Belgian qualifier Arthur De Greef claimed his “biggest win” on Monday at the Rio Open presented by Claro. The 24-year-old prevailed against defending champion and No. 3 seed Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, claiming the only break of the 65-minute third set in a memorable final game.

“It was unbelievable,” said De Greef following his third tour-level match win. “I played from the start till the end a very good match. It was unbelievable with the crowd who was going crazy. We did a few unbelievable points. I enjoyed a lot.”

De Greef, who reached a career-high No. 129 Emirates ATP Rankings in January, goes on to play Argentine Nicolas Kicker, a 7-5, 6-0 winner over fellow qualifier Marco Cecchinato. Cuevas had upset Rafael Nadal last year en route to the ATP World Tour 500 clay-court title. 

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Norway’s Casper Ruud made good use of his wild card, beating Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-3, 6-4 for his first ATP World Tour match win. The #NextGenATP player, currently ranked No. 208 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, did not face a break point in the 85-minute match to advance to the second round, where he will face Roberto Carballes Baena. The Spanish qualifier needed just over an hour to oust No. 8 seed Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-1.

Dusan Lajovic defeated Argentine Facundo Bagnis, claiming a 6-4, 6-4 victory in 88 minutes. The Serbian will face either second seed Dominic Thiem or countryman Janko Tipsarevic in the second round. Meanwhile, Diego Schwartzman topped fellow Argentine Renzo Olivo 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in his opening match. He awaits the winner of the match between seventh seed Paolo Lorenzi and Federico Delbonis.

 The tournament’s top seed, Kei Nishikori, who finished as runner-up to Alexandr Dolgopolov in the Argentina Open final on Sunday, will play his opening match against home hope Thomaz Bellucci on Tuesday.

In a battle of the 19-year-olds, American #NextGenATP member Taylor Fritz saved the lone break point he faced in a 6-4, 6-4 win against Japan’s Akira Santillan at the Delray Beach Open Monday night. Fritz claimed his second tour-level win of the year and next meets the winner of countryman Donald Young and second seed Ivo Karlovic.

On playing Santillan, Fritz said, “We go way back, we’re both born in ’97. So we played juniors together. We’ve played together, practised together. We’re good friends… I definitely went in knowing I’m more experienced, just I’ve played more on tour. I was thinking about that before the match, maybe that could make a difference but I was just focused on playing tennis and I thought I played a really solid match.”

American Sam Querrey began his title defence, holding a 6-2, 2-1 lead when Israeli Dudi Sela retired from their first-round match with a back injury.

The No. 4 seed, making his fifth straight appearance at the tournament, improved his match record in Delray Beach to 14-7. Querrey, currently No. 35 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will face the winner of Jared Donaldson and Mikhail Kukushkin.

Yen-Hsun Lu, 2015 Delray Beach Open quarter-finalist, fought back from a set and 0-3 down to prevail 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 over American Bjorn Fratangelo.

“It was a tough feeling in this moment. I just tried other things. I changed the game plan, trying to come into the net more and put the pressure on him,” said Lu. “In this moment, I had nothing to lose. I just tried to play a different way and see how he reacts. It worked pretty well after that.”

World No. 63 Lu will face 22-year-old Kyle Edmund for the first time. The eighth-seeded Brit, making his debut at Delray Beach, struck five aces and conceded just one break point to post a commanding 6-3, 6-0 victory against France’s Adrian Mannarino.

Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka ended qualifier Kimmer Coppejan’s run with a 6-3, 6-3 win to set-up a match with fifth seed Steve Johnson or wild card Stefan Kozlov.

Tommy Haas, making his comeback following surgery last April, teamed up with Canadian Vasek Pospisil for a 6-4, 6-3 win over Steve Darcis and Adrian Mannarino on the doubles court. 

“Happy to be back out there on the court,” said the 38-year-old Haas. “Obviously that’s the most important thing. I feel sort of fit. A lot of work still to do to play some of my tennis that I would like to play again. But to get out here and play doubles with such a nice guy that Vasek is and a good doubles player as well, it worked out great. And also giving me a chance to play a match before my singles I think is also important, because that’s really what I need.”

A LOOK BACK

Tempe Challenger (Tempe, Arizona): American Tennys Sandgren picked up his first ATP Challenger Tour title in more than three years by defeating Serbian Nikola Milojevic 4-6, 6-0, 6-3. A rain-filled weekend pushed the semi-finals to Sunday and the final to Monday. Sandgren’s last Challenger win came in November 2013 in Champaign, Illinois.

Milojevic still seeks his first Challenger title, dropping to 0-2 in Challenger finals after finishing runner-up last month in Noumea (l. Mannarino).

Challenger La Manche Cherbourg (Cherbourg, France): Frenchman Mathias Bourgue delighted the local crowd by taking the title with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over Maximilian Marterer of Germany. Bourgue earned his second ATP Challenger Tour crown, with the previous one also coming in France when he prevailed in Blois in June 2015. He improves to 11-3 in Challengers in 2017.

Marterer was seeking his third ATP Challenger Tour title, having won back-to-back events last September in Morocco.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Sandgren: “It’s been a beautiful place to play and I’ve really enjoyed it. Thankfully the tournament was gracious enough to extend to a Monday family. I think I’ve played some really good tennis this week and the competition was really strong, so I got a little lucky today and just hung in there.”

A LOOK AHEAD

There are three tournaments on the calendar this week, with the $75,000 event in Bergamo, Italy, taking top billing as it returns for the 12^th consecutive year. Local favourite Andreas Seppi is the top seed and Lukas Lacko of Slovakia is the second seed. Other notable names in the draw are seventh seed #NextGenATP star Quentin Halys of France, eighth seed Marterer looking for another big run and former Top 15 player Jerzy Janowicz of Poland.

