Hubert Hurkacz continued his late charge in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin with a comeback victory against Tallon Griekspoor on Friday in the Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-finals. The Pole earned a 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 win to stay firmly in the hunt for a return to the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time since 2021.

Champion in Shanghai earlier this month, Hurkacz has already moved up one place in the Live Race to 10th this week, and he is now within 245 points of Holger Rune for eighth place — though the Dane has his own quarter-final to play this evening in Basel.

One major milestone can already be ticked off for Hurkacz this year. After notching 41 tour-level singles wins in each of the past two seasons, his quarter-final result earned him a personal-best 42 victories in 2023. Five of those wins have come in quarter-finals, where the Pole owns a strong 5-1 mark, his only loss coming to Novak Djokovic in Dubai.

Hubi heads on! 👏@HubertHurkacz rallies 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 to boost his #NittoATPFinals qualification chances#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/bgBd6s86Fb

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 27, 2023

Hurkacz improved to 2-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head with Griekspoor, with all of their matches coming this season. Each of their two previous matches went the distance, with Hurkacz winning in five sets at Roland Garros and Griekspoor triumphing in three in Halle.

“He’s such a great opponent and great guy as well of the court,” Hurkacz said of the Dutchman. “We had some crazy battles this year. Last time he won, he beat me in Halle, so I was definitely excited for this match, to get a shot at a rematch. We just battled and my serve was definitely helping me today.”

Hurkacz fought off the only two break points he faced in the match, with both coming at 1-2 in the final set. He closed out the two hour, 19-minute victory in style with an emphatic love hold.

In another stellar serving performance, Hurkacz fired 23 aces among his 46 total winners. With 52 aces on the week, he is now up to 950 this season, far and away the most on the ATP Tour. Taylor Fritz, second on the leaderboard, has less than 700 aces.

Next up for the fourth-seeded Pole will be a semi-final meeting with Frenchman Ugo Humbert or Swiss wild card Dominic Stricker.

Daniil Medvedev won his second consecutive three-setter on Friday at the Erste Bank Open to advance to the semi-finals at the Vienna ATP 500. The defending champion and top seed played a brilliant final set to clinch a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory in a bruising battle against Karen Khachanov, one day after coming back from a set down to defeat Grigor Dimitrov.

By matching his personal-best season tally of 63 wins from 2021, Medvedev (63-14) moved level with Carlos Alcaraz (63-9) for most wins this season.

“I hope I can get one more, you never know,” he said of that milestone. “Tennis is a strong sport and we have strong opponents. So hopefully I can get one more win at least or maybe more. I have had an amazing season… But it’s not finished yet, so I want to try to finish it even stronger.”

Athleticism off the charts 📈@DaniilMedwed | @ErsteBankOpen | #erstebankopen pic.twitter.com/hK0iJKjEQE

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 27, 2023

The 27-year-old is now within two victories of his first successful title defence on the ATP Tour; Medvedev has 20 tour-level singles titles but has never won a single event more than once.

Through to the 49th tour-level semi-final of his career, the World No. 3’s latest effort improved him to 11-3 this season in quarter-finals, including a 9-1 mark on hard courts.

Against the eighth-seeded Khachanov, Medvedev saw home leads of 3-0 in the first and final sets without facing a break point in either. In addition to the first-strike tennis his strong serving allowed him to play, Medvedev also flashed his athleticism and his defensive abilities time and again to frustrate Khachanov.

Khachanov had an opening at 15/30 in the final game but netted a would-be forehand winner from midcourt. Medvedev made the most of the freebie to close out the match in two hours, 15 minutes.

“It was a very close match, so of course mentally you have to be strong and it was a long one,” he assessed. “But at the end, one break each set. So I’m happy that I managed to make two, and he only made one.”

While Medvedev has already secured his place at the Nitto ATP Finals, Khachanov’s defeat all but ended his hopes for Turin qualification. Khachanov moved up two places to 14th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin this week, but remains 895 points behind Holger Rune for eighth place, with just the Rolex Paris Masters and ATP 250 events in Sofia and Metz remaining before the cutoff.

