Had any other 18 year old experienced such a year, it would have been a dream debut season. During Taylor Fritz’s first full year on the ATP World Tour, the American reached the final of the Memphis Open presented by ServiceMaster in only his second ATP World Tour tournament. He went on to make the quarter-finals in Acapulco and Atlanta.

The #NextGenATP star finished the season even stronger, ending the year as the youngest player in the Top 100, which earned him the ATP Star Of Tomorrow presented by Emirates award.

“That was a big thing for him to get the award from the ATP [World Tour],” said David Nainkin, Fritz’s lead coach.

Yet both Fritz and Nainkin look back at 2016 with measured applause. Fritz experienced incredible moments, such as his final run at the Memphis Open. But he also struggled to adjust to a full 10-month ATP World Tour schedule and the physical play that dominates the ATP World Tour these days.

“I think 2016, to sum it up, was a big learning year for him. It was his first time playing a full European clay court, grass court, playing the full, big circuit. And I think he had a real taste of what it takes,” Nainkin said. “I think he had an OK 2016, to be honest.”

Fritz struggled with a nagging left-knee injury that bothered him for much of the second half of the year. The 6’4″ right-hander was unable to strongly push off his left leg and sometimes had to favour his right leg during matches.

The injury contributed to his up-and-down debut year, during which he finished 15-22, and picked away at his confidence. But Fritz believes the knee injury is behind him now, and he’s returned to where his memorable first year began, at the Memphis Open. Here, he hopes to ignite another good start in his home country.

“It was just a really good week for me. I want to have more weeks like that, and now I’m back again and it’s really nice to be back,” Fritz told ATPWorldTour.com this week. “It just feels really good being here because I know I played so well last year. Everything feels right when I’m here.”

Fritz roared into the 2016 Memphis Open. He had finished 2015 as the No. 1 junior in the world, and he had raced through the ATP Challenger Tour, winning back-to-back Challengers in Sacramento and Fairfield.

He arrived in Memphis already in the Top 150 of the Emirates ATP Rankings and the top Next Gen ATP American. Fritz’s run to the final only increased the buzz around his big game. “Last year was just a really big breakthrough for me. It definitely got me started,” he said of his Memphis final.

The right-hander backed it up with a quarter-final in Acapulco and by qualifying and making the second round at the Miami Open presented by Itau, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. But when the season shifted to clay, Fritz’s knee injury flared up and puzzled him at the start.

It had bothered him in past months, including during his Memphis run, but it had always been treatable. Yet as the season wore on, hours on the physio table could no longer make the pain go away. Multiple MRIs didn’t provide any more helpful information, either.

Fritz’s mobility was limited but he could still play, although his results suffered. He couldn’t replicate his Memphis final run and, even when including qualifying contests, he didn’t win more than two consecutive matches again until the Shanghai Rolex Masters in October.

The American endured his share of unlucky first-round draws as well. He drew Borna Coric on clay at Roland Garros, Stan Wawrinka at Wimbledon, Jack Sock at the Australian Open and the US Open and Roger Federer in the second round of Stuttgart.

The losing stretches dented his confidence. “When you’re used to winning as much as he did in juniors, ending No. 1 in the world and then dominating at the Challenger level, suddenly being beaten by guys that are just a little stronger and better at that time was probably a little bit of an adjustment for him,” Nainkin said. “When it happens to you for the first time… you do lose some confidence but that’s just natural.”

Nainkin and Fritz, however, were both encouraged by his Asian swing results. Fritz won three consecutive matches against Top 100 players for the first time in his career, and he matched his best result at a Masters 1000 by making the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

Fritz knows it was no coincidence that he went through “a ton of rehab” on his left knee before heading east. “We think it’s just weakness, just kind of wear and tear,” he said of the injury. “It felt really good for Tokyo and Shanghai. And towards the end of the year it felt pretty good, so I think [rehab] was the answer.”

