Novak Djokovic maintained his perfect week at the Tel Aviv Watergen Open in style on Saturday, when the top-seeded Serbian produced a high-class semi-final showing to see off Roman Safiullin 6-1, 7-6(3) and reach his fourth tour-level final of 2022.

A near-flawless first-set performance saw Djokovic drop just three points behind serve as he stamped his authority early in his maiden ATP Head2Head meeting with the World No. 104. Safiullin raised his level in the second set, finding his range with his powerful groundstrokes to break Djokovic as the top seed served for the match at 5-4, but Djokovic showed trademark composure in the tie-break to complete his third straight-sets victory of the week in Israel in 95 minutes.

“I think it was a very competitive match, especially in the second set,” said Djokovic. “I must say I was quite emotional on the court today in the second set, there was a lot of tension, and that was also due to his aggressive style of tennis. Big serves, and when he has time, he’s so solid from the forehand and backhand corner.

“I knew that I had to stay very strong, and that he was definitely going to raise his level in the second set, which happened. I was serving for the match and played a couple of loose points, but credit to him for fighting back. It was an enjoyable evening on the court for sure.”

Djokovic’s win takes him to his first tour-level hard-court final since his triumph at the 2021 Rolex Paris Masters last November. The 35-year-old will now take on second seed Marin Cilic or Constant Lestienne in Sunday’s championship match as he chases his third tour-level crown of the year.

More to follow…

Go Soeda began to close the curtains on his 20-year career on Saturday at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships. The 38-year-old played his final ATP Tour match in the Tokyo qualifying draw before bowing out in front of his home fans at the Ariake Colosseum.

He will close out his career at the All Japan Tennis Championships later this month.

“I feel no limits,” Soeda said, reflecting on his time as a professional. “20 years, I had no big injuries. I had a big target to reach the Top 100, and I [achieved] that… I’m just happy.”

A native of nearby Kanagawa, Soeda competed in Tokyo 15 times, including 13 main-draw appearances. At his home tournament, he squared off against the likes of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and countryman Kei Nishikori, calling his 2019 matchup with Djokovic his “biggest memory” and “one of the big days in my life”.

“It means a lot,” he said of finishing his ATP Tour career in Japan at the long-running ATP 500 event. “I want to show my tennis to my family, my sponsors, the fans. It’s good to finish here, especially on the ATP Tour — in Japan there is only one event, so it’s a special feeling.”

Soeda turned pro in 2003 and broke into the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2012, reaching a career-high of World No. 47. The Japanese recorded 56 tour-level singles wins in his career and claimed 18 ATP Challenger Tour singles titles in 31 finals.

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With a 409-242 record in Challengers, Soeda has recorded the third-most singles wins and claimed fifth-most singles titles in the competition’s history.

“So many tournaments, so many matches,” he said of those records, smiling. “I’m proud.”

While Soeda’s playing career is reaching its end, he will remain involved in the sport as the new captain of the Japanese Davis Cup team. He was a member of the 2014 Japanese team which reached the quarter-finals, but holds ambitions to better that result in his new role.

“My team is high-level, so we have to go to the final stage. That is my target, also our target, the biggest goal,” he said.

Discussing the 2014 team, he added: “I think that team is the best team in my life. but we can do more. We can go even farther, semi-finals… We have a chance to win the tournament.”

Mikhail Kukushkin admits it has been a tough year for him on court but, as he prepares to compete at next week’s Astana Open, the home favourite is excited to be playing on the same courts that played such a vital role in him cracking the Top 40 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings just three years ago.

The 34-year-old isn’t intent on joining the recent list of tennis retirees anytime soon. The Kazakh is keen for his newborn son — a huge bright spot off court — to watch him compete up close in the future.

Saturday’s draw at the loaded Astana Open in Kazakhstan revealed that the Astana resident would face third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas at the National Tennis Center. Grand Slam winners Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka are among two of his fellow wild cards.

“I had to wait until Friday evening to receive a wildcard because obviously there were so many requests from famous players to receive one,” a relaxed Kukushkin, winless in four matches against the Greek, said prior to the draw. “Lucky in the end I was able to get one. There was a chance I would play qualifying, which was still fine for me, but main draw is better.”

Main-draw victories at the highest level have proven difficult for the power-baseliner this season. The lone one came at the Miami Open presented by Itau in March after he made it through qualifying at the ATP Masters 1000 event. He then took time off when his son, Teikhon, was born in May, and has also dealt with shoulder and hip injuries.

