Tennys Sandgren suffered a heart-breaking defeat in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, letting slip seven match points against 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer. The American was just one point away from reaching his first major semi-final.

But instead of walking off the court a winner,, Sandgren returned to the locker room and stared at the carpet, stunned.

“I’m just holding on like on a raft in the middle of the ocean,” Sandgren said, describing his thoughts at the time. “I don’t take losses particularly well in general, that one being extremely difficult. It’s still a loss and I’m still familiar with the downward emotional spike from a tough loss like that.

“It was just holding on to the important stuff and realising that it’s just one match. Yeah, it would have been sweet to win and it would have been awesome to make my first semi and all those good things, but it’s still a great tournament. Hopefully I’ll have another look and if not, oh well, too bad. I tried my best. There’s not much else you could do other than that and hope it works out for you.”

After all, there was a time when such opportunities seemed far away. Sandgren did not win his first tour-level match until the 2017 Citi Open, just after his 26th birthday. For years, he toiled on the ATP Challenger Tour, trying to build up his game and improve his FedEx ATP Ranking.

“It’s a tough gig. It’s a tough road. There are a lot of really good players,” Sandgren said. “You’ve got to put in your time to get better and improve. Unless you have those big results early, you’ve got to work and try to keep getting better as a player and keep improving and figuring out where you can make gains. That’s kind of how I spent four, five years on [the ATP Challenger] Tour.”

Sandgren did not crack the Top 100 until 12 June 2017. Since then he has reached his maiden ATP Tour final (2018 Houston), won his first title (2019 Auckland), and made two Grand Slam quarter-finals (2018, ‘20 Australian Open). But the American does not forget the long road he travelled to get there, and how difficult that grind was.

So why did he keep pushing forward?

“Partly stupidity. Not really sure what else to do. I felt like I’d already invested so much of my time into tennis in 20 something years that I’m probably as good at this as I’m for sure ever going to be at anything else, so I might as well stick it out, keep training hard, keep working and give it my best shot and just see what happens,” Sandgren said. “It’s either work hard or give up. Those are the two options. The option wasn’t to take it easy. There was nothing to rest on, so just kind of kept getting after it, kept working hard just to see if I could improve and see how good I could get.”

That mindset put him in position to play on Rod Laver Arena against an all-time great in Federer. But not only did he get to compete in that moment, he was on the brink of a major upset.

“If somebody would have told me that I would have had seven match points on Roger in the quarters of Australia while I was playing Challengers and I didn’t win, I would have been so gosh darn upset with myself,” Sandgren said, cracking a laugh. “Quarters of Australia, yes, but the seven match points thing, I don’t know if that would have helped me that much at the time.

“I find it pretty incredible what can happen if you keep working hard and over the course of time and who knows how long it will take in whatever it is that you’re doing, but if you treat it as a day-to-day thing, you really have no idea how far you can go in anything. Four, five, six years is a long time. It’s a lot of time and a lot of things can change and [you can] become, I don’t want to say anything that you want to be, but close to it.”

Sandgren had never practised with Federer before they played in Melbourne. He’d watched the Swiss star countless times, but actually being on court with him in a competitive setting conjured surprising thoughts.

“It was funny, I was thinking during the match, a really good buddy of mine, who is the assistant coach at Vanderbilt, Ryan Lipman… he’s got a pretty similar game: one-handed backhand, slice, likes to come forward, likes to serve and volley. We played in juniors, he’s from Nashville as well, and we played I don’t know how many times, 50, 100 times in practice, tournament matches, things like that,” Sandgren said. “So while we were playing, it’s obviously different and Roger is just on a different planet, but some of the point structures and how we’d go back and forth, it felt oddly familiar to me and I was thinking that during the match. I thought about my buddy and I was like, “I feel like I’ve played some of these points before,’ the short slice, dragging me in, things like that were things that I’d seen a bunch from my friend. We battled a lot together, so it was kind of surreal in that way.”

When Sandgren returned home to Tennessee after his loss, he went to dinner with Lipman in Nashville and told him that story.

“He was cracking up and I was like, ‘I was actually going to mention that if I had won the match in the presser, but I did not, so I wasn’t able to’,” Sandgren said. “He was kicking himself.”

