Grigor Dimitrov snapped a three-match losing streak on Tuesday when he cruised past Brazilian qualifier Thiago Monteiro 6-3, 6-4 at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

The Bulgarian arrived at the ATP 500 event off the back of disappointing opening-round exits on home soil in Sofia and in Stockholm. However, he produced a strong serving performance against Monteiro to earn his 22nd tour-level win of the season.

Dimitrov fired 10 aces, won 86 per cent (30/35) of his first-serve points and did not face a break point to reach the second round after 75 minutes. The 31-year-old, who is making his fifth appearance in Vienna, will next play third seed Andrey Rublev.

In other action, Daniel Evans rallied from 2-5 in the second set to overcome German Oscar Otte 6-4, 7-6(3). The Briton has fond memories in Vienna, having advanced to the semi-finals on debut in 2020. The 32-year-old will next meet Karen Khachanov.

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Denis Shapovalov brushed aside Austrian Jurij Rodionov 6-4, 6-4 to maintain his good form. The Canadian, who reached the final in Seoul and the last four in Tokyo earlier this month, struck 27 winners and broke six times to triumph after one hour and 42 minutes.

The World No. 19 will next meet fourth seed Taylor Fritz, who defeated Shapovalov in Tokyo.

Finn Emil Ruusuvuori also advanced, eliminating Metz champion Lorenzo Sonego 6-2, 6-3. Ruusuvuori, up to No. 41 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, will next play fifth seed Hubert Hurkacz or American Frances Tiafoe.

When Andreas Seppi was seven years old, his hobbies included playing football and skiing. Tennis was not on his radar because his family had never played the sport.

But one day, Seppi’s childhood best friend tried tennis, so ‘Andy’ wanted to give it a shot. More than three decades later, the 38-year-old Italian on Tuesday concluded a decorated career during which he finished inside the year-end Top 100 for 15 consecutive years (2005-19), won 386 tour-level matches and three ATP Tour titles.

“I would have signed immediately if somebody would have told me, ‘You could play until the age of 38’,” Seppi told ATPTour.com. “I feel really blessed that I could do this for such a long time.”

When current World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz was born, Seppi had owned a Pepperstone ATP Ranking for two and a half years. The veteran has been a fixture at the top of the men’s game ever since, consistently competing against the world’s best players.

Seppi defeated a who’s who of stars including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Daniil Medvedev and Lleyton Hewitt, helping him climb to a career-high World No. 18. But perhaps most impressive about Seppi’s journey is not the level he reached, but his longevity.

^{Photo Credit: Peter Staples/ATP Tour}
The Italian competed in 66 consecutive Grand Slam main draws from Wimbledon in 2005 through this year’s Australian Open. That is the third-longest streak in history behind only Feliciano Lopez (79) and Fernando Verdasco (67).

“I remember when I got close to the Top 100 and then I made it inside, I finished the year maybe 70 or something like that. I was always in some way just thinking, ‘Okay, I hope I can stay a few more years in the Top 100’,” Seppi recalled. “Now looking back and seeing that I did it for 15 years in a row is something that I would have never expected at the beginning of my career and so I think maybe that’s the part I am most proud of, just to have managed to be able to stay at such a high level for such a long time.

“Of course maybe I could have won a couple of more tournaments or maybe my best ranking could have been a little bit better, but this achievement of playing all these years at this level, I think it’s for me the most special.”

Part of the reason Seppi was one of the most consistent players of his generation was his work ethic. The Italian was the consummate professional, what you might call a pro’s pro. Countryman Fabio Fognini shared a heartfelt message for his friend and colleague on Instagram.

“It was great sharing so many years together at the circuit. You have been a friend, a companion, an opponent but above all an example of dedication, professionalism and willpower,” Fognini wrote. “You’ve always pushed me, pushing me to be better each time we’ve faced each other. I hug you and wish you the best for the future.”

 

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An ATP Tour champion on all three surfaces — on grass in Eastbourne (2011), clay in Belgrade and hard in Moscow (both 2012) — Seppi was not the most vocal player on or off court. But he was a tough competitor and a generous colleague who was kind to everyone around him, treating top stars, upcoming players and tournament staff the same.

