Boulter makes light work of Hong Kong opener
Britain’s Katie Boulter sees off the challenge of Japan’s Aoi Ito in her opening match at the Hong Kong Open.
Britain’s Katie Boulter sees off the challenge of Japan’s Aoi Ito in her opening match at the Hong Kong Open.
Nick Kyrgios says the physical anguish Andy Murray put himself through to prolong his tennis career was “not worth it.”
The doubles field for the 2024 Nitto ATP Finals is now set. Following Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow’s loss in the Rolex Paris Masters, Wesley Koolhof/Nikola Mektic, Rohan Bopanna/Matthew Ebden, Kevin Krawietz/Tim Puetz and Harri Heliovaara/Henry Patten have all qualified for the season finale.
Those teams join Marcelo Arevalo/Mate Pavic, Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos, Simone Bolelli/Andrea Vavassori and Max Purcell/Jordan Thompson in Turin. The year-end championships will take place at Inalpi Arena from 10-17 November.
Koolhof and Mektic, the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals champions, qualified for the season finale for the second time as a team. Four years ago, the Dutch-Croatian duo lifted the trophy at The O2 in London.
They have claimed four titles in 2024, triumphing in Auckland, Rotterdam, Indian Wells and Shanghai. Two of those events, Indian Wells and Shanghai, are ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. Koolhof and Mektic also made the final in ’s-Hertogenbosch and Basel.
<img alt=”Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/28/22/31/bopanna-ebden-nitto-atp-finals-2024-qualification-graphic.jpg” />
Bopanna and Ebden will compete together at the Nitto ATP Finals for the second consecutive year. They began the year on a high by winning the Australian Open. They also triumphed in Miami, made the Adelaide final and the semi-finals at Roland Garros.
The Indian and Australian made the semi-finals in Turin last year, when they fell to Granollers and Zeballos. Bopanna is a two-time runner-up at the Nitto ATP Finals, advancing to the championship match in 2012 with Mahesh Bhupathi and 2015 with Florin Mergea. He also competed in the event in 2011 with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi.
<img alt=”Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/28/22/30/krawietz-puetz-nitto-atp-finals-2024-qualification-graphic.jpg” />
Krawietz and Puetz will play in the year-end championships as a duo for the first time. Krawietz competed in the tournament each season from 2019-21, twice with Andreas Mies (2019-20) and once with Horia Tecau (2021). Puetz will make his debut.
The Germans emerged victorious in Hamburg, reached a major final at the US Open and also made championship matches in Brisbane and Halle. They battled to semi-finals in both Indian Wells and Miami, while also reaching the Australian Open and Wimbledon quarter-finals.
<img alt=”Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/28/22/29/heliovaara-patten-nitto-atp-finals-2024-qualification-graphic.jpg” />
Heliovaara and Patten began their partnership during the clay-court season and teaming has paid dividends. After claiming glory in Marrakech and Lyon, they went on a dream run at Wimbledon to their first major trophy.
The Finnish and British team also triumphed in Stockholm and made the final in Bucharest and Beijing. Heliovaara competed in the Nitto ATP Finals in 2022 with Lloyd Glasspool.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Jaime Faria might be the only player on the ATP Challenger Tour who can say that his artwork has appeared in a museum.
Faria’s father, Nuno, works as a history of art professor and museum curator. When Faria and his younger brother Vicente were children, they would spend countless hours at museums, listening to Nuno explain the various pieces displayed.
When a family friend directed an exposition in a Lisbon gallery, he featured work from Jaime and Vicente.
“We are not artists, but before we were and we didn’t know,” Faria said with a laugh when speaking to ATPTour.com. “We drew some paintings and actually — my father got some of those things that we did exposed in a museum and we really enjoyed it.
“We spent a lot of time in the museums, being quiet, listening, watching. We would play around, sometimes just doing nothing or things we weren’t supposed to do.”
