Three years ago Andy Murray and Jamie Murray defeated Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the first round of the Citi Open. On Wednesday, the Frenchmen earned their revenge.

Mahut and Roger-Vasselin eliminated Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 6-3, 6-7(7), 10-4 to reach the quarter-finals in Washington. They will next play Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock.

The Frenchmen have claimed seven tour-level titles together, most recently lifting the trophy in Tokyo in 2019. 

In other doubles action in the United States’ capital, fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek defeated Emil Ruusuvuori and Luke Saville 6-4, 6-4 to set a clash against Daniel Evans and John Peers.

Canada’s Denis Shapovalov was known to have a stuffed animal wolf in his player box in his early days on the ATP Tour. But on Wednesday at the Citi Open, he had to contend with J.J. Wolf across the net.

The unseeded American won the battle of 23-year-olds 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3 to advance to the Washington third round, breaking serve on five of seven chances. Despite hitting three aces to Shapovalov’s 20, Wolf was more successful on both first and second serve and posted a strong 81 per cent (46/57) win rate on his first delivery.

Fuelled by the home support, the former Ohio State Buckeye also found success at net, winning 13 of his 16 approaches in the two-hour, 17-minute contest. The victory sets up a meeting against ninth seed Holger Rune for a place in the quarter-finals.

Entering the ATP 500 event as a newly minted member of the Top 100 for the first time, Wolf is up nine spots to No. 90 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings this week. With a 6-4 record on the season, he has twice before reached the Round of 16 on the ATP Tour this year (Acapulco, Houston). He also picked up wins at the ATP Masters 1000s in Indian Wells and Miami after qualifying for both events.

Wolf was one of 10 home-nation favourites in action Wednesday in Washington, including three all-American matchups. Third seed Taylor Fritz and Sebastian Korda also advanced in early action with a pair of comfortable victories.

Playing in his first match since his heartbreaking loss to Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon quarter-finals, Fritz was a 6-4, 6-3 winner against Alexei Popyrin, scoring a late break in each set against the Aussie. Fritz did not face a break point until he saved two from 15/40 to serve out the victory.

The American is seeking his third title of the season (Indian Wells, Eastbourne) in just his third Washington appearance. He improved to 17-5 on hard courts this season with his opening win and faces 16th seed Daniel Evans next.

Korda earned his second straight-sets win in as many days with a 6-1, 6-4 decision against 12th seed Sebastian Baez. The American won the first five games of the match then made his move in the seventh game of set two before saving a pair of late break points. Fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov awaits in the Round of 16.

On Wednesday evening, 13th seed Maxime Cressy stormed back against Jack Sock to earn a 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory to gain a measure of revenge after Sock’s four-set win in the Wimbledon second round. He will next face top seed Andrey Rublev.

In the two other all-American matchups, 10th seed Frances Tiafoe takes on Christopher Eubanks and fourth seed Reilly Opelka faces Denis Kudla. Tommy Paul, seeded 14th, is set to take on Nick Kyrgios in the D.C. evening session.

Emil Ruusuvuori lost the first set of his Citi Open run 1-6 against Mackenzie McDonald. The Finnish star has not looked back since.

After rallying past McDonald on Tuesday, Ruusuvuori upset second seed Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 7-6(3) on Wednesday to reach the third round at the ATP 500 event in Washington. The 23-year-old saved all four break points he faced against the Pole to triumph after one hour and 44 minutes.

“I just was able to hang in there in the first couple games. He had an early break point, but then I was able to keep that service game and give myself a chance to break him and I was able to use it and then just try to keep my own serve,” Ruusuvuori said in his on-court interview. “I didn’t have many chances until the [second-set] tie-break and then I got a look at a couple second serves and [made] a couple deep returns, so that gave me the chance.”

Hurkacz battled hard until the end, relying on all the skills in his all-court game, even winning a point in the second set with a backhand skyhook and trying to pump up the crowd with a forehand passing shot. But Ruusuvuori  won back-to-back points on his opponent’s serve late in the tie-break and that proved decisive.

