#NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe has landed a breakthrough victory over childhood idol and No. 2 seed Juan Martin del Potro to reach the Delray Beach Open quarter-finals on Thursday. The 20-year-old needed four match points to eke out a 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-5 win – his first in three FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with the Argentine.

It sets up a showdown with reigning #NextGenATP Finals champion and No. 8 seed Hyeon Chung after the South Korean’s earlier defeat of qualifier Franko Skugor. It means Chung is the only seed to reach the quarter-finals, marking just the second time in the tournament’s history that only one seed has reached the last eight (No. 8 seed Sanguinetti in 1998). 

Del Potro, the 2011 champion and a semi-finalist for the past two years, had posted a straight-sets victory over Tiafoe in their most recent outing in the first round of this year’s Australian Open. It followed a narrow third-set tie-break triumph in Acapulco last season.

And after a return to the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings in January for the first time since August 2014, del Potro again started favourite in the match against the World No. 91. This was, after all, a tournament he won on debut in 2011 and reached the semi-finals the past two years.

This time, though, it was the American who capitalised on his opponent’s missed opportunities, with Del Potro letting an early 3-0 lead and four set points dissipate to concede the opening set in a tie-break, 8/6.

Spurred into action at the frustration of having let the first set slide from his grasp, del Potro broke immediately and carried the momentum to serve out the second set 6-4. With the match going to a deciding set, both players were rock-solid on serve with the only sniff of an early break for either coming when the Argentine saved a break point for 1-1.

Serving to stay in the match at 4-5, del Potro saved a first match point before saving two more at 5-6. On his fourth chance, Tiafoe secured just the second Top 10 win of his career to reach back-to-back quarter-finals (l. Anderson in New York) for the first time.

“It’s unbelievable definitely. Two weeks in a row in the quarters,” Tiafoe said. “I really wanted that win to make a statement. I’ve had a tonne of tough losses against top guys.

“Just wanted to get over the line. This is just my second or third win [over a Top 10 opponent]. I feel like this is going to be a good year for me. I feel like I’m playing well.” 

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The win sets a first-time showdown with last year’s #NextGenATP Finals champion and Australian Open semi-finalist Hyeon Chung. The 21-year-old South Korean held steady to defeat Croatian qualifier Franko Skugor in the second round 6-4, 7-6(4).

Chung’s win over the World No. 303 in the ATP Rankings puts him through to his third quarter-final of the season after losing to David Ferrer at the same stage in Auckland and following it up with a win over Tenny Sandgren to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open.

“We’re good friends. We’ve practised together a tonne, but we’ve never played a match,” Tiafoe said. “I’m really happy to play against him. He’s hot right now, coming off an unbelievable Australian Open. Tough conditions will even the playing field pretty good. If I can start well and hit my forehand good I’ll have a good chance.”

Kei Nishikori didn’t want to play the 2008 Delray Beach Open for fear of being outclassed, even embarrassed. At 18 years of age, he didn’t think he belonged at tour-level at all.

Two weeks earlier, the Japanese teenager had lost in the third round of qualifying at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Dallas against KJ Hippensteel, who won a single tour-level match in his career. So how would Nishikori, World No. 244, make it through qualifying at an ATP World Tour event?

“I told my coach I didn’t want to play in Delray because it’s a different level and [there’s] no way I’m going to win those tournaments,” Nishikori told ATPWorldTour.com. “But my coach pushed me to play.”

It’s a good thing Nishikori listened to his coach. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ten years ago this week, Nishikori would go on one of the most memorable runs at an ATP World Tour event in recent memory. The teenager won eight matches — saving 12 of 12 break points faced in a three-set second-round win, saving four match points in the semi-finals against Sam Querrey, and finally, shocking World No. 12 James Blake 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to win his first ATP World Tour crown.

“I remember in my head I thought, ‘Well, James is probably going to win this tournament’,” Querrey said, recalling his loss.

“I thought, ‘Oh, wow. This is a big opportunity. I’m getting to play a qualifier in the final’,” Blake remembered.

But instead, Nishikori became the first Japanese tour-level titlist since Shuzo Matsuoka at 1992 Seoul and the youngest player to win a title, period, since former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt captured 1998 Adelaide as a 16-year-old.

