#NextGenATP Aussie Alexei Popyrin won nearly 70 per cent of his service points and beat American Denis Kudla 6-3, 6-4 on Monday at the BB&T Atlanta Open.

Popyrin, behind nine aces, improved to 7-11 on the season and will next meet fourth seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France. Popyrin, No. 95 in the ATP Rankings, broke into the Top 100 and reached a career-high of No. 91 on 15 July.

Brit Cameron Norrie fought past seventh seed Jordan Thompson of Australia 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3 and will next meet the winner between South Korean qualifier Soonwoo Kwon and Indian Prajnesh Gunneswaran. American Bradley Klahn will face third seed Alex de Minaur after his 7-6(3), 7-5 win against Romanian Marius Copil.

Did You Know?
Popyrin, 19, is the third-youngest player in the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings. Fellow #NextGenATP 19-year-old Miomir Kecmanovic, the second-youngest competitor in the Top 100, is also in the Atlanta draw. He opens his tournament against American Jack Sock on Tuesday.

After qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals in singles in 2017, Jack Sock finished the 2018 season at No. 106 in the ATP Rankings with a 9-22 tour-level record. This January, things went from bad to worse. During a practise at the Australian Open, the American tore two ligaments in his thumb. 

Positive things don’t always come the way you expect, but, in a way, the six months Sock missed before returning at this week’s BB&T Atlanta Open have rejuvenated him.

“2018 was a year to forget. January was a month to forget here. It’s never great to get injured. It’s very unfortunate to get injured obviously, but I think it was potentially the biggest blessing in disguise for my career,” Sock told ATPTour.com. “So to be able to take those months and get a new mentality, enjoy playing the sport again and get excited about playing and come back out, I’ll be ready to fire.”

From the 2014 Australian Open through his trip to Melbourne this year, Sock missed just one Grand Slam. He travelled the world week-in and week-out, capturing four ATP Tour singles trophies and climbing as high as No. 8 in the ATP Rankings. But for six months, he was back to ‘normal’ life.

“Obviously the biggest difference was just not being on the road every week. It was weird and amazing being home for months at a time. It’s weird being at home for that long and being in the United States for that long,” Sock said. “We’re usually out and about, so that was probably the biggest difference. I was able to spend time with family and friends, so it’s been amazing.”

As far as recovering, Sock’s thumb was so impaired that there were times when he couldn’t use a Q-Tip or brush his teeth with his right hand. The injury wasn’t just keeping him off the court, but it was interfering with his daily life.

“If there’s a really tight bottle cap, I still can’t open it normally,” Sock said. “It definitely gets in the way sometimes, but now I’m able to do pretty much everything.”

Sock’s biggest weapon is his forehand, which he torques with heavy topspin to either hit winners past his opponents or at least open up the court. Part of producing that stroke involves putting pressure on the grip with his thumb, which took time for him to be able to do.

“It’s still a little stiff. I was hoping to maybe start a little bit earlier than this and maybe have played a couple tournaments leading into the [US Open Series], but you don’t realise how much you need your thumb in daily life and in tennis and how I hold it, the forehand was the last thing I was able to do,” Sock said. “It’s still a little stiff. It’ll be stiff for maybe a year to 18 months they said, but I’m able to manage it and play.”

More than anything, Sock is happy to be back on the court. In the first round in Atlanta, he will face Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.

“Overall I feel very refreshed. I’m excited to play again, which I haven’t been able to say that in a long time,” Sock said. “I’m definitely excited to get out there and compete again.”

Sock is currently World No. 180. But to him, his ranking is of little consequence at the moment. In reality, the American is starting fresh.

“I’m just going to go play tennis for the first time in a while. I’m just going to go be happy on the court and enjoy playing and I’ll be the underdog now, which will be nice. I’ll be the ranking underdog and be able to go out and play free and have a smile on my face,” Sock said. “If I win, amazing. If I don’t win, I’m out there playing again. It’s not going to bother me.”

Spaniards Pablo Andujar and Roberto Carballes Baena, both former ATP Tour titlists, fought through three-setters on Monday to advance at the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad.

