Gael Monfils broke Richard Gasquet’s record for most hard-court tour-level wins by a Frenchman by beating qualifier Filip Misolic 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday at the BNP Paribas Nordic Open in Stockholm. Monfils’ 356th hard-court victory set up a quarter-final showdown with second seed and countryman Adrian Mannarino.

The 37-year-old has now won four consecutive sets at the ATP 250, having battled back from a set down to defeat Marton Fucsovics in the opening round. Against Austria’s Misolic, Monfils hit 11 aces and lost just four points on first serve (31/35). He saved the only break point he faced in the one-hour, 13-minute win.

“Filip is playing a little bit more loopy than Marton,” Monfils said after advancing to his first indoor quarter-final in more than two years. “Of course he’s a solid player on both sides. But Marton was very aggressive, so today was about me controlling the points and mixing up the speeds. I think I’ve done good. I was in control so I’m very happy to win this match in two sets.”

Team Monfils approves 🤜🤛@Gael_Monfils earns a 6-4, 6-3 scoreboard against Misolic 🇫🇷 next up Mannarino 🇫🇷#StockholmOpen pic.twitter.com/SySThEUcYY

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 19, 2023

Monfils will next face the 35-year-old Mannarino, who opened his Stockholm campaign with a 6-4, 6-4 win against Roman Safiullin. Mannarino, who entered Stockholm two spots off his career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking at World No. 24, was broken twice in the match but made up for it with four breaks of his own.

“It’s going to be a really tough one. Adrian is in great form, his best season,” said Monfils, who leads the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head 4-2. “He has a tricky game. I will have to play my game, try to be 100 per cent physically to have a strong, physical battle.”

Japanese wild card Shintaro Mochizuki continued his dream run at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships on Thursday when he stunned World No. 10 Taylor Fritz 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) to reach the quarter-finals.

The 20-year-old rallied from 2-5 in the third set, breaking Fritz’s serve to love when the American was trying to close out. Roared on by vocal home support, Mochizuki then raced to a 3/0 lead in the tie-break before sealing victory on his first match point after two hours and three minutes.

“I don’t really know what is happening right now,” Mochizuki said. “I lost the first set so easy, so quick. Everyone knows he is a great player but I kept fighting and that is all I could do. I am so happy. I don’t know how, but I won the match.

“I was a bit nervous at the start, not swinging. I was scared to miss. Then I tried to forget about everything and just started playing my game from the second set and that is how it went.”

FIRST TOP 10 WIN 💙@ShintaroMOCHIZU stuns the No. 1 seed, Taylor Fritz, 0-6 6-4 7-6, to secure his place in the Tokyo quarter-finals! ⚡️@japanopentennis | #kinoshitajptennis pic.twitter.com/LCqHRMTIzH

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 19, 2023

The Japanese star, who earned his maiden tour-level win in the first round against Tomas Martin Etcheverry, is the second Japanese player to defeat a Top 10 player this year. Taro Daniel beat then-World No. 4 Casper Ruud in Acapulco.

Filled with emotion, Mochizuki took in the support of the crowd following his stunning win against Fritz. He will next play Alexei Popyrin after the Australian overcame Cristian Garin. Earlier this year Mochizuki won an ATP Challenger Tour event in Barletta, Italy. He is up 47 places to No. 168 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, while he is 22nd in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Jeddah.

Fritz is currently ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, 145 points behind eighth-placed Holger Rune, who occupies the final qualification spot. Alex de Minaur (13th) and Tommy Paul (12th), can both overtake Fritz with title runs in Tokyo.

Alex de Minaur became the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004 to reach 10 tour-level quarter-finals in a season on Thursday at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships.

The fourth seed produced a consistent display to overcome Argentine Diego Schwartzman 6-0, 7-5 at the ATP 500 hard-court event in one hour and 30 minutes.

De Minaur struck the ball with his flat deadly precision from the baseline, outlasting Schwartzman in a series of lengthy exchanges to improve to 2-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

“I am always happy [to win],” De Minaur said. “Especially against a tough competitor like Diego. I am most proud of how I stay composed out there. I was up a bit in the second set and could have let that slip but I kept my head together, told myself I would get more chances and I was able to sneak through in two sets.”

With his 41st win of the season, the Australian set a quarter-final showdown against Zhang Zhizhen or Aslan Karatsev.

