Kei Nishikori returned to the court in winning fashion Tuesday at the ATP Challenger Tour 75 event in Palmas del Mar, Puerto Rico.

The former World No. 4, who had not competed in 20 months due to injuries, displayed vintage all-court coverage to cruise past American Christian Langmo 6-2, 6-4 at the Caribbean Open. Nishikori dropped just one point behind his first serve in the opening set and often worked his way forward to close the match in one hour, 43 minutes.

The Japanese star underwent arthroscopic left hip surgery last year and had not played a match since the BNP Paribas Open in October 2021. The 33-year-old will next meet seventh seed Mitchell Krueger in the second round at the hard-court event.

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Luca Van Assche boosted his bid for a debut appearance at the Next Gen ATP Finals after clinching his maiden match win at a major at his home Grand Slam of Roland Garros.

The 19-year-old Frenchman defeated Marco Cecchinato in the first round on his main draw debut in Paris. Van Assche’s straight-sets triumph against Italy’s Cecchinato has solidified his standing in sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race.

Van Assche has also lifted two ATP Challenger Tour titles this year and is now at a career-high No. 69 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. He now has 435 points in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race, 120 shy of fifth-placed Ben Shelton.

Van Assche’s fellow Frenchmen Arthur Fils and Arthur Cazaux also competed at Roland Garros. Despite both falling to first-round defeats, the duo remains in strong contention to qualify for the 21-and-under event. The 19-year-old Fils is in fourth place on 673 points, having leapfrogged Shelton after winning his maiden ATP Tour title in Lyon in May, while Cazaux is in 12th.

Italian Flavio Cobolli and Serbian Hamad Medjedovic are in seventh and eighth place, respectively. Both battled through qualifying to make their Grand Slam main-draw debut at Roland Garros, where the 21-year-old Cobolli fell to then-World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in the first round.

Rounding out the Top 10 in the race are 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals semi-finalist Dominic Stricker and 20-year-old Dalibor Svrcina. The 20-year-old Czech Svrcina lifted his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in his homeland on Saturday to move to 247 points, just nine behind both Medjedovic and Switzerland’s Stricker.

Stanford University’s Arthur Fery is riding his momentum on the ATP Challenger Tour following a strong season at the collegiate level.

The 20-year-old, who grew up five minutes from the All England Club, earned his maiden Challenger Tour main-draw victory Tuesday when he rallied to beat former World No. 21 and legendary USC alum Steve Johnson 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 at the Rothesay Open in Nottingham.

Fery, who grew up attending the Grand Slam event in his backyard, recently finished his junior year as No. 3 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association singles rankings. To understand how Fery got to this point takes visiting his childhood, where he attended Wimbledon at a young age and holds many fond memories, including earning a doubles win last year at the All England Club alongside countryman Felix Gill.

“Growing up around Wimbledon was awesome. It was obviously a great foundation for my tennis and I got to learn a lot about tennis really quickly,” Fery told ATPTour.com recently at the NCAA championships in Lake Nona, Florida. “I have memories of being in primary school aged 7, 8, 9, 10 and going after school. My mum picking me up from school and just going to watch. It was great.”

^{Arthur Fery in first-round action at the Rothesay Open. Credit: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images for LTA}

Fery described his move to California to attend Stanford as an ‘obvious pick’ once he was accepted because of the great academics at the Pac-12 Conference school. Working towards a degree in Science, Technology, and Society, Fery has reached the quarter-finals in the NCAA singles championships the past two seasons.

During Fery’s sophomore year in 2022, he became Stanford’s first player to reach No. 1 in the ITA Rankings since Bob Bryan in 1998. Following Bob and Mike Bryan’s three years at Stanford, the twin brothers went on to an illustrious professional career, collecting 16 major team titles. They often return to campus to support their alma mater.

“Bob and Mike are really good with staying in contact with the team,” Fery said. “They come to campus occasionally and shared their experience. It’s always really valuable to get insights from such good players.”