Seppi was first introduced to Jannik Sinner when his countryman was 12 and always made himself a resource.

“Congrats on a great career my friend,” Sinner wrote on Instagram. “You are a great example and we will miss you.”

 

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Seppi played some memorable matches, including wins against Federer in the third round of the 2015 Australian Open, Nadal in Rotterdam in 2008 and Wawrinka in a final-set tie-break to reach the 2012 Rome quarter-finals. He also rallied from two sets down to stun former World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero in a Davis Cup match in 2005.

“There have been quite a few very interesting ones,” Seppi said.

This season, small injuries began to make his ability to remain at the upper echelon of the sport difficult.

“After the first three months, I started to struggle a little bit more with some smaller things, a little bit with the shoulder, a little bit with my back. Let’s say small pains, nothing serious, but always something. I never really had time to get in shape and play more tournaments in a row,” Seppi said. “When I played three matches in a row at the US Open and I lost [in the] last round of the qualies, I played three days in a row and the third match I was struggling with my shoulder and with my back. There I knew that my body can’t do this anymore.

“From that point of view, it was an easy decision [to retire] , because I considered it was not possible to play three, four matches in a row anymore… The recovery process is much slower. [It was] just difficult to keep up with all these young guys.”

With Seppi’s career at a close, his family will return to Boulder, Colorado, where the Italian bought a home in December 2017. While he does not have concrete plans for the future — traveling as a full-time coach will not be part of those plans — Seppi says his two children will attend school in Colorado. The 38-year-old will have time to reflect on what has been a remarkable career.

Seppi cracked a laugh before saying: “For sure there are going to be some good stories.”

Argentine Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Italian Mattia Bellucci continued their sizzling runs on the ATP Challenger Tour this week as they each claimed their second Challenger title this month. Cerundolo collected the title at the Coquimbo Challenger while Bellucci triumphed in Vilnius, Lithuania. The #NextGenATP stars Bellucci and Cerundolo are among five Challenger champions this week.

Cerundolo defeated countryman Facundo Diaz Acosta 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the championship match to win the Challenger Dove Men+Care Coquimbo 2.

Following his breakthrough season in 2021, when Cerundolo collected a trio of Challenger titles and won the ATP 250 event in Cordoba, the lefty has battled a psoas muscle injury [located in the lower lumbar region of the spine] that forced him to take time off this summer.

Since returning to competition, the Buenos Aires native has made a sudden impact on the Challenger Tour, winning 12 of his past 13 matches, including triumphing in his home city, Buenos Aires, earlier this month. The 20-year-old boasts a 21-8 Challenger-match record this season and the title in Coquimbo lifts him to 136 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Bellucci, 21, extended his match-winning streak to 12 after defeating Turkish qualifier Cem Ilkel 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the final at the Vilnius Open by kevin. The left-hander didn’t drop a set all week until the championship match.

“I’m super, super happy,” Bellucci said. “I played unbelievable tennis for two weeks. 12 matches in a row, I’m also a bit tired.”

“The first set was super difficult to get into the match, I felt tired, especially mentally. Then I was like, ‘Okay, let’s play every point!”

Italian Mattia Bellucci in action at the 2022 Vilnius Challenger. Credit: Saulius Čirba

The week prior to triumphing in Lithuania, Bellucci advanced through qualifying to win his first Challenger title at the Saint-Tropez Challenger. Bellucci is the second Italian #NextGenATP player to score multiple Challenger titles this season (Luca Nardi, 3) and is the youngest Italian to win Challenger titles in back-to-back weeks since 19-year-old Stefano Pescosolido in 1991.

Following his title at the indoor hard court event in Vilnius, Bellucci rises to a career-high No. 156 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

In Ambato, Ecuador, Facundo Bagnis created Challenger Tour history. The lefty secured Argentina’s 21st Challenger title of the year, the most titles won by a single country in a season, as he ousted Brazilian Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva 7-6(7), 6-4 in the final at the Ambato La Gran Ciudad.

