for sure going to do the same. Hopefully it’s going to be a good match. [I will] try my best to win.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Watch as Novak Djokovic hits out at “disrespectful” fans on Centre Court at Wimbledon during his straight-sets win over Holger Rune.
Taylor Fritz earned a thrilling two-sets-to-none comeback victory against Alexander Zverev on Monday in the Wimbledon fourth round. It was the third time he has rallied from two sets down and now he will face 25th seed Lorenzo Musetti for a place in the semi-finals.
ATPTour.com caught up with Fritz’s coach, Michael Russell, who detailed his charge’s comeback, what the American has learned from his previous major quarter-finals, facing Musetti and more.
You’ve coached Taylor in a lot of big matches. How would you describe how he was able to make that comeback?
His composure and collectiveness in the pressure moments and being down two sets to love was so perfect. It really was. He didn’t panic. He was playing excellent from the ground. Sascha was just having one of those service days where he was serving 80 per cent first serve, he’s averaging 133 miles an hour on the first and 111 on the second and hitting spots. So you look over at the scoreboard, you’re down two sets to love, but you’re playing well.
He played maybe a little tentative in the second-set tie-break. But in this sport, especially on grass, it’s the smallest of margins that can turn a match around, and Taylor did a great job of just staying in it and focusing on his service games, making sure he takes care of his service games and then kept putting the pressure on on Sascha. He was able to gut out a break in the third and the whole match just completely changes because now it’s two sets to one and you’re in for a dog fight.
How big of a sign was the double fault at 4-4 in the third set?
He hadn’t really double-faulted very much. So as soon as you see that, you think of the psychological factor, he’s feeling a little bit of pressure getting into the deeper end of the match. And that’s a big confidence booster for Taylor, because he sees that as well, because for two sets, the guy was infallible.
What was the message from the box?
It was obviously a lot of encouragement and just trying to give Sascha some different looks on the return of serve just because he was so comfortable hitting the spots and hitting them so big. And then for Taylor, just continue to play aggressive when he does have those chances, which is not always easy, because you feel the pressure when the guy is serving that well.
Taylor did a great job of moving the ball around, ripping backhands, absorbing Sascha’s backhands and mixing in a little variety with some drop shots at some key moments.
Taylor has always chased big goals. How do you balance being excited about this win, being back in a Grand Slam quarter-final, and wanting to go farther than he has before?
What you do is you always celebrate the victories that evening. And then the next day, you’re right back to work. It’s a brand new match, it’s a brand new tournament. You never want to have that complacency. You’re always striving to be better and have bigger goals and I think Taylor wants that. He knows that.
Being in these positions before, quarter-finals of almost all four Slams and he’s played quarter-finals here at Wimbledon, he wants to take further steps. It’s just keeping the routines, keeping that mindset, keeping calm and collected and composed in those pressure situations and having the belief in yourself that you can win titles.
<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/07/08/17/23/fritz-wimbledon-2024-monday.jpg” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Taylor Fritz” />
Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images
How much does it help that he’s had a few Slam quarter-finals already?
It helps a lot because he’s putting himself in these positions a lot more frequently. Quarter-finals of Australia played a good match with Novak, quarter-finals of the US Open again played Novak, quarter-finals of Wimbledon with Nadal. So he’s getting in these moments and playing quality matches against some of the best players of all time.
Being able to beat those guys gives you the confidence that you can beat anyone. And Taylor is one of the best competitors I’ve ever seen. When he steps on court, he believes that he can win every single match and he’s willing to sacrifice and put it on the line every time. That’s sometimes you can’t always teach, and so that’s why it’s really great to see him fighting back from two sets down and just [have] no panic. [He showed] great focus, kept the energy the whole time and gave himself another opportunity to play another match and be here another day.
What did he learn from the Rafa match here at Wimbledon two years ago, which he lost in five sets?
I think part of it is just making sure sometimes in big moments that you can step up. You don’t always have to resort to waiting for some errors or waiting for the other guy to be the aggressor. With Taylor’s game, he’s able to take the racquet out of the opponent’s hand with his serve and forehand and even today, being able to hit his backhand on a dime like that at that pace.
He’s really understanding that even in pressure moments, I can play safe, but I can still hit the ball big and play safe. And that’s what makes a great player into an ultimate champion at Grand Slams. He’s starting to believe that and we’ll see, he just has to continue to have that belief and mentality going into every round.