“I just tried to hang in there and tried to stay as tough as [I] can,” Ruusuvuori said. “[The] long rallies, they really drain you and you start to feel dizzy during the points, so [it was] very tough. But it’s a part of the game during this period of the year.”

Ruusuvuori climbed to No. 43 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, one spot off his career high. He will next play 15th seed Aslan Karatsev or Swede Mikael Ymer.

With a bit of help from the crowd, Nick Kyrgios began his Citi Open campaign with victory on Tuesday, when he overcame Marcos Giron in straight sets.

The Australian lifted the trophy in Washington 2019 and during that run, he frequently asked fans where to serve on match point, with the entertaining strategy proving effective.

Three years on and in front of a packed crowd at the ATP 500 event, the 27-year-old was at it again, engaging with a supporter in the front row on match point to help him finish the job against Giron.

“In 2019 I was just doing that on match point, just asking someone in the crowd. I think it’s a cool experience for someone that’s paid money to come watch you play and potentially to go home with that memory,” Kyrgios said in his post-match press conference.

“If it’s a young kid or an older lady like today, I think that’s something that’s pretty cool. I wish I had that experience when I was watching tennis matches.”

Moments prior…

“Where do you want me to serve it?”

It had to be done 😂 @NickKyrgios https://t.co/ybozSmGSpu pic.twitter.com/o8Yl1X7xJl

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 3, 2022

Kyrgios was competing in singles for the first time since he enjoyed a run to his maiden Grand Slam final at Wimbledon last month.

The World No. 63, who lost in the first round in Washington last year, admitted he was happy with his return to Tour and feels his tennis is in better shape compared to 12 months ago.

“Today I just came out pretty nervous. Obviously had won this tournament before, but I wanted to make sure I had a really good performance this year,” Kyrgios said. “I have been training really hard. I just feel like I’m in such a better place with my tennis. Mentally as well. I wanted to show that to the fans.

“Last year was a really poor performance from me. I just really wanted to make sure I came out and gave them a good show, just to redeem myself. Just looking around the crowd, [it is] such an amazing tournament.”

Kyrgios now holds a 22-7 record on the season and will look to improve that when he plays Tommy Paul in the second round.

#NextGenATP American Brandon Nakashima continued his love affair with the Abierto de Tenis Mifel on Tuesday, moving past Japanese qualifier Kaichi Uchida 7-6(1), 6-2 to reach the second round in Los Cabos.

The 20-year-old enjoyed a run to his maiden tour-level final in Mexico last year and quickly looked at home at the ATP 250 event against Uchida, pulling the World No. 175 around the court with his explosive hitting to advance after one hour and 56 minutes.

Nakashima, currently seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan, now holds a 7-0 record against players outside of the Top 100 this season. The World No. 61, who is aiming to win his maiden tour-level title this week, will next play Australian qualifier Max Purcell.

Mexican wild card Alex Hernandez overcame Colombian lucky loser Nicolas Barrientos 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to capture his first tour-level win.

The 23-year-old, who lost in the first round on debut in Acapulco in February, is the first Mexican player to win a singles match in Los Cabos, improving the overall record to 1-7. The World No. 521 will next face second-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Spaniard Radu Albot downed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3 to improve his strong record at the hard-court event. The 32-year-old, who advanced to the semi-finals on debut in 2019, will meet Jason Kubler in the second round after the Australian defeated eighth seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-1 in their first ATP Head2Head meeting.

Australian Jordan Thompson eliminated Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-0 to set a second-round clash against fourth seed Miomir Kecmanovic, while Facundo Bagnis defeated American Ernesto Escobedo 6-3, 6-1.

The Argentine, who is up to No. 103 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, will take on Ricardas Berankis in the second round.

A trip to the Citi Open was a home run in more ways than one for Major League Baseball star Francisco Lindor.

The popular shortstop for the New York Mets met several ATP Tour stars at the ATP 500 event early Tuesday, including Tommy Paul, Hubert Hurkacz and Jack Sock.

