Andrey Rublev will aim to bounce back from a disappointing first-round exit at the Adelaide International 1 when he headlines the draw at the Adelaide International 2 this week. The World No. 8, who is the top seed at the ATP 250 event, will face an Australian wild card in his opening match, with the winner of Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alexei Popyrin taking on the 12-time tour-level titlist.

The 25-year-old is seeded to meet sixth seed Miomir Kecmanovic in the quarter-finals. The Serbian begins against the returning Kyle Edmund. Rublev is also joined in the top half by fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, with the Spaniard opening against Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi or American Maxime Cressy.

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At the bottom of the draw, second seed Pablo Carreno Busta opens against a qualifier, with fifth seed Daniel Evans a potential quarter-final opponent. The Briton faces American Mackenzie McDonald in the first round and could meet Sebastian Korda in the second round. The 22-year-old Korda, who plays Yoshihito Nishioka in the semi-finals in Adelaide Saturday, opens against Emil Ruusuvuori.

Third seed Karen Khachanov will play Arthur Rinderknech or Marc-Andrea Huesler, while #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper starts against Lorenzo Sonego. The Next Gen ATP Finals champion Brandon Nakashima will compete for the first time since he lifted the trophy in Milan when he plays seventh-seeded Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Australian Jason Kubler earned two wins at the United Cup in Sydney. The 29-year-old will look to continue his impressive start to the season against a qualifier.

Team United States sprinted to a 2-0 lead against Team Poland on Friday in the United Cup Final Four, and American Taylor Fritz finished the job Saturday morning.

The reigning BNP Paribas Open champion clawed past Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in the No. 1 men’s singles match to give his country an insurmountable 3-0 lead. Jessica Pegula upset World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and Frances Tiafoe eased past Kacper Zuk to earn the Americans their first two points. Fritz was followed by Madison Keys, who earned a 6-4, 6-2 triumph against Magda Linette.

“It was great to get the win today to get us through. I had no doubt that if I were to lose that the rest of the team would have come through. But I’ve played with Team USA a lot. I think it’s a huge advantage this time having the girls on our team because it just makes the whole team so much stronger. I’m super excited going into the final and I think we’ve been the favourites all week.”

In the championship match, Team United States will face Team Italy or Team Greece. Italy leads Greece 2-0 in their semi-final tie.

“I think whoever serves better is probably going to get over the line,” Tiafoe predicted for the Fritz-Hurkacz clash Friday afternoon.

That proved prophetic. Fritz won 88 per cent of his first-serve points and was able to manoeuvre into comfortable positions in points behind his serve.

Hurkacz earned two set points on return at 5-4 in the first set. The Pole missed a mid-rally crosscourt forehand on his first opportunity and a forehand return just long on his second. Letting slip those chances proved his downfall.

The tension could be cut with a knife inside Ken Rosewall Arena during the first-set tie-break, as neither man relinquished a mini-break through the first 11 points. Fritz was able to take the initiative on his first set point and forced an error from Hurkacz’s backhand into the net.

Hurkacz also had opportunities to earn the match’s first break at 5-5, 15/40 on Fritz’s serve in the second set, but the American saved them with a big serve and forehand volley. The Pole once again seemed in position to force a decider with two serves at 5/4 in the tie-break, but he missed two forehands, which allowed Fritz to close out the match and with it, the tie.

Keys had split two previous encounters with Linette, both in the last two months. Indeed, Linette’s win had also been in team competition — a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in November.

Both players brought an undefeated United Cup record into the match, and it was Keys who preserved hers with a dominant display of power. She did not face a break point throughout a tight first set while consistently creating chances on return. Though Linette was able to fend off the first two break points she faced, in the second and sixth games, Keys converted her fourth of the day — also a set point — by hammering a backhand return.

A classy drop shot paved the way to Linette’s only break of serve in the first game of the second set, but Keys responded by upping her focus to immediately break back and reel off six of the final seven games of the match.

