Brits Neal Skupski and Ken Skupski made four ATP Tour finals together over the past 10 months, falling short of lifting the title on each occasion. But the brothers would not be denied on Sunday, defeating New Zealand’s Marcus Daniell and Dutchman Wesley Koolhof 6-3, 6-4 to win the Hungarian Open for their second team title.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling. We’ve been in a few finals over the past 12 months and we haven’t been able to get over the line,” Neal said. “It’s our first title on clay together at an ATP 250. It’s been a great week and hopefully we could keep on going heading into the French Open.”

The Skupski brothers also triumphed together last February in Montpellier. This is Ken’s fifth tour-level trophy and Neal’s third. Ken is seven years Neal’s elder. And while Ken noted that sometimes losing could be tougher when sharing the court with a sibling, it makes winning even sweeter.

“It’s the best thing in the world to share winning things with your brother,” Ken said. “You can get over things when you lose and you move on, but winning is so much more special.”

Skupski/Skupski were clutch on serve in their 71-minute win, saving all four break points they faced. They earned 75 per cent of their service points compared to just 60 per cent for Daniell and Koolhof.

“I think we played lights-out, really. I think it was probably our best match of the week, in very tough conditions. It was very windy so we thought [of aiming for] bigger targets, a lot of first serves,” Neal said. “We just kept putting the pressure on. Putting the pressure on in the wind is a very good thing to do and it obviously worked.”

The Skupski brothers leave Budapest with 250 ATP Doubles Ranking points each and a share of €29,650. They will be the third seeds next week in Munich.

This was Daniell and Koolhof’s third ATP Tour final as a pair, having won in Brisbane this year and finished runner-up in Stockholm in 2018. The Kiwi-Dutch team adds 150 points each and a split of €15,200.

“I want this to be a Challenger that feels like an ATP Tour event. If the players have everything they need and the fans have a great experience, I’ve done my job.”

Professional tennis players lead a very busy lifestyle. Constantly in flux, it takes them to all corners of the globe for 11 months of the year. Not only are they focused on their performance on the court, but their lives outside the lines are managed with great attention to detail and meticulous care.

Jeremy Chardy has taken the latter to the next level. Last month, the World No. 42 launched his own tournament on the ATP Challenger Tour. Located in his hometown of Pau, France, the Teréga Open Pau–Pyrénées kicked off its inaugural edition under Chardy’s direction.

The Frenchman has achieved great success on the court. From his lone ATP Tour title in Stuttgart in 2009, to signature wins over Roger Federer and Andy Murray, and a quarter-final appearance at the Australian Open in 2013, he has finished inside the year-end Top 50 in seven of the past 10 seasons. But he admits that running a world-class event on the ATP Challenger Tour is one of the most arduous things he’s done in his career.

Nonetheless, the tournament was a raging success. With years of knowledge and experience from competing on the professional circuit, Chardy was well-equipped to meet the needs of the players, while giving back to his hometown and the surrounding region.

Earlier in the week, Chardy hosted a coaches clinic with Patrick Mouratoglou, coach of Serena Williams. On the Friday of the tournament, renowned chef Yves Camdeborde cooked up a feast for a VIP event. And on Saturday, a star-studded exhibition featuring Chardy, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Mansour Bahrami took centre stage.

Chardy spoke to ATPChallengerTour.com about the new role…

Jeremy, talk about the role as tournament director in Pau and how it came about.
It is a really different job. It’s the first time for me as a tournament director. I was working on it for a year and a half actually. It’s completely new and a different pressure, but it was a great experience.

You’ve played professionally for nearly 15 years. What is it like to see the tour from a different perspective?
When you are a player, you have to practise, see the physio, rest, go to the hotel and wait for your match. When you are tournament director, you have more things to do. Much more than expected. You have to look at the matches differently, because you want the best players to go far in the tournament. You need to think what is good for the tournament and the crowd. You want French guys to win and your top seeds too.

How important is it to encourage the growth of the game in your hometown of Pau and the region?
For me, it’s really important because I love tennis and it’s my career. I always want to give back to my sport. When I was young, the city and the area supported me a lot. They gave me the chance to be a professional and I’ve always wanted to give back to them. That’s why I always want to do something here. It’s my way of giving back to the people.

What was the biggest challenge in running a Challenger?
The biggest challenge was finding a sponsor actually. Running a tournament costs a lot of money and especially in the first year it was not easy. But I was lucky because my personal sponsor helped me straight away. And through them, I found so many other people and organisations who love tennis and want to support me and our team. It was really nice to meet new people and for them to help us and give us advice.