Kukushkin dropped outside the Top 200 in July, having been inside the Top 100 for an eight-year spell between the end of 2013 and early 2021, with the exception of about three months. The goal for the rest of 2022 is to “finish well”, before he looks forward to pre-season training.

“I’m still motivated to find my old version,” said Kukushkin, an ATP title winner in St. Petersburg in 2010 who has also reached the second week at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon. “I don’t want to finish tennis being 500th in the world. I still believe I can play at a good level, so I want to come back to that. I’m going to work hard on this. Let’s see how long it takes.

“One, two, three years I can play, I don’t know. I’m motivated and also want my son to see his daddy playing on the big stage.”

Kazakhstan has grown in prominence on tennis’ world stage, something Kukushkin noted. Elena Rybakina, the current World No. 25 on the WTA Tour, won Wimbledon in July. Kukushkin relocated to Kazakhstan in 2008, and has represented his nation 50 times across 14 years in the Davis Cup, winning 29 of those encounters.

Kazakhstan first hosted an ATP event in 2020 in Astana — Kukushkin overturned a set and break deficit to defeat Benoit Paire and make the quarterfinals — and this year upgraded from a 250 to 500.

“In 2008 when I moved [here], nobody knew about Kazakhstan, nobody knew about tennis in Kazakhstan, and slowly the federation made a big step forward,” said Kukushkin. “We played good in Davis Cup, so the people slowly started to hear the name of Kazakhstan and that there are good players in Kazakhstan.

“Slowly we were all improving the situation here. It’s the third year of the tournament but all the players, all the ATP staff, all the coaches, all the fans know the tournament here is great. The facilities are great and organized.”

In retrospect, it’s ironic, but in a spectacular span of nine days last month Felix Auger-Aliassime – in back-to-back team events – produced the finest-quality results of his individual career.

On 16 September in Valencia, Spain, the 22-year-old Canadian overcame a rabidly partisan crowd and the World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz with a breathtaking comeback 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2 in Davis Cup play. Auger-Aliassime, who saved each of the seven break points he faced in a nearly three-hour match, followed up his defeat of the reigning US Open champion with a doubles victory that sent Canada into the November quarter-finals opposite Germany. Auger-Aliassime and Vasek Pospisil defeated Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez in three sets.

Then at the Laver Cup in London, with his Team World trailing Team Europe on the final day, Auger-Aliassime teamed with Jack Sock to defeat Andy Murray and Matteo Berrettini in doubles. He followed that up, stunning Novak Djokovic 6-3, 7-6 (3) in singles to give Team World a lead they never relinquished in winning the Cup for the first time.

And now, at the Astana Open where main-draw play begins Monday, Auger-Aliassime will attempt to translate that terrific team success into something more personal. He’s the eighth seed and faces Roberto Bautista Agut in a first-round match.

“Yeah, the last two weeks have been good,” he said before the tournament began. “Those team competitions I’ve been able to deliver good matches and raise my level when I needed to, when my team was counting on me.

“It would bring a lot of confidence to anybody to be able to win these matches when you need to. So, hopefully, I can bring that level going forward at the end of the season.”

Because Auger-Aliassime has always been mature beyond his years it’s sometimes easy to forget that, along with Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner of Italy, he’s one of only three players born this century among the Pepperstone ATP Rankings’ Top 25.

The Canadian has always had a healthy respect for tennis history but at the Laver Cup he was fortunate to experience it firsthand as 20-time major champion Roger Federer played his final match, doubles, with Rafael Nadal.

“I think they really did an amazing job of creating a great night of tennis – the speeches, the videos, the singing with the families,” Auger-Aliassime said. “It made it a very emotional night. When you see grown guys tearing up, like kids, without control it just proves how much tennis meant to him, how much he’s going to miss it.”

Auger-Aliassime and his fellow Team World players, reflecting on the powerful effect that Federer had on their early careers, had time to reflect on the debt they owed him.

“It was sad in a way to see him go but, on the other hand, it was a celebration of his career,” Auger-Aliassime said. “How much he’s impacted the world of sports and just to thank him in the end for everything he did. It’s good to know that he’ll be around. I’m really looking forward to his next chapter.”

Auger-Aliassime’s next chapter, based on those recent results, could be intriguing, too. He’s currently seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and is attempting to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. One thing in the back of his mind is replicating the searing run he had in February when he reached back-to-back finals in Rotterdam and Marseille.