Andujar, 2014 champion and seventh seed, rallied after a mid-match dip to beat Austrian Dennis Novak 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, and sixth seed Carballes Baena needed two hours, 33 minutes to beat Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 6-7(1), 6-3, 6-2.

Andujar will meet the winner between Italian qualifier Filippo Baldi and Japan’s Taro Daniel. Carballes Baena, the 2018 Ecuador Open champion, will face another Italian in Stefano Travaglia, who beat Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 7-6(7), 6-3.

Seven Spaniards are in the Gstaad singles draw, including the top two seeds, Roberto Bautista Agut and Fernando Verdasco, along with Tommy Robredo, 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals semi-finalist Jaume Munar and Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Elsewhere, Italian Thomas Fabbiano set up a second-round meeting with countryman and Antalya champion Lorenzo Sonego, the fourth seed. Fabbiano saved 10 of 12 break points against Swiss wild card Sandro Ehrat and advanced 6-4, 7-5. Czech Jiri Vesely broke four times and beat Latvian Ernests Gulbis 7-5, 7-5. The left-hander will next meet German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, a 6-4, 6-4 winner against #NextGenATP Frenchman and eighth seed Corentin Moutet.

Nick Kyrgios has hit some thrilling trick shots, and his campaign in the BB&T Atlanta Open has not begun yet.

On Monday, the Aussie met with Torch George of the Harlem Globetrotters, a basketball team known for its high-flying acrobatics and tricks. The pair shared their love for basketball before heading out to a couple of hoops on the grounds to compete against one another and challenge a ball boy and a fan. It was a long time coming for Kyrgios, who watched the Globetrotters at home in Canberra when he was a kid.

“It was a lot of fun. Obviously, basketball is a sport that I probably can’t live without. I’m always following it,” Kyrgios told ATPTour.com. “So to have someone like Torch come down, someone who has played in the WNBA, she’s amazing. She taught me some new tricks, which was really fun. It was awesome.”

.@Globies: 1@NickKyrgios: 0

You put up a good fight though, Nick 😉👏@BBTatlantaopen | #AtlantaOpen pic.twitter.com/opw5x0CZwk

— ATP Tour (@ATP_Tour) July 22, 2019

Before heading out to play, George presented Kyrgios with a Globetrotters jersey. There was also a jersey for the Washington Generals, the team that battles the Globetrotters in all their games.

“The Generals? I want to be on your team!” Kyrgios joked.

A crowd quickly gathered as Kyrgios and George began shooting various shots — from the normal variety to behind the back and between-the-legs shots. After playing each other in a game of ‘HORSE’, the stars then invited a fan and a ball boy to a challenge before signing autographs for the fans who gathered.

“It was awesome, I’m so excited. He was so cool and down to Earth. One of the biggest tennis stars in the world, the fact that he’s so down to Earth is so cool,” George said. “His love for the game of basketball, he’s so passionate about it, so we instantly clicked. It was so natural. We had a good time playing HORSE and meeting the fans out there, so it was cool, a great day.”

Kyrgios is partnering American Tommy Paul on Monday evening against fourth seeds Radu Albot and Artem Sitak. Kyrgios, who is not competing in singles in Atlanta, claimed his lone ATP Tour doubles title last year in Lyon alongside Jack Sock.

George will return to Atlantic Station Monday evening to watch her first professional tennis match with Kyrgios in action. “Have you seen his highlights? Oh my God!”

Kyrgios is excited to perform in front of his new friend.

“I’m going to try to put on a show for you, and at the end of the day we’ll hopefully get a win as well.”

You are hitting a first serve to any of the Big Three with the goal of avoiding a deep return. Where is it best to serve: wide or T?

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer’s return depth against first serves identifies that serving down the T will draw more short returns than serving out wide. The data set comes from ATP Masters 1000 events and Nitto ATP Finals from 2011 to 2019.

When you combine both the Deuce and Ad Court data, serving down the T brings more short returns back into the service box and fewer returns deep near the baseline from the Big Three.

The three depths of return:
Short = in the service box
Mid-Court = service line to halfway back to the baseline
Deep = Halfway between the service line and baseline, back to the baseline

An initial guesstimate that serving wide would elicit fewer returns deep in the court because of a greater distance the ball has to come back is unfounded.