Next up for Medvedev in Vienna will be fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas moved to within two wins of his second title of the season when he defeated Croatian wild card Borna Gojo 7-6(4), 7-5.

The Greek, who is sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, fired 26 winners and found his best level deep in both sets to reach his sixth tour-level semi-final of the year after one hour and 51 minutes.

“It feels great,” Tsitsipas said. “I kept fighting and didn’t lose faith. In the tie-break, what a great way to end it by fighting and giving so much on the court. I felt it was a matter of keeping the ball deep and attacking when the ball was short.”

Tsitsipas is making his fourth appearance in Vienna and had never advanced beyond the second round at the ATP 500 before this week. The World No. 7 is chasing his second trophy of 2023, having triumphed in Los Cabos.

Thursday was a critical day in Holger Rune’s chase for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Not only did two players close to him in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin — ninth-placed Taylor Fritz and 11th-placed Casper Ruud — lose earlier in the day, but the eighth-placed Rune earned a solid win at the Swiss Indoors Basel. The top seed ousted Sebastian Baez, a winner of three ATP Tour titles this year, 7-6(2), 6-1 to reach the Basel quarter-finals.

“It was difficult in the first set. I think he was serving well. I was struggling a little bit to find the rhythm on the return,” Rune said in his on-court interview. “But I stayed there, I kept my focus on my own serve and managed to raise my level in the tie-break. And from there, I built some better tennis.”

Trailing by a set and a break in his opening match against Miomir Kecmanovic, the Dane was in danger of losing nine of 10 matches and missing an opportunity in the Live Race. But now the 20-year-old, who was an alternate last year in Turin, has a big chance to extend his 135-point lead over Fritz in the Live Race.

Rune will next play Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who needed more than three hours to defeat former World No. 1 Andy Murray on Wednesday. It will be the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

“I have to prepare well, and hopefully another great match tomorrow,” Rune said.

Rune showed determination against the gritty baseliner Baez, with new coach Boris Becker watching closely from the front row. The four-time ATP Tour titlist saved the only break point he faced and after breaking serve for the first time early in the second set, he did not relent.

Rune won a higher rate of second-serve points (78%) than Baez did first-serve points (68%) and that proved critical. He is now 6-1 in Basel after reaching the final last year.

The best season of #NextGenATP Swiss Dominic Stricker’s career got even better on Thursday. The lefty upset second seed Casper Ruud 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(1) for a place in the Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-finals, denting the Norwegian’s Nitto ATP Finals hopes.

“Great feeling first of all to win that match, a tough battle out here,” Stricker said in his on-court interview. “Had some tough moments end of the second set and start of the third, but felt really good throughout the whole match and now just super happy. Played an unbelievable tie-break, so I’m just so happy to be through.”

Home hope continues! 🇨🇭

Super performance from @DominicStricker against Ruud and he is into the last 8️⃣ 👏#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/lXLkPrYQK7

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 26, 2023

After a run to the fourth round of the US Open, which included a victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Stricker lost six consecutive matches. But the 21-year-old has bounced back at his home ATP 500, advancing to the last eight for the first time.

Stricker hit 13 aces and 31 forehand winners in the match. He converted just one of 12 break points he earned, but played a nearly flawless tie-break in the third set to thrill his home fans.

A 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals competitor, he is currently sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Jeddah. Stricker will try to reach his first tour-level semi-final outside of the 21-and-under event when he faces Frenchman Ugo Humbert.

Alexander Shevchenko earned his career-best win Thursday when he saved two match points to upset World No. 9 Taylor Fritz at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The 22-year-old overcame Fritz 6-7(7), 7-6(6), 7-6(5) after two hours, 53 minutes to earn his first Top 10 victory and book a ticket into his maiden tour-level quarter-final.

Shevchenko produced high quality first-strike tennis and fought off all 15 break points faced to survive the American, who struck 61 winners. Neither player broke serve all match, with Shevchenko fending off eight break points in the second set and seven more in the decider. The qualifier Shevchenko also saved three of four break points to down Stan Wawrinka in the opening round of the ATP 500 event.

