Carlos Alcaraz raced through the finish line on Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel by winning the final six games of a competitive match against Botic van de Zandschulp.

The 6-4, 6-2 scoreline belies the hard-fought nature of Alcaraz’s victory. After a tight opening set that was decided by a single break, Alcaraz found himself behind 0-2 in the second as the Dutchman made his first breakthrough.

Five games in the second set went through deuce, but Alcaraz won four of them before serving out the match to love in just under 90 minutes. His late surge prevented another three-set match after his comeback win against #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper on Monday.

The Spaniard is now 3-2 since his US Open triumph last month, which earned him his debut atop the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Alcaraz currently holds a 740-point lead over Rafael Nadal in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. Through to his 11th quarter-final of the season, Alcaraz is seeking to add to his ATP Tour-leading five titles in 2022. His seven finals are joint-most, alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Alcaraz awaits the winner of the late-evening matchup between fifth seed Pablo Carreno Busta and home favourite Dominic Stricker.

Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop made a strong start to their Erste Bank Open campaign on Wednesday, defeating Argentine duo Pedro Cachin and Diego Schwartzman 6-1, 6-3. In the process, the Indian-Dutch pair kept alive its outside chance of reaching November’s Nitto ATP Finals.

Bopanna and Middelkoop are currently 15th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, and likely require deep runs this week in Vienna and next week at the Rolex Paris Masters to have a chance of qualifying for November’s season finale in Turin. Their second-round opponents in the Austrian capital will be Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni, who downed second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski 7-6(6), 7-5.

Daniel Evans and John Peers also charged into the second round in Austria by upsetting top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury at the ATP 500 event. Montreal finalists Evans and Peers converted four of seven break points en route to a dominant 59-minute win against Ram and Salisbury, the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, respectively.

Dodig/Krajicek Make Confident Start In Basel
At the Swiss Indoors Basel, Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek extended their winning streak to five with a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Matthew Ebden and Jamie Murray.

Last week’s Naples champions Dodig and Krajicek dropped just six points behind serve in their 71-minute first-round win, which lifted the Croatian-American pair one spot to ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings. Their next test in Basel is a second-round clash against top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer.

There was disappointment for another duo looking to seal a spot in Turin, Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara, after Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov downed the fourth seeds 7-5, 4-6, 10-3. Despite the loss, Glasspool and Heliovaara remain in sixth in the Race To Turin, with a seventh-placed finish required to guarantee qualification for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals.

Felix Auger-Aliassime hit a new milestone Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where he defeated Marc-Andrea Huesler for his personal-best ninth consecutive tour-level win. Yet the Canadian was pushed all the way for his 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 victory.

Huesler strung together a series of high-class points to charge to the first-set tie-break in his maiden tour-level meeting with Auger-Aliassime. As the vocal home crowd cheered on the Swiss and his big-serving lefty game, the third seed had to remain dialled in to clinch the sole breaks of the second and third sets and earn a two-hour, 18-minute first-round triumph.

“I think matches like this are tougher mentally, in a way,” said Auger-Aliassime in his on-court interview. “Playing indoors, quick points, both of us serving really well. You need to stay locked in and focused for two hours… If you are able to seize one opportunity, you take a break.

“I was able to serve it out well at the end. It was tough to keep my focus, he was serving great, and being really aggressive. Not an easy match, but really happy to get through.”

FAA makes it through in Basel! 🔥

The number 3 seed defeats Marc-Andrea Huesler 6-7 6-4 6-4.#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/CT2IGqVHw6

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 26, 2022

Auger-Aliassime’s nine victories in a row have propelled the 22-year-old into a strong position as he seeks to qualify for November’s Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. Currently seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, the Canadian is chasing his third ATP Tour title in as many weeks following his wins in Florence and Antwerp.

Auger-Aliassime next takes on a familiar face in Miomir Kecmanovic. He trails the Serbian 1-2 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series, but won their most recent meeting in September in the Davis Cup.

“We are around the same age, and we have played each other since we were juniors,” said Auger-Aliassime of Kecmanovic. “The [whole] record is more than three matches, so we know each other really well. It’s always been tough matches for my part.

“I was able to get the win last time, but he’s a very complete player. He moves well, he’s explosive and has a great forehand and backhand. He can do anything, from cross-court, down the line, mix it up really well. He’s serving better and better, so I’ll see. It’s not going to be an easy one.”

The potential matchup many had circled in the Erste Bank Open draw is now a reality. With his opening win on Wednesday, Daniil Medvedev set up a Thursday showdown with home favourite Dominic Thiem in Vienna.

