Denis Shapovalov’ innovative one-handed ‘Jump Backhand’ is one of the most spectacular sights on Tour.

Tennis fans now have the chance to learn the secrets of Shapo’s high-voltage one-handed backhand as part of the Canadian’s TopCourt tutorials. The lefty shares how he channels his natural aggression into controlled power on court. He also discusses how his upbringing, and particularly his mother and coach, Tessa Shapovalova, have influenced his game.

Technique: Shapovalov possesses some of the fiercest groundstrokes around, with the ability to strike winners off both wings from anywhere on court. The Canadian discusses the fundamental technique that drives his attacking ground game before offering a step-by-step walkthrough for fans seeking to emulate his trademark innovation, the one-handed ‘Jump Backhand.’

Drills: No practice session is complete without drills, and in his TopCourt class Shapovalov identifies two that have helped take him to the top. He may be better known for powering through his groundstrokes from the baseline, but Shapovalov’s ‘Slice or Bust’ drill teaches a unique way to maximise the potential of a slice by approaching the net and hitting passing shots.

Follow Shapovalov’s Tutorials at TopCourt.com.

Five-time Mutua Madrid Open champion Rafael Nadal will have to overcome a series of difficult tests if he wants to add to his trophy haul on home soil following the release of the draw Friday.

The World No. 4 is seeded to meet #NextGenATP Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in a popcorn quarter-final at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid, with top seed Novak Djokovic also in Nadal’s half of the draw.

The 35-year-old, who is competing for the first time since he reached the final in Indian Wells, will open against in-form Serb Miomir Kecmanovic or Alexander Bublik, with countryman Pablo Carreno Busta a potential third-round opponent.

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Alcaraz has enjoyed a standout start to the season and arrives in Madrid high in confidence having captured his third tour-level title of the season in Barcelona. The World No. 9 will play Italian Fabio Fognini or Nikoloz Basilashvili in his first match and may face ninth seed Cameron Norrie in the third round.

If Alcaraz and Nadal both advance to the last eight, they will set a third meeting, with the lefty leading the teenager 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series. Nadal holds a 20-1 record on the season with Alcaraz 23-3. The 35-year-old is No. 1 in the ATP Race To Turin, while Alcaraz is sat third.

In the top quarter, World No. 1 Djokovic will start the quest for his maiden title of the season against Frenchman Gael Monfils or Spanish wild card Carlos Gimeno Valero. The three-time Madrid champ could play either 46-time tour-level titlist Andy Murray or former World No. 3 Dominic Thiem in the third round, with the pair meeting in a blockbuster first-round clash.

Thiem will be competing in just his third ATP Tour tournament since last June, after being sidelined by injury for the second half of the 2021 campaign. Meanwhile, Murray will be playing on clay for the first time this year after accepting a wild card into the event. Denis Shapovalov or a qualifier will face Murray or Thiem in the second round.

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In the bottom half, fresh off defeating Novak Djokovic in the Serbia Open final, sixth seed Andrey Rublev will begin against Italian Lorenzo Sonego or #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper.

Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters victor Stefanos Tsitsipas is a potential quarter-final opponent for Rublev, but the Greek may have to first negotiate a challenging third-round test against 13th seed Diego Schwartzman. The Argentine, who starts against a qualifier, lost to Tsitsipas in an epic Monte Carlo quarter-final match in April. Tsitsipas will face Karen Khachanov or French wild card Lucas Pouille in the second round.

Second seed Alexander Zverev is the reigning Madrid champion and will start his title defence against Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas or former World No. 3 Marin Cilic. Eighth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime is the German’s seeded quarter-final opponent. The Canadian opens against American Frances Tiafoe or World No. 30 Cristian Garin.

#NextGenATP Italian Jannik Sinner faces American Tommy Paul in the first round, while 15th seed Reilly Opelka takes on Sebastian Korda in an-all American battle.

Frances Tiafoe staged a dramatic final-set comeback to stun in-form Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to reach the semi-finals of the Millennium Estoril Open Friday.

The fifth-seeded American completed unfinished business from the second set, when he rallied from 2-5 to 5-all, only to see the recent Monte-Carlo finalist clinch the set. In the decider, the World No. 29 also found himself in a hole at 2-5 but after once again fighting back to 5-all, he this time pushed on to claim victory 7-6(5). 5-7, 7-5 in two hours, 59 minutes after taking the final five games of the match.

“Be stronger than your biggest excuse,” Tiafoe wrote on the TV camera after the comeback.

A two-time Estoril semi-finalist, Davidovich Fokina converted just four of 17 break point chances during the match, while Tiafoe went four of eight. The 24-year-old Tiafoe made his only clay-court final in 2018 in Estoril (l. to Sousa).

In Saturday’s semi-final Tiafoe will play fellow American Sebastian Korda, who enjoyed a crushing 6-2, 6-2 win over Canadian top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who has won just four of his past 10 matches.

Korda, who avenged a 2021 Acapulco loss to the current World No. 10, was dominant on return, winning a commanding 50 per cent of first-serve returns and 55 per cent of second-serve returns. World No. 37 Korda improved to 13-7 on the year and 3-5 lifetime against Top 10 opponents. On Saturday he will look for his first win in three meetings with Tiafoe.

Defending champion Albert Ramos-Vinolas is two wins from retaining his crown after winning the battle of the Spanish left-handers against Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-2 to reach the last four at the clay-court ATP 250. Ramos-Vinolas now leads the pair’s ATP Head2Head series 6-5 and has won eight consecutive sets in their rivalry.

“I think it’s always difficult to play against a player that you know a lot. We’ve played a lot of times and it was a difficult match,” Ramos-Vinolas said in his on-court interview. “I think I played very serious from the beginning until the end and I’m really happy because I beat a really good opponent.”

