Holger Rune’s momentum on the European clay showed no signs of slowing at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon on Wednesday afternoon.

The #NextGenATP Dane overcame staunch resistance from Adrian Mannarino to book a quarter-final spot at the ATP 250 event in France. Rune saved all five break points he faced before sealing a 6-4, 6-3 second-round win, another solid performance in a breakout season for the 19-year-old on the ATP Tour.

Rune surged to a maiden tour-level title in April in Munich without dropping a set, and rose to a career-high No. 40 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on Monday, having only broken the Top 100 for the first time in January.

“It was a very difficult match,” said the Dane after clinching his 11th Tour win of 2022. “I knew the conditions were good for him because he plays super aggressive and super close to the baseline, so I really had to try to focus on my game, to try to push him.

“It worked out very well, but of course he’s such a talented player, so it was very tough. But I’m very happy with the way I stayed focussed.”

Rune had demonstrated his resilience in winning a pair of tie-breaks to defeat another Frenchman, Arthur Rinderknech, in his opening-round match. His second-round victory may not have appeared as close as that encounter in terms of the score, but the Dane was still forced to dig deep to unlock World No. 73 Mannarino, whose flat groundstrokes were a handful in the hot and fast conditions in Lyon.

“I’m working day in and day out,” said Rune when asked about his strong form on the clay. “I’m just trying to use every match to play better, to improve myself, and it [was] better today, so I’m going in the right direction.”

A solitary break of the Mannarino serve in the fifth game of the match was enough for Rune to clinch the first set, and the Dane broke at the same stage in the second set as his electric movement effectively nullified Mannarino’s flat groundstrokes. The Frenchman was still able to carve out three opportunities to break back in the sixth game, but Rune remained resilient to hold and complete a one-hour, 48-minute win.

Rune, who competed in November’s Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, sits third in this year’s Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan. His quarter-final opponent will be French qualifier Manuel Guinard or American lucky loser Michael Mmoh.

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Earlier on Wednesday, Alex Molcan surged to a third tour-level quarter-final of the season with a 6-2, 7-6(4) win over fifth seed Karen Khachanov.

The Slovakian, who reached a second Tour final in Marrakech in April, won eight of nine games from 2-2 in the opening set to take control of his maiden ATP Head2Head meeting with the World No. 24. Although Khachanov rallied from 1-4 in the second set to force a tie-break, World No. 47 Molcan maintained his level to prevail and complete the second biggest win of his career.

Molcan started working with countryman Marian Vajda prior to last week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. Vajda, the former long-term coach of World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, will have been impressed by his new charge’s display in the 91-minute victory. Molcan is 12-7 for the 2022 season and reached a career-high No. 46 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on 25 April. The 24-year-old will hope Vajda’s influence can carry him to a maiden tour-level crown this week in France.

Standing in Molcan’s way next is Federico Coria, after the Argentine enjoyed an upset of his own against second seed Pablo Carreno Busta.

The 7-5, 6-3 victory over No. 17-ranked Carreno Busta is the biggest of the 30-year-old Coria’s career. The Argentine reeled off five games in a row in the second set to recover from 1-3 and complete the win over the six-time Tour titlist. It is the first time the World No. 59 has reached the last eight in Lyon but it will be his fourth tour-level quarter-final on clay of the season. Coria reached the same stage in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in February, and Marrakech in April.

It was 79 and out for former World No. 12 Feliciano Lopez at Roland Garros on Tuesday.

The Spaniard’s record streak of consecutive Grand Slam singles main draw appearances came to an end against Gian Marco Moroni in the first round of qualifying for the clay-court major in Paris. Lopez had appeared at every Grand Slam since Roland Garros in 2002.

Italian Moroni defeated the 40-year-old Spaniard, 6-1, 7-6(4). Lopez reached four Grand Slam quarter-finals during his streak. Three of those came at Wimbledon (2005, 2008, 2011) and one at the US Open (2015).