A counter-argument may have more weight, that there is more “runway” to land the ball crosscourt, therefore the players are going for more with their return from a wider position. A tennis court is 78′ long straight down the middle, but 82’6” from corner to corner.

Djokovic, Federer & Nadal Combined: Return Depth from Wide and T

Novak Djokovic
The World No. 1 hits his deepest returns against a first serve from out wide in the Ad Court with his backhand return, at 29 per cent. Overall, Djokovic’s backhand return from wide in the Ad Court was able to get the ball deeper than any location compared to Federer or Nadal.

Djokovic’s First-Serve Returns

Rafael Nadal
Nadal stands the deepest in the court to return first serves, and correspondingly hits his return the shortest in the court compared to Djokovic and Federer. The location where Nadal was able to get the return the deepest was from wide in the Deuce Court with a backhand return.

Nadal’s First-Serve Returns

Roger Federer
Federer’s forehand return from wide in the Deuce Court got the ball the deepest, at 28 per cent. The other three locations were all very even, within a percentage point.

Federer’s First-Serve Returns

Returning the ball deep is not always possible against an accurate serve to the corners in the service box, but this insight provides a new layer of understanding as to how the Big Three are able to get their returns deep against the biggest shot in our sport.

There’s something about playing at the Hamburg European Open for #NextGenATP German Rudolf Molleker. For the second year in a row, the teenager spurred an upset to begin the ATP 500 clay-court tournament.

Molleker, 18, knocked out two-time champion Leonardo Mayer of Argentina on Monday 7-6(8), 6-4, saving all three break points against the 2014 and 2017 champion. Molleker beat Mayer in 2017 Hamburg qualifying before the veteran right-hander took advantage of his lucky-loser entry and raced to the title.

On Monday, Molleker saved two set points in the opener, broke in the first game of the second set and never faced a break point the rest of the way. It’s his fourth tour-level win (4-8) and best by ATP Ranking (No. 51). Molleker beat No. 62 David Ferrer last year in Hamburg.

The win against Mayer will only propel the 18-year-old in the ATP Race To Milan standings. Molleker is currently in 15^th place in the Race (250 points), which will determine seven of the eight 21-and-under players who compete at the Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 5-9 November at the Palalido Allianz Cloud in Milan.

The eighth place will go to an Italian wild card. Molleker is 388 points behind seventh-placed Ugo Humbert of France.

More On #NextGenATP Molleker
See Who Molleker Is Chasing In The ATP Race To Milan
Flashback: Molleker Stuns Ferrer In Hamburg
Molleker Joins Exclusive Club With Maiden Challenger Title

Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics rushed past German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-0 in only 65 minutes to pick up his first victory in Hamburg.

The 27-year-old Fucsovics, who won his maiden ATP Tour title last year on clay in Geneva, broke five times against the 35-year-old Kohlschreiber, a two-time semi-finalist in Hamburg, and will next meet top seed Dominic Thiem or Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas, who are scheduled to play on Tuesday.

Russian Andrey Rublev, a two-time Next Gen ATP Finals semi-finalist (2017 finalist, l. to Chung; 2018 l. to Tsitsipas) upset eighth seed Cristian Garin, a two-time clay-court titlist this year (Houston, Munich), 6-4, 7-6(5). Rublev improved to 10-9 on the season and will face the winner of #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud and Dutchman Robin Haase in the second round.

In other action, France’s Jeremy Chardy outlasted fifth seed Benoit Paire 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-3, and 2016 titlist Martin Klizan converted all five break points to rout German wild card Daniel Altmaier 6-2, 6-2. Chardy will play countryman Richard Gasquet or Indian qualifier Sumit Nagal, and Klizan will face a Serbian, either sixth seed Laslo Djere or Filip Krajinovic.

When most players return to their home tournament, their week is filled with rare opportunities to enjoy home comforts and spend time with family.

But that isn’t the case for Alexander Zverev, who is preparing to make his first appearance at the Hamburg European Open since 2016. The Hamburg-born star travels with his closest relatives, who provide a vast support system as he battles for the top prizes on the ATP Tour.

