One year ago, Brit Kyle Edmund ended Steve Johnson’s Winston-Salem Open and his US Open. Not this year.

The American routed Edmund 6-1, 6-2 on Thursday to reach his second Winston-Salem Open semi-final (2015, l. Herbert). The 28-year-old Johnson needed only 64 minutes to beat Edmund, winning 80 per cent (35/44) of his service points and saving all four break points.

“I think it was my best serving day in a long time so that’s always helpful, and when you get early breaks in both sets that definitely helps your case. Your confidence builds and maybe the doubt in their game maybe creeps up a bit more,” he said.

Johnson, a champion at Houston and Newport this year, will try to reach his third final of 2018 when he meets second seed Pablo Carreno Busta. The 2016 champion broke four times and advanced past South Korean Hyeon Chung 6-3, 6-4.

“Playing like this I am going to win a lot of matches. I think my opponent today played very good,” Carreno Busta said.

The Spaniard leads his Fedex ATP Head2Head series with Johnson 2-1, including a straight-sets win earlier this year on the Miami hard courts.

Russian Daniil Medvedev and Japan’s Taro Daniel will face off in Friday’s other semi-final. Medvedev beat American Ryan Harrison 7-6(4), 6-4, and Daniel came back from a set and a break down to knock out Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. The Japanese right-hander played two full matches on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals.

“Another really tough one. [Medvedev] has been accumulating a lot of experience on the tour,” Daniel said.

Medvedev reached his fourth ATP World Tour semi-final and his first since January when he won his maiden title at the Sydney International. “It was a great match for me. I played quite good tennis I think. You can always do something better but I think it was a solid match,” he said.

Get the popcorn ready. There are plenty of must-see first-round matches at the US Open.

[8] Grigor Dimitrov vs. Stan Wawrinka (SUI)
Yes, again. Just two months after Dimitrov and Wawrinka clashed in the opening round at The Championships, the stars will meet again in the match to watch in the first round of the US Open. And this time, somehow, there might be even more anticipation.

Wawrinka, on the comeback from two left knee surgeries last year, beat Dimitrov at Wimbledon on his least favourite surface. And while the Swiss is No. 101 in the ATP Rankings, the 2016 US Open champion is playing at a much higher level than that. Wawrinka won a combined five matches at the Rogers Cup and the Western & Southern Open, all against opponents currently inside the Top 40, with his two losses coming in tight defeats against Rafael Nadal in Toronto and Roger Federer in Cincinnati.

Dimitrov, the reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion, has himself shown progress during this hard-court swing, reaching his first quarter-final since April in Canada and pushing eventual winner Djokovic in a three-set Cincinnati loss. The Bulgarian will be eager to avenge his loss from SW19 in New York, which would extend his FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against Wawrinka to 5-3.

It will be interesting to see who will be able to control points in Flushing Meadows. Dimitrov is at his best when he is serving well and using his athleticism to take the ball early and move into net. But Wawrinka, who is moving closer to his best tennis, can hit groundstrokes with anyone in the world, especially with his impressive one-handed backhand. The winner will face a qualifier in the second round.

[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. David Ferrer (ESP)
Could this be good-bye for Ferrer, who is playing his 16th (consecutive) and final US Open? The Spaniard will look to pull off a stunning upset against World No. 1 Nadal, who leads their rivalry 24-6.

While Nadal has dominated the former World No. 3 over the years, the compatriots are even on hard courts, each winning four of their meetings. And interestingly enough, Ferrer has won both of their Grand Slam matches on the surface, including a clash at the 2007 US Open.

Nadal is in far better form, though, fresh off his victory at the Rogers Cup. Ferrer, who spent 13 consecutive years in the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings until he fell out of the group in July, is now down to No. 148. The 36-year-old is 9-17 at tour-level this campaign.

