Carlos Alcaraz received a special surprise — his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero — in Miami ahead of his first ATP Masters 1000 final.

Ferrero had not been at the Miami Open presented by Itau because his father, Eduardo, passed away before the tournament. But a video the former World No. 1 posted on Instagram Sunday morning revealed he flew to Florida for the final.

Alcaraz, who at 18 can break Novak Djokovic’s record as the youngest champion in tournament history on Sunday against Casper Ruud, has paid tribute to his coach during his run. After winning a quarter-final classic against Miomir Kecmanovic he wrote on the camera “Juanki y Eduardo”, drawing a heart underneath their names. Following his semi-final victory against Hubert Hurkacz, the teen again inscribed the camera’s lens with a message for his coach.

‘This win’s for you, @juankiferri‘ ❤️@alcarazcarlos03 #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/nXF7TakRha

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 2, 2022

In the video Ferrero posted on Sunday, Alcaraz leapt off the couch he was sitting on when he saw his coach and gave him a warm embrace. 

Ferrero captioned the video: “TEAM READY? ✅ ALL SET FOR THE FINAL 💪🏼”

With Polish flags waving all around Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday, Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek each won titles at the Miami Open presented by Itau. Hurkacz teamed with John Isner to claim the men’s doubles crown, while Swiatek extended her WTA Tour winning streak to 17 by beating Naomi Osaka in the women’s singles final.

Swiatek, who will debut as World No. 1 on Monday, opened the day’s play by securing her third straight title at the WTA 1000 level, dominating Osaka by a score of 6-4, 6-0. By winning the Miami trophy without dropping a set, the 20-year-old from Warsaw extended her set win streak to 20, dating back to Indian Wells.

Hurkacz, last year’s Miami men’s singles champion, fell to Carlos Alcaraz in Friday’s semi-finals but will not leave South Florida empty-handed thanks to his performance on Saturday. He and Isner took a 7-6(5), 6-4 decision to knock off the red-hot tandem of Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski, who were seeking a fourth ATP Tour title of the season.

The Wroclaw native previously called Swiatek a “huge inspiration” following her Roland Garros win in autumn 2020. 

“What she did at the French Open was unbelievable and a huge inspiration,” he said after reaching the Delray final last January. “It’s amazing what she has done, winning a Grand Slam not being seeded and playing the way she played. So that’s really inspiring for all of Poland what she did achieve.”

Last October, the compatriots sat down together for an episode of the WTA’s CrossCourt, where they discussed the importance of discipline and preparation on the tour.

Wild cards Hubert Hurkacz and John Isner defeated one of the hottest doubles duos on the ATP Tour to claim the title at the Miami Open presented by Itau on Saturday afternoon.

Teaming for the first time in 2022, the Polish/American pairing scored a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski. The victory completed a Sunshine Double for Isner, who won the Indian Wells title with compatriot Jack Sock two weeks ago.

“It certainly feels good, but I partnered up well,” said Isner, who is just the second man to complete the double with different partners (Jakob Hlasek, 1989). “You guys saw that last game. It was 40/30 them, I didn’t hit a single ball and we won the match.

“It’s a pleasure playing with Hubi. He does so many things so well as we know, and he’s got so much doubles skill also. It’s so much fun for me.”

The duo defeated three Grand Slam title-winning teams on the way to the final (Krawietz/Mies, Ram/Salisbury, Kokkinakis/Kyrgios), and dropped Koolhof and Skupski to 23-5 on the season after they won three ATP Tour titles in their first six matches as a team.

“I think John is the hottest doubles player on Tour right now,” said Hurkacz. “It definitely was a fun week. Playing with John is such a pleasure so we had a great time.”

He later added: “I love Miami a lot. I was able to win singles last year and now playing with John doubles. This place is very special for me.”