Youngest ATP World Tour Champions Since 2000

‘Project 45’ — the mission touting Nishikori’s pursuit of Matsuoka’s Japanese-best mark of No. 46 in the ATP Rankings, was underway. Yet, before the week started, the spotlight seemed distant.

“At that time, it was really hard to believe [in myself],” Nishikori admitted. “I was losing to guys ranked like 300 and I wasn’t playing well. I don’t know what happened.”

Well, it certainly worked. Knowing what we know today — Nishikori has ascended as high as No. 4 in the ATP Rankings, won 11 tour-level titles and earned 32 Top 10 victories — it is easy to look back and understand how the superstar triumphed that week in Delray Beach. But it was not that obvious a decade ago.

“That was amazing, amazing for sure,” said Dante Bottini, Nishikori’s coach since December 2010, who worked at the IMG Academy (where Nishikori has trained since coming to the United States at 13) starting in 2007. “Being such a young kid, I remember he wasn’t that big. He was very skinny, playing with all these big guys. That was very, very impressive. Very impressve.”

Becoming the first Japanese player since Matsuoka (1995 Beijing) to advance to a tour-level semi-final was worthy of commendation. But Nishikori faced four match points against Querrey. The magical run, it seemed, was one big shot from coming to an end.

Somehow, Nishikori survived.

“I was the Challenger guy,” Nishikori said. “He was a much better player. I had no pressure and I was just playing with nothing to lose, so I think I was more free to play those points and maybe I had more guts to play aggressively.”

“He came out and beat James the next day. A little bit of a shock then, but now looking back, it wasn’t so much of a shock,” Querrey said. “He’s had such a great career.”

The thing is, at that point, Nishikori never believed he would beat Blake. And neither did the top seed.

“I’d seen a little bit of the match. But I knew the way I was playing, I felt like I could be overpowering. I would be able to be aggressive,” Blake said. “And also, [I thought] he might be nervous. It was his first final.”

And whether it was because of nerves or not, Nishikori still did not believe he would win while serving at 5-4, 40/0 in the third set, three championship points on his racquet. Blake was a full-fledged star. Nishikori was just a teenager, playing someone who he had only watched on television.

“I wasn’t believing that I could win the match. I was still thinking I might lose this game, even though I had match points,” Nishikori said. “It was really tough to believe in myself, especially against James, who was almost Top 10. And I was watching him on TV at that time, so it wasn’t easy.”

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A Blake forehand error sealed the up-and-comer’s victory — Nishikori was no longer ‘The Challenger Guy’.

“I played pretty well and he just beat me,” Blake said. “I remember coming back and my brother and my coach were there and my brother said, ‘That kid is going to be really, really good’.

“Normally my brother might make an excuse like, ‘Oh, you had a rough day’ or whatever. He just said, ‘That kid is going to be good. You didn’t do anything wrong today’,” Blake remembered. “I felt like that was the case and it was so surprising to have a qualifier ranked 200 and something in the world come in and just outplay me and beat me when I was near the Top 10 in the world.”

Later that year, the teenager would become the first Japanese player to reach the fourth round at the US Open since Jiro Yamagishi in 1937. By the end of 2008, Nishikori would soar to No. 63 in the world. And while injuries set him back, the right-hander would break Matsuoka’s record ATP Ranking for a Japanese player at 2011 Shanghai.

But all of that success stems from one magical week in Delray Beach, Florida. Not bad for a guy who didn’t want to be there, saying he’d “rather play a Challenger and win a couple matches”.

“I was coming from almost nothing before [Delray Beach],” Nishikori said. “That was the start of my career.”

#NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov doesn’t want to leave the Delray Beach Open and its hundreds of Canadian tennis fans just yet.

The 18-year-old left-hander advanced to his first quarter-final of the season on Thursday, beating 21-year-old Jared Donaldson 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 25 minutes.

Shapovalov, the youngest player in the draw, has toughed his way through two tricky matches in Delray Beach. The Canadian prevailed past the big-serving Ivo Karlovic in his opener.

“I definitely picked up my serve in the second and third set… It was an really even match. We were both playing extremely well,” Shapovalov said. “I’ve been in this position before. Last year I was coming up with a lot of ‘W’s in late third sets but it’s definitely a big confidence booster for me. I’m starting to get a little bit of momentum, getting a lot of matches under my belt so I’m happy.”