But against Nadal, expect Ferrer to summon everything he has at a tournament where he has enjoyed plenty of success, including trips to the semi-finals in 2007 and 2012. Ferrer will need to not only chase down all of Nadal’s aggressive shots, as has become the Valencia-resident’s trademark over the years, but he will also need to take it to the top seed if he hopes to keep Nadal from gaining a rhythm. 

[31] Fernando Verdasco (ESP) vs. Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
Do you know where these two left-handed Spaniards last met? If you guessed the 2017 US Open, you’re right. Lopez, who was ironically the No. 31 seed at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center a year ago, swept by Verdasco in four sets before falling to Federer in the third round.

Both players will be especially hungry at the year’s final Grand Slam, as they earned a total of one match win at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Toronto and Cincinnati. It is Verdasco’s 16th consecutive US Open and Lopez’s record 67th straight major main draw appearance.

But this matchup is not only interesting based on their history, but their styles. Verdasco has long been one of the most dangerous baseliners in the world, and he is facing an opponent who comes to net as much as possible. Verdasco is likely to try to control his service games with his serve and a big forehand, while Lopez will serve and volley to pressure the 34-year-old.

Neither guy shies away from the doubles court, either, meaning that fans are almost guaranteed to see some sensational play at the net. Whoever prevails will face former World No. 1 Andy Murray or Aussie James Duckworth.

[29] Adrian Mannarino (FRA) vs. Frances Tiafoe (USA)
Who could forget #NextGenATP American Tiafoe’s effort in the first round of the 2017 US Open, pushing Federer to five sets as he tried to send the Swiss out in the opening round of a Grand Slam for the first time since Roland Garros in 2003? Tiafoe showed his propensity for the big moment, and he’ll have another shot against No. 29 seed Mannarino.

The Frenchman beat his 20-year-old opponent the last time they met, which was at the 2016 Citi Open in Washington, D.C. But Tiafoe is a different player now than he was two years ago, playing the best tennis of his life. The American claimed his first ATP World Tour title earlier this year at the Delray Beach Open, and at World No. 42 he is within four spots of his career-best ATP Ranking.

But Mannarino has proven a difficult matchup for many players with his flat groundstrokes off both wings. The 30-year-old will try to keep Tiafoe from gaining any rhythm, while the American will use his athleticism and explosiveness to dictate play in front of his home crowd. The victor will face #NextGenATP Alex de Minaur or Japanese Taro Daniel.

[27] Karen Khachanov (RUS) vs. Albert Ramos-Vinolas (ESP)
Few players are in as good of form as Khachanov, who used his massive hitting from the baseline to reach the semi-finals of a Masters 1000 event for the first time in Toronto. The Russian, who qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals last year, has captured two ATP World Tour titles, including one earlier this season in Marseille. But his opponent, Ramos-Vinolas, has reached a final at the elite level, doing so last year on clay in Monte-Carlo.

This is a rematch of a first-round clash from Cincinnati, which Khachanov won in three sets. The 22-year-old leads the Spaniard 3-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, and all four of their meetings have come in three sets. Khachanov beat Ramos-Vinolas to claim his first tour-level trophy two years ago in Chengdu.

The 6’6” right-hander will try to dominate with his power from the baseline, while the left-handed Ramos-Vinolas will attempt to set himself up in points with his slice serve, and use angles with his forehand to open up the court. Whoever gets through this match could be on a collision course with top-seeded Nadal in the third round. They’ll face Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller or a qualifier in the second round.

Perhaps the biggest question of the 2018 US Open draw was a simple one: Where would sixth seed Novak Djokovic, fresh off achieving the Career Golden Masters, land? Now we know.

The Western & Southern Open champion is in Roger Federer’s quarter and could again face the five-time US Open champion, his opponent from the Cincinnati final, in the last eight.