De Minaur is 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin on 2,560 points. He is 550 points behind eighth-placed Holger Rune, who occupies the final qualification spot.

Chasing his second title of the season, De Minaur will need a deep run in Tokyo to further increase his chances of making his debut at the prestigious year-end event. If his direct rivals above him fall early, De Minaur could climb to ninth by lifting the trophy. Eighth-placed Rune, 10th-placed Casper Ruud and 11th-placed Hubert Hurkacz have all fallen at their respective events this week.

De Minaur’s countryman Alexei Popyrin also advanced to the quarter-finals, defeating Chilean Cristian Garin 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-2.

Popyrin has now earned 22 tour-level wins this year, equalling his previous best season (2021). Into his sixth career tour-level quarter-final and fourth of 2023, the 24-year-old will next meet top seed Taylor Fritz or Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki.

Popyrin is up four spots to No. 37 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. He reached a previous career-high No. 40 in August.

Miomir Kecmanovic earned his first Top 10 win since last season in Miami with a dominant display against Holger Rune at the BNP Paribas Nordic Open. The Serbian knocked off the top seed and defending Stockholm champion 7-6(3), 6-2, dealing Rune his second opening-round defeat in as many weeks to advance to the quarter-finals.

“I thought I played pretty well today after a long period this year,” said Kecmanovic, who was 0-5 against the Top 10 this season prior to the win. “I’m very happy. It means a lot to finally be able to play like this.

“It makes it special [to beat the World No. 6]. I was close with some other [top] guys this year but I’m happy that I was finally able to do it.”

Into the quarter-finals 🙌@MioKecmanovic upsets the No. 1 seed, Holger Rune, 7-6 6-2 in Stockholm!@sthlm_open | #StockholmOpen pic.twitter.com/erz2jZ5OnF

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 18, 2023

Kecmanovic snapped an 11-match losing streak against Top 10 opposition to improve to 4-17 against players of that status in his career. Prior to Wednesday’s result, his most recent Top 10 win came against Felix Auger-Aliassime in March 2022 in Miami.

For Rune, who also exited last week’s Rolex Shanghai Masters in the first round, the defeat is a blow to his bid to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. The Dane currently occupies eighth place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, but his position in the final qualifying spot is under threat this week from Taylor Fritz, who is bidding to defend a title of his own in Tokyo.

Rune was frustrated by Kecmanovic’s aggressive yet steady play on Stockholm’s centre court. The Serbian finished with 19 winners and just five unforced errors, and he converted on all three of his break points in the second set after missing out on five in the opening set. Rune ripped a return winner to break in the opening game of set two, but was immediately broken back and never rediscovered his best form down the stretch.

In the lone three-set singles match of the day in Stockholm, Gael Monfils edged Marton Fucsovics 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the opening round. The Frenchman, cheered on by his mother and his wife, Elina Svitolina, hit 27 winners in the victory and closed out the result with a break in the final game. Monfils saved two break points at 3-3 in the final set and later saw two match points go begging on return at 5-4.

“I was very happy. Marton is a very good player, always a tricky opponent,” the 37-year-old said post-match. “[I had to] just believe that I’m going to win and try to stay positive, play my game.

“Obviously I was running quite good and hitting big balls. It was a little bit of a struggle at the beginning to impose my power and then I felt I was doing it pretty good.”

Monfils will next meet Austrian qualifier Filip Misolic for a place in the quarter-finals.

Third seed Tallon Griekspoor was one of four players to advance to the quarters with Wednesday triumphs. He defeated Emil Ruusuvuori 7-6(3), 6-4 to set up meeting with Pavel Kotov, a 6-4, 7-5 winner against Lorenzo Sonego. Laslo Djere also moved on to the quarters by beating J.J. Wolf 7-5, 6-4.

Novak Djokovic will headline a star-studded doubles field at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he will compete alongside fellow Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic for the first time.

The six-time Paris singles champion has played doubles at Bercy on three previous occasions (2008, 2016, 2021) with three different partners. It will be Djokovic’s fourth doubles appearance of the season (also Adelaide-1, Cincinnati, Davis Cup).

The 36-year-old is not the only singles star who will take to the doubles court at the season’s final ATP Masters 1000 event. Karen Khachanov will play with Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner will compete with Stan Wawrinka, Felix Auger-Aliassime will partner Sebastian Korda and Jiri Lehecka will team with Ben Shelton.