He took the title in Rotterdam, beating Andy Murray, Cameron Norrie and Andrey Rublev on the way to the final, where he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas. In France, he fell to Rublev in the final.

“I was playing a really good, attacking tennis – really controlled aggression,” Auger-Aliassime said. “When I’m able to do that, and serve well, stay in the rallies, and feeling good physically, I feel like, yeah, I’m one of the most competitive players out there. I can really beat anybody.”

Consistency, however, is his new goal.

“I have trouble in trying to keep up that level and that’s something I’m trying, month by month, year by year, to get better at,” he said. “But I trust with the work and reflecting what I can do better every time, I have no doubt where there’s going to come a point where I can bring that level every time I’m on the court.”

Tennis isn’t the only sporting attraction around Tokyo this weekend. While the 2022 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships are underway with qualifying action, the NBA Japan Games are also taking place nearby in Japan.

The Golden State Warriors — the defending NBA champions — and the Washington Wizards are competing in two preseason games at the Saitama Super Arena, with the first matchup staged on Friday night in front of over 20,000 fans.

Frances Tiafoe, Naomi Osaka and Alex de Minaur were among those in attendance, with Tiafoe getting a chance to meet some of the players before the game.

The American spoke with Stephen Curry and demonstrated the reigning NBA Finals MVP’s trademark ‘Night, Night’ celebration, which he called “one of the coldest cellys I’ve seen” in a Twitter post.

“I got to meet Steph Curry last night, which was great,” Tiafoe said. “He’s one of my idols. Him acknowledging what he saw and saying he’s proud of me for the US Open was pretty special. You’re never going to forget things like that.”

Had to one of the coldest cellys I’ve seen 🤞🏿🤞🏿🤞🏿 https://t.co/3W3Zw0bu8X

— Frances Tiafoe (@FTiafoe) September 30, 2022

Tiafoe, who supports the Wizards as his local team, was even on the court for warm-ups, dropping assists during shooting practice.

“It was really cool, especially being from D.C. and the Washington Wizards playing… and them showing love throughout the game” he added. “Just messing around with the guys, throwing some dimes. It’s just fun being around them. I think it’s good for them, too. A little different, a breath of fresh air.”

Tiafoe also plans to attend the second exhibition game between the two teams on Sunday. The support goes both ways, as Wizards star Bradley Beal was seen in his player box during his run to the US Open semi-finals.

Tiafoe has also been using basketball for cross-training, working out with the Wizards staff for a fun way to work on his fitness and recently visiting the team’s practice facility during the NBA’s preseason.

At Friday’s game, Tiafoe also met Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum. He was even shown on the arena’s big screen, receiving a rousing reception.

The American has also been a special guest at a New York Mets game and a Maryland football game since his career-best run to the US Open semi-finals — a result he followed with a title-clinching performance for Team World at Laver Cup.

A well-established fan favourite on the ATP Tour, Tiafoe’s fame is now crossing over into the general population.

“Since the Open, I think you could say I feel like a star, period,” he said, looking back on what he called “a crazy month and change”.

“It’s definitely different being home, and seeing a bunch of people reacting, and New York, and obviously yesterday,” he added. “But that’s where you want to be. That’s why you work hard and just try to inspire a lot of people. But I’ve still got a lot more to give in this game so I’m going to keep going.”

Tiafoe is seeded fourth in the Tokyo singles draw, and will face Japanese wild card Yasutaka Uchiyama on the opening round. The American will also compete with De Minaur in the doubles competition.

The 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz will begin his quest for a sixth tour-level title of season against fellow 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals competitor Holger Rune at the Astana Open in Kazakhstan.

The World No. 1, who is competing in his first singles event since winning the US Open, could face former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in the second round if the Swiss star can overcome Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.

View Singles Draw | View Doubles Draw

In a stacked field, Daniil Medvedev is the second seed. The 26-year-old, who captured his only title of the season in Los Cabos, will play Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the first round. Felix Auger-Aliassime is seeded to meet Medvedev in the quarter-finals, with the Canadian starting against Roberto Bautista Agut.

Auger-Aliassime is currently seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and will be aiming for a deep run in Astana to boost his Nitto ATP Finals qualification chances.

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic is also in the bottom half of the draw. The Serbian will be aiming to back up his strong run in Tel Aviv with another good result in Kazakhstan. Djokovic opens against Cristian Garin and could meet sixth seed Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals. Sinner, who is still alive in Sofia this weekend, takes on Oscar Otte in his first match.

Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and fifth seed Andrey Rublev are both in the top half. Tsitsipas will meet Kazakhstan wild card Mikhail Kukushkin in the first round, while Rublev takes on a qualifier. Rublev is currently sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and could edge closer to qualification with a deep run.

Casper Ruud leads the singles field at the 2022 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, with the Norwegian occupying the draw’s top line as the top seed. Ruud will open play against Spain’s Jaume Munar at the ATP 500 event, with sixth seed Alex de Minaur drawing South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon, also in the top quarter.

Also in the top half in Tokyo are fourth seed Frances Tiafoe (who meets Yasutaka Uchiyama) and eighth seed Daniel Evans (who faces Radu Albot) in the second quarter.

View Singles Draw  | View Doubles Draw

Second seed Cameron Norrie will meet Thanasi Kokkinakis in one of the highlight matches of the opening round, with newly crowned San Diego champion Brandon Nakashima a potential second-round opponent. In the same quarter, seventh seed Denis Shapovalov and American Steve Johnson will play for the right to face a qualifier in the second round.

Fifth seed Nick Kyrgios opens against Chun-Hsin Tseng, with third seed Taylor Fritz and Cincinnati champion Borna Coric potential quarter-final opponents for the Aussie.

Five Japanese players are in the main draw, not including potential qualifiers. World No. 56 Yoshihito Nishioka leads the way, with Taro Daniel also inside the Top 100.

Past singles champions in Tokyo include: Stefan Edberg (1987, 1989-91), John McEnroe (1988), Pete Sampras (1993-94, 1996), Lleyton Hewitt (2001), Roger Federer (2006), Rafael Nadal (2010), Andy Murray (2011) and Juan Martin del Potro (2013).

Denis Shapovalov is an ATP Tour finalist once again.

The Canadian produced a relentless display on Saturday to overcome American Jenson Brooksby 7-5, 6-4 at the Eugene Korea Open Tennis Championships in Seoul.

In an aggressive performance, the fourth seed opened his shoulders to hit through Brooksby, firing 24 winners during the one-hour, 35-minute clash to reach his fifth tour-level final and first since Stockholm last November.

“I am very happy with my performance today,” Shapovalov said. “Jenson is a super tricky opponent and I am just happy to win today and be in the finals.”

Shapovalov rallied from a break down in the first set against the 21-year-old Brooksby and has yet to drop a set at the ATP 250 hard-court event. The fourth seed will look to continue that record and capture his second tour-level title when he plays Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the championship match.

The 23-year-old, who is up two spots to No. 22 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, lifted his only previous tour-level trophy in Stockholm in 2019. Earlier this season, Shapovalov advanced to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and enjoyed a run to the last four in Dubai.

Brooksby was aiming to reach his third tour-level final of the season, having advanced to championship matches in Dallas and Atlanta.

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Nishioka edged American lucky loser Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to reach his second tour-level final of the season.

The 27-year-old, who enjoyed a run to the championship match in Washington in August, committed just five unforced errors as he outlasted Kovacevic to advance after one hour and 54 minutes. Nishioka is up 11 spots to No. 45 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings and will be aiming to win his second tour-level title in Sunday’s final. The Japanese star triumphed in Shenzhen in 2018.

Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune have qualified for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held in Milan from 8-12 November. They both will compete at the 21-and-under season finale for the second consecutive year.

Twenty-year-old Musetti and 19-year-old Rune guaranteed their spots Friday by advancing to the semi-finals of the Sofia Open. They will become the fourth and fifth players to play in the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in consecutive years, joining Andrey Rublev, Alex de Minaur and Frances Tiafoe.

Musetti claimed his first ATP Tour title this July at the ATP 500 event in Hamburg. The Italian saved two match points against Dusan Lajovic in the first round before stunning then-World No. 6 Carlos Alcaraz in a thrilling three-set final.

Musetti also defeated then-World No. 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime in Monte Carlo and 2021 Nitto ATP Finals qualifier Hubert Hurkacz in Rotterdam. The 6’1” righty reached a career-high No. 30 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on 1 July.

“It was my goal this year to play in front of a home crowd again and to be a better player compared to last year and to try and lift the trophy,” Musetti said. “I am happy I qualified for this really important event and I am happy to be there. It is always special to play in your country, so I hope the crowd will give me extra for my winning chances.”

Rune began his season outside the Top 100, but has climbed as high as World No. 26, making him the highest-ranked Danish player in Pepperstone ATP Rankings history (since 1973). Rune lifted his first ATP Tour trophy in Munich, where he ousted then-World No. 3 Alexander Zverev in the second round.