The long-standing $50,000 event in Kyoto, Japan, celebrates its 21^st year. Local favourite Yuichi Sugita is the top seed and Grega Zemlja of Slovenia is the second seed. Ze Zhang of China looks to build on his win earlier this month in San Francisco as the fourth seed.

The $50,000 Challenger in Morelos, Mexico, is back for the fourth straight year. Jordan Thompson of Australia is the top seed and Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia is the second seed. #NextGenATP star Alexander Bublik of Russia is the third seed and Novikov aims to build on his Tempe form as the fourth seed.

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ATP CHALLENGER TOUR ON TWITTER: The ATP Challenger Tour has launched a dedicated Twitter account for the latest news and information about players and events. Follow @ATPChallengerTour at twitter.com/ATPChallengerTour.

1. Akira Santillan is going for his first tour-level win on Monday evening at the Delray Beach Open.

The 19-year-old right-hander has played in two other ATP World Tour main draws – 2016 Shenzhen Open and the 2016 Generali Open in Kitzbuhel. Santillan received wild cards into both main draws and lost his openers. This is the first time he’s qualified for an ATP World Tour main draw.

“Qualifying is a better feeling because you’ve earned yourself into the main draw… Wild card, you’ve earned it into the main draw because somebody is trusting you, somebody is giving you the chance to play in the main draw because they believe in you,” Santillan told ATPWorldTour.com. “Two different feelings but for me qualifying obviously feels better.”

2. He has mixed heritage.

His father, Dean Santillan, is from South Africa. His mother, Harumi, is Japanese. But the family moved to Gold Coast, Australia, for tennis when Akira Santillan was about 7 years old. He lived in Australia until he was about 18. He currently plays under the Japanese flag.

“I would say I’m from Australia but I would say that I’m half Japanese,” Akira Santillan said.

3. Tennis runs in the family.

His father played tennis and coached him from the age of 5 to 14. Tennis was everywhere in their house, including posters of Andy Roddick, Xavier Malisse, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer. “All the old guys,” said the 19 year old. “It’s not surprising why I got into tennis.”

4. He’s a six-time titlist.

Santillan has won six ITF Futures titles. The 2015 season was his first full year of playing professional tennis, and he transitioned to the ATP Challenger Tour last July. He’s still searching for his first ATP Challenger Tour Title.

5. Don’t ask him about his weakness.

“My serve is one of my strengths, and my forehand and my speed. I get to a lot of balls. Sometimes I catch them off guard… Weakness? I don’t know. I don’t really have a weakness. I’d prefer not to say,” he said and then laughed.

6. Santillan knows his first-round opponent well.

It will be a battle of #NextGenATP stars when Santillan meets fellow #NextGenATP star Taylor Fritz on Monday during the final match on Stadium Court. The two have known each other since juniors. They’ve never played as professionals, but Santillan recalls playing him once years ago.

“I played him once in Belgium I think. He killed me. He plays good. Big serve. Big forehand. Goes for shots. It will be interesting,” Santillan said. “I feel confident. Obviously it’s his home. It’s in America and the crowd will be behind him but we’ll see what happens.”

Read More: Raonic Aims For Unpredictability In Delray Beach

American Ryan Harrison is continuing his charge up the Emirates ATP Rankings – moving up 47 spots since the start of the 2017 season.

The 24-year-old Texas resident, who started the year at No. 90 has today equalled his career-high of No. 43 – first attained on 16 July 2012 – by virtue of lifting his first ATP World Tour trophy at the Memphis Open (d. Nikoloz Basilashvili) on Sunday. Basilashvili moved 14 places to a career-high No. 53 as a result of contesting his second final (also 2016 Kitzbühel). Read Report

Harrison became the first first-time winner in Memphis since Sweden’s Joachim Johansson in 2004 and second first-time winner on the ATP World Tour this season, joining Gilles Muller – the Apia International Sydney titlist. Read Harrison First-Time Winners’ Spotlight

Two weeks ago, Harrison was also named the Top 100 Mover of the Week as a result of capturing his fourth ATP Challenger Tour title in Dallas (d. Taylor Fritz), moving from No. 78 to No. 62 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Read Update

France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga picked up the first ATP World Tour 500 tournament title of 2017, representing his first trophy for 18 months (since the Moselle Open in Metz) by beating David Goffin in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament final in Rotterdam. Tsonga, now up three spots to No. 11 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is at his highest placing since 29 August 2016 with his 13th ATP World Tour crown. Read Report & Watch Highlights

The 26-year-old Goffin, who was contesting the third ATP World Tour 500 final of his career (also 2014 Basel, 2016 Tokyo), became the first Belgian to break into the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings by rising one place to No. 10.

Alexandr Dolgopolov recorded his 10th Top 10 victory over No. 5-ranked Kei Nishikori 7-6(4), 6-4 at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires for his first ATP World Tour crown since July 2012 at the Citi Open in Washington D.C. The Ukrainian jumped 16 spots to No. 50 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, his highest position since being No. 37 on 15 August 2016. Read Report

Rotterdam qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert surged 41 spots to rank a career-high No. 68 as a result of beating No. 8-ranked Dominic Thiem en route to the semi-finals (l. to Goffin) in the Netherlands. Kazakhstani Mikhail Kukushkin, a semi-finalist in Memphis (l. to Basilashvili), moved up 25 places to No. 78.