[ATP APP]He’s had some matches now with guys who serve huge and the next one is against Lorenzo Musetti, who is more of a creative, artistic player, and his game is not as based on the serve. How do you adjust the game plan for that?
It’s a combination. Lorenzo is extremely crafty, very talented. He’s won some big matches and been on some big stages and he’s a very good grass-court player. At the end of the day, Taylor knows he has to serve well, look for big forehands that he can be the aggressor and take advantage of his point construction. Be smart with it.
Not giving away too much, but he knows that he’s going to have to be aggressive and look to finish points. Lorenzo is going to want to get in a little more cat-and-mouse points and use his craftiness to get Taylor to be uncomfortable.
It’s obviously still far away, it’s the quarter-finals. But what would it take for Taylor Fritz to leave here as Wimbledon champion?
As you said, you’re far away. There are three matches against three phenomenal players. At the end of the day, Taylor, what he’s been doing, he’s going to have to serve great, hit his spots, well, keep poised in these moments when it comes down to pressure and be willing to step up and be aggressive, but stay within his limits.
Stay healthy and keep fit, because that’s a big part of the game. You play five sets and he’s got a great team around him. So it’s important, and you just keep that mindset, you keep it in the routines, and you go out there and you’re ready.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Taylor Fritz on Monday earned one of the most stunning victories of Wimbledon.
The 13th seed rallied from two sets down to shock fourth seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3 for a spot in the quarter-finals of The Championships. The American will face 25th seed Lorenzo Musetti for a place in the semi-finals.
“It was amazing to do that on Centre Court from two sets down,” Fritz said. “I thought it would really suck to be playing this well and to lose in three straight. I had the belief. I thought I was playing really good tennis… and that it was just a couple of points here and there. I thought I could take it one set at a time and turn it around.”
FANTASTIC FRITZ 💪
Incredible comeback from @Taylor_Fritz97 to reach the quarter-finals!<a href=”https://twitter.com/Wimbledon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Wimbledon | <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Wimbledon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/GDONeh4a9e
— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 8, 2024
It marked the third time the American has battled back from two sets down and emerged victorious. Fittingly, the first player Fritz achieved the feat against was Zverev’s older brother, Mischa Zverev (R1, 2018 US Open), who was in the Centre Court players’ box cheering on ‘Sascha’.
Zverev entered the match in imperious serving form having not lost serve through three matches. With plenty of confidence after his run to the Roland Garros final, he did not face a break point in the second round against Marcos Giron or the third round against Cameron Norrie.
But when the two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion double faulted at 4-4 in the third set to relinquish his first service break of the tournament, the tenor of the match changed. Fritz had been holding his own, but he grew in confidence as the match wore on and raised his level to triumph after hours and 29 minutes. Zverev now leads Fritz 5-4 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, including 2-1 at The Championships.
[ATP APP]Zverev walked on Centre Court wearing a gray knee sleeve on his left knee after overextending it during his third-round victory against home favourite Norrie. The sleeve appeared similar to the one seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic has been wearing following the Serbian’s surgery to repair a torn meniscus. The fourth seed revealed the nature of his injury after the match.
“I have a bone edema in my knee, then I have also a tear in my capsule in my knee. That came from the fall. That came from the match against Norrie,” Zverev said. “So it is quite painful for that period of time. It is nothing that I need surgery on. It is nothing that doesn’t heal by itself. It just needs time.”
But Zverev, who was trying to reach his first quarter-final at SW19, did not show many signs of struggling with movement for most of the match. More glaringly, Fritz played a nearly flawless final three sets to surge past the German and into his second Wimbledon quarter-final in three years.
The 26-year-old hit 67 winners to just 23 unforced errors, and delivered 15 aces in the match. He won 69 per cent of his second-serve points compared to just 47 per cent for Zverev.
The American will next take on 25th seed Lorenzo Musetti, against whom he owns a 2-1 Lexus ATP Head2Head advantage. Musetti, a first-time major quarter-finalist, defeated Fritz 6-4, 6-4 earlier this year on clay in Monte-Carlo.
“It’s going to be a tough match. He’s had a really good grass-court season,” Fritz said. “It’s my second time in the quarter-finals, but this time it feels like I’ve earned it a lot more, so I’m really excited for the chance.”
Fritz has won eight consecutive grass-court matches dating back to the start of the Rothesay International in Eastbourne. The eight-time ATP Tour titlist has claimed three of his crowns on grass, all in Eastbourne.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Watch the best shots as Alex de Minaur beats Arthur Fils to reach this year’s men’s singles quarter-finals.