HUBISNER RIGHTS 🇵🇱🇺🇸@HubertHurkacz and @JohnIsner defeat Koolhof/Skupski 7-6(5) 6-4 to claim their first title as a team in Miami! 🏆#MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/NiYNvpQUPt

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 2, 2022

Both Hurkacz and Isner are former singles champions in Miami, with the Pole winning in 2021 and the American in 2018. Hurkacz’s Saturday success made it two trophies on the day for Poland inside Hard Rock Stadium, as Iga Swiatek defeated Naomi Osaka in the women’s singles final earlier in the day.

The Polish/American pairing made their moves late in both sets. Twice down a mini-break in the opening set tie-break, the duo won five of the last six points to pocket the first stanza. In set two, after saving three break points at 1-1, they earned a decisive break on a sudden-death point that doubled as a match point on the Koolhof serve.

That was the only loss of serve on seven break points in the match. Hurkacz and Isner appeared to have secured a break at 30/40 in the ninth game of the opening set, but Isner called foul on himself after a stray touch of the ball prior to a drop-volley winner from his partner. The duo piled more pressure on their opponents in the tie-break with strong returning and aggressive net approaches, forcing some crucial errors as thy sealed the set.

After winning the last three points of the opening set, Hurkacz and Isner won the last two points of the match for the win.

The Miami Open presented by Itau draws to a close on Sunday and is set for a thrilling climax, as World No. 8 Casper Ruud takes on #NextGenATP sensation Carlos Alcaraz at Hard Rock Stadium.

[6] Casper Ruud (NOR) vs. [14] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP)

Casper Ruud and Carlos Alcaraz had something in common when they arrived in Miami two weeks ago – neither player knew what it was like to win a match at the ATP Masters 1000 event in southern Florida.

Five victories later and having dropped just a single set each en route to Sunday’s final, both players have rectified that record in spectacular fashion. On Sunday each has the opportunity to cap a dream run in Miami by clinching a maiden Masters 1000 crown.

After losing his three previous Masters 1000 semi-finals – all on his favoured clay – sixth seed Ruud broke his final-four duck in style on Friday with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Argentine Francisco Cerundolo. The Norwegian’s clean ball-striking off both wings has looked ready-made for the Miami hard courts but the World No. 8 admits to still being pleasantly surprised at his progress at Hard Rock Stadium.

“It was not where I imagined myself playing my first Masters 1000 final [on a hard court], but I will take it,” Ruud said after defeating Cerundolo. “It is a great feeling, and I am enjoying the city and the tournament.”

Of Ruud’s nine tour-level finals to date, eight have been on clay. Yet his 2021 season included quarter-final runs at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Toronto, the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati and the Rolex Paris Masters. Those hard-court performances helped the Norwegian qualify for the year-end Nitto ATP Finals for the first time and have quietened any talk of him being only suited to the red dirt.

“I think last year, when I reached the fourth round of the Australian Open, [it] kind of gave me a confidence boost on the surface,” said Ruud, who is the first Norwegian to reach a Masters 1000 championship match. “Because I never felt too bad on hard courts, but it’s just that my game seems to suit the clay a little bit better. My biggest results were on clay up until last year. I think they still are. But now here I have a final.

“Obviously the Nitto ATP Finals was kind of what topped everything when I reached the semis. That was a big result. Even though now coming into hard court tournaments, I think my mindset is a little bit different.”

This confidence has been on full display throughout his run in Miami so far. After securing his first victory against Henri Laaksonen in the second round, Ruud took out Alexander Bublik, Cameron Norrie and World No. 4 Alexander Zverev for the biggest win of his career before his triumph over Cerundolo. The Norwegian now holds a 13-3 record for the 2022 season, a tally that includes a seventh ATP Tour title clinched in Buenos Aires in February.

His next task is to stop Alcaraz from becoming the youngest men’s champion in Miami tournament history, but that will take some doing. The Spaniard has lit up Hard Rock Stadium with a string of dazzling performances to the delight of the Miami fans, the latest of which was his 7-6(5), 7-6(2) win over defending Hubert Hurkacz on Friday evening.