Being a player gives you a unique insight into life on the tour that most tournament directors don’t really have. How has that helped you here?
I think I know exactly what the players want to be happy. When you are a player, you want a nice hotel, good transportation, practise courts, treatment with the physio and of course food. I was really focused on that. We have a great hotel and food, as well as the gym and the physio. We have ice baths and hot baths for the recovery. It’s difficult to make three similar match courts too, but I did that and I’m really happy.

How did you get the local kids involved with the tournament?
We did three days of kids clinics and kids events. We put some smaller mini-tennis courts, we let them serve with the speed machine and we even created a tournament for them. It was for kids under 10 years old. They started in September and the winners of each tennis club in the region played against each other. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final were held during the week, with the final on the centre court before the Challenger final. It was nice because the kids were so nervous, but they were happy. They played first to four games. It was really cute and the people liked it. We had 197 kids who played the tournament in total. The future of tennis is the kids.

Your wife is actively involved in your tournament. How important is it to make this a family affair?
My wife loves sports and always supports me. She had a big part of the tournament, wanting to help with anything she can. She’s from England, so it’s easier for her to communicate and she helped us with some players, social media, the organisation. It’s always nice to feel the support from the people you love.

You also had a charity exhibition with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Mansour Bahrami. How did that come about?
When I first thought of it, all the guys liked the idea. They supported me and it was nice. Patrick Mouratoglou also came to talk with the coaches. On the Monday morning, we had a conference with 35 tennis coaches of the region. We all talked about our experiences and answered questions. Especially with Patrick, because all of the coaches know him. It was also a good mix of ages of the coaches, from younger to older.

You’re less than a year removed from winning a Challenger title in Surbiton. They have a great fan experience there. How important is it to make this a great experience for the players, but for the fans as well?
The fans are the most important part. Without fans, you cannot have a tennis tournament. For me, it’s really important to attract fans to come to the stadium and let them interact with the players, and have a lot of activities for them too. My goal is to make the people happy. I want the people to really want to come back here. That they enjoy it a lot. I know people love sports in Pau. We have basketball, football and handball, but were missing tennis. It was my goal to bring back the tennis. It’s a little easier as a player, because the people are excited to support you.

You have won six Challenger titles in your career. What are your fondest memories competing on the tour? How special was it?
When you’re competing in Challengers, it always important because you’re trying to get through to the Top 100. For that, you need to play good at this level and win titles. Whenever you win one, you’re on the right path. You only have one goal: to get into the Top 100 and get to the ATP Tour. There are a lot of good memories for me. And I also won two titles coming back from injuries, so it’s the same thing there. It’s a mix of the young players with many dreams and the older players who get injured and try to come back up the ATP Rankings. I think the fans like it for this reason. There are a lot of really close matches.

Daniil Medvedev began the 2019 European spring clay-court swing with a 2-11 record on the surface in his career. So perhaps it’s fitting that after winning eight of his first nine matches on clay this season, it’s on the red dirt that the Russian is in good position to make a major move in the ATP Rankings, perhaps even into the Top 10.

With his run to the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell final, Medvedev has now put himself in strong position to climb higher than his current career-high of World No. 14. If he defeats Dominic Thiem in Sunday’s final, Medvedev will pass 13th-ranked Karen Khachanov to become the Russian No. 1.

But the real opportunity for improvement will be throughout the rest of the clay court season. Medvedev lost in the first round at Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros last year, so he is only defending 30 points through Paris. Of the six players ranked directly ahead of the Russian, none of them are defending fewer than 200 points.

ATP Ranking Points To Defend Through Roland Garros

* Points up to date including points both dropped and earned this week

With all the points players are defending during this clay swing taken off, Medvedev would move into 10th even if he loses Sunday’s final. World No. 9 Juan Martin del Potro, who will move up to eighth on Monday since Stefanos Tsitsipas did not defend the 300 points he earned by reaching the Barcelona final last year, is defending 900 points through the rest of this clay swing. A massive 720 of those points will come at Roland Garros.

Miami finalist John Isner, who will move to ninth on Monday, is defending 415 points through Roland Garros. The American suffered a stress fracture in his left foot in that final against Roger Federer, which will keep him out through at least Madrid. Isner told ATPTour.com three weeks ago that while he hopes to return in Madrid, he will only compete at that ATP Masters 1000 tournament if he feels he is in satisfactory ‘tennis shape’. 

