A trio of former Huoston titlists took to the red dirt on Thursday, and all three advanced to the quarter-finals.

Top seed and 2013 champion John Isner claimed his eighth match in a row, winning 93 per cent of his first-serve points (28/30) to beat Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen 6-4, 6-2 in only 65 minutes at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship.

Isner, No. 9 in the ATP Rankings, is fresh off his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the Miami Open presented by Itau. The 32-year-old will next face countryman and defending champion Steve Johnson, who saved six of seven break points to beat #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4.

The sixth-seeded Johnson hit 12 aces and broke Tiafoe three times to reach his second quarter-final of 2018 (Delray Beach SF).

“It was windy today.. I just felt like things were going to go both ways, good and bad… You really can’t let the little things affect you. I think I did a great job of that in the second set,” Johnson said.

Tiafoe’s fellow #NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz had never beaten compatriot Ryan Harrison, losing to him last year at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Dallas and during qualifying at the 2016 Rolex Paris Masters.

Read More: Isner, Bryans, Tiafoe Help With Hurricane Recovery In Houston

But the 20-year-old Fritz came back to win their first tour-level contest 3-6, 6-0, 6-3. Fritz won a higher percentage of his second serves than he did his first (68 to 63) and broke five times.

Fritz will next play third seed Jack Sock, who won his fourth match of the year 6-4, 6-4 against Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos. Sock lost his first nine break points but later broke Zeballos two times to advance. 

“He was coming up with some amazing shots, some amazing serves on the break points,” Sock told the Tennis Channel. “But I felt like I was playing well, kept playing my style, aggressive, looking for forehands, obviously, and it was paying off.”

Sock won the Houston title in 2015, his first ATP World Tour singles crown, and is making his sixth consecutive visit to the River Oaks Country Club. He will try to win back-to-back matches for the first time this season against Fritz. Sock leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0.

DID YOU KNOW?
Isner now has 10 wins on the year. The top American had won only two matches before winning the Miami title earlier this month.

The ATP World Tour players saw the same devastating photos from Hurricane Harvey in Houston, and they all asked the same question: “How can we help?”

Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Frances Tiafoe, John Isner, Kevin Anderson and Sam Querrey compete at tournaments around the world, and they all call somewhere else “home” when they’re not traveling.

Yet they still thought of Houston as Hurricane Harvey dumped about 30 inches of rain and displaced almost 30,000 people in the southeastern Texas city last August.

“From the start, ‘It was how can we help? How can we make a difference? How do we help get Houston back on its feet?’” said Bronwyn Greer, tournament director at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston.

“You wouldn’t think that from guys who play all over the world. They could donate or help anywhere… It was very touching and inspires a lot, I think, in both the community and us as a tournament, to want to make sure we’re giving back in the best way that we possibly can.”

The players worked with Greer to donate money, and this week, they saw the courts – and the lives – that their generosity will affect. The Bryans, Isner, Tiafoe, Querrey and Steve Johnson visited Sunnyside Park in central Houston and hit around with about 40 possible future ATP World Tour stars, many of whom use the courts regularly.

The park, along with its adjacent community center, was flooded, like much of Houston last year, and the standing water ruined the courts, leaving cracks behind and turning the courts shades of brown and green.

“This neighborhood was hit very hard,” said Ellen Martin, with the Houston Tennis Association National Junior & Tennis Learning program. “A lot of kids go through here each week and to have this place taken out, with their homes and their schools, it was just a triple whammy. It was a very very difficult time for everybody.”

The tennis courts at Sunnyside Park, like much of Houston, was hit badly by Hurricane Harvey. (Photo: Drew Carlisle/ROCC)

“It’s bigger than tennis,” said #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe. “Terrible things happen everywhere, and it’s always good to give back, and that’s what sports are about, togetherness. It brings people together.”

The visit was especially meaningful to the 20-year-old American, who grew up playing in public parks and visited similar grassroots programs with Martin when she worked in Maryland.

“It reminds me of where I started, very humble beginnings,” Tiafoe said. “I do my best every day to try to become someone to be able to give back. Because I was given so much, I was very fortunate, very lucky.”