The 34-year-old has won eight straight matches in Estoril, with two of those victories coming against Verdasco. Ramos-Vinolas needed three sets to triumph in his first two matches this week, but the result was never in doubt against his countryman.

One year after defeating Verdaco 6-3, 6-3 at the Portuguese event, the four-time ATP Tour titlist saved the only break point he faced and won 53 per cent of his first-serve return points to control the match. Ramos-Vinolas will next play 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals competitor Sebastian Baez.

Argentine Baez is eyeing his second final of the season after rallying to defeat Richard Gasquet 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in one hour, 55 minutes, with the French veteran paying the price for putting just 46 per cent of first serves into play.

Baez, who converted five of the six break points he earned, reached the Santiago final in February and is now 13-11 on the season.

“All the matches this week have been difficult and today was no different,” Baez said. “I expect another great battle tomorrow.”

Botic van de Zandschulp bamboozled second seed Casper Ruud on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the BMW Open by American Express.

After a tight opening set, the eighth-seeded Dutchman cruised past the seven-time ATP Tour titlist 7-5, 6-1 to reach the last four in Munich.

“Maybe the score is easier than it really was,” van de Zandschulp said in his on-court interview. “The first set [was] really tight, I think. A great battle in the first one. I had some opportunities to break him in the beginning. Didn’t take him. Gladly [at] 5-all I made the break and held the serve at 6-5.

“[The] second set was a little bit easier, but I think I played really well today.”

Ruud does well to control play from his backhand corner by running around and hitting heavy forehands, but he was unable to consistently make van de Zandschulp uncomfortable. The 26-year-old saved the only break point he faced and won 50 per cent of his first-serve return points to triumph after one hour and 34 minutes. 

The eighth seed, who also defeated Ruud at last year’s US Open en route to the quarter-finals, will next play Miomir Kecmanovic. The Serbian continued his strong start to the season with a 7-6(5), 6-2 win against fourth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili.

Less than a month ago, Kecmanovic defeated van de Zandschulp 7-6(3), 7-5 at the BNP Paribas Open on the hard courts of Indian Wells. That was their first ATP Head2Head clash.

“It was not clay, it was a pretty close score,” van de Zandschulp said. “Looking forward to the match. I think he’s had a great season so far and he’s a great player. It’s going to be a good match.”

Carlos Alcaraz has caught the tennis world’s attention with his rapid rise into the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings. The Spanish star has not just earned the respect of his colleagues on the ATP Tour, but also the Hologic WTA Tour.

Alcaraz’s countrywoman, WTA World No. 2 Paula Badosa, was quick to praise the 18-year-old ahead of the Mutua Madrid Open, where they both will be competing.

“Of course Carlos is insane. Sometimes in press, especially in Spanish press, I’m asked whether I have some advice for Carlos. And maybe he has to tell me something and advise!” Badosa said. “Because when I was 18 years old I was doing completely different things than him. So I think he’s doing everything very good.”

Alcaraz’s results speak for themselves — the teen won his first ATP Masters 1000 and first two ATP 500 trophies earlier this year. But Badosa was equally complimentary of his character. The duo recently joined Pablo Carreno Busta and Ons Jabeur on a visit to the Miami Rescue Mission as part of Miami Open Unites.

“He’s a humble guy. He’s very nice and deserves everything he’s doing,” Badosa said. “He’s gong to be even better and that’s going to be good for world tennis, but even more for Spanish players.”

Another WTA star, Naomi Osaka, has spoken this year about examining the games of Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios to improve her tennis. But she has also been excited by Alcaraz’s rise.

“You know it’s funny, I don’t know if I’m going to be blasted for saying this, but I feel like he’s genuinely made everyone excited about the ATP and I haven’t seen that in a very long time,” Osaka said. “I’m not even really thinking about his age, like every time someone brings up his age, I’m like, ‘Oh wow, I forget, that’s so cool’.

“I think just his game style, just how pumped he is, I feel like I’m watching [him] learn with every tournament. I don’t know what his ranking was last year here, but I’ve watched almost every tournament that he’s played, the US Open when he played [Stefanos] Tsitsipas and just to see the growth I think is really exciting for everyone.”

Maximo Gonzalez and Andre Goransson overcame Pablo Cuevas and Joao Sousa 7-6(3), 7-5 on Thursday to reach the Millennium Estoril Open semi-finals.

The Argentine-Swedish tandem saved two set points on serve at 4-5 in the first set and broke three times to triumph after one hour and 39 minutes.

Gonzalez and Goransson are teaming for the first time this week and will next meet Ben McLachlan and Raven Klaasen after the fourth seeds edged past Jonathan Erlich and Lloyd Harris 4-6, 6-1, 10-4.

Klaasen earned his 300th tour-level doubles win on Tuesday and is aiming to win his third ATP Tour trophy with McLachlan.

Krawietz/Mies March On In Munich
Third seeds Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies continued to back up their Barcelona title win on Thursday, advancing to the semi-finals at the BMW Open by American Express.

The German duo saved all four break points they faced en route to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Roman Jebavy and Andres Molteni. Krawietz is defending the crown he won in 2021 with Wesley Koolhof at the ATP 250 event, with Mies missing most of last year due to knee surgery.

Krawietz and Mies will next play Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara after the British-Finnish team upset second seeds John Peers and Filip Polasek 7-6(1), 7-6(6).

Andrey Golubev and Fabrice Martin backed up their win over top seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic by eliminating Ivan Sabanov and Matej Sabanov 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 34 minutes.

The unseeded pair will meet David Vega Hernandez and Rafael Matos in the last four after the Brazilian-Spanish upset fourth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop 6-3, 6-4.