Kei Nishikori earned two service breaks in each set to beat Russia’s Karen Khachanov, last week’s VTB Kremlin Cup titlist, 6-2, 6-2 in 64 minutes on Thursday at the Erste Bank Open 500. The fifth-seeded Japanese star, who has a 38-17 match record in 2018, must reach the Vienna semi-finals in order to potentially improve upon his current position of 10th in the ATP Race To London. Nishikori qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for three consecutive years in 2014-16.

Dominic Thiem and John Isner, who are also attempting to qualify for the season finale at The O2 in London from 11-18 November, feature later today. Kyle Edmund, last week’s European Open champion, also plays in second-round action.

It was a title match that got away from Andrey Rublev, but now the Russian has qualified to make a second run at the Next Gen ATP Finals crown.

The 21-year-old Moscow native has qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals, joining Alexander Zverev of Germany, Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, Denis Shapovalov of Canada, Aussie Alex de Minaur and Americans Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz as players to have qualified for the 21-and-under event, to be held 6-10 November at the Fiera Milano. (Zverev will not play in Milan because of his Nitto ATP Finals qualification.)

Eight players will compete next month, with the final spot reserved for the winner of an all-Italian qualifying tournament to finish on 4 November. Rublev fell in last year’s Milan final to Hyeon Chung of South Korea. Here are five things to know about the fiery Russian:

1. He Played In A ‘One Direction’ Tribute Band
Rip forehands, record singles – Rublev does a bit of everything. Years ago, he and childhood friends Ivan Juravlev, Slava Naumkin and Vlad Naumkin formed the band “Summer Afternoon”. A few years ago, they released their first music video, a cover of One Direction’s “Steal My Girl”.

But don’t expect Rublev to drop his racquet in favour of a guitar anytime soon. He said in September 2015: “For sure in the future I would like to release some music… But tennis comes first and we’ll see what happens later. The band will do more music, but I don’t know if I’m going to be part of it or not. Right now, tennis is the most important thing for me.”

Watch: “Summer Afternoon” Covers “Steal My Girl”

2. It’s His Second Time In Milan
Last year Rublev was one of the leaders of the #NextGenATP group. The Russian not only qualified for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals; he was the tournament’s top seed and was dominating the final until Chung reversed momentum.

“I understand that I have to change, and I agree. I will try to do my best,” said Rublev, after losing despite leading by a set and 3-1. “I think even if you compare me in the beginning of the year, still I’m much better. Mentally I’m much better. I’m controlling better my emotions. But still, there is long way to go. If I want to compete with good players, it’s not enough.”

3. He Made History In Umag
Rublev was done. He had lost his final match in qualifying at the 2017 Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag and was thinking about his next tournament. But then Borna Coric withdrew, Rublev became a lucky loser, and the Russian enjoyed one of the best weeks of his career.

Read & Watch: Rublev Beats Lorenzi For Maiden Title In Umag

Rublev beat third seed and defending champion Fabio Fognini in the quarter-finals and home favourite Ivan Dodig in the semi-finals before knocking out Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi in the title match. Rublev became the seventh lucky loser to win an ATP World Tour title and the first since Rajeev Ram at Newport in 2009.

Watch Highlights: Rublev Wins Maiden Title In Umag

4. He Gets His Fight From His Dad
Rublev is an emotional player on the court, shouting and pumping himself up throughout the match. He gets that tenacity from his father, who was a boxer in Moscow.

Watch: At Home With Rublev In Moscow

5. In New York, He Was The Youngest Since…
Last year, during his second US Open, Rublev upset two Top 15 players – No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 14 David Goffin, who would later compete in the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals title match – en route to the quarter-finals, where he fell to No. 1 Rafael Nadal. Rublev became the youngest US Open quarter-finalist since Andy Roddick in 2001.

“The main thing now is to try to keep working harder and harder, to improve, because I still have a lot of things to improve,” Rublev said after losing to Nadal. “This match told me how far I am and how much I need to improve, so now it is time to try to be better and become stronger.”

A hidden dynamic of clay court versus hard court tennis is perfectly illustrated with points won behind second serves. You would naturally think that serving on a hard court would be preferred for both first and second serves, but it’s simply not the case.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of points won behind first and second serves on both hard and clay courts last season surprisingly reveals a higher win percentage behind second serves on clay.

The data set includes the leading 20 players in the First and Second Serve Points Won categories on both clay and hard in the 2017 season.

2017 First Serves: Leading 20 Players Average Points Won

It’s clear to see that first-serve performance was superior on hard over clay, but that flips when we examine second serves.

2017 Second Serves: Leading 20 Players Average Points Won

An analysis of World No. 1, Rafael Nadal confirms the advantage clay has over hard when the point starts with a second serve. In 2017, Nadal led the ATP World Tour in winning second serve points on both hard and clay courts, with his performance on clay being superior to hard.

2017: Nadal Second Serve Points Won

This dynamic was also true for one of the biggest servers on the ATP World Tour; John Isner. The 6’10” American won 56.1 per cent (510/909) of second-serve points on hard courts, but that rose to 58.3 per cent (187/321) on clay. Isner was the only other player besides Nadal that featured in the Top 10 in winning second-serve points on both clay and hard.

One reason to explain this dynamic is that raw power is sought after behind first serves, and the ball slows down less at impact on a hard court than a clay court. But power is not the main ingredient of second serves. The focus switches to what the ball does when it reacts with the court, with the granules of clay “grabbing” a ball better and producing a higher kick off clay than hard.

It turns out that a heavy kick second serve is rewarded more on clay than we ever thought.