Medvedev is in some of the best form of any player on the ATP Tour. The Russian, who has made the semi-finals or better at five tournaments this year, owns a Tour-leading 25 wins, six ahead of second-placed Tsitsipas and Guido Pella. His semi-final victory against Kei Nishikori on Saturday was his third against a Top 10 opponent in the past two weeks.

“[It’s more] evidence that I could beat these Top 10 players. I can play at the same level. I can stay there physically, mentally,” Medvedev said. “It gives you a lot of confidence. If I manage to beat guys like Kei in the semi-finals of an ATP 500 event, then I can do a lot and hopefully I will.”

The only player in the group who is ranked just ahead of Medvedev (up until Del Potro) who has earned comparable results on clay this year is Italian Fabio Fognini, the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters champion. But since Fognini made the Rome quarter-finals, Geneva semi-finals and the fourth round at Roland Garros last year, he is defending 430 more points than Medvedev through the clay-court Grand Slam. 

Editor’s Note: Medvedev will not make a straight add of 500 points to the 2,505 he began the week with if he defeats Thiem for the Barcelona title due to the number of countable results he already has at the ATP 500 level. Instead, he will replace a previous semi-final result at this level, which means he would add 320 points to his current total, netting out at 2,825 points on Monday.

Rafael Nadal entered his Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell semi-final on Saturday perfect from that stage on at the ATP 500 tournament (22-0). But despite losing to Dominic Thiem in straight sets, the 11-time champion leaves his home event with his head held high.

“After this week my confidence is back,” Nadal said. “I really believe that I made very good improvements to create a good base to try to achieve my goals during the next couple of weeks.”

It’s just the third time that Nadal has not won either Monte-Carlo or Barcelona in the same year (2014-15) going back to 2005. But Nadal knows that he did not give away the match. Instead, Thiem took it.

“He played great. He did all the things that he had to do very well and with big success. I am happy the way that I played from the baseline. Starting the point in good position or in bad position, changed a lot… but the rest of the things have been positive and as I said before, congrats to him, he played great,” Nadal said. “He’s a great guy and great player and I’m happy for him. I wish him all the best.”

Last week, Nadal lost in the semi-finals of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters against Fabio Fognini. That was perhaps a more surprising defeat since Thiem has now beaten the Spaniard on clay in four consecutive years. Fognini has two clay-court wins against Nadal.

“[It’s a] big difference. Against Fognini I played the worst match probably in 14 years on clay. Today I played a good match of tennis. It [was] a good level of tennis this afternoon. I played against a great opponent,” Nadal said. “Fognini is a great opponent too but I was not a competitive player. Today I was competitive, and I enjoyed the match. I really felt [that I was] competitive for the first time in a way that I want to feel myself. And as I said before I am happy and I am confident that I made a big improvement this week.”

Nadal knows there are things he could improve even more. The World No. 2 won just 43 per cent of his second-serve points against Thiem, while the Austrian captured 69 per cent of his second-serve points.

“The serve [was] an important part of the match this afternoon,” Nadal said. “I didn’t serve well at all, especially the second serve. So when I started to miss the second serve, I really lost a little bit of the confidence on trying to go for a good first serve, because I was without confidence on the second, so that affects the first.”

Thiem (4-7) joins World No. 1 Novak Djokovic (7-16) as the only players to defeat Nadal on clay at least four times. The 25-year-old recently won his first ATP Masters 1000 title (Indian Wells) on a hard court. So when a reporter asked Nadal if Thiem could one day climb to the top of the ATP Rankings, the Spaniard did not dismiss the notion.

“Why not? Depends. Everybody can be No. 1. Not everybody, but there are a couple players who can be No. 1. It is not an easy thing. But of course it depends on the results he will be able to have. He’s a good player. He’s a hard worker. So I would love to see him [be] No. 1,” Nadal said. “I like him in all terms, as a tennis player, as a hard worker, as a person. So I wish him all the very best for his future, but not everything. I hope to be ready to compete against him and to beat him in the next couple of weeks.”

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Dominic Thiem stuck to his aggressive game plan against Rafael Nadal to beat the 11-time Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell champion 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday and reach the ATP 500 final.

It’s the fourth time in as many years Thiem has beaten Nadal on clay, and the first time Nadal has lost in the semi-finals or finals of his home tournament. The Spaniard had been 22-0 in matches and 46-1 in sets during Barcelona semi-finals and finals.

But Thiem, who was the only player to beat Nadal on clay in 2017 and 2018, played fearlessly once more against the top seed, pinning the Spaniard behind the baseline and pounding inside-out forehands. He joined Novak Djokovic as the only players to have beaten Nadal on clay four times.