Andreas Seppi, who entered qualifying this week having appeared in 66 consecutive major main draws back to Wimbledon in 2005, would have taken over the longest active streak after Lopez’s loss. However the 38-year-old Italian fell to a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to countryman and #NextGenATP contender Giulio Zeppieri on Monday. Seppi made six fourth-round Grand Slam appearances during his streak — four times at the Australian Open (2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018), once at Wimbledon (2013) and once at Roland Garros (2012).

That result leaves World No. 20 Grigor Dimitrov with the longest active streak of main draw appearances at major tournaments, according to the ITF. The Bulgarian is set to appear in his 45th consecutive Grand Slam main draw in Paris next week.

Fernando Verdasco remains in contention for a main draw spot in Paris after the Spaniard defeated Damir Dzumhur, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, on Tuesday. Verdasco is a consistent performer in the French capital, having reached the fourth round there seven times, including four years in a row from 2007 to 2010. Another former Top 10 star bowed out at the first hurdle, however, as Daniel Masur ran out a 7-6(6), 6-4 winner over four-time tour-level titlist Jack Sock.

Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals contender Luca Nardi’s bid for a maiden Grand Slam main draw appearance started well, with the 18-year-old Italian overcoming the experienced Andrej Martin, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-3. Nardi, who sits 10th in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan, next faces another prospect, 22-year-old Briton Paul Jubb, who defeated Christopher Eubanks 6-2, 6-7(6), 7-6(10-4).

There was a dramatic win for World No. 186 Tennys Sandgren, who recovered from 3-6, 1-5 against top seed Thiago Monteiro to prevail 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6 (10-8) in a three-hour, one-minute epic. Sandgren, a two-time quarter-finalist at the Australian Open, has won one main draw match in five appearances at Roland Garros.

Other winners on Tuesday included Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who eased past wild card Luca Van Assche 6-3, 6-3, and Marco Trungelliti, who was a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Antoine Escoffier. Trungelliti will be hoping to replicate his runs in Paris from both 2016 and 2017, when he reached the second-round as a qualifier.

Daniil Medvedev had more than one challenge on his return to action Tuesday at the Gonet Geneva Open. Not only did the World No. 2 miss a month-and-a-half due to a procedure for a small hernia, but he had to return on his least-favourite surface: clay.

“It’s tough. I don’t play my best tennis on clay courts. I know that I am capable of making some good results as I did in the past. But for this, I kind of need to be in the zone, which I was not today,” Medvedev said following his straight-sets loss against Richard Gasquet in the second round. “When I’m not in the zone on hard courts, sometimes during the tournament, during the match, I can try to turn it around and sometimes it doesn’t happen.

“On clay [it is] much tougher and usually from what I remember most of the matches — not all of them, but most of them — I’m losing because it’s tough for me to turn something around unless everything goes well straightaway and that’s what happened today.”

Credit goes to former World No. 7 Gasquet, who showed some of his best tennis in his 6-2, 7-6(5) victory. The Frenchman whipped his one-handed backhand around the court and showed impressive speed for a 35-year-old to retrieve drop shots.

Despite that, Medvedev was in with a chance in the second set deep in the tie-break. But he relinquished his opportunity with a double fault on match point. The top seed hit seven double faults in his loss.

“[I made] a lot of errors, a lot of double faults. Just was not playing good enough to win. Had maybe some small bright moments in the second set where I maybe could have won the second set,” Medvedev said. “But again because I don’t feel as confident on clay as on the other surfaces, that’s why I lost 7/5 in the tie-break, finishing with a double fault.

“[It is] disappointing, but I’ve had tougher losses in my career and I just need to try to do better next time.”

The good news is that Medvedev was pleased with how his body felt after his first match for nearly two months. Now the 26-year-old will continue working in hopes of finding better form next week at Roland Garros, the season’s second major. Last year, he advanced to the quarter-finals on the Parisian clay.

“Physically I felt not bad today. I think more days of practice and [I] should be ready for Roland Garros because physically, even right now, my body feels good. Let’s see tomorrow morning, because I haven’t played [a tournament] for one month and a half, maybe two months,” Medvedev said. “Hopefully tomorrow morning it’s going to be good also.