He was surprised, however, by one part of the trip: the kids’ skill levels. “Oh, that’s too good,” Tiafoe said as one ball trickled over the net.

The boys and girls were using topspin, taking the ball early – “He SABRs every ball,” Bob Bryan said – and volleying back and forth with the ATP players.

“They were way better than I thought they were going to be,” Tiafoe said. “Whoever’s coaching them is doing a good job.”

The boys and girls who play at Sunnyside Park in Houston will soon have resurfaced tennis courts. (Photo: Drew Carlisle/ROCC)

The kids knew their tennis, too. Greer quizzed them on who was who, and the kids correctly identified the Bryan twins, something that used to allude Isner.

“It took me four years to tell them apart. How did you do that!?” Isner said.

“All of us really enjoyed our time here, and it’s the absolute least we can do,” he told ATPWorldTour.com. “To be a very, very small part of the rebuilding process is very humbling for all of us.”

The Bryans, like Isner and Tiafoe, played in grassroots programs before finding their way to Grand Slams and ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events. Yet, despite the Bryans’ 37 Masters 1000 team titles, they haven’t forgotten about where they started.

“Our foundation donated money to help redo the courts, which is hopefully going to make a big impact in the community,” Mike Bryan said.

Bob Bryan said: “We’ll be back next year. We’ve been coming to Houston for 20 years; we’re not retiring anytime soon. We’ll be back to see the new facility and hopefully see some of these kids grow into great players.”

If the kids keep practising, that very well could happen. They already have that all-important self-belief.

“I’m pretty good, not on their level, but pretty good,” said Zavier Smith, a 14-year-old eighth grader who hit with the pros.

He, like the other kids and adults at Sunnyside Park, appreciated the ATP players making time for them. He said, “It’s inspiring, showing that you can do great things in life.”

Kyle Edmund reached his third quarter-final of 2018 at the Grand Prix Hassan II on Wednesday, after a 6-2, 6-4 win over Radu Albot.

The Australian Open semi-finalist needed just 74 minutes to secure his ninth win of the season, winning 83 per cent of points behind his first serve. “Playing Radu today, he puts a lot of balls in court, so I knew I had to beat him, instead of him giving me the match,” said Edmund. “It gives me another opportunity the day after to play again and that is the main thing.”

Edmund will meet Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri for a place in the semi-finals after the 34-year-old defeated eighth seed Mischa Zverev 6-2, 6-4. Jaziri saved all eight break points he faced on serve, and broke the German on three occasions, to book a second career meeting with the World No. 26. Jaziri leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 1-0.

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Nikoloz Basilashvili also booked his spot in the last eight in Marrakech, overcoming home favourite Lamine Ouahab 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3. The Georgian took two hours and 31 minutes to overcome the wild card, who stunned third seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in his opening match on Wednesday. Basilashvili will face Portugal’s Joao Sousa in the quarter-finals.

Sousa continued his recent run of form to beat Mirza Basic 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the first match on Court Central. The 29-year-old, who reached the Round of 16 at the Miami Open presented by Itaú last month (l. to Chung), won 78 per cent of points on his first delivery to beat the Diema Xtra Sofia Open champion after just over two hours of play.

Did You Know?
In six tournament editions between 2009 and 2014, the Grand Prix Hassan II was won on five occasions by a Spaniard. Juan Carlos Ferrero (2009), Pablo Andujar (2011- ’12), Tommy Robredo (2013) and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez all tasted success, with Stan Wawrinka the only exception in 2010.

Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan began their bid for a seventh Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship title in style on Wednesday, beating Taro Daniel and Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-1.

The Miami Open presented by Itaú champions took just 46 minutes to win their sixth consecutive match on tour, winning 81 percent of points behind their first serves and breaking their Japanese opponents on five occasions. The top seeds are looking to reach their fourth consecutive final on tour, having reached finals in Acapulco and Indian Wells before winning their 115th title as a team in Miami.

There was mixed success for the twins’ fellow seeded teams in Texas, as Dustin Brown and Frances Tiafoe upset second seeds Ryan Harrison and Ben McLachlan 6-2, 7-6(4). Brown and Tiafoe did not face a single break point in the 66-minute contest.