Now, the World No. 56 needs to move on. His loss against Federer will remain in his memory forever, and it may still sting, but Sandgren competes this week on the other side of the globe at the New York Open, where he’ll play countryman Steve Johnson on Monday evening.

“Every week is different. Every week is a new week, so you’ve got to treat it like the count is back to zero and you’re just back on the grind,” Sandgren said. “Australia was great, it was a fantastic two weeks for me, but this is a new week and guys are fresh and hungry. If I’m not one of those guys that is also hungry to be out here and to compete and do well, then it’s not going to go well for me. So I need to keep that humble mentality and keep working hard.”

Cristian Garin didn’t always play his best tennis this week at the Cordoba Open, but the Chilean always discovered a way to be better than his opponent.

The 23-year-old right-hander won his third ATP Tour title on Sunday, coming back from a set down for the third consecutive match to beat top seed Diego Schwartzman 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 in central Argentina. After a slow start, Garin overpowered the home favourite, stepping into the court to put the Argentine on defence and leave him gasping for air.

The home crowd tried to will their man to his first title on home soil, but Garin played fearlessly in the second and third sets, hitting lines and never backing down against the 27-year-old Buenos Aires native.

Garin improved to 3-1 in ATP Tour finals, all of which have come in the past 12 months. The Chilean was off to a dismal start in 2020 before Cordoba, going 0-3 at the ATP Cup and falling in the second round of the Australian Open (l. to Raonic).

But Garin ended 2019 as one of the premier clay-court players on the ATP Tour and has started 2020 the exact same way.

Schwartzman had played only one final on home soil before Sunday, falling in the 2019 Argentina Open title match in Buenos Aires (l. to Cecchinato). But he enjoyed a nerves-free start, breaking three times in the opener, including in the third game when Garin double faulted for the break.

The Chilean struggled to steady himself in the baseline affair amidst the pro-Schwartzman crowd. The Argentine was doing as he pleased with his forehand and engaging Garin in lengthy forehand-to-forehand rallies.

In the second set, however, Garin calmed his level, breaking up their baseline routine with a backhand up the line to earn two break points at 2-3 on Schwartzman’s serve. Two points later, Schwartzman netted a routine backhand, and Garin had his break.

Schwartzman broke back at 3-5, but Garin stepped into the court more often to return the favour and take the second set.

In the deciding set, it was all Garin as the Chilean routinely stepped in front of the baseline and bludgeoned forehands and backhands that Schwartzman could only try to get back in play. Garin showed off his aggressiveness once more on match point, smashing a forehand return winner.

He will receive 250 ATP Rankings points and $91,625 in prize money. Schwartzman, who fell to 3-5 in ATP Tour finals, will take home $50,710 in prize money and 150 ATP Rankings points.

Third seeds Marcelo Demoliner/Matwe Middelkoop won their second ATP Tour doubles title as a team on Sunday at the Cordoba Open.

The Brazilian/Dutchman pairing saved both break points faced and beat home favourites and fourth seeds Leonardo Mayer/Andres Molteni 6-3, 7-6(4).

Demoliner/Middelkoop broke in the sixth game of the opener. They saw three more break points in the second set, but the Argentines saved them all.

In the tie-break, however, Demoliner/Middelkoop broke through for their second ATP Tour team title (2019 Moscow). They started playing together only last September at the St. Petersburg Open.

Demoliner/Middelkoop will receive 250 ATP Doubles Rankings points and split $30,900 in prize money. Mayer/Molteni were playing their fourth ATP Tour event as a team and in their first tour-level final. Molteni won the doubles title last year (with Jebavy).

The Argentines will receive 150 ATP Doubles Rankings points and split $15,840 in prize money.

Winning your maiden ATP Challenger Tour title is always a significant achievement. Whether it’s a teenager breaking through or an established veteran finally putting it all together, it is a massive moment for any player in their careers.

Words cannot describe the feeling of ecstasy and elation that comes with a first piece of silverware. And it’s not just the players that enjoy their moment in the spotlight. The impact can often extend to the country they represent, especially if that nation is first emerging on the tennis scene.