“Most of the time I’m with everyone, basically,” said Zverev. “My Dad as a coach, my brother as a player and my mum, my little puppy, Mischa’s wife now and hopefully his child is going to come on Tour a lot as well.

“Basically, the whole family is always together. [We] always travel together and do all the fun activities… in different cities.”

Spending more than 10 months of the year on the road, Zverev is rarely away from his family which includes his coach, Alexander Zverev Sr. and his brother, Mischa Zverev. In March, Zverev joined forces with his brother to lift the doubles title at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC. The siblings have reached seven ATP Tour doubles finals as a team and also triumphed at the 2017 Open Sud de France.

“It is obviously great to have your family around, you never really get homesick,” said Zverev. “You never really have the urgency to go home like other players maybe do. It is obviously great to have the close ones that know you the best and to always have them around.”

The 6’6″ German has compiled a 25-14 tour-level record in 2019, which includes a title run at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. In the championship match, Zverev saved two championship points to defeat Nicolas Jarry, the man he will meet in the first round in Hamburg.

Aside from his father and brother, Zverev has the support of two more key figures in his life on the ATP Tour. His mother, Irina, and his beloved dog, Lovik, both provide their own unique support off the court.

“My mum is very important with nutrition stuff and my dog always keeps me in a good mood,” said Zverev. “That is very nice of him. He is the easiest travel dog there is, you get him on a 16-hour plane and he just sleeps.

“He doesn’t bark, he doesn’t walk around, he doesn’t do anything. As long as he is around everybody, when he is around me and my mother, he can sit there quietly for as much time as he wants. So everybody has their own role.”

While every week may feel like a home tournament for Zverev, the World No. 5 will be keen to make another deep run in Hamburg. As a 17-year-old, Zverev dropped one set en route to the 2014 semi-finals before falling to David Ferrer.

Alex de Minaur got used to playing through pain. Early this season, the #NextGenATP Aussie was suffering from a groin injury that nagged at him, but did not deter him. Flying high off a run to the championship match of the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals and his maiden ATP Tour title in Sydney earlier this year, De Minaur climbed as high as No. 24 in the ATP Rankings at just 20 years old.

But the pain got worse. At the BNP Paribas Open, De Minaur was on anti-inflammatory medication, and he “could still barely move out there on court”. The 6’ right-hander’s game relies heavily on his supreme movement, yet he was struggling with a key part of his body that allows him to do so. After winning the first set 6-1, the Aussie lost in the first round at Indian Wells against World No. 217 Marcos Giron.

“That was when I was like, ‘I’ve got to stop’,” De Minaur, the third seed at this week’s BB&T Atlanta Open, told ATPTour.com.

De Minaur returned to his residence in Alicante, Spain, where for two weeks, he was okay with recovering. But then, the competitive juices began to kick in.

“I’m not used to being at home for that long and, I mean, us tennis players, we need to go out there and compete, at least me. I’m a very competitive person, and it was tough for me. I had my outlets. I was playing golf a lot. But still, I needed to get back on court,” De Minaur told ATPTour.com. “Obviously seeing people go ahead of you and guys are playing these tournaments and seeing the results they were doing and me not being able to actually even be able to be out there and competing, that was very tough.”

De Minaur missed less than two months, but perhaps more glaringly, he let slip his momentum. Since returning at the Millennium Estoril Open in April, the #NextGenATP star has lost five of his seven tour-level matches.

“You get told to prepare for it and how you’re going to feel and it’s nothing like you think it’s going to be,” De Minaur said. “You come back, it takes a lot out of you, a lot of time to recover, and then you expect you’re going to be back to the same level you left off, so it was very tough.”

The World No. 34 does not think he needs to reinvent the wheel to change his fortunes. He is working hard on and off the court daily, and giving his best effort to regain his momentum.

“[It’s] just confidence. Playing matches, playing the big points right. It’s something that you take for granted when things are going well. But when you have to stop and try to get back into it, it’s tough,” De Minaur said. “At the moment, I’m in a very good headspace. I feel like I’ve been training the house down, playing some great tennis. Now I’m just keen to go out there and compete and play some good tennis.”

