Ryan Harrison’s start to remember in 2018 continued on Monday at the New York Open. The Louisiana native outplayed compatriot Donald Young 6-3, 7-6(4) to advance to the second round in Long Island.

This is the first ATP World Tour tournament on Long Island since 2004 when the tennis took place in August, one week before the US Open. This year’s tournament is being played at the NYCB Live, home of the Nassau Coliseum. Harrison won the 2017 Memphis Open, the former name of this ATP World Tour tournament (d. Basilashvili).

“A tricky match… I was serving well early and that was able to get me through a lot of early mistakes and missed opportunities with some early break points,” he said.

Harrison improved to 7-2 on the year. He reached the final at the Sydney International (l. to Kyrgios) and the third round at the Australian Open (l. to Cilic). Harrison will next meet Croatian Ivo Karlovic, who hit 20 aces to prevail past Harrison’s countryman Jared Donaldson 6-4, 7-6(4).  “I started well. That helped me at the beginning of the match because I knew I could do well against him,” Karlovic said.

#NextGenATP compatriot Frances Tiafoe celebrated his first tour-level win of the season, beating junior World No. 1 Sebastian Korda, the son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Petr Korda also won the Hamlet Cup in Long Island in 1992 for one of his 10 singles titles.

Tiafoe, a favourite to make the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, fell in the first round at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp and the Australian Open. Sebastian Korda, 17, was making his tour-level debut. The 6’4” right-hander won the Australian Open boys’ singles title last month to rise to No. 1 in the junior rankings.

“He’s playing great tennis. I congratulate him on winning the Australian Open. He’s going to have a great career,” Tiafoe said.

Tiafoe will next face Israeli Dudi Sela, who beat eighth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili, 6-4, 6-4.

Neal Skupski has started his 2018 much like he finished 2017. At the end of last season, he teamed with brother Ken Skupski to make the ATP Challenger Tour final in Eckental, Germany, and triumph in Bratislava, Slovakia. The brothers then captured the trophy two weeks ago at another Challenger in Quimper, France. But this past week, Neal achieved his greatest result to date, joining Ken again to win his first tour-level title at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.

Skupski spoke to ATPWorldTour.com upon his arrival at the New York Open, where he is competing alongside 91-time tour-level titlist Daniel Nestor.

How does it feel to be an ATP World Tour champion?
It’s unbelievable. It’s obviously a dream come true to win an ATP event with your brother. Ken’s won three before, but never with me. We came very close four years ago in Moscow. We had match points… it’s nice to finally get over the line and hopefully win a few more together before the year ends.

Beating the second seeds in your opener and the fourth seeds in the final, how incredible was the whole week for you?
Going into it, I think we were one of the last teams to get into the tournament. Playing against the No. 2 seeds you have nothing to lose, really. We go into that match, we come out on top and take a lot of confidence from that and just took the momentum from round to round.

Did your brother say anything to you before match point?
Yeah, I think he did but I can’t quite remember. The last game went by pretty quickly. I held to love, all four first serves in. I couldn’t have asked for a better game, really. I was pretty nervous about it but once we got over the line there was a lot of hugging going on. My brother and I were pretty happy.

What were the first comments he made after you won?
He did say he was very proud of me, but obviously it was a team effort. It was our first time winning a title, he was proud of that. It was great for the whole family. We worked really hard to get to this point. But hopefully this is just the first one, hopefully there are more to come.

Making the quarter-finals at Wimbledon was special to you. How does this achievement compare?
It’s very difficult. Obviously playing at Wimbledon is very special, it’s your home Grand Slam. We beat some great teams on the way there. You go into the Grand Slam thinking to win a couple rounds. But to make the quarter-finals was incredible. Ever since that we’ve gained a lot of confidence. Toward the end of the year we changed sides. I’m on the ad side, Ken’s on the deuce side now. That’s done really well. Our first tournament we made the final of Eckental, Germany. Won Bratislava, then Quimper and now we’ve won Montpellier. So it’s gone well so far on these sides.

This week you’re playing with a 91-time tour-level champion, Daniel Nestor for the first time. How exciting is that to you?
He’s a lefty, which is going to help a little bit. I’m going to be listening to him the whole week. He’s definitely got a lot of things to tell me, hopefully not too much (laughs). But it’s going to be an honour to play with Daniel this week. It’s nice to play with him before he finishes. But yeah, hopefully we could get some good practices in before we start.

Two-time Argentina Open quarter-finalist Federico Delbonis broke five times to advance to the second round in Buenos Aires on Monday. The 27-year-old left-hander, making his eighth appearance at the Argentina Open, beat Germany’s Florian Mayer 7-6(4), 6-4.

Delbonis will next meet Portugal’s Gastao Elias or Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena, who won his maiden ATP World Tour title at the Ecuador Open in Quito on Sunday.

In other action, Delbonis’ countryman Guido Pella also moved into the second round, beating countryman Nicolas Kicker 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic knocked out Argentine qualifier Facundo Bagnis 7-6(4), 6-1; Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez swept wild card Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 6-3, 6-3; and Brazilian qualifier Thomaz Bellucci dropped only three games against Argentine wild card Pedro Cachin 6-2, 6-1.

Bjorn Fratangelo, the World No. 109 who advanced to the semi-finals at the 2017 Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island, qualified for the inaugural New York Open on Monday with a third-set tie-break victory against #NextGenATP Kazakh Alexander Bublik.