“I have a lot of emotions right now,” said Alcaraz after battling past the Pole to reach the biggest final of his young career. “It’s something that you dream of when you are a child. It’s really good to be in the final here in Miami. I love playing here. The crowd is amazing. I’m going to approach the final like a first round, trying to mask the nerves. I’m going to enjoy it, it’s going to be a great final.”

The Spaniard may still be a month shy of his 19th birthday, but he already appears at ease on the big stage. Even disappointments such as his three-set semi-final defeat to Rafael Nadal at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March will stand him in good stead, the Spaniard believes.

“It was a great match against Rafa,” said Alcaraz after his win over Hurkacz on Friday. “I think that I played a great match against him. But I think that I learned how to play in a semi-final in a Masters 1000. It was my first one, so now [in the] second one I managed to do much better than in Indian Wells.

“It was different match, but I think that the nerves, the tough moments, I managed better in this one than Indian Wells.”

Alcaraz has certainly shown he can handle pressure throughout his Miami run. The 14th seed has been broken just twice in the tournament so far, saving 15 break points across his wins over Marton Fucsovics, Marin Cilic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Miomir Kecmanovic and Hurkacz.

Alcaraz’s form in Miami has only been a continuation of a red-hot start to 2022 that included a maiden ATP 500 title claimed in Rio de Janeiro in February. The Hurkacz win took the reigning Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals champion to a 17-2 record for the season, and he will move from his current ranking of No. 16 to the brink of the Top 10 in Monday’s edition of the ATP Rankings regardless of the result on Sunday.

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Like the rest of the tennis world, Ruud has been impressed by Alcaraz’s mature displays. “I think we all can see like how talented he is, that he has a very good mind for tennis,” said the Norweigan. “He understands the game very well. He knows when to hit certain shots and when probably not to.”

The Spaniard leads the pair’s ATP Head2Head series 1-0 after upsetting Ruud in straight sets at the ATP 250 event in Marbella a year ago. Alcaraz has spoken openly about the physical improvements he has made since then and has produced some stunning all-court tennis in Miami, but Ruud nonetheless remains confident that he can be the one to end the youngster’s dream run.

“He is, at his highest level, very, very good, but he also plays high risk, I think, so he goes for the shots quite often,” Ruud said when asked about his opponent in Sunday’s final. “Hopefully if I play him he will miss a couple of those.

“I played him last year. I think he played a very good match. You know, I barely had any chance at all, I felt like, so I would try to seek revenge of course. He was just coming out firing flames at me. I will try to use that and think I would like to get some revenge.”

Daniil Medvedev will miss at least the start of the clay-court season after announcing on Saturday that he will be out of action for the next one to two months. The 25-year-old has undergone a minor procedure to fix a “small hernia” that he has been playing with in recent months.

Medvedev, who posted a photo of himself watching football while recovering, said he “will work hard to back on court soon”.

The 25-year-old made his debut at Wold No. 1 in the ATP Rankings on 28 February, but ceded the top spot back to Novak Djokovic following an early exit at Indian Wells. He fell one victory short of reclaiming the position with a quarter-final exit in Miami, though he left South Florida happy with the direction of his tennis.

Medvedev has few points to defend during the spring clay season. He reached the Roland Garros quarter-finals in 2021, losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas, but managed just one win between the Madrid and Rome ATP Masters 1000 events. Those were his only clay-court events last spring.

Hi everyone. The last months I have been playing with a small hernia. Together with my team I have decided to have a small procedure done to fix the problem. I will likely be out for the next 1 – 2 months and will work hard to be back on court soon. Thanks for all the support.

— Daniil Medvedev (@DaniilMedwed) April 2, 2022

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has caused untold disruption to the lives of millions, but heart-warming stories of humanitarian efforts continue to emerge from the most difficult of circumstances.

The Premier Tennis Club in the city of Kremenchuk, situated in Poltava Oblast in central Ukraine, is one such example. The club, which hosted a Davis Cup tie between Ukraine and Slovakia in 2013 and has also been the venue for several ITF Futures events, is currently providing shelter for around 50 people displaced by the conflict.