Art has not completely left the 21-year-old Faria. He recently sported a playful haircut, featuring a bold zig-zag design. Though that style was not by choice. Rather, it was Faria paying his dues as part of a Portuguese Davis Cup tradition which requires rookies to sport a haircut chosen by teammates during training week.
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“They can do whatever they want, whenever they want with my hair,” Faria said. “It’s part of the tradition and I don’t want to be the guy who isn’t part of the tradition… We really have a good bond with the Portuguese players.”
Gastao Elias served as the barber and was assisted by Henrique Rocha and Nuno Borges. However, the team’s house rules state that if the rookie competes — like Faria did in the tie against Norway last month — the unconventional haircut is completely shaved. “If you go to the match, you are totally bald,” said Faria.
The eye-catching design made its rounds on social media and drew laughs from fans. Faria has also made news by having great success on the ATP Challenger Tour this season. He captured his second Challenger title of the season last week in Curitiba, Brazil.
<img alt=”Jaime Faria wins the ATP Challenger Tour 100 event in Curitiba, Brazil.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/28/21/00/faria-curitibach-2024-trophy.jpg” />
Jaime Faria wins the ATP Challenger Tour 100 event in Curitiba, Brazil. Credit: João Pires
Faria’s first title came in May on home soil in Oeiras, where his family sat courtside as he lifted the trophy.
It was a full circle, milestone moment on the Portuguese coast for Faria, who played football and tennis as a child and started training at the Federation aged 16. He recalls first playing tennis after attending an exhibition in Algarve, Portugal that featured legends such as John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios and Mats Wilander.
“My father bought tickets to that, but we were not old enough to go, so they put us in the kids place, but we didn’t really want to go to the kids place. We asked to watch the matches and we stayed there days and days watching them,” Faria said. “We just started, I asked to play tennis, really enjoyed it from that.”
Faria is not the only Portuguese young star shining bright on the Challenger circuit. The #NextGenATP 20-year-old Rocha also claimed his first title at that level this season. Faria and Rocha live together and work with the same coaches at the Portuguese Tennis Federation: Pedro Sousa and Neuza Silva.
Following his title in Brazil, Faria is up to a career-high No. 120 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Rocha is World No. 179.
“He’s a great friend of mine. We’ve known each other since real young,” Faria said of Rocha. “Of course you have some motivation seeing a guy that works with you that can do it, you know that you can do it.”
Fortunately, both Faria and Rocha have already undergone the humble haircut tradition, marking their transition from ‘rookies’ to the next batch of ATP Tour stars hailing from Portugal.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Stefanos Tsitsipas showed he is ready to dig deep in his pursuit of a Nitto ATP Finals spot on Monday evening at the Rolex Paris Masters.
The Greek shook off a difficult start to overcome Roberto Carballes Baena 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 and book his second-round berth at the indoor ATP Masters 1000. Tsitsipas hit 36 winners to Carballes Baena’s 15 to secure a one-hour, 59-minute triumph and advance to face Alejandro Tabilo.
“I didn’t start so well. I had an upset stomach and wasn’t feeling so great on the court,” said Tsitsipas, who has reached the semi-finals in Paris in each of the past two years. “I couldn’t even pump myself up at the beginning of the match, because when something is bothering you that much, it takes your entire concentration and focus. That was perhaps the second battle I was facing today, along with my opponent.”
The 26-year-old Tsitsipas is 12th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. He is chasing a sixth consecutive Nitto ATP Finals appearance, but will require a deep run in Paris if he is to stay in contention for a spot at the prestigious season finale this year.
Fellow Turin hopeful Tommy Paul did not enjoy similar success on Day 1 in Paris, falling 6-3, 7-5 to French veteran Adrian Mannarino in a result that ended the 11th seed’s hopes of making his Turin debut.
“It’s going to take a lot for me to qualify, so if I manage to up my tennis during this entire week, let’s see,” said Tsitsipas, who is currently 705 points shy of eighth-placed Andrey Rublev in the Live Race. “If I’m able to deliver something good here, I guess that also earns me a spot in Turin. Regardless of that. I’m just trying to improve and feel my game the best I can.”
