Tennis News

Lajovic Relives 'Amazing Experience', Now Leads Team Serbia At ATP Cup

Dusan Lajovic says that he still gets “goose bumps” thinking about winning the inaugural ATP Cup title in 2020 with Team Serbia.

“It was personally one of the greatest feelings playing in Brisbane and here in Sydney, because Serbian community is huge in both cities, and in Australia overall,” said Lajovic. “It was [an] amazing experience, especially because we won it. I get goose bumps just thinking about it, especially now, practising here in the arena and having all of the memories come back. I think that it was great for us to win [in] the first year.”

This time in Sydney, Lajovic leads Team Serbia, which features Filip Krajinovic, Nikola Cacic, Matej Sabanov and captain Ivan Sabanov.

“We [have all been] giving our best in the past days,” said Lajovic, who will step up this year and play as the No. 1 singles player at the ATP Cup. “I’m looking forward to competing with these guys together by my side. Obviously, there are some tactical differences and pressure-wise, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to go out there, play your match and try to win.”

Krajinovic, Serbia’s No. 2 singles player at the ATP Cup, added, “It’s a good challenge. It’s never easy to open the match, but I’m very excited. I’m ready for that. I knew that I will play the first match. As Dusan says, we are already playing well so far. We have a good team [and] I’m hoping that we’re going to do well here.”

Without the services of World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, World No. 33 Lajovic realises that Team Serbia won’t be in the spotlight as much, which the players are hoping to take advantage of.

“It’s never the same when you don’t have the No. 1 in your team,” said Lajovic. “Obviously, when Novak is in the team, the expectations get much higher. Then everybody is put in the spotlight… and [he is] trying to push the whole team. Right now, maybe, we are on the sidelines a little bit, and it could be good for us. It could be bad. We’ll see.”

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Serbia begins its 2022 ATP Cup campaign against Team Norway on Saturday, then faces Chile on Monday and Spain on Wednesday. With each tie featuring two singles matches and a doubles match, Nikola Cacic recognises the importance of the doubles match.

“Doubles is very important at ATP Cup,” said Cacic. “So we are here also practising some doubles [as it] could be possible that doubles decides the winner… We have a few good players here. Matej has now broken into the Top 100 [of the FedEx ATP Doubles Rankings], and also Dusan and Filip can play good doubles.”

Sabanov added, “I’m very excited, of course. I’m also very honoured to be in this team, and I will do my best to help the team to win some matches. I think we can do some good things here.”

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Novak Djokovic withdraws from ATP Cup amid Australian Open uncertainty

World number one Novak Djokovic withdraws from Serbia’s ATP Cup team in Sydney amid uncertainty over his participation at the Australian Open.

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Emma Raducanu, Cameron Norrie & Andy Murray bring feelgood factor back to British tennis

A stunning year for Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie, plus encouraging signs for Andy Murray – BBC Sport assesses British tennis in 2021.

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ATP Cup Updates: France Replaces Austria, Djokovic & Rublev Out

France has become a late addition to the 16-country 2022 ATP Cup, replacing Austria in Group B following the withdrawals of Dominic Thiem and Dennis Novak. World No. 35 Ugo Humbert will lead the Frenchmen as he is joined by Arthur Rinderknech, Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Fabrice Martin in Sydney.

It was also announced Wednesday that World No.1 Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the ATP Cup. Serbia remains in the competition and will be led by World No. 33 Dusan Lajovic.

Russia’s Andrey Rublev, Aslan Karatsev and Evgeny Donskoy have pulled out, and Evgeny Karlovskiy will join the team. Team USA’s Austin Krajicek has also withdrawn, and will not be replaced at this time.

The ATP Cup will begin on Saturday 1 January at 10 a.m. at both Ken Rosewall Arena and Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

Updated 2022 ATP Cup Rosters (as of 29 December)

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Felix, Stefanos Sharpen Games As ATP Cup Draws Near

With just three days to go before ATP Cup kicks off the 2022 ATP Tour season, Top 10 stars Felix Auger-Aliassime and Stefanos Tsitsipas honed their games on the practice courts at Sydney Olympic Park Wednesday.