For Mohamed Safwat and his native Egypt, that moment finally arrived on Sunday. Safwat became just the second Egyptian to win a Challenger title and first since 1996, when Tamer El Sawy went back-to-back in The Bronx, New York. The long 24-year drought came to a close as Safwat fired a service winner out wide to clinch the title in Launceston, Australia.

“I can’t really describe how I feel,” Safwat told Egyptian sports journalist Reem Abulleil. “It’s something I’ve been chasing for a long time. I’ve been working hard towards it. Multiple times in the past I got very close to it but I couldn’t take it. This time, I never expected to win it in Launceston, never ever.

“I feel good and I think it’ll give me a push and confidence for the rest of the year. For me it’s good that all this is happening at the start of the year because that will give me a push for the rest of the year. I played four tournaments already and a lot happened for me.”

Read Reem’s full interview with Mohamed

Safwat defeated Alex Bolt 7-6(5), 6-1 to prevail on the hard courts of the Launceston International, capping an impressive week down under. He dropped just one set all tournament, having rallied from a set down to beat Kimmer Coppejans in the semis.

“I think this will give me a boost and confidence to play the bigger tournaments against tougher opponents.”

What a moment for Mohamed Safwat! Ten years after making his #ATPChallenger debut, the ?? has his maiden title. Champion in Launceston. pic.twitter.com/SRqP8W1XAG

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) February 9, 2020

Safwat has been flying the flag for Egypt for the past decade, as the only player from his country in the Top 200 of the FedEx ATP Rankings. Fellow North African nations of Tunisia and Morocco have both featured Challenger champions in that span. For a nation without a rich tennis history, a moment like this can provide a significant boon and inspire a new generation of Egyptian players.

“I took a different path than the generation before me,” Safwat added. “I committed to what I do, I didn’t give up on my dreams, I had a rough time throughout the years, ups and downs, and frustration and sadness but thankfully I was always surrounded by the right people.

“What I’m doing now will be good for kids back home and should motivate them that they can do it, with the right knowledge and the right people around you, you really can achieve it.”

The impact for Safwat personally cannot be understated. Nearly 10 years after making his Challenger debut, he finally lifted a trophy for the first time. A total of 133 tournaments came and went without tasting victory. Until now. And it comes just a few weeks after qualifying for a Grand Slam for the first time at the Australian Open. He did not drop a set in three matches to reach the main draw.

Mohamed Safwat makes Egyptian tennis history!

The 29-year-old becomes just the second ?? champion ever, claiming his maiden title in Launceston. First winner from Egypt since Tamer El Sawy in 1996. pic.twitter.com/g2m95ZPt4L

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) February 9, 2020

After suffering three previous final defeats, a composed Safwat needed just 72 minutes to triumph on Sunday. Runner-up in Kenitra, Morocco in 2016; Anning, China in 2018 and Helsinki, Finland in 2019, it was just a matter of time before the 29-year-old entered the winners’ circle.

“A lot of things are changing and this one feels very special. I probably can’t express how I feel and I can’t find the correct words to describe all this. This for me is a special thing. And because it comes with a career-high ranking, I’ll be 130 in the world.”

Currently sitting at a career-high of No. 157 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, Safwat is projected to rise to No. 130.

Gael Monfils equalled Richard Gasquet’s record of three Open Sud de France titles on Sunday, beating Vasek Pospisil 7-5, 6-3 on Sunday.

The World No. 9 saved all four break points he faced to become the eighth French champion in 10 editions of the ATP 250 event. Alongside three-time winners Monfils and Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2019) and Lucas Pouille (2018) have also delighted home crowds with a title run in Montpellier.

Monfils improves to 19-4 at the event after winning his third title in four final appearances. The 33-year-old also extends his unbeaten ATP Head2Head record against Pospisil to six matches.

Pospisil was aiming to lift his first ATP Tour trophy in his second final. The 29-year-old defeated second seed David Goffin in three sets to reach the championship match.

Monfils will now attempt to successfully defend his ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament title in Rotterdam. The 33-year-old beat Daniil Medvedev and Stan Wawrinka in back-to-back matches to lift the trophy last year.