The top-seeded Medvedev eased into the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Nikoloz Basilashvili, breaking early and late in both sets. The 26-year-old improved to 30-10 on hard courts this season as he seeks his second title of 2022 (Los Cabos).

Making his second appearance in the Austrian capital, Medvedev will seek to match his 2020 quarter-final run with a victory against Thiem. The Austrian saved two match points against Tommy Paul on Tuesday to advance to the second round on home soil.

Thiem holds a 3-2 edge in his ATP Head2Head against Medvedev, though Medvedev won their most recent meeting by coming from a set down in the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals title match. Before that, Thiem won their 2020 US Open semi-final in straight sets on the way to his first Grand Slam title.

Denis Shapovalov also advanced on Wednesday in Vienna with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win against Taylor Fritz. The defeat deals a blow to the American’s Nitto ATP Finals hopes, as he remains on the outside looking as the eighth-placed man in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

Through to the quarter-finals after his second win on the week, Shapovalov will face Daniel Evans next.

Stefanos Tsitsipas settled in at the Erste Bank Open as he improved throughout his opening win on Wednesday at the ATP 500 in Vienna.

In a 7-6(2), 6-2 victory against home favourite Dennis Novak, the second-seeded Greek instantly recovered a mid-set break in the opening set. After two straight love holds, Tsitsipas was broken to love as he fell behind 3-4. He then let slip a 0/40 opening in the ensuing game before converting on his fourth break chance and never looked back, dominating the second set to advance to the second round for the third straight year in the Austrian capital.

The victory sets up a rematch of the Cincinnati final, which he lost in Borna Coric. The Croatian earned a three-set win against France’s Quentin Halys on Monday.

Tsitsipas leads the ATP Tour with 57 match wins this season and is also co-leader (with Carlos Alcaraz) with seven finals, including runs to the title match each of the past two weeks in Astana and Stockholm.

Sitting third in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, the 24-year-old has already secured his fourth straight trip to the Nitto ATP Finals, an event he won in his 2019 debut.

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Sixth seed Jannik Sinner also advanced on Wednesday, easing to a 6-3, 6-2 win against Cristian Garin. The Italian improved to 27-8 on hard courts this season, including quarter-final runs at the Australian Open and US Open. 

Seeking to better his run to the 2021 Vienna semis, Sinner will next met Francisco Cerundolo. At 15th in the Race, trailing the seventh-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime by nearly 900 points, Sinner will likely need to sweep the titles in both Vienna and Turin to have a chance of qualifying for Turin.

Holger Rune’s late-season surge showed no sign of abating Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where the 19-year-old fired his way to a 6-2, 7-5 first-round win against Alex de Minaur.

After lifting his second ATP Tour title on Sunday in Stockholm, Rune picked up where he left off in Basel, hitting 26 winners to seventh-seeded De Minaur’s nine in an 89-minute triumph. It was the Dane’s second victory against De Minaur in the space of five days after he overcame the Australian in three sets in the Stockholm semi-finals on Saturday.

Having also reached the final in Sofia at the beginning of the month, Rune now holds an 11-2 record on European indoor hard courts this Autumn. The Dane, who will hope to maintain his form when he competes at November’s Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, is chasing his third tour-level title of the season (Munich, Stockholm) but his first at ATP 500 level.

Rune began the week at a career-high World No. 25 and today’s win elevates him to No. 23 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. A deep run in Basel could see him break into the Top 20 for the first time. His next opponent in Switzerland will be Ugo Humbert, after the French qualifier downed Jenson Brooksby 6-1, 6-4.

Rune’s fellow #NextGenATP star Lorenzo Musetti, who also lifted his second ATP Tour title on Sunday with victory in Naples, was unable to join the Dane in the second round. Albert Ramos-Vinolas held firm after a fast start from Musetti to record a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 triumph against the Italian. The Spaniard next faces Alexander Bublik.

Chun-Hsin Tseng is the sixth player to qualify for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, which will be played at the Allianz Cloud in Milan from 8-12 November. He joins Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Brandon Nakashima and Jiri Lehecka in the eight-player field.

The 21-year-old from Chinese Taipei has enjoyed a breakthrough season, cracking the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in June and climbing as high as World No. 83.

The former junior World No. 1 won two ATP Challenger Tour titles and reached the final at another by mid-April. He also earned his first three ATP Tour match victories in Los Cabos, Winston-Salem and Seoul.