Auger-Aliassime leads Canada in Group C, where the 21-year-old will face No. 1 singles clashes with Alexander Zverev, Cameron Norrie and Taylor Fritz.

In his first practise at this year’s event, Tsitsipas worked out under the watchful eye of his father and team captain Apostolos. The World No. 4 spearheads Greece in Group C and is scheduled to meet Hubert Hurkacz, Diego Schwartzman and Nikoloz Basilashvili in group play.

World No. 3 Alexander Zverev practised with his singles teammate Jan-Lennard Struff on an outer court under the gaze of team captain Michael Kohlmann. Zverev, who finished 2021 by winning his second Nitto ATP Finals title, will be determined to improve his disappointing 1-5 match record in the first two years of the tournament.

Struff has returned winning records in the first two editions of the event, boasting a 4-2 match tally, including wins over Auger-Aliassime in 2020 and Milos Raonic in 2021.

Top 10 Italians Matteo Berrettini and Jannik Sinner practised together in cool to mild conditions in Sydney as they work on claiming revenge for their defeat in the 2021 final to Russia. The teams will meet in a blockbuster Group B showdown on the final day of group play on 6 January.

Running 1-9 January, ATP Cup will be staged in the first week of the 2022 ATP Tour season alongside ATP 250 events in Adelaide and Melbourne. The 2022 tournament will feature a 16-team field in four groups and be hosted across two venues in Sydney – Ken Rosewall Arena and the Qudos Bank Arena – both at Sydney Olympic Park. The four group winners will contest the knockout stage – to be played exclusively at Ken Rosewall Arena – from 7 January.

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Kyrgios Receives Sydney Wild Card

Nick Kyrgios has received a wild card into the Sydney Tennis Classic, which will be played at Sydney Olympic Park from 10-15 January.

The Australian, who is beginning his season at the Melbourne Summer Set, has not competed since the Laver Cup in September.

“I’ve been training at home in Canberra and here in Sydney and I feel good after an extended break from the game,” Kyrgios said. “I’m looking forward to the final hit-out before the AO, thanks to Tennis Australia for the opportunity to play.”

Kyrgios went 7-8 in 2021, reaching the third round at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. The World No. 93 has captured one of his six ATP Tour titles on home soil, having triumphed in Brisbane in 2018.

Other players in the field at the Sydney ATP 250 include Alex de Minaur, Kei Nishikori, Cristian Garin, Taylor Fritz, Reilly Opelka and Roberto Bautista Agut.

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Thiem Withdraws From Australian Open

Dominic Thiem announced Tuesday that he has withdrawn from next month’s Australian Open.

The former World No. 3, who also pulled out of the ATP Cup earlier this month due to a non-Covid-19-related illness, has not played a tour-level match since June when he suffered a right wrist injury at the Mallorca Championships.

pic.twitter.com/3NUU1UoZwE

— Dominic Thiem (@ThiemDomi) December 28, 2021

“After the short holidays, my team and I have assessed all matters and we have decided to make some changes to my initial tournament schedule: I will start the season in South America at the Cordoba Open in Argentina, end of January, and therefore I will not play this year at the Australian Open in Melbourne,” Thiem wrote on Twitter.

The Austrian reached the Australian Open final in 2020, losing to Novak Djokovic in a five-set championship match. Last season, the 17-time tour-level titlist went 9-9, with his best coming at the Mutua Madrid Open, where he advanced to the semi-finals.

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Australian Open: Dominic Thiem pulls out with wrist injury

Austrian world number 15 Dominic Thiem pulls out of January’s Australian Open with a long-standing wrist injury.

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Medvedev Among Stars To Hit Practice Court At ATP Cup

World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev doubled up on the practice court in Sydney Tuesday as the countdown began to Russia’s defense of the ATP Cup, which begins on New Year’s Day.

Spearheading Russia’s title defense, Medvedev had a morning practice session on Ken Rosewall Arena with Aussie Alex de Minaur, whom he will meet next week in group play. The 2020 Nitto ATP Finals champion returned to KRA mid afternoon for another session with 20-year-old Australian Rinky Hijikata, who is No. 375 in the FedEx ATP Rankings.