The Sydney-born De Minaur will hope that starts at this week’s ATP 250 tournament in Atlanta, where he will face American Bradley Klahn or Romanian Marius Copil in the second round. A year ago on his debut here, De Minaur fell in his second match against five-time champion John Isner. But most importantly, he is happy to be battling out on the court.

“The beauty of this sport is that you have the highest of highs when you win, and the lowest lows. Just being able to keep grinding and getting that winning feeling, it overcomes any bad feeling you’ve had in the past month,” De Minaur said. “To just be tough, you’re playing against an opponent. It’s almost like war out there, you’re trying to prove that you’re tougher than him and you’re not going to give up, and that’s very powerful once you get off the court.”

De Minaur isn’t thinking about returning to his career-high ATP Ranking or adding another title to his resume or even regaining the level that helped him ascend from outside the Top 200 at the start of last season well into the Top 50. His focus is as high as he can find.

“You can never be content. Even though I had an incredible rise, the next year is always 10 times harder because you’ve got to back up everything. Everyone knows you. Everyone’s out there to get you, so you have to keep improving every single day, and I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing and how I’m putting myself in great positions,” De Minaur said. “You’ve got to keep pushing until you get to the highest you can get. That’s the ultimate goal for anyone. I’m never going to be happy being where I am. I’ll always want to be even higher. That’s just my competitive spirit and willingness to just keep improving and keep getting better. It’s my passion and I’m fortunate enough to be able to call my job my passion, so it’s not that bad.”

And if De Minaur should lose early this week in the Georgia heat, the Aussie is not going to be overwhelmingly concerned. Last year’s Sydney and Washington, D.C. runner-up knows that it is simply back to work.

“I feel like I’m doing all the right things, putting myself out there. If it doesn’t happen this week, next week or the week after, I’m going to keep doing the same things,” De Minaur said. “I’m going to do all the right things, be mentally strong, physically strong and I’m playing good tennis, so I think it’s just a matter of time.”

No. 38 (Career High) Nicolas Jarry, +26
In his third ATP Tour championship match, Jarry claimed his maiden title at the Swedish Open. The Chilean did not drop a set en route to the trophy, beating Cordoba titlist Juan Ignacio Londero in the championship match. Jarry joins his grandfather Jaime Fillol Sr. as a tour-level champion and soars 26 spots to a career-high No. 38 in the ATP Rankings. Read More.

No. 26 Dusan Lajovic, +10
Three months after contesting his maiden tour-level final at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (l. to Fognini), Lajovic captured his first ATP Tour crown at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag. The fourth seed defeated 2017 titlist Andrey Rublev in his opening match and overcame qualifier Attila Balazs in the championship match. Lajovic jumps 10 positions to No. 26 in the ATP Rankings, three places from his career-high mark of No. 23. Read More.

No. 56 (Career High) Juan Ignacio Londero, +15
The Argentine battled through the draw in Båstad to reach his second ATP Tour final. Londero rallied from a set down against Hugo Dellien and 2018 runner-up Richard Gasquet to reach the semi-finals, where he defeated 2016 champion Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Despite falling to Jarry in the final, Londero rises 15 spots to a career-high No. 56 in the ATP Rankings.

No. 71 (Career High) Alexander Bublik, +12
The 22-year-old claimed four straight three-set victories to reach his first tour-level championship match at the Hall of Fame Open. Bublik defeated Alex Bolt, Viktor Troicki, Tennys Sandgren and Marcel Granollers, before a straight-sets loss to four-time winner John Isner. Bublik leaps 12 places to No. 71, a career-high position for the Kazakh, in the ATP Rankings.

Other Notable Movers
No. 49 Joao Sousa, +7
No. 51 Leonardo Mayer, +9
No. 63 Marco Cecchinato, -23
No. 65 Richard Gasquet, -15
No. 85 Albert Ramos-Vinolas, +14
No. 93 Steve Johnson, -25
No. 94 Bradley Klahn, -10
No. 100 Matthew Ebden, +10