Bagnis was victorious a few hours after Argentine youngster Cerundolo secured his title in Chile, combining to surpass the previous record of most titles won by a country in a season, 20, which has been reached four times (France in 2005, Argentina in 2007, 2016, 2021).

Facundo Bagnis in action during Sunday’s final at the Ambato Challenger. Credit: Armando Prado

Bagnis, who claimed the Pereira Challenger earlier this season, dropped just one set all week en route to claiming his 16th Challenger title.

“I’m very happy,” Bagnis said. “I didn’t feel good in the past few weeks, not because of the results but because of myself… Getting into the Top 100 is a goal I achieved with this victory and now I have more goals.”

At the Granology Busan Open in South Korea, Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak captured his fourth Challenger title after defeating Moldova’s Radu Albot 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the final.

Majchrzak, 26, went 3-0 at the season-opening ATP Cup before reaching his maiden Tour-level semi-final in Pune (l. Ruusuvuori). This week, the 2013 US Open boys’ doubles champion (w/ Ma Redlicki) took down top seed Soonwoo Kwon in the quarter-finals en route to his first Challenger title of 2022. Majchrzak climbs to No. 82, seven spots shy of his career-high, which he reached in February.

In the second all-Swiss final in Challenger Tour history (Marc Rosset vs. Roland Stadler, Nyon 1989), Alexander Ritschard defeated Henri Laaksonen 7-5, 6-5 (ret.) to win the Challenger Hamburg.

“It was a tough week,” Ritschard said. “I had many tough matches, I played everything point-for-point and somehow managed to sneak out the win.”

Alexander Ritschard during Sunday’s Hamburg Challenger final. Credit: Witters Sportfotografie

For the first time in Challenger history, four Swiss players have won a Challenger title in the same season. Ritschard joins Dominic Stricker (Cleveland, Zug), Marc-Andrea Huesler (Mexico City, Aguascalientes) and Antoine Bellier (San Luis Potosi) as Swiss champions in 2022.

After collecting his maiden Challenger title, the Zurich native opened up about the inspiration he felt this week after receiving a difficult phone call.

“I got some bad news from my family this past week that my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Ritschard said. “Not something I’d like to hear on the road. They found it pretty early, I’m confident she will be okay. It definitely helped with the motivation [this week].”

Ritschard, World No. 166, is three spots shy of tying his career-high 163 and following the championship match, the 28-year-old acknowledged that his goal for the remainder of the season is to finish in the Top 150.

Carlos Alcaraz fought off a strong challenge from #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper to earn his first tournament win since his US Open title on Monday at the Swiss Indoors Basel. After dropping the opening set and surrendering a break advantage in the third, Alcaraz got back on track with a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory in his debut at the ATP 500.

The World No. 1 was beaten by David Goffin three weeks ago in the Astana opening round and was made to work to avoid another early exit against the 20-year-old in the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting.

“In the beginning of the match it was tough,” he said. “I did a lot of mistakes in the beginning. I wanted to play really aggressive on this court. For me, it’s a bit slower than the other tournaments. But obviously I had to handle that, I had to work on my problems and change my tactics a little bit in the second set.

“I knew that Jack is playing great. He is a really dangerous player and I really had to be focused and, of course, never give up.”

Draper broke twice in the opening set, using a finishing flourish to break at love in its final game. After saving two break points to lead 5-3, he brought up set point with a whipped backhand pass from deep in the corner and converted with a roped forehand winner.

But Alcaraz quickly steadied in set two as he tightened up his ground game and began to dictate play in racing to a 4-0 lead. He remained on top in set three, leading 4-2, until Draper edged in front by winning three straight games.

From 4-5, Alcaraz returned the favour by winning three straight games of his own to close out the win. Draper fought until the last ball, bringing up two break points in what was the joint-longest game of the match as Alcaraz served it out. The Spaniard narrowly avoided a decisive tie-break, saving the first break point with a fearless forehand winner that clipped the sideline before sealing victory on his third match point.

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The all-action Alcaraz finished with 39 winners and 34 unforced errors, compared to 27 and 12 from Draper. He will face either Botic van de Zandschulp or Adrian Mannarino in the second round, with countryman Pablo Carreno Busta — one of five Spaniards in the Basel draw — a potential quarter-final opponent.