Despite squandering a 6/1 lead in the opening-set tie-break against Fritz, Shevchenko stayed focussed and displayed his all-court game, including several deft drop shots to dispatch the third seed.

Shevchenko again held his nerve when he fought off two match points on serve at 5-6 in the third set.

The result is a blow to Fritz’s hopes for a second consecutive appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals. With less than three weeks remaining until the prestigious year-end event, the American, who is ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, is aiming to leapfrog Holger Rune for the crucial eighth position.

Shevchenko, who is at a career-high No. 63 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, will next meet sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Stefanos Tsitsipas found a late surge to regain control of both his Erste Bank Open campaign as well as his Nitto ATP Finals prospects on Thursday, when he rallied past Tomas Machac in Vienna.

The Greek rallied to a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 second-round victory against Czech qualifier Machac to reach the quarter-finals at the Austrian ATP 500 for the first time in four attempts. After a confident start to the match, Tsitsipas had to rally from 1-4 in the deciding set against an inspired Machac to improve to 47-20 for the season.

“I had no choice but to fight,” said Tsitsipas. “I had a bad streak of consecutive points lost. He was really getting behind every ball and I felt like his movement was getting in the way of my creativity.”

With his one-hour, 58-minute win, Tsitsipas booked a last-eight clash with wild card Borna Gojo, and also consolidated sixth place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. The Greek is in pole position to claim one of the three remaining singles spots at the prestigious season finale, where he lifted the title in 2019.

“My eyes are towards the Nitto ATP Finals,” said Tsitsipas. “I’ve played there a few times, it’s a great tournament and I’m leaving my last breath out there on the court to earn a spot in Turin. I feel like with that kind of intensity and that kind of commitment I put into the game, there’s no reason for me not to believe that I can [qualify].”

Tsitsipas appeared to have his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Machac under control after taking the first set and he had not faced a break point all match when he lined up to serve at 4-5 in the second. After Machac delivered a sublime return game to snatch the set and force a decider, however, the Greek found himself in a second-round scrap.

Machac began to light up the Wiener Stadthalle with a stunning selection of shotmaking and the Czech looked set to spring an upset when he broke in the fourth game of the third set. He could not hold on for his maiden Top 10 win, however, as Tsitsipas won six of the final seven games to complete a victory in which he won 80 per cent (41/51) of points behind first serves.

Tsitsipas is 28-6 this year against players outside the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after his win against World No. 74 Machac. He can improve that record further by defeating Croatia’s Gojo, the World No. 77, when the pair clashes on Friday in the Austrian capital. Gojo earlier delivered a hammer blow to Tommy Paul’s Turin qualification hopes by downing the American sixth seed 6-3, 6-4.

Jannik Sinner enjoyed a more straightforward path to the last eight in Vienna, where the second seed moved past his good friend Lorenzo Sonego 6-2, 6-4. The 22-year-old converted three of seven break points he earned to wrap a 93-minute triumph and improve to 4-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Sonego. All four of those wins have taken place in 2023.

Sinner will take on Frances Tiafoe next as he chases his fourth ATP Tour crown of the season. He has now racked up a 21-4 record since the start of July, a tally which includes winning his maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown in Toronto and his second ATP 500 title in Beijing.

Tiafoe rallied past in-form Frenchman Gael Monfils 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 after two hours and 11 minutes. Monfils last week captured his first title of the year in Stockholm and showed flashes of that level, but his American opponent stayed the course.

Tiafoe played Sinner two years ago in the Vienna semi-finals, winning that match 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. In their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting since, the 25-year-old will try to level the pair’s series at 2-2.

The American is also trying to make a late run at Nitto ATP Finals qualification. Currently 16th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, Tiafoe would climb to 12th place by winning the title in Austria.

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have already played many memorable matches in their Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry, with Sinner currently leading the series 4-3. Of their many high-quality encounters, one in particular stands out from the 2023 ATP Tour season.