Medvedev, who led the ATP Tour with 63 match wins last season, is expected to challenge Novak Djokovic’s stranglehold on World No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings during the 2022 season and will be keen to start the year strong in Sydney. The 25-year-old boasts an 8-1 record at ATP Cup and last year dropped just one set in his four victories, which included three Top 10 wins over Alexander Zverev, Diego Schwartzman and Matteo Berrettini.

Other Top 10 players to hit the practice court yesterday included Italian Top 10 stars Berrettini and Jannik Sinner and World No. 8 Casper Ruud.

Photo Credit: ATP Tour

Running 1-9 January, ATP Cup will be staged in the first week of the 2022 ATP Tour season alongside ATP 250 events in Adelaide and Melbourne. The 2022 tournament will feature a 16-team field in four groups and be hosted across two venues in Sydney – Ken Rosewall Arena and the Qudos Bank Arena – both at Sydney Olympic Park. The four group winners will contest the knockout stage – to be played exclusively at Ken Rosewall Arena – from 7 January.

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By The Numbers: 2021 ATP Challenger Tour

Bonzi Tops Wins Leaderboard
Benjamin Bonzi was a dominant force on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2021. The Frenchman amassed a tour-leading 50 match wins this year, joining the exclusive ’50 Wins Club’ in a single season. In the history of the Challenger circuit, only seven other players have won as many matches in a campaign. He concluded his breakout season with a 50-13 record, soaring to a career-high No. 60 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry finished a close second, posting 49 wins.

Meanwhile, Jenson Brooksby was the most consistent performer, boasting an 88.5 win percentage (min. 25 matches played). The American star took full advantage of his opportunities, claiming 23 of 26 matches played in 2021. Sebastian Baez (86.3) and Tallon Griekspoor (85.7) were the only other players with at least 80 percent matches won.

Baez, meanwhile, became the winningest player age 20 & under in Challenger history. His 44 match wins are the most in a single season for a player before their 21st birthday.

Griekspoor Smashes Titles Record
Entering the year, only three players had won six titles in a single season on the ATP Challenger Tour. But in 2021 alone, an additional three players matched that record, with Griekspoor (8), Bonzi (6) and Baez (6) lifting trophy after trophy.

The 25-year-old Griekspoor captured the record for most crowns in a season with his victory in Tenerife, Spain. He would add an unprecedented eighth piece of silverware with a title the following week in the Slovak capital of Bratislava. In fact, since falling to Novak Djokovic at the US Open, the Dutchman did not lose another match for the rest of the year. He would reel off five straight titles on the ATP Challenger Tour in October and November, dominating on the clay of Murcia and Napoli I & II, before moving to the hard courts of Tenerife and Bratislava. His 25-match win streak is the longest in Challenger history.

Bonzi, meanwhile, set the tone in 2021, becoming the first of the trio to reach the six-title milestone. His victories in Potchefstroom and Ostrava were followed by a 20-match win streak, lifting four straight trophies in Segovia, Saint-Tropez, Cassis and Rennes.

Baez reached a tour-leading nine finals in 2021, all on clay, with titles coming on Chilean soil in Concepcion and Santiago I & II, as well as in Zagreb, Buenos Aires and Campinas.

Teen Titans
Nine different teenagers accounted for a total of 15 Challenger titles this year, with Holger Rune (4), Juan Manuel Cerundolo (3) and Jiri Lehecka (2) the lone players with multiple crowns.

At 18 years and 6 months, Rune became the fourth-youngest player to win his fourth Challenger title. Only a 17-year-old Richard Gasquet (2003) and an 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz (2021) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (2018) were younger.

Cerundolo made Argentine history this year, becoming the third-youngest player from his country to win three Challenger titles. Only Juan Martin del Potro and Guillermo Coria were younger when they lifted their third trophies.

Alcaraz, Dominic Stricker, Dalibor Svrcina, Brandon Nakashima, Carlos Gimeno Valero and Giulio Zeppieri were the only other teenage winners of the year. At the age of 18 years and 18 days, Alcaraz became the youngest champion of 2021 with his victory in Oeiras, Portugal.