Fery first began playing tennis at a young age with his mother Olivia, who is a former WTA professional. His father, Loic, is involved in professional sports in a different manner, serving as the president of French Ligue 1 club FC Lorient.

This week will not be the last time tennis fans hear about Fery on the Challenger circuit. Through the ATP & ITA Accelerator Programme, Fery’s hard work at the collegiate level has guaranteed him six Challenger main draw entries, which he can begin using next month at select Challenger events. The Wimbledon native is one of 21 players eligible for accelerator spots via their year-end ITA ranking or by reaching the quarter-finals of the NCAA singles championships.

“That was honestly the best news for college tennis this year, that they managed to do something with the ATP like that,” Fery said. “It provides an incentive for people to stay in college longer and not just kind of jump into the pros too fast. Because they know that if they’re successful in college, then they’re going to get opportunities regardless in Challengers.

“I’m definitely going to use those to my advantage in the next few months.”

Throughout Fery’s time at Stanford, head coach and former World No. 58 American Paul Goldstein has been able to see what the Briton is like on and off the court. 

“Arthur had one of the finest seasons in recent Stanford tennis history,” Goldstein said. “While his results playing No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles throughout the season were truly exceptional, he made an even more lasting impact by consistently representing himself, his teammates and our university with extraordinary class and integrity.

“He will absolutely benefit from the accelerator program. Since the announcement of the program, it has served as a motivator for Arthur and his teammates throughout the course of the season, which is a wonderful thing. I think he’s someone that will benefit greatly from it.”

Fery will next aim for his first Top 100 win against World No. 95 Dominik Koepfer in the second round of the Nottingham Challenger on Wednesday.

Tallon Griekspoor gave an expert demonstration of handling home pressure Tuesday at the Libema Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, where the sixth seed held firm in the face of a Mikael Ymer comeback to seal a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 first-round victory.

Playing to keep Dutch representation alive in the singles draw at the grass-court ATP 250, Griekspoor converted three of his 10 break points to seal his 17th tour-level win of 2023 and equal his personal-best number of wins in a single season.

“Happy with the performance, happy with the win,” said Griekspoor after his triumph. “Especially at home. I really enjoy playing at home. [Big] crowds, a lot of support, a lot of friends and family in the stands, so I really enjoyed that win.

“[It was] a tough match. The first match on grass is never easy, so I’m really happy to get through and to get another chance on Thursday.”

The 26-year-old Griekspoor, who also reached the second round in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2022, will take on Alexei Popyrin next after the Australian overcame Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 7-6(6) .

Milos Raonic, who on Monday earned a straight-sets win against Miomir Kecmanovic in his first match since July 2021, will play Jordan Thompson in the second round. Australia’s Thompson, who reached the championship match in 2019, overcame French qualifier Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4, 7-6(3) on Tuesday.

Before Tuesday afternoon in Stuttgart, Wu Yibing had not played a match on grass since he was a junior.

That relative inexperience on the surface did not stop the Chinese from notching an impressive opening win at the BOSS OPEN, where he defeated a physically struggling Nick Kyrgios 7-5, 6-3 in the first-round at the ATP 250 event in Germany.

“The last time I played on grass was juniors back in 2017, so six years,” said Wu after his victory. “I was really happy to play Nick in the first round. He’s one of the best players on grass and he served well… He aced me [so many] times. The key for me was to stay cool, stay patient in the game and find a way. I’m happy [with that result].”

Kyrgios, who had surgery to repair a small tear in his left lateral meniscus in January, appeared to be struggling physically from early in the match, at one point telling his team he was unable to ‘walk without pain’.

Wu saved a break point in the opening game with a classy forehand on the run before making his move on return to break Kyrgios in the 12th game and claim the first set. As Kyrgios’ movement grew visibly more restricted, the World No. 64 Wu also claimed the only break of the second set to seal his third Top 30 win.

“It was pretty special because it was very tense, and he was holding his service games pretty easily,” said Wu, when asked about his break to claim the opening set. “I was suffering [on serve] sometimes because he has a better serve than me, but I was patient in the match. I will keep going and work on my serve, and hopefully I can be a better server.”