At the ATP Masters 1000 in Miami, Sinner earned his first win against a reigning World No. 1 with a comeback victory against the Spaniard. Sinner sat down with ATP Uncovered to reflect on the epic match, which earned him a measure of revenge two weeks after he lost to Alcaraz in the Indian Wells semi-finals. 

A memorable opening set included one of the points of the season, won by Sinner. The Italian won the all-action exchange with a forehand passing shot, but Alcaraz quickly answered.

“I still lost the game,” Sinner said with a laugh. “One point is good, but you can’t win the game…”

Alcaraz took the opening set in a tie-break, but Sinner stayed the course and ultimately found a way to advance to his second Miami final in three years with a 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 triumph.

“I was serving very well,” he said when analysing one crucial game in the second set. “After I won this game, my confidence started to grow and the momentum started to shift a little bit.”

Watch the full video below to see the moment Sinner pinpointed as the turning point in the match.

Daniil Medvedev and Grigor Dimitrov treated the Vienna crowd to an Austrian National Day treat Thursday at the Erste Bank Open.

The top seed and defending champion Medvedev dug deep for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 triumph in front of a packed crowd at the Wiener Stadthalle, hauling himself back into the second-round contest after Dimitrov had made a lightning-fast start at the ATP 500.

“It was a great match,” said Medvedev in his on-court interview. “He started really well and I was missing just a little bit too much. He was ahead and starting from the second set I started to play better, to run better, to put more balls in the court and play faster when I needed to.

“I managed to have small control of the match, but it was very tough and could have gone either way. I’m very happy I managed to do it.”

Defiant Daniil ✋

Reigning champion @DaniilMedwed reels in Dimitrov 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 🔜 QFs@ErsteBankOpen | #erstebankopen pic.twitter.com/ihckSwN3Y1

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 26, 2023

Medvedev was uncharacteristically wayward with his groundstrokes in the early stages, although he was given little time to settle as Dimitrov delivered a high-quality opening set that included some breathtaking moments of quality off both wings. Once Medvedev rediscovered his trademark defensive skills, however, he was able to slow the Bulgarian’s charge.

The top seed broke in the opening game of the second set and barely looked back to force a decider. He showcased his big-moment mentality in the ninth game of the final set, when he broke Dimitrov’s serve decisively to love. Medvedev finished with 31 winners, including 14 aces, to improve to 6-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Dimitrov.

Medvedev is now 3-0 against Dimitrov indoors, having dominated the Bulgarian in the semi-finals in Vienna a year ago and in Rotterdam in February. Although Dimitrov ensured Thursday’s clash was a far closer affair, the World No. 3 Medvedev held firm to set a quarter-final clash against eighth seed Karen Khachanov.

Thursday’s triumph was a Tour-leading 45th hard-court win for the 27-year-old Medvedev, who has already secured his spot for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.

Joining Medvedev at the prestigious season finale in Turin will be Andrey Rublev, who also booked his quarter-final spot on Thursday in Vienna by beating Matteo Arnaldi 7-5, 6-3.

Rublev reeled off five games in a row from 5-5 in the first set to take control of the second-round clash, and finished the match having struck 21 winners to Arnaldi’s 19. With his 86-minute triumph, the 26-year-old Rublev, who is fifth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, made sure of his Nitto ATP Finals place.

Arnaldi was chasing his second Top 10 win of the year after he beat Casper Ruud in May in Madrid, and he made life tough for Rublev early on in their maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting. Rublev’s greater power on return ultimately told, however, and the 2020 Vienna champion raised his level as the match went on to seal a big-hitting last-eight clash with fifth seed Alexander Zverev.

“I had a really great opportunity in the first [return game], but I didn’t take it, and then it was tough to start rallies in return games because he was serving really well,” said Rublev. “He was playing second balls really well and I couldn’t start rallies.

“Then when I was able to win a set, then I started to feel better. He maybe started to feel a bit more down, his serve was not the same as in the first set, and I started to feel a lot more confident.”