Rafa in red? Just as good as Rafa in every colour. The No. 1 player in the ATP Rankings was in complete control on Wednesday night during his North American hard-court summer season debut, beating Frenchman Benoit Paire 6-2, 6-3 at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

The Spaniard broke six times, and although he struggled on serve in the second set, losing his serve three times, the outcome was never in doubt as Nadal improved to 4-0 against Paire in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Even the new 25-second shot clock didn’t seem to bother Nadal, who was playing with the innovation for the first time.

“I think I played a solid match. It’s true that with myself in the second set I had some troubles, but my return worked well. And it was not about the serve. It was more about the mistakes from the baseline, in my opinion,” Nadal said.

“Here it’s important to be on the rhythm. It’s important to play matches. It’s not about tricks. It’s about playing well. These tournaments are so hard. Since the beginning you play against the Top 50 players. So it’s a big test from the real first round, no?… You need to be ready. And today I found a way to be through, and let’s try again tomorrow.”

The Spaniard feasted on Paire’s second serve, winning 80 per cent of the points (28/35) and put on a show for the fans on Centre Court, who hadn’t seen him in Toronto since 2010 and haven’t seen him hoist a trophy there since 2008. (Nadal has won three Rogers Cup titles – 2005, 2008 and 2013 – but his 2005 and 2013 titles came when the event was played at Montreal).

Nadal would pound Paire’s backhand with heavy forehand after heavy forehand, only to eventually drop shot short to the other side. During one exchange, at 4-2 in the first set, Paire could only throw his racquet as he watched Nadal’s volley float past him.

The 32-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion was playing for the first time since he fell in the Wimbledon semi-finals to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. The Spaniard, who improved to 36-3 on the year, is going for his fifth title of the season. He nearly swept the European clay-court swing, winning his 11^th Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Roland Garros titles.

But this week’s Masters 1000 tournament in Canada is only his second hard-court event of the season. Nadal fell in the quarter-finals at the Australian Open (ret. vs. Cilic).

Nadal will next face Swiss Stan Wawrinka, who saved four match points to outlast Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 1-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(10). Wawrinka erased all of the match points in the final-set tie-break, at 5/6, 6/7, 8/9 and 9/10 before converting his second match point to finish the 22-point tie-break.

Nadal leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 16-3. The two have met in one Masters 1000 final (2013 Madrid) and two Grand Slam finals, including their most recent meeting at the 2017 Roland Garros.

Flashback: Nadal Beats Wawrinka For Historic 10th Title In Paris

Four-time former champion Novak Djokovic once again put together a solid service performance at the Rogers Cup to book his place in the third round on Wednesday.

The ninth-seeded Serbian, who has now won 21 of his past 24 matches, knocked out Toronto resident and wild card Peter Polansky 6-3, 6-4 over 85 minutes in the first match of the day on Centre Court. Twenty minutes after the match ended, heavy rain suspended play.

Djokovic will now prepare to face seventh-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem or Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. Djokovic leads Thiem 5-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, including wins in all three of their hard-court meetings, but Thiem has won their past two matches on clay at Roland Garros in 2017 and at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in April. Djokovic has not played Tsitsipas. 

Having started the year with a 6-6 record, Djokovic has since gone 21-3 (27-9 overall) and this week in Toronto marks his first tournament since lifting his fourth trophy — and 13th Grand Slam championship — at Wimbledon on 15 July. He is currently in fifth position in the ATP Race To London for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held from 11-18 November at The O2.

Former World No. 1 Djokovic worked his way into the match against Polansky by cutting down on early groundstroke errors. He dropped his opening two service points, but found success behind 12 of his next 14 deliveries. Polansky played a patient game, but at 3-4, the Canadian made four straight errors — finishing his service game with a second double fault — to be broken and give Djokovic the initiative. Djokovic won 15 of his 18 first-service points in the 34-minute opener.

Djokovic needed to bide his time in the second set, converting his fifth break point opportunity of the ninth game when Polansky struck a forehand long. Djokovic, who hit seven aces and committed 29 unforced errors, advanced to the third round after Polansky hit a backhand return wide.

When asked about Djokovic’s qualities, Polansky said, “He raises his level on the big moments. I only got one free point on a 30-All or deuce or break point. But what I found trickiest out there was just his serve locations. He doesn’t have the biggest serve, but he’s putting every serve on the line, or an inch from the line, every time.

“When we got into those baseline rallies, I felt really good. I felt like whoever had the first cut was just going to take the point. I felt like we were actually trading baseline points… Even when I was able to get a forehand, I felt in control, which has given me some confidence against a Top 10 player.”

The 31-year-old Djokovic, who has compiled a 37-6 record at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament since his title-winning debut in 2007, also lifted the trophy in 2011-12 and 2016. Overall, the Serbian has won 30 Masters 1000 crowns (30-14 record in finals).

The ATP, governing body of men’s professional tennis, has announced the opening of an international tender process to determine the future location of the ATP World Tour’s season finale, the Nitto ATP Finals, beyond 2020.

The Nitto ATP Finals is the year-end climax to the men’s professional tennis season, featuring only the world’s best eight qualified singles players and doubles teams as they battle it out for the last title of the season and the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world.

The prestigious season-ending tournament is to be held at The O2 in London through to 2020, where it has been staged to wide acclaim since 2009. The event has successfully established itself as one of the major annual sporting events worldwide, with more than 250,000 fans attending the event annually, and global viewership figures reaching an average of 95 million viewers each year.

Buy Your London 2018 Tickets

Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “Our season-ending tournament has been a remarkable success story since it moved to London in 2009, and we look forward to continuing the tournament’s growth over the next three years at The O2 through to 2020.

“The tournament’s popularity and stature have reached unprecedented heights in London, which has attracted significant interest from potential future host cities over the years. We feel the time is right to undertake this international tender process as we look to secure the event’s future beyond 2020. The O2 has set a very high bar, and we expect that staying in London beyond 2020 will also be among the options for consideration as we go through this process.”

The tournament was first held in Tokyo in 1970 and has been staged in some of the major cities around the world, including New York City, Sydney, and Shanghai. The season finale’s longest stay in a single venue was across 13 consecutive editions at Madison Square Garden from 1977-1989.

The ATP has chosen The Sport Business Group at Deloitte to manage the bid process, which begins from today with an expression of interest phase. Any interested parties must submit their official applications by 2 November 2018, after which a short list of potential candidate cities will be announced on Friday 14th December, with a final decision to come not before March 2019.

Any parties interested in submitting an expression of interest are invited to contact Deloitte at: [email protected].

For more information on the opportunity, click here.