American Ben Shelton went from claiming the NCAA Singles Championship to being a Top 40 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in just 10 months. Is Ethan Quinn next?

The 19-year-old Quinn, who played for the University of Georgia, held his nerve to save four championship points at the 2023 NCAA Singles Championship in May and turned professional one month later. This week, Quinn is in action at the ATP Challenger Tour 75 event in Chicago, Illinois, where he will face Chinese teen Shang Juncheng in the quarter-finals Friday.

Playing in just his sixth Challenger tournament, Quinn will continue to see opportunities at that level, thanks to the ATP/ITA Accelerator Programme. He is just getting his career started following a memorable 16 months in Athens, Georgia.

“There’s nothing like college tennis. There’s so much energy, and there’s so much thrill,” Quinn told ATPTour.com recently at the NCAA championships in Lake Nona, Florida. “Every single point, there’s something happening. Just that energy amongst the crowd, and the animosity as well. It’s pretty special. In juniors, you don’t really hear many people chirping at you. And in college tennis, really anything goes. You have to kind of build on that and play through the struggles and whatever people may be saying, positive or negative.”

One constant voice for Quinn has been coach Brad Stine, who has worked with players such as Jim Courier, Kevin Anderson, Sebastien Grosjean, and Mardy Fish. Stine, who currently coaches World No. 15 Tommy Paul, is a big reason why Quinn is where he is at today.

“I’ve been with Brad since I was probably six or seven years old, so he’s definitely built my game up,” Quinn said. “We always worked on developing my power before I was developing my consistency. And a lot of people who watch me kind of talk about the live arm that I have for my forehand and my serve, just the easy power that I’m able to get. I attribute that a lot to Brad, a lot of times he didn’t really tell me to hold back.

“By having that urge to just rip it and keep going for my shots kind of helped develop me get that power that you need at the next level to transition. He’s been able to kind of go through everything that comes after the power, consistency, the mental, the preparation that you need going into matches, he gives me a lot of insights with Tommy Paul.

“He gives me a lot of stories and sends me some of the messages that he sends to him. That kind of opens my eyes to what the professional guys have to listen to and hear from a professional coach. He’s been a major help for me.”

From College to the Tour 🤝

With the experience he took from College and the support of the ATP/ITA Accelerator Programme, the reigning NCAA champ @ethanqu1nn has turned pro and is ready to make moves👏#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/nRnhbTTRvK

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) July 8, 2023

Despite having a renowned coach in his corner at a young age, Quinn did not want his life to just be about forehands and backhands. He elected to stay in school, attending San Joaquin Memorial High School in Fresno, California.

“I felt like I needed that separation from tennis and the outside world. I wanted to have the outside factors that many kids I feel like who do homeschool don’t really get,” Quinn said. “A lot of the homeschooling kids that I would compete against would be playing for four or five hours a day. Training, lifting, doing their school online, but not really having those built friendships.

“I felt like for me personally, I needed the ability to go see people and hang out with people and kind of talk about things beyond tennis. I feel like when I was able to, I was playing my best tennis when I was able to separate tennis.”

Following high school, Quinn moved more than 2,000 miles away from his California home to play for the University of Georgia, where he earned ITA All-American honours in singles and doubles this year. Quinn finished the 2023 season on a 17-match winning streak and put the icing on the cake when he became the fifth Georgia Bulldog to win the NCAA singles championship.

As a result of his hard work at the collegiate level, the World No. 477 will continue to have opportunities to compete on the ATP Challenger Tour. This season, the ATP and ITA announced the Accelerator Programme, which aims to increase the development pathway for top players in the American Collegiate system. Quinn is one of 21 players who will be granted six to eight Challenger main-draw spots in the next year.

“I’m very appreciative of them doing it,” Quinn said. “When I found out that they were doing it with the ITA, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing’. Getting that ability to kind of transition into the pros a lot easier, is something I’m very thankful for.”

Boasting a hefty serve and cracking forehand, Quinn can easily show his variety with a backhand drop shot or his deft feel around the net. The teenager will have a chance to display those skills on a big stage this summer, when he makes his Grand Slam singles debut at the US Open. Following his college title, Quinn was rewarded with a main draw wild card to the season’s final major.

Kei Nishikori produced a high level Thursday to reach the quarter-finals at the Chicago Men’s Challenger. The Japanese star absorbed Tunisia’s Skander Mansouri hefty serve and struck the ball cleanly en route to a 7-6(1), 6-4 second-round victory at the ATP Challenger Tour 75 event.

Despite having six break points in the first set, four of which came in the seventh game, the 33-year-old Nishikori was forced to a tie-break. The 12-time tour-level titlist stayed steady from the baseline and capitalised on any look on return, capturing 70 per cent of points behind Mansouri’s second delivery throughout the one-hour. 42-minute contest.

Rain forced the 27-year-old Mansouri to play his first-round match in the morning, when he defeated Australian James McCabe 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, before clashing against Nishikori.

The former World No. 4 Nishikori underwent arthroscopic left hip surgery last year and returned to action last month at the ATP Challenger event in Palmas del Mar, Puerto Rico. Despite playing his first tournament since the BNP Paribas Open in October 2021, Nishikori dropped just one set all week en route to the title. He will return to ATP Tour action later this month in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

Nishikori, who has won eight of nine matches during his comeback, will next meet 18-year-old American Alex Michelsen in the last eight Friday.

