A LOOK BACK 

Koblenz Open (Koblenz, Germany): Belgian Ruben Bemelmans started off his season on a high note by prevailing in a tight final over German qualifier Nils Langer, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(0).

“I felt great on court from the first match,” said Bemelmans. “I love playing indoors and Koblenz is close to my home, so it gives a good feeling if your family can come and watch.”

Bemelmans finished 2016 strongly by finishing runner-up in November at American Challengers in Charlottesville and Champaign. Bemelmans has already improved his Emirates ATP Ranking by nearly 60 spots since this past November and his win in Koblenz will push him back inside the Top 150.

“I ended last year really good and now I confirmed at the beginning of the season that I’m feeling good on the court. Winning here is a serious confidence boost,” said Bemelmans. “My first goal is to do better than my best ranking (No. 84) and then I’ll aim higher and go for the Top 70, always trying to get a step higher.”

Despite the loss, Langer can take confidence in reaching his first Challenger final since September 2015 in St. Remy, France. The 26-year-old is still seeking his first ATP Challenger Tour singles title.

A LOOK AHEAD

There are two Challengers on the calendar this week, with the $100,000 event in Rennes, France, taking top billing as it returns for the 11^th year. Local favourite Jeremy Chardy is the top seed and has a tough opening round in #NextGenATP star Andrey Rublev of Russia. Another Frenchman, Paul-Henri Mathieu, is the second seed. Other notable players in the draw include #NextGenATP star Duckhee Lee of Korea, reigning Roland Garros boys’ singles champion Geoffrey Blancaneaux, and Bemelmans as he looks for another Challenger title.

The $50,000 event in Maui, Hawaii, returns for the eighth consecutive year. American #NextGenATP star Taylor Fritz and Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei are the top two seeds. A slew of other #NextGen ATP stars are also in the draw, including Hyeon Chung of Korea, Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, and Americans Noah Rubin, Michael Mmoh, Stefan Kozlov, Ernesto Escobedo and 2015 champion Jared Donaldson.  Defending champion Di Wu of China is also in the field.

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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.

To be the best, you have to beat the best. Roger Federer has been living by that mantra throughout his storied career and on Sunday the Swiss added yet another milestone to his glittering list of achievements.

Federer became the first active player to win 200 matches against Top 10 opponents, improving to 200-107 (.651) in the FedEx ATP Win-Loss Index with a fourth round victory over World No. 5 Kei Nishikori at the Australian Open. To put that in perspective, Federer’s Top 10 victories account for nearly one-fifth of his match wins (1084) in total.

FedEx ATP Performance Zone: Top 10 Wins

“It’s great,” Federer said following his victory over Nishikori. “I didn’t know it going in. I just know I played a lot of tennis. I ran a lot. Obviously I want to play really well against the best players. I was able to do that sometimes, but tonight was special, no doubt about it. Going five against Kei here on Rod Laver Arena with the comeback, it’s definitely very special. A fitting way to celebrate that milestone.”

The 35 year old has amassed double-digit Top 10 wins in 11 different seasons, which is also most among active players. Moreover, with wins over Nishikori and No. 10 Tomas Berdych this fortnight in Melbourne Park, he has notched multiple Top 10 victories in the same tournament for the 85th time.

Federer’s success against Top 10 opposition has never been more evident than at the year-end ATP Finals, where he owns a record 52 wins against the world’s best players.

Here are the active leaders:

Active Top 10 Wins Leaders

Roger’s Top 10 Victims
In total, Federer has defeated 41 different Top 10 players, including current and former World No. 1s Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Lleyton Hewitt, Carlos Moya, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Gustavo Kuerten, Andy Roddick, Marat Safin and Pete Sampras.

No. 12 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga continued his love affair with the Australian Open on Sunday, not dropping serve as he thrilled the Melbourne crowd with a tight 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 fourth-round win over Daniel Evans on Hisense Arena.

The 2008 runner-up is into the quarter-finals here for the first time since 2013. Tsonga now plays fourth seed Stan Wawrinka for a place in the last four. The Swiss star leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 4-3 and has won their past three matches.

“It’s going to be a tough match,” said Tsonga. “I know he’s playing really good. It’s going to be important for me to be good in this match and play my best level.

“I think I will be ready. It’s going to be a good challenge for me to play against Stan.”

Evans was competing in the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time, having stunned Marin Cilic and Bernard Tomic at Melbourne Park. He had reached his first ATP World Tour final last week in Sydney (l. to Muller). 

The Briton continued his hot form against Tsonga, striking first in the tie-break by taking a 3/1 lead and holding his slight advantage the rest of the way. Tsonga responded brilliantly by racing to a 4-0 lead in the second set and ultimately levelling the match at one set each.

The Frenchman broke Evans immediately to start off the third set. Little separated the pair, but that early advantage was all Tsonga needed to take a commanding lead. The fourth set was nearly identical, with Tsonga grabbing an early break and comfortably serving out the match to love to prevail in two hours and 53 minutes.

“Before the match I knew if it started to be really physical, it was going to be on my side, I think,” said Tsonga. “That’s what happened. So the first set was difficult. Then I played pretty strong and made him run a lot in the second set.

“I just served really well, too. Then it was an advantage for me. I didn’t have to defend too many break points. That was an advantage for me.”

The 31-year-old Tsonga, who finished runner-up to Roger Federer in his lone Grand Slam final at Melbourne Park in 2008, is bidding to reach his first major semi-final since Roland Garros 2015, when he fell to Wawrinka. 

Mischa Zverev produced a bold display of tennis on Sunday to shock top seed Andy Murray 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in the fourth-round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

With the win, Zverev moves into his first Grand Slam quarter-final. He broke Murray eight times in the match to score the upset in three hours and 33 minutes. He now plays the winner between No. 17 seed Roger Federer and fifth seed Kei Nishikori.

The win records a remarkable career turnaround over the past two years for Zverev, who was ranked No. 1,067 in the Emirates ATP Rankings in March 2015.