Djokovic and Federer have not met before the semi-finals of any tournament since 2007 Dubai, with the exception being round-robin play at the Nitto ATP Finals. The pair have contested 42 FedEx ATP Head2Head matches since then, including 18 for championships. In the Western & Southern Open final, when Djokovic became the first player to win all nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, the Serbian took a 24-22 lead in their epic rivalry.

But first, the superstars will be focused on what’s directly in front of them: two first-time opponents. Federer will face Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round, and Djokovic will play Hungarian Marton Fucsovics. Federer could face No. 30 seed Nick Kyrgios in a third-round blockbuster.

Top seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal will begin his title defence against a familiar foe in former World No. 3 David Ferrer. The World No. 1 leads his fellow Spaniard 24-6 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry. But in their only previous meeting at the US Open, in 2007, Ferrer triumphed in four sets. Fifth seed and 2017 finalist Kevin Anderson and ninth seed Dominic Thiem are also in Nadal’s quarter. 

A lot of eyes will be on the Spaniard’s opener, but there might be even more on a clash between reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov and 2016 US Open winner Stan Wawrinka. Not only have both players been inside the Top 5 of the ATP Rankings within the past year, but they also met in their Wimbledon opener, with Wawrinka — on the comeback from two left knee surgeries last year — pulling the upset. The winner will face a qualifier in the second round.

The Bulgarian and Swiss are in third seed Juan Martin del Potro’s quarter. The 2009 winner, who is at a career-best World No. 3, will begin his tournament against a qualifier, but could face former World No. 1 and 2012 titlist Andy Murray in the third round. The Scot will play Aussie James Duckworth in his opener.

The earliest third seed Alexander Zverev could face another seed will be in the third round against 32nd seed Filip Krajinovic. The 21-year-old Zverev will face a qualifier before playing against Czech Jiri Vesely or #NextGenATP Frenchman Corentin Moutet.

Zverev’s quarter-final opponent is projected to be 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic, who confronts Romanian Marius Copil before facing Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas or a qualifier. Cilic could face No. 29 seed Adrian Mannarino, or #NextGenATP players Frances Tiafoe or Alex de Minaur in the third round.

Of the #NextGenATP, the only two seeded players from that 21-and-under group — No. 15 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 28 seed Denis Shapovalov — both begin their campaigns against qualifiers.

World No. 1 and defending US Open champion Rafael Nadal said at Thursday’s draw ceremony in Manhattan that deciding who the favourite is in Flushing Meadows is not a difficult task. In the Spaniard’s mind, there is none.

“I think it’s not clear, one favourite,” Nadal said. “Even when somebody thinks somebody’s a clear favourite, from inside it doesn’t look like this. Of course Novak [Djokovic], Roger [Federer], they’re doing very well. Especially [since] they like the hard courts. Let’s see, let’s see what’s going on.”

One of those favourites is certainly Nadal, who resides atop the ATP Rankings. Despite struggling with a right hip injury early in the year, that caused him to struggle physically at the Australian Open and withdraw from Acapulco, he has found his best form, tallying a 40-3 record in 2018.

Nadal has captured five tour-level titles this season, including his 11th Coupe des Mousquetaires at Roland Garros, and most recently, a triumph on the hard courts of Toronto at the Rogers Cup, his record 33rd ATP World Tour Masters 1000 victory.

“It’s been a positive year, of course,” Nadal said. “Since I came back, I was playing well and winning a lot of matches. Toronto gave me the possibility to rest a little bit. I’m getting a little bit older, as everybody knows. I took that week, nothing against Cincinnati, it’s about just trying to save my body, to play as long as possible. That’s something that I’m really looking forward to making happen, and let’s see. I rested, I practised and here I am.”

Nadal has enjoyed plenty of success in New York over the years, lifting the trophy in 2010, 2013 and 2017. He has advanced to the semi-finals or better six times, doing so in five straight appearances from 2008-11 and 2013, missing the tournament in 2012 due to knee tendinitis.