He focused his off-season on his health, taking four weeks off from tennis and working on strengthening his body, particularly the knee. He’s applying those lessons to this year as well. Fritz finally gave in to co-coach Mardy Fish, a former Top 10 player, who’s been telling him to hire a full-time physio for the past 18 months.

“He’s been, every single day, relentless, telling me to stop being cheap and get a physio,” Fritz said.

The 19-year-old California native has gleaned broader, everyday lessons from his first 12 months on the ATP World Tour as well. “Every single week you just have to be on it, be ready to play your best tennis. You can’t get by, you can’t really win matches if you’re not playing your best tennis,” Fritz said. “That’s what it felt like. It’s just constant, a lot of playing and you always have to be at your best. You always have to prepare and do all the right things on and off the court.”

After a long and successful career together, Toni Nadal will no longer coach Rafael Nadal from 2018. The Spaniard will step down knowing his nephew is in good hands and will complete the remainder of the season alongside his charge.

“When we travelled to Australia I had made the decision already”, Toni Nadal told the Spanish newspaper, El Español. “I have been thinking lately that it’s getting tougher and tougher. I told my wife the decision. Now I have the chance to be a coach in the [Rafa Nadal] Academy, something that makes me very happy. Rafael will be perfectly attended by Carlos Moyà.

“When we left Melbourne I didn’t say it to Rafael but I say goodbye to everybody because I knew it was my last time. I said goodbye to the driver, the person who always has looked after us there, the tournament director.”

Toni said the decision was primarily related to the draining life of constant travel, the desire to spend more time with his family and also the excitement of having a permanent role at the academy in Manacor, where future tennis stars would be trained.

“I have been thinking this thoroughly. It’s the right time to do it,” he said. “I know how old I am, the years and years I have been travelling around the world and the tension and stress that competition produces.

“Now I am really excited to be in the academy. I step down, but [Rafael] is in good hands. Now I am going to make the most of this 2017.

“It has been a very long journey, loads of seasons. If instead of my nephew, I had coached somebody else, I would have stepped down much earlier.”

Toni said he would always be ready to give a hand when needed, even though Carlos Moyà and Francis Roig will now take the reins.

“Let’s imagine a scenario where Moyà is not available in 2018 for a few tournaments. And my nephew asks me to help him,” Toni said. “I’ll do it for sure and I’ll enjoy it. My intention is to work at the academy and if they need me, I’ll be there.”

Darian King would have deemed his Memphis Open a success had he qualified for just his second ATP World Tour main draw. Having done that, however, the 24-year-old entered uncharted territory on Tuesday when he took down No. 5 seed Bernard Tomic in the opening round to become the first player from Barbados in the Open Era to win an ATP World Tour match.

The World No. 140 in the Emirates ATP Rankings prevailed 6-4, 6-4. “Playing against Bernard, the No. 5 seed is a dream come true, playing on Centre Court especially,” King said.

“The discipline in Barbados is not as big so to come from there and compete against these guys as you can see, it’s a lot of progress. I’m glad to get my first ATP win.

“For me I played at least three years in Futures against college guys and Americans then basically had my first breakthrough in Cali, Colombia, in a Challenger against former Top 50 player Victor Estrella [Burgos]. Then I guess I kind of realised I can play.”

This was just King’s second main draw appearance after winning through qualifying in Washington, D.C in 2015. He lost first round on that occasion to Go Soeda.

“That was a great experience to qualify there but to get a win against a former Top 17 player is a thrill,” he said. “I’m stoked and hopefully I can continue. I’m glad for this win for Barbados. I trained hard for this moment.”

Ryan Harrison booked a second-round meeting with fellow American, third seed Sam Querrey. The world No. 62 in the Emirates ATP Rankings who won 85 per cent of his first-serve points to beat Russian Konstantin Kravchuk 6-3, 7-5. 

“First set was pretty straight forward. My first-serve percentage was high. I hit a lot of aces and felt like I was controlling the tempo,” Harrison said. “It kind of changed in the second, actually when I was serving out the first set I threw in two double faults and that sparked a little bit of momentum for him.