Monfils earns 250 FedEx ATP Ranking points and €89,435 for lifting the trophy. Pospisil collects 150 ATP Ranking points and €47,105.

Nikola Cacic and Mate Pavic completed their team debut week with a trophy at the Open Sud de France, defeating Dominic Inglot and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-4.

The Serbian-Croatian team saved all four break points they faced and won 86 per cent of first-serve points (44/51) to take the title after 89 minutes. Cacic and Pavic dropped just one set en route to the trophy, which includes a straight-sets victory against top seeds Kevin Krawietz and Nicolas Mahut in the second round.

“It is the first time we were playing together,” said Pavic. “Considering that we were playing for the first time, I think we played good matches… We actually played all the matches pretty good. There was some good quality tennis and, in general, it was a good week.“

Cacic improves to 2-0 in ATP Tour finals, having lifted his maiden crown at last year’s Chengdu Open (w/Lajovic). Pavic adds a 16th tour-level trophy to his collection and has now won an ATP Tour event in each of the past six seasons.

“At the last moment, he asked me to play… It was a great week,” said Cacic. “I think I played very good and I helped him a lot. He has much more experience in doubles. Going home with the title, I couldn’t be more happy.”

Inglot and Qureshi were appearing in their first final as a team, having joined forces at the start of the 2020 ATP Tour season. On their team debut, the British-Pakistani duo reached the ASB Classic quarter-finals (l. to Krajicek/Skugor).

Cacic and Pavic receive 250 FedEx ATP Doubles Ranking points and share €30,690. Inglot and Qureshi collect 150 points and split €15,730.

Five years after capturing his maiden ATP Tour title in Auckland, Jiri Vesely added a second trophy to his collection on Sunday to complete a dramatic week at the Tata Open Maharashtra.

The Czech fired 26 aces to beat Egor Gerasimov 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-3 and become only the eighth player since 2013 to save match points in two matches en route to an ATP Tour crown. Vesely saved two match points to overcome Ilya Ivashka in a final-set tie-break to reach the semi-finals and advanced to the championship match after surviving four match points in another final-set tie-break against Ricardas Berankis.

Players To Win A Tournament After Saving Match Points In Two Matches (Since 2013)

The 6’6” left-hander improves to 2-1 in ATP Tour finals after winning his maiden ATP Head2Head match against Gerasimov. Vesely reached his first two championship matches in 2015, lifting the trophy in Auckland (d. Mannarino) and finishing as runner-up in Bucharest (l. to Garcia Lopez).

Gerasimov was aiming to become only the second Belarusian to win an ATP Tour singles title. In 2003, Max Mirnyi defeated Raemon Sluiter to lift his only tour-level singles trophy at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

Vesely receives 250 FedEx ATP Ranking points and collects $91,625 in prize money. Gerasimov gains 150 ATP Ranking points and earns $50,710.

The Rotterdam Ahoy, nestled in a vast concrete park in the south of the city centre, has not been a happy hunting ground for Stefanos Tsitsipas. Three years on from his first ATP Tour match, when he was fresh out of juniors, having been awarded a wild card by Tournament Director Richard Krajicek, the Greek is still waiting for his first win at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.

The memory brings a smile to Tsitsipas’ face. “I’m always happy to be in Rotterdam, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a win here – three years in a row,” he says.

It’s an unwanted record for a player who has been in the Top 10 of the FedEx ATP Rankings for almost a year now. This time, he hopes for a big week.

“I played my first ATP Tour-level match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and I started the match really well, although I lost,” said Tsitsipas on Sunday. “I hadn’t played much on the [ATP] Challenger Tour. I was mostly playing Futures. Richard gave me the opportunity to play, with a wild card, which was really big for me at the time. It gave me my first experience of playing against the top guys… and Jo went on to win the tournament.

“I did feel like a superstar, playing at that tournament. I saw myself more as a junior. I was so excited and wanted to get the realisation of how the top guys played. It was my first good experience. In a way it does feel like a long time ago, but time has flown by so far. It’s not long really. I’m now playing here for a fourth time. I keep learning week-by-week and I can see a much different Stefanos to the first time I played here.”