“We practise every day to try to be ready for the action, for the competition, even more for the big ones,” Nadal said. “The atmosphere here in New York is difficult to compare with any other place. I love the night sessions, I love the connection with the crowd. I always feel very comfortable here.”

There are plenty of tough challengers in the field. Fifth seed Kevin Anderson, whom Nadal beat in last year’s US Open final, and ninth seed Dominic Thiem, whom the Spaniard defeated earlier this year to triumph at Roland Garros, are the highest-ranked seeds in Nadal’s quarter. The 32-year-old believes many other players can also make a deep run in Flushing Meadows.

“Especially now with this young generation coming, you never know. When you have young people there, you never know about the potential of what they have. They can propose something different and they can increase their level very quickly,” Nadal said. “[Alexander] Zverev, at some point he has to move forward and fight for the titles, that’s [something] he’s already doing. [Denis] Shapovalov, let’s see [Nick] Kyrgios, [John] Isner, just [with these] kind of players, anything can happen.“

The women’s defending champion, Sloane Stephens, wouldn’t look at the draw during the ceremony. Seeing his possible opponents doesn’t bother Nadal.

“I’m not crazy about the draw, but of course I really don’t care,” Nadal said. “At the end of the day, you will have to know your opponent… the tournament starts from the first round.”

For now, Nadal’s focus will be squarely set on his first-round opponent, former World No. 3 David Ferrer.

Five former ATP World Tour stars are candidates on the ballot for International Tennis Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019, it was announced Wednesday.

Leading the elite group are former World No. 1s in the ATP Rankings, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Thomas Muster. They are joined by former No. 1 in the ATP Doubles Rankings Jonas Bjorkman, 22-time tour-level champion Goran Ivanisevic and 1993-94 Roland Garros titlist Sergi Bruguera.

Conchita Martinez, Li Na and Mary Pierce are also on the ballot. The International Tennis Hall of Fame will be utlising a fan vote — which will open on 27 August and close on 7 October — for the first time.

“This is an exciting year for the International Tennis Hall of Fame election process, with a broad-ranging group of candidates and our first-ever Fan Vote. The eight candidates on the ballot come from seven nations, and have achieved tremendous results on tennis’ biggest stages – winning Grand Slam titles and Olympic medals, and topping the world rankings,” stated ITHF President Stan Smith, who also serves as Chairman of the Enshrinee Nominating Committee. “Each has done much for the sport and I hope we’ll see their many fans turn out to vote online to support their Hall of Fame candidacy.”

The five ATP World Tour players combined to lift 112 tour-level singles trophies, and they all cracked the world’s Top 5. Bjorkman captured 54 tour-level doubles trophies, while Kafelnikov also climbed as high as No. 4 in the discipline.

The three players who place highest in the fan vote will receive three, two and one additional percentage points on top of the ITHF’s voting group to determine their final result. Players must receive a 75 per cent affirmative ballot to be inducted. Former World No. 2 Michael Stich was inducted as part of the Class of 2018 in July.

It’s a universal goal of tennis players: To become the No. 1 player in the world. Kids dream of it, pros fight tooth and nail for it, yet it remains among the most elusive achievements in the sport. In the 40-year history of the Emirates ATP Rankings, only 25 players have reached the summit, with just 16 finishing the season as year-end No. 1.

Yet without the foresight of ATP founding fathers, the rankings landscape may look entirely different. From the dawn of Open Era tennis in 1968, rankings were largely a subjective calculation, generated by national tennis associations, circuits and a number of eminent tennis journalists who compiled their own lists.

“Tingay’s was really the only one that counted,” recalls former ATP European Director and acclaimed tennis writer Richard Evans, referring to the rankings produced by The Daily Telegraph’s Lance Tingay. “National Associations produced their own rankings, which meant that tournament committees attempted to secure the No. 1 player from each country,” remembers John Barrett, a former player and ATP Board member. “The major championships permitted associations to nominate four players from their country.”