Third seeds Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos were also eliminated in the first round, with Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald securing a 6-3, 7-6(0) win over the South American duo. But fourth seeded pairing Santiago Gonzalez and Donald Young survived, dominating a decisive Match Tie-break to defeat Argentina’s Guillermo Duran and Andres Molteni 6-3, 4-6, 10-1.

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The Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech witnessed a similar result for its top-seeded team, as Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya also dropped just two games to reach the quarter-finals.

Mektic and Peya took just 37 minutes to dispatch Moroccan wild cards Amine Ahouda and Yassine Idmbarek 6-0, 6-2. The Croatian-Austrian team conceded just four points behind their first serves en route to victory.

Marcus Daniell and Dominic Inglot also advanced, defeating Hans Podlipnik-Castillo and Andrei Vasilevski 6-3, 7-6(4). The third-seeded team saved all six break points they faced to reach the last eight. One seeded pairing would fall, however, as Jamie Cerretani and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi defeated Dutch fourth seeds Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop 6-3, 3-6, 10-3 in 75 minutes.

Did You Know?
The Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship has a long history of American doubles champions, with 28 previous editions featuring an American winner. The longest American absence from the title is four years, from 1970 inaugural champions Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner to 1974 where Jimmy Connors won the event alongside Romania’s Ilie Nastase.

In the era of social media, access to the past can be instant and there’s now rarely a need to look through books on dusty shelves. So if curiosity gets the better of 12-year-old Ryan and 15-year-old Christian Sampras today, they can simply type ‘Pete Sampras’ online and see for themselves the commitment, will and drive of their father, an iconic figure in the sport of tennis. “They are now both interested in what I did, watching clips on YouTube, and seek my advice about what they need to do and how much commitment it takes,” Sampras told ATPWorldTour.com. “Ryan’s now 12, and at the stage where he must take his tennis more seriously if he is to get better.”

Today, 25 years ago, on 12 April 1993, the American throwback to a bygone era, reared on stories of the great Australians of the 1950s and 1960s, started his journey at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. For much of Sampras’ career, his opponents weren’t just the likes of Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter and Marcelo Rios — incidentally, four of the eight players who knocked him off the top spot during his 286 total weeks at the pinnacle of men’s professional tennis — but the historic greats, such as Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and Roy Emerson.

“Every kid says they’d like to be World No. 1 as a dream growing up, but you don’t really mean it,” said Sampras. “The goal for me was always to win Wimbledon, to be mentioned in the same breath as Laver and Rosewall, but being No. 1 was the icing on the cake… Staying at No. 1 was the hardest part. You need heart, mind and talent to be a No. 1 for years. You need the heart to win when you’re not playing your best. You need the mind to overcome challenges and a strong will that few possess. You really need the whole package. It doesn’t come so often, it’s really something the all-time greats – such as [Roger] Federer and [Rafael] Nadal – have.”

Initially, Sampras wondered if he’d been left behind in a talented generation of American players, including Agassi, Michael Chang and Courier, who had first risen to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings on 10 February 1992 and won four Grand Slam championship titles by the age of 22. But Sampras, with one major to his name at the 1990 US Open, used Courier as his yardstick. “With Jim doing well, I remember the general feeling of wanting that too,” Sampras told ATPWorldTour.com, 25 years on. “His success and performances opened my eyes to being the No. 1. He had matured earlier than me and pushed me to work harder. I first got comfortable being No. 3, No. 2, but then it became a case of, ‘Yes, I can do that. I’m ready to be No. 1.’”

From ATP Vault (2014): Watch Sampras Uncovered

After Courier was upset by Jonathan Stark 6-4, 6-2 in the third round at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, Sampras stepped out onto centre court at the Ariake Coliseum on 9 April 1993 knowing that a quarter-final victory over fellow American David Wheaton would guarantee him No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. Distracted by the prospect a couple of times during his 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory, en route to that week’s Tokyo title (d. Brad Gilbert), it gave Sampras 3,591 points to Courier’s 3,563 points in the ATP Rankings. At 21 years and eight months, Sampras had become the fourth American at No. 1 — after Jimmy Connors (268 total weeks at No. 1), John McEnroe (170 weeks) and Courier (58 weeks) — and [at that time] was also the fourth youngest leader at the top of men’s professional tennis.