The three doubles teams that have already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals will lead the field. Defending champions Wesley Koolhof/Neal Skupski, Roland Garros winners Ivan Dodig/Austin Krajicek and US Open finalists Rohan Bopanna/Matthew Ebden will try to secure the title.

Other teams to watch include US Open champions Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury and Marcelo Melo/Alexander Zverev. The Rolex Paris Masters will be played from 30 October through 5 November.

Carlos Alcaraz has withdrawn from the Swiss Indoors Basel due to a left foot injury and muscle fatigue to his lower back, he confirmed on social media Wednesday.

“Unfortunately I will not be able to play in Basel this year! 🥲” Alcaraz posted on Instagram. “I have a problem with the plantar fascia in my left foot and muscle fatigue in my lower back which need treatment so I can play the rest of the season. I hope to see you all soon! @swissindoorsbasel_official”

 

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A post shared by Carlos Alcaraz Garfia (@carlitosalcarazz)

One year ago, Alcaraz made his Basel debut. He earned three wins before losing to eventual champion Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semi-finals.

Alcaraz owns a 63-9 record this season including six titles, with two coming at ATP Masters 1000 events (Indian Wells and Madrid) and another at Wimbledon. The 20-year-old last competed in Shanghai, where he lost in the Round of 16 to Grigor Dimitrov.

The Spaniard is entrenched in a battle for ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone with Novak Djokovic. Had Alcaraz won Basel and the 500 points that come with it, he would have entered the Rolex Paris Masters tied with Djokovic in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

Instead, Djokovic will retain the edge in the battle for year-end No. 1, an honour the Serbian has earned a record seven times. Last year, Alcaraz became the youngest year-end No. 1 in Pepperstone ATP Rankings history.

A typical part of almost every player’s daily routine is listening to music. But can the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Carlos Alcaraz and Andrey Rublev identify which of their colleagues listen to what?

“Tell me man!” Rublev told a producer as he tried to figure out one playlist in particular.

“Guys, I’m a disaster!” Jannik Sinner said, cracking a smile as he struggled to come up with correct answers.

Some of the artists your favourite players listen to include The Weeknd, Linkin Park, Avicii, Eminem and Imagine Dragons. Who listens to which artists and songs?

Find out in Test The Tour’s ‘What’s In My Queue’ video below.

Jamie Murray and Michael Venus defeated the Japanese team of Takeru Yuzuki and Seita Watanabe to begin their crucial campaign at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships on Wednesday. The British-Kiwi pair earned a 6-2, 6-7(8), 10-3 victory against the home favourites but were pushed to a Match Tie-break despite creating 12 break chances.

Murray and Venus are in 10th place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings. The team is just 85 points behind the current eighth-placed pair, Americans Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow, who are also into the Tokyo quarter-finals.

Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer, currently in ninth place, also advanced on Wednesday at the ATP 500 with a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Austrians Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler.

In addition to Murray and Venus, two other teams advanced to the quarter-finals via Match Tie-breaks. Australians Rinky Hijikata and Max Purcell edged Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki and Rio Noguchi 5-7, 7-6(4), 10-5, and Ben McLachlan and Yoshihito Nishioka won an all-Japanese matchup against Taisei Ichikawa and Masamichi Imamura 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-7.

Tsitsipas Brothers Advance In Antwerp
Opening Wednesday’s play on centre court at the European Open, Petros Tsitsipas and Stefanos Tsitsipas knocked out fourth seeds Matwe Middelkoop and Andreas Mies 7-5, 6-3. The Greek brothers converted on both of their break points in the match while saving the only break chance against them.

Ariel Behar and Adam Pavlasek scored an even bigger upset on Court 1, taking out top seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-7. Despite the defat, Gonzalez and Roger-Vasseline remain in strong position to qualify for Turin in sixth place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings.

Top Seeds Out In Stockholm
The top seeds at both of this week’s ATP 250s are out in the first round. At the BNP Paribas Nordic Open, Argentines Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni were beaten by Andrey Golubev and Denys Molchanov, 7-5, 3-6, 10-7. The Kazakh-Ukrainian duo of Golubev and Molchanov saved six of eight break points in the upset win on centre court.

Second seeds Nikola Cacic and Mate Pavic were also dismissed in the opening round by Yuki Bhambri and Julian Cash, who opened play on Court 1 with a 6-4, 6-3 upset of their own.