It was all low tech and with no real purpose, as tournaments invited players on the basis of their reputation as Stan Smith, the World No. 1 in 1971-72, highlights. “The history leading up to the ranking system included a ‘star system’ as far as entries into the tournaments. Some players would be on a list as players that could help sell tickets for the event and they would have priority over others in acceptance into tournaments. This caused great concern for those that didn’t have a big name and were borderline getting into events. There were definitely some battles with tournaments over this star system.” Bob Kramer adds, “Tournament draws often featured eight players based on domestic national rankings, eight players based on an international ranking and a handful of other players worthy of acceptance.”

By August 1972, it became clear that the newly created Association of Tennis Professionals needed to establish a ranking system free of personal opinion and prejudice. “Jack Kramer, the first Executive Director of the ATP, wanted prize money only tournaments and not events that offered guarantees to players – as had happened in the ‘shamateur’ era of the past decade, when you were invited on reputation,” adds Barrett. Smith remembers, “The ranking system was a hot point for the players and it continued to be very important. The ATP felt that it wanted to control the ranking program and not let the ITF or anyone else control it.”

Working with the first ATP President, Cliff Drysdale, Jack Kramer sought help from the ATP Board including Arthur Ashe, Jim McManus and Charlie Pasarell, and received special input from Owen Davidson, Mike Estep, Fred McNair, Sherwood Stewart and others to devise a practical computer ranking that provided a fair analysis of a player’s performance as well as an objective means to determine entries into tournament. “We did not want the computer to be used as a way to incentivise a player to enter any particular tournament,” says Drysdale. “In other words, to purely be a way to rank players according to ability. Nothing more. In those early days we also gave points weighted according to the ranking of players he beat. So if you beat a seed, you got more points.”

Twelve months after the ATP was founded, Ilie Nastase became the first No. 1. He was among 186 players to be listed in the first ‘ATP International Player Rankings’ of Monday, 23 August 1973 (pictured below), produced and printed out on gigantic computer paper by TRW, a major aerospace company, having been meticulously calculated by Bob Kramer from his Los Angeles office. Dennis Spencer, who replaced Bob Kramer on ATP Rankings duty in December 1975, says, “Bob made an agreement with a guy from TRW to process the rankings. Most journalists thought that made sense because in their minds the ATP Rankings might as well have been from outer space!”

Bob Kramer recalls, “I struck a deal with Simon Ramo of TRW to provide a resource based on a points system to establish the rankings, which was one of the key principles behind the founding of the ATP in 1972. Ramo was a renowned physicist, engineer, and LA business leader/founder and the ‘R’ in aerospace manufacturing legend, TRW. As tennis enthusiast, neighbour and a friend of Jack Kramer’s, he ‘loaned’ us the computer time and initially one of his computer engineers, Bob Kurle, to help ATP run the rankings data each month and eventually, weekly.

“Administered by a panel of people, tournaments were initially divided into categories – A, B, C, etc. – which enabled event organisers to select the players according to their ATP Ranking and determine seedings. I provided the tournament results and related information to Bob Kurle.” Kurle then imputed the data into a server the size of the first floor of the ATP Americas office in Ponte-Vedra Beach [2,020 square metres]. “Within three days, Simon and Bob returned the rankings on huge perforated sheets. I remember putting ATP Rankings sheets from floor to ceiling, week after week on the walls of our LA office. I would double check results, circle inaccuracies and, if required, returned the sheets to TRW for a re-run. Because the ATP produced the rankings once a month in the first few years, we had the time for the manual process, unlike today.”

Spencer confirms Bob Kramer’s memories, but insists that, “There were many weeks when for whatever reason the ‘computer’ didn’t work so I did the rankings by hand. I would print the previous rankings out on the large computer paper, lay it out on my living room floor, get on my hands and knees to mark out the week(s) that were dropping off, add the new results and calculate the new rankings.”

Read Part II: The Rankings That Changed Tennis