Nick Kyrgios is having so much fun in Atlanta he might want to make the BB&T Atlanta Open an annual stop on his ATP World Tour calendar.

On Tuesday, the Aussie star visited the NBA TV studio for a segment on the network’s flagship program “GameTime” with hosts Vince Cellini and former NBA player Steve Smith.

The trio talked about the BB&T Atlanta Open, where Kyrgios will make his singles debut later this week. “This is a massive tournament for me,” he said.

The No. 18 player in the Emirates ATP Rankings also discussed his love of the Celtics, his own basketball talent and if he could score a basket on Smith, who played in the NBA for 14 years and won an NBA title.

But all of that came after Kyrgios pulled his eyes away from the glossy NBA team logos on the studio walls. “This is unbelievable right now. This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said as he walked into the studio.

“Where my boys at?” he said. Then he spotted the logo of his favourite team, the Boston Celtics, and snapped a photo of it with his phone.

Kyrgios became a Celtics fan as a kid because he played an NBA video game and he thought the Celtics logo – a leprechaun balancing a basketball – looked cool. The 21 year old played basketball seriously until he was 14 but still plays the sport when he can, including in between tennis matches.

On Sunday evening, he played at Georgia Tech in Atlanta with fellow ATP World Tour players Taylor Fritz, Christopher Eubanks and Reilly Opelka. Kyrgios and Eubanks made a repeat visit to McCamish Pavilion on Tuesday for some more hoops.

“I’m enjoying my time in Atlanta. There’s obviously plenty of basketball hoops around where I’m getting some shots up,” Kyrgios told the NBA TV crew.

Watch the NBA TV segment

“This guy’s a hoopster.” Cellini said.

The three of them also watched footage of the two-on-two games at Georgia Tech.

“You’re not getting a lot of resistance,” Cellini said of one play when Kyrgios shot a three-pointer against the 6’11” Opelka.

Smith offered a kinder critique. “Now you’re on the block, nice pump fake. Oh, OK, OK,” he said.

Kyrgios said he’s an all-around basketball player. “I like to shoot the three but I love defense as well,” he said.

Cellini closed the six-minute taping by scheduling an intriguing return visit. He said Smith and Kyrgios would face each other in basketball and then on the tennis court.

“You won’t score in basketball but I might score in tennis,” Smith said.

Kyrgios eventually disagreed. “I feel like I’ll score,” he said.

“No, you won’t score,” Smith said. “Not in my sport. Not so much.”

Players often take about having a home court advantage, but Donald Young literally has one this week at the BB&T Atlanta Open.

The seventh seed took ATPWorldTour.com behind the scenes of his swanky Atlantic Station apartment, located just a few blocks from the tournament courts. Complete with a pool table, gym area and picturesque views of downtown Atlanta, Young is enjoying all the creature comforts of home when he’s not playing and practising in front of local supporters.

“It’s like a two-minute walk. It’s the best lodging to site all year for me. So I enjoy it,” he said. “I’m sleeping great. My bed. My pillows. It feels good.”

Being so close to home is also providing Young with extra incentive to stick around in the tournament. Having lost in the opening round of his four previous visits to the BB&T Atlanta Open, he fought off two match points on Monday to win his first-round match over fellow American Austin Krajicek.

“Me and my friends joke – I love playing [here] but I don’t play well,” he said. “I didn’t want to go out like that. I didn’t want Monday to be my last day at the tournament and have to watch it from my window.”

Next up for Young is a second-round clash against another American in Tim Smyczek.

Before rain halted play on Tuesday at the BB&T Atlanta Open, two first-round clashes were going the distance to determine their victor.

Horacio Zeballos was about to serve for the match, leading sixth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-7(5), 5-3, while Daniel Evans and NextGen star Yoshihito Nishioka were on serve in the third set after the Brit forced the decider.

Also in action today: Fifth seed Fernando Verdasco will make his Atlanta debut against Dusan Lajovic and American Bjorn Fratangelo meets Igor Sijsling of The Netherlands. Austin Smith, who led the Bulldogs to their fourth straight SEC Championship, faces No. 8 seed Taylor Fritz. Georgia Tech junior Christopher Eubanks and Georgia State senior Zack Kennedy join forces against fellow first-time team Thiago Monteiro and Nishioka.