“[I will] have some days of practice before Roland Garros so I’m going to try to work physically and also tennis-wise. Hopefully I can try to find the game I had there last year, which is not going to be easy.”

An inspired Richard Gasquet crashed the Daniil Medvedev comeback party at the Gonet Geneva Open on Tuesday.

The Frenchman produced a performance full of imagination and flair to outmanoeuvre the World No. 2 in a 6-2, 7-6(5) victory. Medvedev was playing his first match since Miami in March after undergoing a hernia procedure.

Former World No. 7 Gasquet maintained constant pressure on the Medvedev serve, breaking three times in a 90-minute win at the ATP 250 event. It is Gasquet’s first win over an opponent ranked in the top two of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings since he defeated then-World No. 1 Roger Federer at the 2005 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

Medvedev had beaten Gasquet in the pair’s previous tour-level meeting in the first round at the 2021 US Open, a win that kick-started the 26-year-old’s run to a maiden Grand Slam title. The Frenchman appeared dialled in from the start as he set about avenging that loss, striking his one-handed backhand cleanly throughout to surge to victory and a fourth quarter-final of the season.

Despite defeat, Medvedev will be pleased with his second-set showing after an understandably rusty start at the Tennis Club de Geneve. The 26-year-old began to show signs of the form that has earned him 13 tour-level crowns as he recovered from 1-3 to force a tie-break. The top seed found rhythm with his forehand and trademark booming serve, two key weapons he will hope can power him to a deep run at the upcoming Grand Slam at Roland Garros.

Like Medvedev, Gasquet is playing in Geneva for the first time this year, and the Frenchman had already shown he felt at home on the Swiss clay with a 6-3, 6-1 first-round win over John Millman. The 35-year-old certainly looked settled early against the top seed, combining cleverly placed drop shots with elegant ground strokes to capitalise on a slow start from Medvedev.

Gasquet won six games in a row from 2-2 in the opening set to take charge of the encounter and, despite Medvedev’s late rally to level the second set, it was the Frenchman who remained the more consistent into the tie-break. With the win, Gasquet levels his ATP Head2Head series with Medvedev at 2-2.

Gasquet’s quarter-final opponent in Switzerland will be Marco Cecchinato or Kamil Majchrzak.

Cameron Norrie settled in quickly at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon on Tuesday, when the top seed registered a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 opening win over Francisco Cerundolo at the ATP 250 event.

The World No. 11 broke Cerundolo’s serve twice in each set to complete a one-hour, 40-minute win at a tournament where he reached the championship match in 2021, before falling to Stefanos Tsitsipas. Having also made the semi-finals on debut in 2018, Norrie is hoping to maintain the feel-good factor as he hunts another deep run in France.

The pick-up 👀
The backhand smash 😍

All-round brilliance from @cam_norrie in Lyon pic.twitter.com/2FPiLgnHZk

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 17, 2022

“It’s great to be here in Lyon,” said Norrie after extending his winning record at the event to 8-3. “I feel really good here, such a simple tournament and the people that come out to watch are really passionate about tennis, they love it.

“[I had] good sensations and I really enjoyed the match for the most part. Francisco is a tricky player with a really good forehand, so I had to watch out for that. There were some nerves there in the second set, [when I was] up a break, and I kind of gave it away a little bit. I was able to break again, and he gave me a couple of loose points towards the end, so I will take those and move on.”

Norrie’s quarter-final opponent will be Sebastian Baez, after the seventh seed rallied to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 win over Oscar Otte.

Baez is on a strong run of form on the European clay. He claimed a maiden tour-level title in Estoril in April and qualified for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome last week, reaching the second round before falling to Alexander Zverev at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

The Argentine was in trouble on his Lyon debut, however. World No. 60 Otte took the first set in the pair’s maiden ATP Head2Head meeting, but Baez broke twice in each of the second and third sets to complete a one-hour, 57-minute win and reach his fourth tour-level quarter-final of the year.