The 24-year-old American spoke to ATPWorldTour.com about his favourite things to do off the court, who he admires most and more:

What’s your biggest passion outside of sport and why?
I would say food. I come from a big Italian family and I actually really enjoy cooking every time I’m back home, which isn’t too often. I always try to work on my cooking skills.

Favourite dish?
Steak and some sort of side.

What was the last book you read?
I would say Rafael Nadal’s autobiography.

Last concert or show you attended?
I was at a concert in Boca Raton a couple years ago. They had a bunch of people: The Fray, Colbie Caillat, the Goo Goo Dolls, it was like a big mix.

Favourite sport to watch besides tennis?
I would have to say basketball or I’m a big Pittsburgh Penguins fan, probably ice hockey.

Outside of your family, whom do you admire most?
If I’m going tennis I’ve got to say Roger Federer. To accomplish everything he has and he still wants to keep going, I don’t know why or how but he still wants to keep doing it and I think that’s pretty admirable.

My tennis career will be a success if ___________
If I just keep working hard and make sure everybody knows that when they play me it’s going to be a tough out and keep getting my feet wet at this level.

After my tennis career, I want to ___________
I think I want to stay in the game. I would like to stay in tennis to do what, I don’t know. But I love the sport. I love everything about it and I definitely want to stay in it.

Alexander Zverev advanced to the second round of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 win over David Ferrer on Monday. The 20-year-old Zverev needed one hour and 24 minutes to dispatch the veteran Spaniard.

“It’s not easy to play Ferrer, especially in the first round of a tournament,” Zverev said. “This is a tough tournament, and I’m happy with the win.”

While Zverev struggled with his serve, he still managed to save nine of 11 break point opportunities. He also converted on five of six break-point opportunities (2/11 for Ferrer). Both committed an uncharacteristic number of unforced errors (Zverev, 26; Ferrer, 31).

“The court is quite quick and the balls are bouncing low. I’m quite tall so a low bounce is difficult but I like quick courts. I’ve won a lot of tournaments on quick courts,” Zverev said. “I want to make my game more dimensional. I felt good returning; I felt well in the long rallies.”

With the win, Zverev moves to 1-2 lifetime in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Ferrer. He’ll next face Italian Andreas Seppi, who beat Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.

Tomas Berdych defeated Mischa Zverev 7-5, 6-3 on Monday to secure his place in the second round of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

Berdych, who won the title in 2014 (d. Cilic) and reached the final in 2015 (l. to Wawrinka), won 82 per cent of his first serve points and recovered from a 3-5 deficit in the first set. Berdych will meet the winner of Jan-Lennard Struff and Viktor Troicki’s first-round clash for a place in the quarter-finals.

Earlier in the day, Feliciano Lopez also booked his place in the second-round, with a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over 2016 champion Martin Klizan.

Watch Klizan Hot Shot

Did You Know?
Tomas Berdych has now won 20 matches at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, including nine consecutive wins from 2014-2015.

Roger Federer has his sights set on overtaking Rafael Nadal at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings this week at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, where he competes for the first time since 2013. A semi-final run would return the Swiss star to the summit of men’s professional tennis for the first time since 4 November 2012.

“I only ever said I would think about the ATP Rankings after the Australian Open was over,” said Federer in Rotterdam on Monday. I did not expect to win the Australian Open again and by not winning the [Nitto] ATP Finals, I never thought it would happen again and it may be out of sight. I played at the Australian Open not thinking about the rankings, but I knew I had the flexibility in February over my calendar.

“After the Australian Open was over, I thought I’d love to play Rotterdam and give it a go. Our team is very excited, that I’m here and that I will give it a go. You have to do it, not because it’s the right thing to do, but you have to be here with all your heart and really go for it. Try my very best. Having the option of getting to No. 1 is highly motivating and very exciting to say the least.”

The 36-year-old would guarantee a return to No. 1 next Monday if he advances to the semi-finals in Rotterdam. If he reaches Friday’s quarter-finals, Federer could meet fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka.

View The Rotterdam Draw

See Federer’s Career History In Rotterdam

“I would love to be in that position [to attain No. 1] against anybody,” said Federer. “If I get back to that spot you don’t want it to happen in an easy way. The achievement would be quite incredible. It’s exciting to have Stan in my section [of the draw].”

Federer is competing at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament for the first time since capturing his sixth Australian Open crown, and his 20th Grand Slam championship, on 28 January. He opens his ninth Rotterdam campaign Wednesday against 30-year-old Belgian qualifier and World No. 116 Ruben Bemelmans. It will be the first meeting between the players.

When asked about winning three of the past five majors, Federer admitted, “If I would have won one Grand Slam I would be over the moon. In 2016, Novak [Djokovic] and Andy [Murray] were in their prime. Rafa was young enough to come back. I always believed I could do it once, [so] it’s an incredible journey.”

Watch Live On TennisTV

Watch Full Match Replays

If Federer does get back to No. 1 on 19 February, the gap of five years and 106 days will be the longest between stints at No. 1. At 36, he would also become the oldest World No. 1, replacing American Andre Agassi (aged 33), who last held the top spot on 7 September 2003.

Two-time former Rotterdam champion Federer is one of seven players in the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings competing at the Dutch tournament. Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev, last year’s finalist David Goffin, 2015 winner Stan Wawrinka, 2014 champion Tomas Berdych and last week’s Open Sud de France champion Lucas Pouille also feature in the draw.

DID YOU KNOW?
Federer holds the record for most weeks spent at No. 1, with 302 weeks. Pete Sampras is second on the list with 286 weeks. See the full list.