Certainly, much has changed for the 21-year-old, who followed his 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals title success with a career-best 2019 season, which included the Nitto ATP Finals crown. What the past 12 months has taught Tsitsipas is the need to conserve energy, to not adhere so strictly to his perfectionist nature and let things go for future benefit.

“I am managing my energy wiser now, knowing when to push and when I need to conserve some energy,” said Tsitsipas, who has used a sports psychologist since the age of 12. “It was around this time last year when I felt exhausted… I think your mindset changes, sometimes you want to play more or play smarter and conserve energy. It’s about getting to understand the game better and processing certain things.”

The humbling nature of Tsitsipas’ 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 semi-final loss to Rafael Nadal at the 2019 Australian Open lingers in the memory and the Greek, who won three ATP Tour titles last year, continues to take lessons from that experience in Melbourne.

“Tough losses are important for my career as they make me want to come back stronger, and without them I feel like I’m perfect: which I’m not,” Tsitsipas told ATPTour.com. “They are crucial for everyone. That semi-final loss was painful, even though it was in three sets. I came so close to reaching a Grand Slam final, something I have always dreamed of doing. I also didn’t deliver much in that match, he played well. It was a shame, as I’d played well in the two weeks. I went back to the court two days [later] and started to improve.

“You can’t hit winners and aces all of the time, but I had this let-down [last] summer. I was trying to get better and better, but I started to go backwards — when you put in so much work and effort, but it has the reverse effect. But that’s what happened, and I knew I had to loosen up and not to expect too much. I had to enjoy the game, and not go out to get a big lead and win. You can’t get everything perfectly done.”

Having contested 28 tournaments last year, Tsitsipas hopes that better scheduling will prevent another burnout in 2020. He remained in Melbourne last month for a couple of days after his third-round exit to Milos Raonic, before returning to the south of France to train.

“Burnout is a mixture of a lot of things – stress before and after the match, and trying to reach your goals,” said Tsitsipas, who had a 4-6 match record in August and September last year. “It’s mostly mental, rather than physical, but it’s about just having a good balance on and off the court. Not so much seeing tennis as a job, more as a game. I feel like I took it too seriously at times, I expected too much, demanded too much. The more matches you have, with that mindset, the closer you are to burnout.

“I feel like I need to loosen up sometimes and enjoy the game. I also think I can’t play at 100 per cent every single point. I had a pretty spectacular year [in 2019] and the toughest thing will be doing the same this year, through different formulas. I don’t want to duplicate, but I want to do better. I am always aiming for more.”

This week, Tsitsipas will be hoping that Hubert Hurkacz, his first-round opponent, doesn’t continue his unwanted Rotterdam losing streak. Four of their five ATP Head2Head meetings came in 2019.

Andre Goransson and Christopher Rungkat completed their first appearances at the Tata Open Maharashtra in style on Sunday, beating third seeds Jonathan Erlich and Andrei Vasilevski 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 to lift their maiden ATP Tour title as a team in Pune.

The unseeded pairing saved six of seven break points in a tense championship match, with Rungkat firing a forehand return winner to clinch the trophy after 71 minutes. Goransson and Rungkat were making their fifth appearance as a team, with a runner-up finish at the 2019 Hyogo Noah Challenger in Kobe marking their previous best result.

The Swedish-Indonesian tandem defeated two seeded pairings en route to the title. Alongside their final win against Erlich and Vasilevski, Goransson and Rungkat recovered from a set down to overcome fourth seeds Cheng-Peng Hsieh and Denys Molchanov in the first round.

Erlich and Vasilevski were also bidding to capture their first team title, following a runner-up finish on their team debut at last month’s Apis Canberra International (Bendigo), an ATP Challenger Tour event. Erlich drops to 21-21 in tour-level doubles finals. Vasilevski was aiming to lift his first ATP Tour trophy after falling in his only previous final appearance at the Generali Open in 2017 (w/Podlipnik-Castillo).

Goransson and Rungkat gain 250 FedEx ATP Doubles Ranking points and split $30,900 in prize money. Erlich and Vasilevski receive 150 points and share $15,840.