Nearly a decade after Hyung-Taik Lee became the first Korean player to reach the Top 50 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, Duckhee Lee appears ready to soon do the same.

The 18 year old posted the best result of his young career by reaching the semi-finals of the $125,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Chengdu, China. On Thursday, he ousted fellow teenager local favourite and fellow teenager Fajing Sun in the quarter-finals, 6-4, 6-4.

Lee also reached the semi-finals of the Challenger held last June in Fergana, Uzbekistan. His strong results this summer are an admittedly stark contrast from last year, when he underwent a steep learning curve as he got used to competing against world-class players.

“I played Challengers last year and felt like it was too tough,” he admitted. “I’m up against players who are working hard and not making any mistakes. But I said to myself that I can do it.”

Lee’s accomplishments are even more impressive because he was born deaf. Although he can hear vibrations, he relies completely on hand gestures and the scoreboard because he can’t hear line calls or the umpire call out the score.

But ironically, not being able to hear most things actually serves as a benefit on the court for Lee because he can block out most distractions.

“My hearing difficulty does help me to focus on my own play and match,” he said to ATPWorldTour.com in July 2015.

Lee’s goal for 2016 is to finish inside the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, but he has much loftier ambitions for the rest of his career.

“I want to be the top player in Asia like Kei Nishikori,” said Lee. “But I like Nishikori, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer. I can’t pick just one.”

Nick Kyrgios waited for a thunderstorm to pass, then rained nine aces to down Jared Donaldson 7-6(4), 6-3 to book a place in the quarter-finals of the BB&T Atlanta Open on Thursday. The #NextGen star improved to 27-11 in 2016 and is currently a career-best No. 18 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Kyrgios is hunting for a second ATP World Tour title after winning in Marseille earlier this year.

“I knew that Jared had a good week last week, so he was confident. I haven’t played too much tennis recently, so I’m happy to be though. The conditions really suited my game,” Kyrgios said. “I like the set-up here, with the hotel so close to the courts. It’s a great environment.”

Donaldson is coming off a strong run at the Rogers Cup, where he qualified for the main draw and reached the third round before falling to Milos Raonic. The 19-year-old American held a break point at 3-3 before the opening set was interrupted due to rain, but was unable to win a point returning Kyrgios’ serve in the tie-break. A confident Kyrgios raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set before securing the win in 76 minutes. He only dropped five first-serve points (30/35) and broke the Donaldson serve three times (3/5) during the match.

“It’s tough to return on this surface, and the ball flies quite a bit, but as soon as I won the first set, I began to feel more comfortable,” Kyrgios said. “I’ll have a tough match tomorrow. I’ll need to play even better than tonight.”

Next up for the No. 2 seed is Fernando Verdasco, who eased past Julien Benneteau 6-1, 6-3. The Spaniard improved to 5-0 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with the Frenchman, who earned his first hard-court victory of the season in the first round (d. Smith). The 32 year old won 21 of 25 first-serve points and did not face break point in the 58-minute win.

Kyrgios won his lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting with Verdasco. Last year in Montreal, the Aussie prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the Rogers Cup.

NextGen’s Yoshihito Nishioka upset fourth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 on Thursday at the BB&T Atlanta Open to reach his third tour-level quarter-final. The 20 year old from Japan capitalised on four of his seven break point chances to notch the win in 94 minutes. He next faces Horacio Zeballos, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over Tobias Kamke. The Argentine did not face a break point in the 74-minute win.

Also in action today: Fifth seed Fernando Verdasco takes on Julien Benneteau and second seed Nick Kyrgios makes his Atlanta debut against fellow NextGen star Jared Donaldson. 

Should Donaldson defeat the Aussie, he would join fellow teens Reilly Opelka and Taylor Fritz, top seed John Isner and seventh seed Donald Young as the fifth American to reach the last eight in Atlanta. That would tie the tournament record set at the inaugural BB&T Atlanta Open in 2010.

A major milestone of our sport is to be ranked Top 20 in the world. It’s a lifelong dream for so many, representing an elite tier in tennis that signifies taking titles and winning a whole lot more matches than you lose. 

But you may be surprised to learn how fine, at least statistically, the margin is to push from the Top 40 to the Top 20 of the Emirates ATP Rankings. An Infosys ATP Beyond the Numbers analysis reveals that the move from 40 to 20 is predicated on improving your points-won percentage by less than 1 per cent.

Dominic Thiem, the 22-year-old Austrian, is ranked No. 10 in the world this week, and finished 2015 ranked No. 20. He finished 2014 ranked 39 in the world, so he is clearly on track to halve his ranking from the year previous in recent times. Thiem’s 2015 match record was 36-26, excluding Davis Cup matches.

The following table divides Thiem’s points won and lost into two distinct categories from the 2015 season – from the matches he won, and the matches he lost.