The teen also made the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, where he upset then-World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round to become the first Danish man to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final in the Open Era (since 1968).

“I feel good. It is a great step,” Rune said. “Every time you achieve this it shows that you have had a great year. I am super happy for that and really excited to go there again. It is such a great event. It is probably one of the most fun ones of the year, so I am super excited.”

The past two Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals champions, Carlos Alcaraz (2021) and Jannik Sinner (2019) — who are in first and second place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan — will not be competing in this year’s event. Alcaraz has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals and Sinner continues his quest to compete in Turin for the second consecutive year after playing two matches as an alternate last year.

American Aleksandar Kovacevic started playing tennis in a unique way.

The 24-year-old, who was born in New York City, grew up learning to play tennis at the iconic Central Park.

“I was born and raised on the Upper West Side in New York and trained at John McEnroe’s Academy for a while,” Kovacevic said. “We lived at 97th and Central Park West, right on the park. My parents would go on the weekend to hit at the courts and I went with them. It was a five minute walk from our apartment. It’s a cool way to start for sure. I never really appreciated that until I got older.”

Thanks to his parents, Milan and Milanka, who were both table tennis professionals, Kovacevic began his journey towards making a career in his own right as a pro athlete.

In July, Kovacevic reached his maiden ATP Challenger Tour final in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he relinquished six championship points to China’s Wu Yibing, who prevailed 6-7(10), 7-6(13), 6-3. In the semi-finals, Kovacevic beat #NextGenATP star Ben Shelton, who had reached the final at the Rome (Georgia) Challenger the previous week.

Kovacevic, who was ranked outside the Top 350 at the beginning of this season, also reached the semi-finals at the Little Rock and Lexington Challengers this summer.

Now in the semi-finals at the ATP 250 event in Seoul, where Kovacevic has upset three Top-100 players (Kecmanovic, Tseng, McDonald), the youngster is at a career-high mark 166 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

Before Kovacevic turned professional in 2021, he had a standout collegiate career at the University of Illinois, where he was a two-time ITA All American and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in finance.

“In March 2021, I played the Cleveland Challenger and went from qualies to the semi-finals,” Kovacevic said. “I knew it was my time to turn pro. My dad had to convince me, because I was ranked 700 at that time, but I’m happy I did.”

When Kovacevic made his Grand Slam qualifying debut at the 2021 US Open, he advanced to the final round before falling short to Argentine Marco Trungelliti. The following day, the American was set to do some stretching at the gym when a familiar face invited him to tag along for a fitness session: Novak Djokovic.

Kovacevic’s father, Milan, is Serbian and his mother hails from Bosnia. When ‘Aleks’ was younger, the family would take an annual trip to Serbia. When Kovacevic met Djokovic at Flushing Meadows, he brushed off the rust of his Serbian-speaking abilities to talk with the 21-time major champion.

“My final round qualifying match against Trungelliti, I had seven or eight match points. It was one of the most heartbreaking losses I’ve ever had. The next day, when I was in the gym, Novak told me he heard about my match and asked if I wanted to join his fitness session.

“I was shocked. He was chasing history that week and didn’t have to give me his time. It was an incredible experience. At the end, Novak told me that I’ve got a bright future and I should train with him in Serbia.”

At heart, Kovacevic is an adrenaline junkie. Whether it’s snowboarding, jet skiing, or skydiving, he is ready for a thrill. He credits his attitude of getting outside of his comfort zone as part of why he’s found success on the court.

“I live by the philosophy that if I do one thing every day that makes me uncomfortable, it will make me a tougher person in life,” Kovacevic said. “I take cold showers in the morning. Those things sharpen you as a person. It makes you stronger on the court when you face adversity out there.

“In college, we played the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Oklahoma and after we won, our coach [Brad Dancer] pulled the van around and told us to get in. He told us that we were going to get our gift from a booster, which we received every year. He told us not to post anything on social media or call our parents until after we get the gift.

“We got to a small airport with a skydiving sign. I said, ‘No way!’. I wasn’t going. A few of us stayed on the ground, but after three hours, we finally decided to go. It was honestly one of the best moments of my life. Usually it’s 10,000 feet but this place had clearance to do 15,000 feet. It was a minute straight freefall. It got us loose for the matches the next day for sure.”

Kovacevic, who now lives and trains in Boca Raton, Florida, will next play Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the semi-finals of the Eugene Korea Open Tennis Championships.