Fans can watch all ATP Challenger Tour matches live and on demand for free at Challenger TV.

Six years since their debut Wimbledon campaign together, Lyudmyla Kichenok and Mate Pavic completed a dream reunion — instigated by their physio — Thursday at SW19. The seventh seeds completed a tense 6-4, 6-7(9), 6-3 win against Joran Vliegen and Xu Yifan to lift the mixed doubles trophy at the grass-court major.

WTA star Kichenok and 35-time tour-level titlist Pavic let slip a championship point in the second-set tie-break before Vliegen and Xu forced a deciding set on Centre Court. The seventh seeds did not dwell on that disappointment, however, as they earned a decisive break in the eighth game of the third set en route to a two-hour, seven-minute win.

“It’s an incredible feeling, always, at Wimbledon,” said Pavic. “I played three finals here, I lifted a trophy two years ago. [This was the] first time in the mixed final, so it’s always incredible to play here. It’s always a special story with Wimbledon. I enjoyed it for these two weeks.

“Of course I want to thank Lyudmyla for playing with me. We have the same physio. He’s Croatian. [Lyudmyla and I] played in 2017 together for the first time [at Wimbledon]. After that we never played, and through him this year we got together to play Wimbledon.”

Pavic, No. 17 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, and WTA doubles No. 15 Kichenok fired 20 winners to their opponents’ 14 for their third three-set triumph in five matches at SW19 this year. It was an emotional moment for the 30-year-old Kichenok, who became the first Ukrainian titlist of any kind in Wimbledon history.

“It feels amazing. I was enjoying being on Centre Court today a lot,” said Kichenok. “I want to thank my partner for playing incredible these two weeks.

“I just want to try to encourage the people in Ukraine with my performance,” she added. “I hope it will help them a little bit, because they are fighting for their freedom.”

Only three men have pushed Novak Djokovic to a fifth set during the Serbian’s 33-match Wimbledon win streak: Rafael Nadal in the 2018 semi-finals, Roger Federer in the epic 2019 final and… Jannik Sinner in last year’s quarters.

While Djokovic never trailed in the set score on those occasions against his Big 3 rivals, he found himself two-sets-to-love down against Sinner last year on Centre Court before storming back for a five-set win. Can the Italian change the outcome on Friday if he finds himself in a similar position this year on the London lawns?

“First of all, you have to go up two sets to love,” he joked after beating Roman Safiullin to reach his first major semi-final.

“It’s going to be a completely different match than last year. He knows me better, as I know him better also. It’s going to be also a little bit tactical. In the other way, it is also a little bit mental. If you play against Novak, it’s always tough to play here, especially in Grand Slams.”

Prior to 2023, Sinner had reached the quarter-finals once at each major but never progressed beyond that stage. In three of those instances, he was beaten by the eventual champion.

Is the 21-year-old ready to become a major champion himself? Djokovic seems to think so.

“He’s playing on a very high level,” the Serbian said of his opponent. “He likes to play on grass. He likes to play on quick surfaces because he likes to be aggressive and take control of the point. From both forehand and backhand, he’s smashing the ball really, really hard, trying to be the one that is going to dictate the point from early on. I know his game well.

“He’s so young, so of course it’s expected that he’s going to improve. He is improving, no doubt, I think with the serve, he’s been serving better. On grass, it obviously makes a difference. He’s a very complete player.”

Unstoppable 🔥@DjokerNole takes out Andrey Rublev 4-6 6-1 6-4 6-3 to make it to his 46th Grand Slam semi-final 👊Wimbledon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/EqWqdy2lWs

— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 11, 2023

But for all the praise, the World No. 2 left no doubt that he expects to win. He fought off inspired efforts from Hubert Hurkacz and Andrey Rublev in the previous two rounds, going four sets in both victories. After beating Rublev, he spoke about how he relishes being the man to beat at Wimbledon, where he is seeking his fifth straight men’s singles title and a record-tying eighth overall.

Djokovic may be playing even better than he was last year in London, having entered the grass-court major halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam this year. But Sinner has raised his game, too.

“For sure physically I have improved. I’m much stronger. I can stay on court for many hours without suffering,” he said, discussing the improvements in his game since his previous meeting with Djokovic 12 months ago.

“I think also game-wise or tennis-wise I feel better. If I have to play the slice, I can play it now without thinking. Before was always a little bit different. I can go to the net knowing that I have good volleys. I have some good things now in my game, and hopefully I can use it in the right way.”

Sinner called facing Djokovic at a Grand Slam tournament “for sure one of the toughest, if not the toughest, challenge”, but the Italian has plenty of big-match experience in his own corner. He is a seven-time tour-level champion and has reached two ATP Masters 1000 finals, both in Miami (2021, 2023).

A first major crown would see Sinner rise from his current career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking of No. 8 to World No. 4 — though a runner-up finish would not change his standing. Djokovic, in addition to bidding for a record-extending 24th Grand Slam men’s singles title, is also seeking to reclaim the top spot in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings this week.

The Serbian could have that distinction secured by Friday night, should a win against Sinner be coupled with a semi-final defeat for World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz against Daniil Medvedev. But if it is to be Djokovic vs. Alcaraz in Sunday’s final, the championship matchup would double as a straight shootout for No. 1.