Carballes Baena broke in the fifth game of the match and then fended off two break points in the 10th game before sealing the opening set. The Spaniard, who was chasing his first Lexus ATP Head2Head victory against Tsitsipas at the fourth attempt, then reclaimed an early break in the second set as he looked to spring an upset. Yet he was unable to maintain his momentum.
The 11-time tour-level titlist Tsitsipas immediately broke his opponent’s serve for 3-1 and had no troubles holding firm behind his delivery from there en route to levelling the match. He then bookended the deciding set with further breaks of Carballes Baena’s serve, which proved enough for him to complete his 100th ATP Masters 1000 main-draw victory and book a second-round meeting with Tabilo, who later downed Nuno Borges 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3.
⭐️ Bringing up a century in style ⭐️
@steftsitsipas digs deep to record his 1⃣0⃣0⃣th ATP Masters 1000 match win!
#RolexParisMasters | @RolexPMasters pic.twitter.com/vaFs6VTGTT— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 28, 2024
After finishing the match having won 80 per cent (36/45) of points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats, Tsitsipas acknowledged that an improvement in his physical state as the match wore on had been key to turning it around.
“It took a long time for me to feel better,” reflected the World No. 11. “It was very strange. It doesn’t happen very often. I just had to feel better, because I knew I was playing good tennis. I didn’t have a great start, but there were so many things on my mind at that moment, I wasn’t able to play clearly and with a good picture.
“Eventually I found the tennis that I wanted. It took a while to get to that point, but I knew that if I got to the point of feeling my game and aligning with my shots, it perhaps would have been enough to win that match. He wasn’t giving me much. I knew that he was going to fight but I knew I had some weapons that could hurt him a lot and I used those towards the end.”
Looking to end a largely disappointing season on a positive note, Mannarino claimed five service breaks against Paul, who won just 33 per cent of second-serve points.
The 36-year-old began the year strongly with a run to the fourth round of the Australian Open after a five-set win over Ben Shelton, but he had just 13 match wins on the season coming into Paris.
Mannarino next faces the winner of Belgian lucky loser Zizou Bergs and fellow French veteran Richard Gasquet, who is making his final appearance the Rolex Paris Masters.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]
Taylor Fritz has arrived at the Rolex Paris Masters, the season’s final ATP Masters 1000 event, with a major change that has nothing to do with his game.
The American star recently dyed his hair blond, which has drawn plenty of attention on social media.
“Oh, years!” Fritz told the ATP regarding how long he has been considering the move. “I’ve polled it every year at the Australian Open. I thought it was funny and I expected to just buzz it if I hated it, but I don’t hate it.”
What we gathered from the interview:
🙅It wasn’t an intrusive thought.
🕺 @Taylor_Fritz97 to report back about blondes having more fun. @RolexPMasters | #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/Hk2gAmgMMH— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 28, 2024
Some fans might be focused on Fritz’s new look, but the fifth-placed player in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin will be locked in on trying to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals. He is next man in line to claim a position in Turin. Fritz, the fifth seed in Paris, will begin his tournament against Vienna champion Jack Draper or Jiri Lehecka.
The big question for the American: Is it true that blonds have more fun?
“We’re going to have to wait and see,” Fritz said. “But hopefully.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]When the pressure is on, Otto Virtanen remains unshaken.
The 23-year-old saved three championship points Sunday to win the ATP Challenger Tour 100 event in Brest, France and make his Top 100 debut in the PIF ATP Rankings.
By escaping Benjamin Bonzi 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(6), Virtanen ended the Frenchman’s 14-match win streak at the Challenger level and improved to 6-0 in Challenger finals. The Finn is just the 10th player in Challenger history — and first since Alexander Bublik in 2019 — to win his first six final appearances.