In the space of 12 calendar months, Sampras compiled an 80-16 match record, and seven titles from nine tour-level finals — including a runner-up finish at the 1992 US Open (l. to Stefan Edberg). While Sampras admitted getting to No. 1 in April 1993 was a “great achievement”, he wasn’t entirely happy. Sampras told ATPWorldTour.com, “I prepared to be No. 1 and when I got there, there was satisfaction, but it wasn’t until after I won Wimbledon (d. Courier) a few months later that I felt I deserved it. But certainly, after getting to No. 1, [my coach] Tim [Gullikson] and I felt that we could now push and work harder in order to win another major.”

Six days after Sampras first attained No. 1 in the ATP Rankings, the American hit 15 aces to beat defending champion Courier 6-3, 6-7(1), 7-6(2) over nearly three hours, in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay district, for his fourth crown of 1993 (also Sydney, Miami and Tokyo). Thereafter, for all but three weeks of that season, Sampras held onto the No. 1 ranking and he set an ATP World Tour record by becoming the first player to serve more than 1,000 aces in a year.

“I didn’t feel the impact of being No. 1 immediately,” remembers Sampras, who went 85-13 and won eight titles — including Wimbledon and the US Open — in 1993. “It was only when I came to Wimbledon, when there was the expectation that I could win a major or a big title that I felt that there really was an ‘X’ on my chest. It was in London that I realised I had the mind, the will and heart to be No. 1. You conduct more interviews and you really figure out what it means to be No. 1, how you’re going to go about holding onto it. In the end, it’s about winning matches and big tournaments.”

Between 19 April 1993 to 19 November 2000, Sampras spent 11 different stints at No. 1 – 12 April-22 August 1993 (19 weeks), 13 September 1993-9 April 1995 (85 weeks), 6 April 1995-28 January 1996 (12 weeks), 19 February-10 March 1996 (three weeks), 15 April 1996-29 March 1998 (102 weeks), 27 April-9 August 1998 (15 weeks), 24 August 1998-14 March 1999 (29 weeks), 29 March-2 May 1999 (five weeks), 14 June-4 July 1999 (three weeks), 2 August-12 September 1999 (six weeks) and 11 September-19 November 2000 (10 weeks).

“It was comfortable being No. 1,” Sampras told ATPWorldTour.com. “I knew what I needed to sacrifice and worked really hard to be there for six straight year-end No. 1 finishes [1993-98]. There were times when I lost it to Agassi, Rafter or Rios, but it came down to where I was in December, not February. I would keep tabs on results and I knew I could always push in March, play extra tournaments and pick up points here and there.

“The one time I really worked hard to be No. 1 was in 1998, when I lost and won No. 1 a few times. I played a couple of extra weeks in Europe in order to break Jimmy Connors’ mark of five straight year-end No. 1s, a record that still means a lot to me. When I lost the top spot in November 2000, I wasn’t sad by any means. I had nothing to prove and I was okay with being No. 2 or No. 3. It took a lot of energy, the will and drive to maintain the ranking, and to win a lot of matches. But perhaps being No. 1 for so long also shortened my career.”

Sampras’ record of 286 weeks at No. 1 stood for almost 12 years until 16 July 2012, when Federer broke the mark. The Swiss superstar spent his 308th week in the top spot as recently as 1 April this year. Sampras ultimately retired after winning the 2002 US Open, his 14th major crown, a haul that has been bettered by Federer (with his sixth Wimbledon title in July 2000) and current No. 1 Rafael Nadal (with his 10th Roland Garros crown in June 2017).

On 26 November 1998, the American was eating pasta in his Hanover hotel, ahead of the 1998 Nitto ATP Finals, when he learned that he had attained the milestone of six straight year-end No. 1 finishes (1993-98). That achievement still stands.

LEADING NUMBER ONES
A list of leading players for most weeks and year-end finishes at No. 1 in the history of the ATP Rankings (since 1973):

* Current World No. 1 (as of 9 April 2018)