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Tennis remembers Dick Savitt, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles in 1951 and gave much of his life to the game.

An extraordinary, self-taught champion who competed with unbridled intensity and won two majors including Wimbledon in 1951, a man admired by players and the public alike for his magnificent backhand and remarkable match playing acumen, Hall of Famer Dick Savitt has died at age 95.

Richard “Dick” Savitt was born March 4, 1927 in Bayonne, New Jersey, and grew up in that state. He developed an imposing game from the backcourt and had impenetrable groundstrokes along with an underrated serve, stamping his authority as one of the best American players of the 1950s. His many exploits propelled Savitt into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in the Class of 1976. 

Savitt’s deep intensity and adaptability as a competitor carried him to lofty heights on the premier stages of the sport. During his youth, Savitt played basketball and baseball, and was consumed by those sports until he was 13. Then tennis became a priority when he moved with his family to Texas in time for his sophomore year of high school.

He captured the Texas State Junior Championships and became the No. 4 ranked player in the United States18-and-under division. After finishing high school, he served in the U.S. Navy from 1945-46. Thereafter, he went to Cornell University starting in the autumn of 1946, graduating in 1950 after securing four Eastern Intercollegiate Championships in a row.

In 1950, Savitt moved into the U.S. Top 10 at No. 6. Very imposing with his aggressive ground game, powerful serve, and fighting spirit, Savitt soared to another level of the game. 

He took the 1951 Australian Championships title convincingly, claiming his maiden major with a trio of impressive triumphs down the stretch over Australian standouts John Bromwich, Frank Sedgman and Ken McGregor. He was the first man from outside the land “Down Under” to prevail at that tournament since countryman Don Budge was the victor in 1938. Proud of his heritage, Savitt established himself as the first Jewish player ever to collect one of the sport’s premier prizes.

Despite a quarterfinal defeat at the French Championships on the clay in Paris, he swiftly transitioned to the lawns of Wimbledon, making his debut at the All England Club and peaking propitiously on that landmark occasion. He collided with countryman Herbie Flam in the penultimate round, falling precariously behind. Flam was ahead 6-1, 5-1 before Savitt engineered a spectacular comeback to prevail in four sets.

Savitt upended McGregor in a straight-sets title match to celebrate his seminal moment as a tennis player at 24.

“I was glad when it was over because two weeks is a grind,” Savitt said after claiming the trophy. “But I was thrilled to win the tournament I thought was the biggest of them all.”

Savitt was beaten in the semi-finals of the U.S. Nationals that year by countryman Vic Seixas after appearing on the cover of Time Magazine, a deep honour. Had he been victorious at that tournament, Savitt might have turned professional at the end of the year. But losing to Seixas cost him that chance.

“Pro tennis was touring every night and not so much a tournament circuit then,” he later said. “It was a tough life. I can’t say I regret not doing it.”

And yet, Savitt was disappointed about not representing the U.S in the Challenge Round of Davis Cup at the end of that memorable 1951 season. He played for the American squad in earlier rounds that year, but was not chosen to compete against Australia as the U.S. was beaten 3-2.  

He competed on the amateur tournament circuit regularly through the summer of 1952 and reached at least the quarter-finals in all four majors that season, but then decided to go earn a living elsewhere.

Initially he was involved in the oil business before devoting nearly the rest of his life to Wall Street work while living in New York. But Savitt stayed immersed in tennis on a part-time basis. He won the U.S. Indoor Championships in 1952, 1958 and 1961. Despite playing very few tournaments, Savitt stayed in good shape and was able to maintain his place as one of the top amateur players in the United States. He finished the 1950s stationed among the top six in the country for three consecutive years, achieving the No. 3 ranking in 1957 as a so-called “weekend player”. In 1961 he won singles and doubles gold medals at the Maccabiah Games held in Tel Aviv, Israel.