“Previous to that he had no real look at my serve. Unfortunately that led to him being more confident and me having a bit lower energy at the start of the second set.”

Matthew Ebden won the battle of the qualifiers against Peter Polansky, beating the Canadian 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-1. The Aussie awaits the winner of the match between No. 8 seed Yen-Hsun Lu and #NextGenATP player Taylor Fritz.

Robert Lindstedt had played at the Memphis Open three times prior to this year. But the Swede had always begged off on visiting St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital, which is headquartered in downtown Memphis.

The hospital is a beneficiary of the Memphis Open and is often visited by ATP World Tour players during the tournament. Lindstedt had always passed on the trip because he knew what he’d see: Children battling life-threatening illnesses.

St. Jude’s treats only children with catastrophic diseases, primarily cancer, sickle cell disease and paediatric HIV. The not-for-profit hospital doesn’t charge its patients any money, instead relying on donations and grants to run the hospital, its eight affiliate clinics and its 24 partner sites throughout the world.

But on Monday, Lindstedt, his doubles partner Michael Venus and six other ATP World Tour players, including Joe Salisbury, David O’Hare, Philipp Oswald, James Cerretani, Brian Baker and Connor Glennon all received a tour of the hospital and met with patients and their families.

“It’s tough. It’s very tough,” Lindstedt said. “But I felt this time I really had to go and my girlfriend actually forced me into it. But I’m really happy that I did.”

About 80 per cent of the hospital’s patients suffer from cancer, said JD Peeples, St. Jude’s director of sports marketing, who gave the players the tour. The hospital doesn’t turn any children away, but patients must be referred by a treating physician and have a disease the hospital is currently researching.

Families at St. Jude’s often have already endured rapid changes to their lives. One morning, they could be visiting their local doctor when they find out their child has cancer. Hours later, they could be flying to St. Jude’s. Those families might leave their homes with the clothes on their back and not return home for another three years, Peeples said.

“A lot of the families that come here are really under a lot of stress,” he told the players.

But the visit from the ATP World Tour players gave the children something to enjoy. The kids bounced from one player to the next, smiling and asking the players to sign their yellow Memphis Open stress balls and their Memphis Open posters.

St. Jude patient Keeton grinned as he hopped his way through the autograph line. He’s 4 and was diagnosed with leukaemia on 26 September 2016. “He enjoys anything that has to do with a ball,” his mother, Ginna Lepard, said.

The visit affected the players as well, including the doubles team of Lindstedt and Venus.

“Worries you have or problems you think you have are nothing compared to what you see these families and kids going through,” Venus said. “These kids are obviously fighting some pretty huge things here. They’re walking around and they’ve got a smile on their face. It’s pretty special.”

Lindstedt especially was glad he made time for the visit this year. “It’s humbling, isn’t it? You always talk about perspective in life… All your worries just seem pity,” he said.

“I didn’t know how St. Jude operates. But it’s just phenomenal that a place [like this] can exist… It’s just phenomenal. And to see the kids being happy to see you, and you see a little brightness in their eyes when you sign something. It’s, it’s unreal.”

Grigor Dimitrov is ripping apart 2017. The 25-year-old Bulgarian comes into Rotterdam this week 14-1 on the season, with two ATP 250 titles in Brisbane and Sofia, and a strong run to the semi-finals of the Australian Open sandwiched in between.

Dimitrov played what many considered the highest-quality match in Melbourne this year – a five-set, semi-final thriller against Rafael Nadal. Dimitrov rose two spots this week in the Emirates ATP Rankings, up to No. 12.

His highest ranking was No. 8 in August, 2014. He is perfectly poised to surpass that in the next few months, as he has very few points to defend from 2016 Masters 1000 events from March through to the next Grand Slam event at Roland Garros.

Dimitrov’s Masters 1000 and Grand Slam Points To Defend Through Roland Garros

If Dimitrov continues his frenetic opening pace for a few more months, he will absolutely find himself deep inside the Top 10 in the world. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Dimitrov’s red-hot start to the 2017 season identifies four key areas where he is posting career-best numbers.