The days of Monday men’s singles finals at the US Open are a thing of the past. The United States Tennis Association held a public demonstration on Tuesday of the new $150 million roof opening and closing over Arthur Ashe Stadium, ensuring that the final Grand Slam of the year will finish on time.

Billie Jean King and Jeannine Ashe, the wife of the late Arthur Ashe, were in attendance and pushed the buttons to open and close the 270,400 square-foot roof. When rain delays do take place, it takes less than six minutes to close the structure. A cooling system then immediately kicks in to control the humidity and heat inside the stadium.

“We told you we were going to transform the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and we were going to redefine spectacular,” said Gordon Smith, USTA Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. “We told you the US Open deserved nothing less than the best tennis venue in the world and we knew that the most world class of cities deserved nothing less.”

Rain delays at the US Open resulted in the men’s singles final being pushed from Sunday to Monday for five consecutive years between 2008-2012.

The new roof is just part of the overall transformation of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. New additions for 2016 include a new 8,125-seat Grandstand and 10 rebuilt outer courts, while the 2018 US Open will have a new Louis Armstrong Stadium with a retractable roof.

The narrative was all set for Fernando Verdasco to fall earlier this season.

The former World No. 7 was supposed to let the young up-and-comer, Frenchman Lucas Pouille, continue his ascent up the Emirates ATP Rankings and win his first ATP World Tour title in Bucharest.

Verdasco, though, had different plans. The 32 year old swept past Pouille 6-3, 6-2 to win the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy, his first title in two years. At the same time, the Spaniard reminded the tour that he plans to compete for titles for many years to come.

This week, in his debut at the BB&T Atlanta Open, Verdasco will try to continue his upstart 2016.

“It was great to win a tournament again,” he told ATPWorldTour.com in Atlanta. “I’m trying and working hard not only to win titles – of course winning titles is the best feeling at the end – but also to be competitive every week and to win matches. To try to be at the level that I used to be, meaning that if I play good I can beat almost every player in the world.”

He experienced that level earlier this season. In Australia, the left-hander knocked out countryman and fifth seed Rafael Nadal, coming back from two sets to one to win 7-6(6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2.

The Madrid native maintained his form by reaching the BNP Paribas Open third round before Nadal gained revenge. Verdasco found his most consistent play, though, on the Bucharest clay in April. He overcame compatriot Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Pouille to win the seventh ATP World Tour title of his career.

Two months later, the left-hander celebrated his second Top 5 win of the season by defeating Stan Wawrinka at The Queen’s Club 6-2, 7-6(3). His season improved even more last month when he reached his 21^st ATP World Tour final at the SkiStar Swedish Open (l. to Ramos-Vinolas).

Verdasco’s record so far this season is 22-15. His 2015 overall record: 24-26.

His ability to stay healthy has been crucial. For much of 2012 and 2013, he said he suffered from tendonitis in his knees and in his wrist. “It was very difficult. Very difficult years for me,” he said.

He also endured a couple of seasons on the ATP World Tour where not everything went his way. At the end of 2013, Verdasco was ranked No. 30 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Two years later, he had fallen to No. 49.

“You have a few injuries here, a few injuries there. You lose a few matches that maybe could change the ranking with a tight score. At the end, things don’t go your way and it’s not easy,” he said. “But you need to keep trying and fighting and working every day to try to come back. That’s what I’ve been doing the last few years… At 32 [years old], I think I’m having a very good year.”

The numbers say so as well. He’s No. 49 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, but No. 40 in the Emirates ATP Race To London. Verdasco will likely only climb both charts because he has few points to defend the remainder of the season.

“[I’m] looking forward to having a good second part of the season and hopefully to finish as high as possible,” he said.

This week, he’s one of 11 guys playing at the BB&T Atlanta Open for the first time. Verdasco, the fifth seed, opens on Tuesday against Serbian Dusan Lajovic, who won their lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting on clay last year in Sao Paulo.

“I’m just trying to do things I have to do as best as possible … I love tennis and I love this world and what I do I’ve been trying to do it all my life,” he said. “I didn’t change much I just have more experience, try to take care of my body more. At the end, just trying to be lucky, also.”