This was not the first time Virtanen saved championship points to lift a trophy this season. He achieved the same feat in a two-hour, 41-minute final against Daniel Masur in March, when Virtanen defended his title at the Lugano Challenger. Virtanen, who has won three Challenger titles this season, is up to World No. 96.
🙌 OTTO VIRTANEN 🙌
Fresh off his title win in Brest, the 23-year-old makes his debut in the Top 100 #OnTheRise pic.twitter.com/z8MjBHS5Wf
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) October 28, 2024
Curitiba, Brazil
In other Challenger action, Portugal’s Jaime Faria lifted his second title of the season at the Copa Internacional de Tenis, Presented by Santander in Brazil. Faria, 21, ousted home hope Felipe Meligeni Alves 6-4, 6-4 in the final to continue his quest for a Top 100 breakthrough. Faria won his first Challenger title in May in Oeiras and is now at a career-high No. 120 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Faria was also a finalist at this month’s Valencia Challenger.
“I think I learned from the final two weeks ago in Valencia, playing against Pedro [Martinez] at home and now against Meligeni, also at home with the fans pushing for him. The fans’ energy put the energy into my game and not getting disturbed,” Faria said. “It’s a special feeling winning this title.”
<img alt=”Jaime Faria in action at the Curitiba Challenger.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/28/14/09/faria-curitibach-2024.jpg” />
Jaime Faria in action at the Curitiba Challenger. Credit: João Pires
Playford, Australia
Australian Rinky Hijikata captured his third Challenger title, which all have come on home soil. The 23-year-old overcame Yuta Shimizu 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final to triumph at the City of Playford Tennis International. Hijikata previously won the Playford Challenger in 2022.
<img alt=”Rinky Hijikata wins the Playford Challenger.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/28/14/18/hijikata-playfordch-2024.jpg” />
Rinky Hijikata wins the Playford Challenger. Credit: Tennis SA
Taipei, Chinese Taipei
Japan’s Taro Daniel completed a dominant week at the 2024 Taipei OEC Open, where he did not drop a set all week. The 31-year-old, seeded second, defeated third seed Adam Walton 6-4, 7-5 in the championship match, during which Daniel saved nine of the 10 break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
Despite Walton’s final loss, the Australian became the season leader in Challenger match wins (41) with his semi-final victory against countryman Aleksandar Vukic. Camilo Ugo Carabelli is the only other player with 40 Challenger match wins or more this season.
<img alt=”Taro Daniel wins the Taipei Challenger.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/28/13/59/daniel-taipeich-2024.jpg” />
Taro Daniel wins the Taipei Challenger. Credit: 2024 Taipei OEC Open
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Borna Gojo advanced through qualifying en route to winning the MarketBeat Open in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Croatian, who was sidelined for seven months earlier this year due to a back injury, downed American wild card Colton Smith 6-1, 7-5 in the final.
“A lot of things — people don’t really see after you get hurt for such a long time, for being at the top of your career and then going back to zero,” said Gojo, who finished 2023 at a career-best No. 72 and was at World No. 422 coming into Sioux Falls. “Mentally it wasn’t easy and I struggled, but always kind of stayed positive and went to all the doctors in this world to find a solution. I’m happy right now that I’m feeling well and playing some good tennis.”
<img alt=”Borna Gojo during the Sioux Falls Challenger final.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/28/14/24/gojo-siouxfallsch-2024.jpg” />
Borna Gojo during the Sioux Falls Challenger final. Credit: Jason Harris/MarketBeat Open
Arthur Fils: From a makeshift court to making the grade on the ATP Tour
Carlos Alcaraz has enjoyed a tremendously successful season, winning two majors (Roland Garros and Wimbledon), an ATP Masters 1000 event at Indian Wells and an ATP 500 in Beijing. But his great rival, Jannik Sinner, has already clinched ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours and Alcaraz is not shy about admitting the Italian has had the better year.