Overall in 2015, Thiem only won 139 points more than he lost. Out of 9897 points, he won 5018, lost 4879, which calculates to an unbelievably close winning margin of 50.7 per cent of all points played. Essentially, Thiem took a 50-50 battle, tipped it 0.7 per cent in his favour, and reached the Top 20.

This season, Thiem has been as high as No. 7 in the world, and currently sits at No. 10. He is 48-15 in 2016, but has still only won 51 per cent of total points.

What does all this mean? Because the margins in our sport are so incredibly small, it’s vital to stick to the highest percentage patterns of play when serving, returning, rallying and approaching. There are a variety of playing styles that can catapult you into the Top 20 in the world, and Thiem performed better on the serving side of the equation relative to his peers.

In 2015, ATP Stats LEADERBOARDS show that Thiem finished 31st in the Serve Leaders category powered by the Infosys Information Platform and 58th in the Return Leaders category. Thiem’s performance on second serves was a bright spot. He finished 11^th on tour in this category, winning 54.8 per cent of points.

Reaching the Top 20 in the world will always be a coveted goal in our sport. Creating the balance of power to achieve it is actually a lot closer than we ever realised.

Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo broke new ground on Thursday at the $125,000 event in Chengdu, China.

Sixteen years after playing his first ATP Challenger Tour event, the 38-year-old Spaniard became the first player to win 400 matches in Challengers. He accomplished the feat by winning a marathon second-round match over Ante Pavic of Croatia, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. 

Having won his first Challenger match over Massimo Dell’Acqua in May 2000 in Manerbia, Italy, Ramirez Hidalgo said he was grateful to have a long career that allowed him to win so many matches.

“This [record] is because I started playing a long time ago,” he joked. “But I still enjoy tennis. I’ve always said tennis is my life, so I’m going to try and play until I can’t play anymore.”

To put the accomplishment in perspective, Ramirez Hidalgo has won Challenger matches in 103 different cities throughout 30 countries and territories worldwide. He’s reached 23 ATP Challenger Tour finals throughout his career, winning 11 titles on four different continents.

Ruben’s Milestone Match Wins

The Spaniard isn’t done yet, though. After struggling with injuries last year, Ramirez Hidalgo has climbed 60 places in the Emirates ATP Rankings this season. He reached the final of the Challenger held last May in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, becoming the oldest finalist in Challenger history at 38 years, four months.

“Right now, I have no plans to retire,” said Ramirez Hidalgo. “My coach thinks I can play one more year, so I want to finish out this season and then we’ll see what happens. I’m just trying to enjoy each match and each tournament.”

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has drawn level with Roger Federer for the most ‘Big Titles’ – Grand Slam championships, Barclays ATP World Tour Finals’ or ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns.

The Serbian drew level with Federer on 47 ‘Big Titles’ as a result of becoming the first player to capture 30 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles after a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Kei Nishikori in the Rogers Cup final.

Djokovic has by the far the best conversion rate of any player, past or present, winning one Big Title for every 3.13 events played at this level.

Federer, who will not play for the rest of the 2016 season, has 47 ‘Big Titles’, including 17 Grand Slams, six Barclays ATP World Tour Finals (both records) and he is third all-time with 24 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns. The Swiss has played 205 tournaments at this level, averaging one title for each 4.38 events played.

Rafael Nadal, who will be playing at the Rio Olympics, also boasts an exceptional strike rate, winning one Big Title for every 3.52 appearances. He is joint second all-time (with Pete Sampras) for most Grand Slam titles won with 14, and outright second all-time for most ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles won with 28 crowns, just two behind Djokovic’s record haul.

Andy Murray, who captured his third Grand Slam championship at Wimbledon last month, has won 15 ‘Big Titles’, including 12 ATP World Tour Masters 1000s. Murray, who has competed in the same era as Djokovic, Federer and Nadal, wins one Big Title for every 9.2 tournaments played.

Since the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series launched in 1990, Sampras has been the only player to rival the ‘Big Titles’ strike rates of Djokovic, Nadal and Federer. A winner of 14 Grand Slam titles and five Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, the six-time year-end World No. 1 averaged one Big Title per 4.9 tournaments played.

One other player whose strike rate is in single figures is Andre Agassi, who at one time was the record Masters 1000 title holder with 17 titles, including six Miami crowns. Agassi also won eight majors and one season finale. His 26 ‘Big Titles’ from 164 tournaments played came at an average of one title per 6.3 events played.

Those historical averages put in perspective the utter dominance Djokovic has displayed in his past 24 outings at this level dating back to the 2014 BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. During that time the Serb has won one Big Title for every 1.33 events he’s played, going 5 of 7 at Grand Slams, 11 of 15 at Masters 1000s and 2 for 2 at Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Current and Former Champions (Records Since 1990)