Despite the loss, Draper has already clinched qualification for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan next month, an event which Alcaraz won in 2021. The Spaniard will graduate to the Nitto ATP Finals this year, as he is set for his debut in Turin.

Also advancing on Monday in Basel were Brandon Nakashima and Alexander Bublik. Nakashima was a 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 winner against Goffin while Bublik downed Aslan Karatsev 6-3, 7-6(2).

Taylor Fritz boosted his Nitto ATP Finals qualification chances on Monday when he earned a comeback victory against Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

The American was two points from defeat in the second-set tie-break and trailed Nishioka 1-3 in the third set before he won the final five games of the match to advance 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 6-3.

With his two-hour, 45-minute win, eighth-placed Fritz has climbed to 2,910 points in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. The 24-year-old trails seventh-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime by 315 points, with the Canadian in action in Basel this week.

Fritz is aiming to make his debut at the prestigious end-of-year event, to be held at the Pala Alpitour in Turin from 13-20 November. Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic have all already qualified.

Fritz, who has won three tour-level titles this season, is the fourth seed at the ATP 500 event in Vienna and will next play Austrian wild card Jurij Rodionov or Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the second round.

In other action, Karen Khachanov moved past American qualifier J.J. Wolf 7-6(4), 7-5, while Cincinnati champion Borna Coric defeated French qualifier Quentin Halys 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. Khachanov will next meet German lucky loser Oscar Otte or Briton Daniel Evans, with Coric facing second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or Austrian wild card Dennis Novak.

In a week when Felix Auger-Aliassime strengthened his chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals, Matteo Berrettini kept his Turin hopes alive by reaching the final in Naples.

ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week in the Race following a three-tournament week on Tour.

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin Rankings

13th, Matteo Berrettini, +2

The Italian has jumped two spots to 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin after he reached the final at the Tennis Napoli Cup. Berrettini dropped just one set en route to the championship match before falling to #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti. The 26-year-old is currently on 2,375 points, 850 points behind seventh-placed Felix-Auger-Aliassime with two weeks of The Race to go. Berrettini will need to have deep runs in Vienna and Paris if he is to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the third time.

Seventh, Felix Auger-Aliassime
The Canadian (3,225 points) pulled further clear of eighth-placed American Taylor Fritz (2,885) when he won his third tour-level title of the season at the European Open in Antwerp. The 22-year-old, currently seventh, could climb as high as fifth this week when he competes at the Swiss Indoors Basel, depending on Daniil Medvedev (3,555) and Andrey Rublev’s (3,440) results at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. If Auger-Aliassime triumphs in Switzerland, he will finish the week with 3,635 points in the Live Race.

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A host of #NextGenATP stars will this week battle for the final spots at the eight-player Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals as the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan concludes Sunday.

Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Brandon Nakashima and Jiri Lehecka have already qualified for the 21-and-under event. Who will join them at the Allianz Cloud in Milan? Chun-Hsin Tseng, Francesco Passaro and Dominic Stricker lead the hunt to claim the remaining places.

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan

Tseng of Chinese Taipei has 490 points, but is not in action this week. The 21-year-old has enjoyed a breakthrough season, clinching two ATP Challenger Tour titles and earning his first ATP Tour win in Los Cabos.

Italian Passaro will be looking to make his debut in Milan, where he could join his countryman Musetti. The 21-year-old has 473 points, 51 points clear of 10th-placed Dominic Stricker (422 points). The Swiss lefty is competing on home soil at the ATP 500 event in Basel, where he will face American Maxime Cressy in the first round.

Italians Matteo Arnaldi and Luca Nardi will be ready to pounce should Stricker fall early at the tour-level event. The 11th-placed Arnaldi (401 points) is the sixth seed at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Brest, while 12th-placed Nardi (385 points) will play in Ortisei. Arnaldi has won one ATP Challenger Tour crown this year, with Nardi triumphing at three events at that level.

Filip Misolic (376 points), Timofey Skatov (373 points) and Mattia Bellucci (362 points) are also still in contention. Bellucci has lifted Challenger trophies in each of the past two weeks.