“For sure. I mean, [it] doesn’t matter that I have beaten Jannik three times. Probably I didn’t play good tennis in some tournaments. My percentage of wins this year is really, really high, but Jannik is another level this year,” Alcaraz said. “[He has earned] over 91 per cent of wins this year. So just [a] few players have done this before.
“But yeah, I think [all] players are looking for being more consistent during the year. In every tournament that you’re going to play, you want to go far or as far as you can. That’s my goal the next year. In the tournaments that I didn’t play well or I didn’t go as far as I wanted, just try to do it.”
Alcaraz has been consistent, winning 83.6 per cent (51-10) of his matches in 2024 according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. Sinner has just been more consistent, claiming 91.5 per cent (65-6) of his matches.
Despite the battle for year-end No. 1 being over, Alcaraz is keen to finish his season on a high, beginning this week at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he is seeded second.
“I have important tournaments ahead, that I really want to go far [in] and play good tennis,” Alcaraz said. “The most important thing that I have to think is to understand the goals about the end of the year. I want to finish second in the [PIF ATP] Rankings. That means that I have to play good tennis and be fresh mentally to do good results in the last tournaments.”
[ATP APP]Second-placed Alcaraz leads third-placed Alexander Zverev by 395 points in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, which serves as a barometer for the year-end PIF ATP Rankings. There is plenty of tennis left, beginning with a key ATP Masters 1000 event this week.
The Spaniard owns a 4-3 record at Bercy and has not advanced past the quarter-finals. He will begin his tournament against Nicolas Jarry or Lorenzo Sonego.
“I haven’t played good tennis here in this tournament. Probably at the end of the year, I have been tired,” Alcaraz said. “I think I did prepare really well this year. So I don’t know, you know… Coming to this year, I think I’m feeling different. I know what I have to do. I have been doing great work lately. So I think I’m ready to do good results or at least go farther than last year. That I think is not really difficult.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Home favourite Ugo Humbert maintained his impressive record on indoor hard courts in France on Monday at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he moved past American Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
The Frenchman has won his past nine matches on French indoor courts, having lifted trophies in Metz in 2023 and in Marseille in February. Backed by vocal home support in Paris, Humbert fended off both break points he faced against Nakashima in a tight deciding set to book his spot in the second round after two hours and six minutes.
ALLEZ, UGO!!! ALLEZ, UGO!!! 🔊🇫🇷@HumbertUgo holds his nerve to defeat Nakashima on home soil and will now face Giron in the second round.#RolexParisMasters | @RolexPMasters pic.twitter.com/CrUSRwP6GZ
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 28, 2024
The 15th seed Humbert, who is the first Frenchman seeded at the ATP Masters 1000 event since Gael Monfils in 2021, now leads Nakashima 3-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
Chasing his third title of the season, the No. 18 player in the PIF ATP Rankings will next play Marcos Giron after the American beat #NextGenATP Chinese lefty Shang Juncheng 7-6(6), 7-6(6).
Giron saved one set point in the first set and three set points in the second set before eventually advancing after two hours and seven minutes.
[ATP APP]Earlier, Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor downed Luciano Darderi 6-3, 6-4 to set a second-round meeting with third seed Alexander Zverev. Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry advanced, saving all five break points he faced according to Infosys ATP Stats en route to beating Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 7-6(6). Etcheverry will face Nitto ATP Finals hopeful Grigor Dimitrov next.
Another Argentine, Francisco Cerundolo, also reached the second round. Cerundolo eliminated French qualifier Quentin Halys 7-6(5), 6-3. There was success for Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, who progressed on home soil when Tomas Machac retired. Machac led 7-6(3), 3-5 when played was halted.
Cerundolo next meets sixth seed Andrey Rublev, while Rinderknech plays Pole Hubert Hurkacz or #NextGenATP American Alex Michelsen. In other action, Australian Jordan Thompson eliminated Spaniard Pedro Martinez 6-4, 6-4.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]