“It was really cool meeting him. I haven’t met many baseball players, but I told him I might go to a game if I have time,” Paul said. “I actually played baseball a little bit when I was really young, same position as him, so it was cool. I’ll probably pay attention to him playing a little bit more now.”

^{Lindor chats with Frances Tiafoe in Washington. Photo Credit: Richard Kessler/Citi Open}
Lindor also bumped into Frances Tiafoe, whom he met at last year’s US Open.

“We’ve been cool for a little bit and kept in touch,” Tiafoe said. “The main thing I like about him is I like his swag, how cool he is and how he supports players in other sports.”

After supporting the tennis stars with his visit early in the day, Lindor put his own uniform on in the evening. The star hit a home run in the Mets’ game against the Washington Nationals.

Back on the singles court Tuesday night for the first time since last month’s Wimbledon final, Nick Kyrgios picked up where he left off with a dominant Citi Open win. 

Still donning his tennis whites — at least his shirt and cap — Kyrgios rolled past Marcos Giron 6-3, 6-2 in just under an hour. The Aussie was a different class once he settled into the evening session match, saving an early break point before dominating from 3-3 in the opening set.

“I came out a bit slow, obviously very difficult conditions to Wimbledon,” said Kyrgios, who later admitted it took him a long time to get over his four-set final defeat to Novak Djokovic. “I think it was just a bit of nerves as well. I won the tournament in 2019. Seeing my name up on the stadium and then knowing I didn’t play well here at all last year — I lost first round and I was just going through such a dark time in my life.

“I’m just so happy to be here with my team, the love and support from the crowd. I’m just really happy to be out here playing some good tennis again.”

Kyrgios finished with 12 aces and an 82 per cent (28/34) win rate on first serve, along with a few tweeners. He also revived the tradition that served him well in his 2019 Washington title run: asking a fan in the front row where to serve on match point.

Though Kyrgios missed the target on first serve, apologising to the fan, he fired an unreturned second delivery to wrap up the comfortable win.

The unseeded Aussie improved to 9-0 in opening rounds this season and 22-7 on the year. He will next face 14th seed Tommy Paul in the American’s opening match at the ATP 500 event. Another home favourite — fourth seed Reilly Opelka — could await in the third round.

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Kyrgios has advanced to the semi-finals or better in four of his past five tournaments since April, but is seeking his first singles title of 2022. He has won two doubles titles with countryman Thanasi Kokkinakis, at the Australian Open and on Sunday in Atlanta, where a knee injury forced him to withdraw from the singles competition.

Kyrgios is teaming with Jack Sock in Washington, and the pair earned a 6-4, 6-4 upset of third seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer on Monday evening.

“Having guys like Jack and Thanasi, these guys are much more than friends for me,” Kyrgios added. “They know I’d do anything for them. I’ve been there for them and they’ve been there for me. I can’t give credit to those guys enough. My girlfriend, my physio, my best friend… I cant give those guys enough credit because I really wouldn’t be here without them.”

Playing together for the first time, Top 30 singles stars Alex de Minaur and Frances Tiafoe scored a big doubles upset on Tuesday at the Citi Open.

The Australian-American pair knocked off top seeds Rajeev Ram and Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 1-6, 10-2 to advance to the quarter-finals at the Washington ATP 500 event. With the defeat, Ram loses out on an opportunity to overtake his full-time partner Joe Salisbury at No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings.

De Minaur/Tiafoe struck late in the opening set but quickly lost the second after failing to convert from 15/40 at 0-2 down on return. But they used runs of four and five straight points to dominate the Match Tie-break.

The new-look pair advances to face Mackenzie McDonald and Botic van de Zandschulp, who advanced past Ilya Ivashka and Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-8 on Monday.

Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah also advanced via Match Tie-break on Tuesday evening, edging second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski  6-4, 3-6, 10-8 by winning the final four points of the contest.

In earlier Tuesday doubles action, Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop defeated Denis Kudla and Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 6-4, while Daniel Evans and John Peers downed Hubert Hurkacz and Tommy Paul 7-6(7), 6-4.