Shapovalov will next meet #NextGenATP Taylor Fritz of the U.S., who prevailed past Russian veteran Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. Fritz hit 13 aces and won 77 per cent of his first-serve points.

It was a case of the stuck ball. At 7-5, 4-0, Stefan Kozlov and Taylor Fritz were trying to rally their way into their first-round match against Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan at the Delray Beach Open.

Then the ball became stuck. Kozlov had tried to hit the ball back to the Bryans but the ball wedged itself perfectly into the neck of his racquet.

Instead of getting upset, though, Kozlov had to laugh. He tossed his racquet to Mike Bryan, who tried to loosen the trapped ball and then threw the racquet back before play continued.

The Bryan brothers, four-time Delray Beach Open champions (2009, 2010, 2014, 2015), will next meet compatriots Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow.

Ninth-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov required just 50 minutes and lost just nine of his service points to defeat Mischa Zverev of Germany 6-2, 6-1 on Thursday at the Open 13 Provence. Khachanov won the first three games in each set and goes on to challenge France’s Julien Benneteau, the 2010 runner-up, who overcame fifth seed Roberto Bautista Agut on Tuesday night.

Eighth seed Filip Krajinovic, on the comeback trail from left Achilles and ankle injuries, booked a spot in his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since reaching the Rolex Paris Masters final (l. to Sock) in November 2017. The Serbian knocked out France’s Gilles Simon, the 2007 and 2015 champion, 6-3, 6-3 in 82 minutes. He’ll now to prepare to face another local, Lucas Pouille, the third seed and last year’s finalist.

Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych, the 2013 finalist (l. to Tsonga), begin their Marseille campaigns during Thursday’s night session.

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When Ivan Ljubicic ended his playing career in April 2012 he made a seamless transition into the television commentary booth. However, the highly respected and consummate professional both on and off the court was soon in high demand by current ATP World Tour stars.

“My view is that if you want to do anything in tennis you have to be ready to travel,” Ljubicic exclusively told ATPWorldTour.com in Rotterdam. “The sport’s the way it is, you can’t just sit at home. The biggest difference now is that when I am at home, I am at home. I don’t need to train or anything. I therefore spend quality time with my wife and kids.”

As a former World No. 3, who worked under the guidance of Riccardo Piatti, the only coach of his 15-season professional career, Ljubicic competed at the very highest level and barely one year after retiring he found himself in the corner of Canada’s Milos Raonic (2013-2015).

The Croatian has travelled as part of team Roger Federer since early 2016 and last week at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Ljubicic gave ATPWorldTour.com an insight into his coaching methods. On Monday this week, at 36 years of age, Federer rose back to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings for the first time since 4 November 2012.

“When you talk about coaching at the highest level, you have to listen a lot,” said Ljubicic in Rotterdam, where Federer lifted his 97th tour-level trophy. “The most important thing is to understand a player. Listen at the beginning, but then listening in general to understand and ultimately help a player.

“When you start with a player in the middle of a season, such as Milos, you can’t step in and say, ‘I want to change everything, because this is how I did it.’ I feel that it doesn’t work like that.

“You see, if you are coaching a player, who has been around for a while, he has his own patterns and ideas. His own opinions on a lot of stuff, and you have to pick your fights on what you think will have the biggest impact on a game or the result.”

Since Ljubicic joined Severin Luthi, Federer’s coach since 2008, the Swiss superstar has won nine titles – including three Grand Slam championships and three ATP World Tour Masters 1000s – from 11 finals and taken a six-month lay-off in 2016 to recover from knee surgery.

“The biggest difference between coaching and playing is that the player is the boss,” said Ljubicic. “The player has to be mentally strong, a leader, because on the court, he makes all of the decisions. Then, as a coach, you have to put your ego aside and make sure you do everything the player needs to compete better and be a better person.

“In coaching Milos or Roger, I never thought about short and long-term impacts. I think about how do I improve a player? How can this be better? What can be done? The truth is if you don’t make a quick impact, there might not be any long-term goals. That’s the tricky part. There is a fair amount of luck also, because you need to get results at the beginning and the confidence of a player. No matter how sure the player is in his confidence of a coach, if the results aren’t there after a while, then all sorts of problems arise.”