Biggest Movers To Top 100
The four biggest movers to the year-end Top 100 won multiple Challenger titles in 2021. Cerundolo led the way, jumping 252 spots to a year-end position of No. 89 in the FedEx ATP Rankings.

Title Leaders By Country
Players from 35 countries won titles this year. Argentina boasted a tour-leading 20 titles from 11 different players, with the United States coming a close second with 19 victories.

In fact, the Argentine contingent tied the record for most titles in a season, with Argentina 2016, Argentina 2007 and France 2005 the other members of the ’20 Titles Club’. Baez led the charge with six crowns, alongside Cerundolo with three and Etcheverry and Coria with two apiece.

Dimitar Kuzmanov became the first Challenger champion from Bulgaria since Grigor Dimitrov in 2011, with his title in Barcelona.

ATP Tour & ATP Challenger Tour Winners
Four players lifted trophies on both the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour this year.

Doubles Title Leaders
Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral dominated the doubles circuit in 2021, securing a tour-leading six team titles together. The Portuguese pair made the most of their opportunities on home soil, lifting trophies in Oeiras, Braga and Maia I & II, while also prevailing in Tenerife, Spain and Manama, Bahrain. France’s Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul won the second-most titles of any team, lifting five trophies together.

Orlando Luz won the most doubles titles of any player, prevailing on eight occasions with four different partners. He prevailed alongside Rafael Matos (4), Felipe Meligeni Rodrigues Alves (2), Sergio Galdos (1) and Aleksandr Nedovyesov (1).

Fast Facts

• A total of 39 different players enjoyed their maiden moments of glory this year. Holger Rune was the youngest of the group at the age of 18 years and 1 month, while 28-year-old Italian Franco Agamenone was the oldest.
• A total of 30 #NextGenATP stars (born 2000 or later) won titles. Jenson Brooksby became the youngest ever to win three titles in the first four months of a Challenger season. His 19-2 mark through April was the second-best start to a season, behind only Janko Tipsarevic’s 20-0 record in 2017.
• Qualifiers claimed 10 titles, with Zizou Bergs going the distance on two occasions, winning seven matches in eight days in both St. Petersburg and Lille.
• Longest final: The longest final registered at three hours and seven minutes, with Nikola Milojevic beating Dimitar Kuzmanov 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(5) in Zadar, Croatia.
• Shortest completed final: At 46 minutes, Mats Moraing downed Hugo Gaston 6-2, 6-1 in Tulln, Austria.
• Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Flavio Cobolli contested the first all-teenage final since 2017, in Rome.
• Oldest winners: The ATP Challenger Tour featured two champions aged 35 and older in 2021. A 37-year-old Andreas Seppi won in Biella, Italy, while a 35-year-old Pablo Cuevas prevailed in Lyon, France.
• This year, four players saved at least one match point in a Challenger final: Emilio Gomez (3) in Salinas, Mats Moraing (2) in Forli, Max Purcell (1) in Nur-Sultan and Lukas Lacko (1) in Mallorca.
• Liam Broady won his first title in his eighth final appearance. It’s the second-most finals to win a maiden title in Challenger history, with Jan-Lennard Struff and Martin Rodriguez both claiming their first crowns in their ninth finals.
• Tallon Griekspoor’s 25-match win streak is the longest in Challenger history, surpassing Juan Ignacio Chela’s 24 wins in a row in 2001.
• Francisco Cerundolo and Juan Manuel Cerundolo became the sixth pair of brothers to win titles in the same season.
• At 15 years and 10 months, Gabriel Debru became the fourth-youngest player to win a Challenger match since 2000, with his first-round victory in Roanne, France. The Frenchman rallied from a set down to defeat Andrea Pellegrino 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, before falling to eventual champion Hugo Grenier.
• At No. 874, Dominic Stricker became the lowest-ranked champion in Challenger history with his victory in Lugano, Switzerland.
• At 40 years and 1 month, Feliciano Lopez became the second 40-year-old finalist in Challenger history, joining Ivo Karlovic (Houston 2019) with his runner-up finish in Tenerife.

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