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Norrie is prepared for a stern test from Baez when the pair meets for their first tour-level meeting in Lyon. The Argentine’s recent success has not taken the Briton by surprise.

“He [Baez] is having a great year, and I really liked his game when I was in Argentina doing a pre-season many years ago, so it’s nice to see him come on and it’s going to be tough,” said Norrie. “He’s won a title on the clay already this year in Estoril and he’s really enjoying his tennis. I practised with him the other day and he’s hitting the ball big off both sides, so it’s going to be a tough one.”

Fourth seed Alex de Minaur also enjoyed a successful main-draw debut in Lyon, bouncing back from losing a one-sided first set to home favourite Ugo Humbert in a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 win. De Minaur has shown solid form in recent weeks on the European clay, reaching the semi-finals in Barcelona in April and the third round in Rome last week, but the 23-year-old Australian is chasing a maiden title on the red dirt.

In the quarter-finals De Minaur will face Yosuke Watanuki, who notched a 6-3, 6-4 win over Soonwoo Kwon for his second tour-level win of the year.

The first round was rounded out in Lyon on Tuesday, as qualifier Manuel Guinard claimed his maiden tour-level win with a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 upset of World No. 68 Hugo Gaston. He next faces Michael Mmoh, while Federico Coria booked a second round clash with Pablo Carreno Busta by downing Daniel Altmaier, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

The ATP and COSAT (the Confederation of South American Tennis) announced today that the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the first-ever ATP Challenger Tour workshop in South America from 14-15 July. Representatives from tournaments and national federations from across the continent will be welcomed to an interactive two-day forum, with the goal of making the burgeoning Challenger Tour circuit even stronger in the region.

The ATP Challenger Tour has made great strides in South America in recent years, as seen in the addition of 20 new tournaments since the start of the 2021 season. The forum aims to foster open dialogue between tournaments, federations and ATP staff, to enhance the existing structure in the region and provide new strategies for growth. The forum will also include the development of an integrated annual calendar in the region and discussions on global Challenger strategy, marketing and tournament standards.

Richard Glover, Vice-President of the ATP Challenger Tour, said: “South America is an exciting growth region for the Challenger Tour and we tip our hat to tournament promoters and federations for their contributions to professional tennis. This workshop aims to strengthen our partnership and provide a platform for strategic collaboration as we look to continue our growth in South America.”

Rafael Westrupp, President of COSAT, added: “The growth of the ATP Challenger Tour in South America is of great importance to all stakeholders across COSAT. We acknowledge that the circuit is the launch pad of professional tennis in the region, and its development is critical as we continue building a strong foundation for the future of South American tennis. The workshop is an important event, aligning with our strategic plan moving forward. We are excited by what’s to come for tennis on the continent”.

South America has long been a staple on the ATP Challenger Tour, since its first tournaments in Brazil in 1979. Since then, the circuit has traversed the continent, featuring in 62 different cities across Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Last year, the Uruguay Open in Montevideo became the first Challenger Tour event in South America to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

In addition, the recent growth of Challenger tennis in South America has been reflected on the court. Players have taken advantage of new playing opportunities and a streamlined player pathway in the region. Last year, a record-tying 20 Challenger champions hailed from Argentina, with an additional 12 winners from Chile, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay and Ecuador combined. In total, 23 players from the continent featured in the year-end Top 200 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, with two – Sebastian Baez and Juan Manuel Cerundolo – qualifying for the Next Gen ATP Finals.

The ATP Challenger Tour is the launchpad of men’s professional tennis, featuring over 150 tournaments across more than 40 countries each season. The competition is intense, with players battling for Pepperstone ATP Rankings points and prize money, while developing their game with the collective goal of progressing onto the ATP Tour. For fans, it provides the opportunity to witness world-class tennis and future stars as they launch their professional journeys. Live stream the action throughout the year via Challenger TV on ATPTour.com.