As a player, Ljubicic captured 10 ATP World Tour trophies during his career, highlighted by a title run to the 2010 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells that saw him beat Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick. Naturally, being in the competitive cauldron garnered respect when he started coaching.

“As a player you do whatever you want,” said Ljubicic. “As a coach you have to standby a lot of the time. Coaching is the closest thing to playing tennis. I love it and the adrenaline. The emotions are sometimes very strong, but they won’t ever be as they are as a player, when you win or you lose. You can’t compare it. The emotions are similar, but it’s a lower intensity.

“As a coach, you have to have the respect of a player. Experience can be something you personally went through or you watched on TV. It is two different things. I’m not saying myself or a player who didn’t compete at the highest level are saying two different things.

“But I always try to make a point, I try to make an impact. I don’t talk a lot and the players that I have coached can confirm this. If I do say something, I will stand by it.”

In beginning his transition from being a player to a coach, Ljubicic relied on Piatti, but also one of Federer’s former coaches.

The 38-year-old Ljubicic recalled, “I remember speaking to Paul Annacone when I was still playing and asking him ‘What’s it like to coach?’ I was just curious and he told me that the most important thing was to listen. You have to keep improving yourself as a coach, you have to listen, study, look around as you never know what information may be useful to yourself.”

So what’s the toughest part of the job?

“The toughest part is to know where there is the line,” said Ljubicic. “When to let go or step in and say something. That’s probably the most complex part of the job.

“As a coach, you can’t be selfish. It just doesn’t work. You have to understand, and it’s even better for a player to make a mistake by doing something that’s contrary to what you think. A player steps onto court and wins matches. I’ve had many different hats in my career, but I’ll always think players run the show.”

A little frustration from Gael Monfils would be no surprise after rain postponed overnight the completion of his second-round victory over top seed Marin Cilic at the Rio Open presented by Claro. The unseeded Frenchman had already let a match point slip the day before against the Croat and faced a set point after the resumption of play on Thursday.

Fortunately for Monfils, however, the pair returned to court for just four more points, as he completed the upset on his second match point, 6-3, 7-6(8). The win extends Monfils’ FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the Australian Open finalist to 3-0. He had beaten Cilic once before in Rio de Janeiro at the 2016 Olympic Games.

Next up, he faces Argentine sixth seed Diego Schwartzman for a semi-final berth. Monfils won the pair’s only prior clash at Roland Garros three years ago.

“I don’t think I feel very good, it’s not about numbers,” Monfils said. “I think I’m not in my best shape yet, I’m fighting for every point.  Tomorrow will be a great match, Schwartzman is a very fast player. I will have to play more aggressive.”

Second seed and defending champion Dominic Thiem was earlier handed a comfortable passage through to the quarter-finals when his opponent, Spain’s Pablo Andujar, retired trailing 2-4 with a right shoulder injury. The Austrian will take on another Spaniard in the quarter-finals after Fernando Verdasco rebounded strongly for a 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-0 win over Argentine Nicolas Kicker.

“Never played him on clay, only on grass and fast hard court last year at Bercy [Paris],” Thiem said. “It’s going to be very tough. He’s fit and he’s fresh as we saw today. He played a long match…  I have to watch out that I am the one dictating the game because once you let him dictate with his forehand, the point is almost over.”

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The 2015 runner-up and No. 5 seed Fabio Fognini prevailed in a three-set thriller against American Tennys Sandgren 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(6). The Italian will next meet Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene, a player he owns a perfect 7-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against.

Watch Hot Shot: Fognini Scrambles For Winning Lob

Bedene continued his impressive form of late with an upset of No. 3 seed Pablo Carreno-Busta, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. The World No. 43 reached his third ATP World Tour final last week in Buenos Aires where he fell to Thiem.

“Never easy to face someone that defeated you in all seven matches,” Bedene said of facing Fognini. “But this time I’m playing better. I have been playing some really good tennis and now I have my best ranking on ATP … so, yes, I consider this the best moment of my career.”

Seventh seed and 2016 champion Pablo Cuevas booked an all-South American quarter-final against Chilean Nicolas Jarry. The Uruguayan saw off lucky loser Gastao Elias of Portugal 7-5, 6-1.