“I’m always super proud if I beat him because he’s the best player ever on this surface, and it’s always very special to beat him here on clay. We always had great matches in the past, and also today was very good and I was more lucky today and I got the win,” Thiem said.

The 2017 finalist (l. to Nadal) will face Russian Daniil Medvedev with his third ATP 500 title on the line (2016 Acapulco, 2017 Rio). Medvedev beat No. 7 Kei Nishikori 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to make his first clay-court final.

The 23-year-old leads the ATP Tour with 25 wins, including eight on clay (8-1). Before last week’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, Medvedev was 2-11 on the red dirt. Thiem leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 1-0, a three-set win last year at the St. Petersburg Open.

“It’s such a traditional tournament. I loved to play the finals here two years ago, and of course I try to go one step further tomorrow. But Daniil is I think in the best shape of his life. If I see the names of who won here, this tournament, of course I would love to be there as well,” Thiem said.

Thiem started quickly, breaking when Nadal tossed in a loose service game at 2-2. Nadal double faulted twice, including at 30/40.

Incoming: Thiem ?

?: @TennisTV | @ThiemDomi | @bcnopenbs pic.twitter.com/syvrJYmpA8

— ATP Tour (@ATP_Tour) April 27, 2019

Thiem had four more break points as Nadal served at 2-4, but the Spaniard saved them all during a 14-minute game. But as the Spanish fans smelled a comeback, Thiem avoided any slump and held to take the opener.

The Austrian was in attack mode all match, delivering deep, heavy balls to Nadal, who struggled to take control in baseline rallies. And at the net, Thiem was happy to put the point away, winning nine of 12 net points.

Ridiculously good ?

Another beauty from @ThiemDomi ?

?: @TennisTV | @bcnopenbs pic.twitter.com/SWbaW4yEmy

— ATP Tour (@ATP_Tour) April 27, 2019

Thiem broke once more in the second and dug himself out of trouble at 4-3, 15/30, and again while serving for the set at 5-4, 0/40. Thiem hadn’t faced a break point all match until the final game, but saved all three, including the third with an ace.

Did You Know?
Nadal had won 18 consecutive matches in Barcelona. His last loss came during the 2015 third round (l. to Fognini).

Filip Krajinovic will try to become the ninth first-time ATP Tour titlist this year after defeating Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2, 6-2 in one hour on Saturday to reach the final of the Hungarian Open in Budapest.

The Serbian lost just six service points and did not face a break point to reach his second tour-level final, having also made the championship match at the 2017 Rolex Paris Masters, an ATP Masters 1000 tournament, as a qualifier. Krajinovic dropped just two service points in the second set, breaking Herbert four times in the match.

“I didn’t expect this coming from qualies. Playing in a final, it’s a big achievement for me,” Krajinovic said. “I think I played really well today. I served really well and I’m really happy. I will enjoy tomorrow.”

Perhaps fittingly, Krajinovic qualified in Budapest like he did two years ago in Paris, dropping only one set in six matches. He is the third qualifier to make an ATP Tour final this season, joining Brayden Schnur (l. in New York) and Daniel Evans (l. in Delray Beach). He now has 15 tour-level wins this season, setting a personal-best after earning 14 victories last year.

“It’s never easy. Herbert is a Top 50 guy. He’s very dangerous,” Krajinovic said. “This is not the surface for him. Today was a little bit slow, so it was good for me and I took every chance.”

Krajinovic will face 2018 Gstaad winner Matteo Berrettini for the trophy. The Italian needed one hour and 19 minutes to dismiss Rio de Janeiro champion Laslo Djere 6-4, 6-2.

“I have to realise what I did today. I have to recover for this match. It was a short match, but very intense,” Berrettini said. “I have to stay focused and prepare for tomorrow.”

Berrettini arrived in Hungary on a five-match tour-level losing streak dating back to his second-round loss in Marseille more than two months ago. But he has won three of his four matches in straight sets to reach his second ATP Tour final. This will be Berrettini and Krajinovic’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head battle.

“I’m serving really good,” Berrettini said. “I hope tomorrow my weapons — my forehand and my serve — will help me to beat him. He’s a great guy. He’s playing really good coming from the qualies, so he has a lot of confidence. He was Top 30, so he knows how to play tennis. I think it’s going to be a great final.”

Daniell/Koolhof Reach Doubles Final 
Marcus Daniell and Wesley Koolhof reached the doubles final with a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 win against Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies. In the final, they will meed third seeds Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski. Koolhof has now made three consecutive finals with three different partners, partnering Stefanos Tsitsipas to the Miami championship match and Robin Haase to the Monte-Carlo final.