It’s May at the Foro Italico and Denis Shapovalov is locked in an epic quarter-final battle with Rafael Nadal, the 10-time champion at the ATP Masters 1000 clay-court event in Rome. After being handed a breadstick in the opening set, the Canadian keeps faith in his fearless brand of tennis to take the second 7-5.

The 23-year-old had held two match points against Nadal at the same venue one year prior and had pushed the Spaniard to five sets at January’s Australian Open. He had also famously beaten him as an 18-year-old on home soil in Canada in 2017.

Although Nadal was increasingly impeded by a foot injury in the third, there was no diminishing the worthiness of Shapovalov’s 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory. He produced breathtaking tennis and was a deserved winner.

Rising to No. 15 in the Pepperstone Rankings after his semi-final run, Shapovalov was full of confidence and looking at good times ahead. Earlier in the year he had made a remarkable recovery from Covid-19 to steer Canada to victory in the ATP Cup alongside close friend Felix Auger-Aliassime, before his deep run at the Australian Open, where he dismissed World No. 3 Alexander Zverev in straight sets in the fourth round.

But tennis can be a fickle sport.

After victory over Nadal in Rome, the former World No. 10 embarked on a six-match losing streak, the longest of his career. He enters this week’s Citi Open having dropped seven of his past eight matches, a five-set win over Arthur Rinderknech in the Wimbledon first round his only recent success.

Leading into the ATP 500 in Washington, D.C., the 2021 Wimbledon semi-finalist spent a two-week training block with his team in the Bahamas. Forehands and backhands were only part of the focus. Navigating the down times mentally can be even more important.

“That’s what tennis is. It’s a lot of ups and downs,” Shapovalov told ATPTour.com. “There are very few players who can be super consistent; that’s just the nature of the game. You just have to be patient with it, get used to it, stay positive, keep working and keep believing in yourself.”

The swashbuckling left-hander, who describes his game style as ‘super aggressive’, prefers to double down on Plan A rather than switch to Plan B when things aren’t going his way. It’s a high-risk/high-reward strategy that pays healthy dividends in good times.

Team Canada celebrates winning the 2022 ATP Cup

But Shapovalov now finds himself trying to rebound from a bear market. He says that he has the stomach to weather choppy waters and that the way back can be found in focussing on the long game rather than the ‘noise’ of day-to-day results. “You want the wins to come, but if they don’t you just need to believe that the work will pay off,” he said. “Having a good team around you keeps you looking at the big picture and keeps you motivated to keep working.

“Often people will panic when a couple of things don’t go their way,” he said. “You try to think about the future and not dwell on the past. You want to think how you’re going to play the game moving forward, what we need to clean up and keep working on the plan we have.”

Shapovalov is aware that fortunes can change fast. Two weeks ago at the ATP 500 in Hamburg, Lorenzo Musetti came into the event on his own six-match losing streak, without his racquets that were in his lost luggage and expecting to play qualifying. He ended the week by taking out Top-5 star Carlos Alcaraz to win his first ATP Tour title.

“It’s great to see him doing well. Obviously a great talent,” Shapovalov said. “To see him come out of a difficult period to win a big title isn’t a big surprise. It’s a totally normal part of the game and I knew that he would eventually pull through. It doesn’t change anything for me.”

As he looks to recapture form, Shapovalov said that he would continue to play doubles, having already partnered Rohan Bopanna in seven events this year. (In Washington Shapovalov is teaming with Denis Kudla.)

“I definitely think it helps with my game so I’ll continue to play. I see myself as a super-aggressive tennis player who wants to get to the net a lot, so doubles helps to work on the serve and volley and the returning coming in. It’s also super fun.

“It’s been a great partnership with Rohan. First and foremost he’s been a mentor to me who has helped me quite a lot on the court. We’re also really good friends, so that’s why it works. For him it’s great to have a young guy who is really powerful who can create a lot, and he does his ‘doubles thing’. It just works.”

Sixth-seeded Shapovalov, who took out now-World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in the first round of the Citi Open in his last appearance in the U.S. capital in 2018, faces American World No. 99 wild card J.J. Wolf in his opening match.