The Milan qualifier gained experience by playing in the main draw at all four Grand Slams for the first time. At Roland Garros, he clawed through qualifying to earn his place in the field.

Tseng will be the first Asian player to compete in the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals since South Korean Hyeon Chung lifted the trophy in 2017. Two places remain at the 21-and-under season finale.

Did You Know?
In 2018, Tseng won the boys’ singles title at Roland Garros and Wimbledon en route to becoming the world’s No. 1 junior.

When Camilo Ugo Carabelli and Jesper de Jong arrived at the Lima-2 Challenger this week, they traded in their tennis racquets for kitchen utensils.

Dutchman de Jong and Argentine Ugo Carabelli embraced the culture of Peru’s capital city as they took part in a local cooking class, a few blocks from the host venue (Club Terrazas de Miraflores) of the Lima-2 Challenger. Both Challenger Tour stars were up for the task.

“I really like to cook,” Ugo Carabelli said. “This past month I cooked my favourite dish, Argentinian barbecue.”

Although it wasn’t his home-cooked asado, the 23-year-old, who holds two Challenger titles this season, jumped right in as he teamed with de Jong to make causa limeña and lomo saltado.

Camilo Ugo Carabelli prepares the lomo saltado at a cooking class in Lima. Credit: Adam Roberts

Causa limeña, a Peruvian entrée, is layered with potatoes and vegetables, topped with avocado, olives, and a hard boiled egg. Lomo saltado, which de Jong said was his favourite of the two, is beef sirloin cooked over fire with onions, tomato, and peppers.

“My first reaction to this cooking class was, ‘Okay, this is going to be tough,” de Jong said. “But I need to learn and it’s good to do something outside of tennis. I like to cook pasta but it’s a little simple, I need to make more special dishes.”

De Jong, 22, claimed he hadn’t cooked since May, when he went on his first date with his girlfriend. The Haarlem native, who won his maiden Challenger title in 2021 (Almaty-2), handled the new experience as if it was like riding a bike.

The chef guided de Jong and Ugo Carabelli step-by-step as they cut the vegetables for the causa limeña. The aroma of onions and peppers filled the room. Along the way, de Jong and Ugo Carabelli paused to taste test the yellow chili paste and yellow potatoes, both featured in the entrée.

“I need to eat healthy,” Ugo Carabelli said. “I can’t eat too much because I gain weight very fast [laughs].”

When it was time to prepare the main dish, lomo saltado, both players tried their hand at stirring the beef over the flame. Not long after, the meal was all set. Served with a side of rice and french fries, de Jong and Ugo Carabelli sat at the table and enjoyed their freshly cooked Peruvian cuisine.

Jesper de Jong (left) and Camilo Ugo Carabelli pose with the chef after cooking lomo saltado. Credit: Grant Thompson

“I wasn’t sure what to expect but Camilo and I made some really nice dishes,” de Jong said. “What I tasted of Peruivian food was pretty good and I made it myself, so that’s even better!”

“It went better than I expected,” Ugo Carabelli said. “It was very fun and I honestly learned a lot from the chef.”

Any fears of failure were suddenly removed as they realised it was a successful afternoon in the kitchen.

Dominic Thiem found himself on the brink Thursday at the Erste Bank Open, but he showcased his fighting qualities to survive on home soil in Vienna.

The former World No. 3 saved two match points en route to a hard-fought 2-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(6) win against American Tommy Paul at the ATP 500 event.

In front of a packed home crowd, Thiem recovered from a slow start as he grew into the match. He fired his fierce groundstrokes through the court and held his nerve under pressure, saving two match points at 4/6 and 5/6 in the third-set tie-break to eventually triumph after two hours and 58 minutes.

Thiem is making his 11th appearance in Vienna, with his best result a run to the title in 2019. The 29-year-old will look to continue his journey at this week’s event when he plays top seed Daniil Medvedev or Nikoloz Basilashvili in the second round.

Thiem arrives in Vienna in strong form, having advanced to consecutive tour-level semi-finals in Gijon and Antwerp earlier this month. The 2020 US Open champion is up six spots to No. 107 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings following his win against Paul.

In other action, Cameron Norrie kept his slim Nitto ATP Finals chances alive when he defeated Argentine Pedro Cachin 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(1). The 27-year-old is 12th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin on 2,400 points. Norrie, who competed in Turin as an alternate last season, is 825 points behind seventh-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime.

The prestigious end-of-year event will take place in Turin from 8-12 November. Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic have already qualified.