“All the people were coming by train from the parts [of Ukraine] that are really dangerous to stay, [such as] the cities of Kharkiv and Mariupol,” Vitaliy Sachko, the Ukrainian World No. 222, told ATPTour.com this week. Sachko’s father, Dmytro, opened the club with a friend in 2010. “There were some groups in the city that were helping all the people and asking everybody who can help with the food, who can help the people [find somewhere] to stay.”

^{Photo Credit: Premier Tennis Club}

Dmytro immediately raised his hand to help, despite being based in the Czech Republic, where the family moved when Sachko was eight years old. “We told them we have a tennis club [in Kremenchuk] and people that had lost their homes were happy for any kind of help,” said Sachko.

The sheer number arriving in Kremenchuk means the tennis club has been an invaluable sanctuary to many, no matter how long they plan to stay. “Some people were staying for one night and then travelling to Europe,” explained Sachko. “Some were staying for a couple of days and going to the west of Ukraine, some are waiting until the war is over so they can get back to their homes.

“There are still people that need a place to stay, but [the club] cannot take any more people because everything is full.”

Space may be limited but there is no shortage of local people willing to help. “[Organising things] has not been a big problem because the volunteers are helping us to get beds and blankets,” said Sachko. “They can find even more beds. [It’s all about] the financial part. It’s tough to pay for all the people because they are taking showers and we have to pay for the warm water. If you [look after] someone, you have to look after them [properly].”

With Dmytro organising from afar, the tennis community in Kremenchuk is taking care of things on the ground. “There are people from the club, volunteers that are bringing food, they are helping a lot,” said Sachko. “The wife of my father’s friend who built the club with him is there every day. If someone needs medical help or anything else, she is helping them and she is there with other people cooking for them every day. She is buying the products for them, so she is doing a lot of jobs.”

^{Photo Credit: Premier Tennis Club}

As for many Ukrainians living abroad, the personal effect of the war on Sachko and his family has been profound. “[My father] is so worried about the situation,” he said. “He wants to go back. He wants to support the workers that stay there because he owns the company, and as the leader of the company he wants to support them and say that everything will be alright, we’re going to pass through it, just this basic stuff.

“My grandmother – his mum – is also there so he wants to help her as well, because she is alone there with his sister. He is very worried, and he just wants to do everything that he can to help.”

Despite being based abroad, Sachko has long been aware of the impact the club has had on the local community in Kremenchuk, even before war broke out. “When I started playing, we had only one indoor tennis court in our city of 250,000 people, which was shared with football and volleyball,” he said. “So, in winter we basically had no tennis courts.

“That’s why my father decided with his friend to build a club together, to do something for the people, to make sport popular in our city, because everybody that was playing tennis was struggling and saying that if somebody could do this good thing for the city it would be amazing.”

^{Photo Credit: Premier Tennis Club}

It is only recently that the club was there for Sachko himself at a difficult moment. “I was practising there during the Covid pandemic,” he says. “Everything was closed but I could practise and at least do something, nobody was there. In the Czech Republic everything was closed, and we don’t have a court here. So that’s why we decided I to go and I was there for two months.”

Sachko is trying his best to balance focusing on his day job with assisting those in his homeland. “I cannot say I am so brave that I would just take a gun and go to fight because it’s a war and nobody wants to die, but I am trying to help as I can,” he said. “I find the first aid stuff that our fighters need, and I send it to Ukraine. I am volunteering [while] I try to do what I do best, play tennis.”

The situation has raised the stakes for Sachko every time he steps on the court. He reached his career-high of 220 in the ATP Rankings on 7 March, but now feels like every match takes on extra meaning. “Of course, it affects me in some parts,” he said. “Because you start thinking that my father was helping me financially all my life, and I’m so lucky for that and I had no sponsors.

“Now there is a war he cannot work, he cannot earn money, and I have to play better and put even more pressure on myself. I need to win more matches and move up the rankings.

“I really love playing tennis and I don’t want to stop this way. I’m going to keep trying until my body allows me to and it’s a lottery, you know? You never know which tournament you’re going to win and which tournament you’re going to lose.”