After he stopped competing, Savitt was helpful to American players of different eras including Arthur Ashe and Vitas Gerulaitis, practising with both men in New York, regularly offering his advise. He would tell an always receptive Ashe whenever he ran into him: “Bend your knees on that low forehand volley, kid. Bend your knees.”

Meanwhile, Savitt maintained a healthy competitive diet himself. At the age of 54 in 1981, he sealed one of his most satisfying titles, winning the U.S. National National Father & Son Grass Court Championships with his son, Robert.

Because he played tennis so often over the years on the courts at Columbia University in New York, and frequently served as an informal advisor to their tennis teams, the university named their tennis centre after him in 2002 despite the fact that he had graduated decades earlier from Cornell University. It was an honour he valued appreciably.

He also was very proud of his long association with Israel Tennis Centres, which started in the 1970s and included 14 facilities. Savitt guided many Israeli players, including Top 20 talent Amos Mansdorf. He made two visits a year to Israel for over 25 years, offering a significant amount of his time and wisdom for no financial gain.

In fact, Savitt gave substantially to tennis across his entire lifetime on a multitude of levels, achieving on a lofty scale, freely sharing his enduring passion for the game with everyone he encountered.

Tallon Griekspoor kept his cool in his maiden ATP Tour semi-final Friday at the Tata Open Maharashtra, where the Dutchman completed a 7-6(4), 6-1 victory against eighth seed Aslan Karatsev.

Griekspoor won a single-season record of eight ATP Challenger Tour titles in 2021, but the 26-year-old had not been past the quarter-finals of a tour-level event prior to this week in India. The Dutchman will take on another first-time finalist, Benjamin Bonzi, in Saturday’s championship match.

“It’s great. It’s something you work for, something you dream of,” said Griekspoor of reaching his first ATP Tour final. “That was a goal coming into this year. To do it in the first week of the year is great, but the tournament is not over, there is one more match left. So [I will] try to keep focusing on that one.”

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED ✅@Griekii is through to a 1st ever @atptour final after a dominant 7-6 6-1 win 👏#TataOpenMaharashtra pic.twitter.com/5nwrq2pB7M

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) January 6, 2023

The World No. 95 produced a high-class serving performance to down the three-time tour-level titlist Karatsev. Griekspoor did not face a break point, sent down 11 aces and won 89 per cent (32/36) of points behind his first delivery.

That aspect of his game helped the Dutchman prevail in the first-set tie-break, which ultimately proved pivotal to his 82-minute victory.

“I think I served really well, played my own games really well,” said Griekspoor after the match. “I think I lost eight points on serve the whole match, so those are stats you can lean on. I think I mixed it up really well for him, using the backhand slice, and a little bit of a heavier forehand.

“That made it tough for him and I played a really good tie-break. He dropped his level a little bit at the beginning of the second and I stayed on top and finished it off really well.”

Griekspoor’s triumph kept alive the possibility of an all-Dutch championship match in Pune but France’s Bonzi had other ideas. After two tight sets, the 26-year-old found something extra late on to take out second seed Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-1 in the second semi-final of the day.

Unlike Griekspoor, Bonzi had featured in the last four of ATP Tour events before. He fell at the semi-final stage in Marseille (l. to Rublev) and Mallorca (l. to Tsitsipas) in 2022, but a lightning-fast start to the deciding set against Van de Zandschulp ensured he would not suffer the same disappointment in India.

Bonzi was the more dangerous player on return throughout the two-hour, 29-minute battle. He converted four of his 11 break points but was pushed the distance after Van de Zandschulp rallied from 2-4 in the second set to force a tie-break, which the Dutchman won with a single mini-break at 6/5.

Bonzi responded in style, winning the first five games of the third set en route to his 30th tour-level victory. Saturday’s championship match will be his first ATP Tour meeting with Griekspoor and just the pair’s second clash overall, after Bonzi prevailed against the Dutchman in three sets at an ATP Challenger Tour event in France in 2017.