2nd Serve Return Points Won

Career 49%
2016 48%
2017 56%
ATP Career Leader = Andre Agassi 56%

Dimitrov is owning his opponents’ second serve so far in 2017, winning 56 per cent, which is markedly above the 48 per cent he won last season. Winning more than 50 per cent of your opponent’s second serve points is a key strategy on the ATP Tour, providing a crack that he can widen to a canyon when looking for a pathway to victory.

Aces

Career 2498 = 6.8 / match
2016 372 = 5.7 / match
2017 142 = 9.5 / match

The ability to collect free points on serve has been greatly enhanced this year with a lot more aces. Dimitrov is averaging 9.5 per match in 2017, which is way up from the 5.7 aces per match he struck in 2016. He hit 20 in his Australian Open semi-final loss to Nadal, and 10 in the Sofia Open final against David Goffin last Sunday. This has greatly helped his first serve win percentage rise from 72 per cent in 2016 to a commanding 78 per cent so far this year.

Break Points Saved

Career 62%
2016 60%
2017 77%

It’s hard to lose if you can’t be broken, and Dimitrov is saving break points at a remarkable clip this season. The ATP Stats Leaderboards, powered by the Infosys Information Platform, identifies he has saved 77 per cent so far in 2017, massively up from 60 per cent last season. He saved 71 per cent (37/52) at the Australian Open, 67 per cent (6/9) in the Sofia final against Goffin, and 71 per cent (5/7) against Kei Nishikori in the Brisbane final.

Break Points Converted

Career 38%
2016 37%
2017 46%

In the Brisbane final against Nishikori in January, Dimitrov converted 60 per cent (3/5) of break points. He topped that in Sofia on Sunday against Goffin, winning 71 per cent (5/7) in the final.

He won 39 per cent (27/70) at the Australian Open in six matches, and overall is nine percentage points up from 2016 (37%) to 2017 (46%) in this critical area. When an opportunity arises, he is seizing it much more this season.

Dimitrov is flat out playing ball. His backhand is continually being hit big to big targets, making it a real strength from the back of the court. His run-around forehand is what he upgrades to when looking to finish the point from the back of the court. Dimitrov is the early success story of 2017, and there is a very good chance that he is just warming up for the season of his life.

Darian King is playing in the main draw of the Memphis Open.

The 24-year-old King qualified for the Memphis Open earlier this week. King beat Britain’s Andrew Watson 6-2, 6-3 and was up 6-1, 3-0 against Tatsuma Ito when the Japanese retired. It’s the second ATP World Tour tournament that King has qualified for, having also reached the Citi Open main draw last year. King is the first player from Barbados to qualify for the Memphis Open.

“For me, I think it’s a huge achievment. Coming all the way from Barbados, a small country, where discipline is not as big, and for me to come out here and compete with these guys who do it day in and day out, I think is a great achievement for me,” King told ATPWorldTour.com. “It shows I have made a lot of progress and I’m glad to be here, alongside these guys.”

Soccer was his first love.

King didn’t start playing tennis until he was 9 years old and was still playing soccer seriously until he was 12. He quickly experienced success on the tennis court, though. He won his first title at 14 in St. Lucia.

“Eventually I started doing well in most of the tournaments I started to play thanks to one of my old coaches who actually brought me into the game,” King said. “I dropped soccer now to play this sport. I’ve been playing now on the professional tour for five years. For me there has been a lot of progress throughout these years. So I’m very glad.”

He has won three ATP Challenger titles.

In 2016, King won ATP Challenger titles at Tiburon, California; Binghamton, New York; and Cali, Colombia.

He has big goals for 2017.

King wants to crack the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings and play at all of the Grand Slam tournaments. His current career-high Emirates ATP Ranking is No. 130, which he reached on 10 October 2016. King is currently at No. 140.

“Obviously this is a process and I’m glad that I’m trying to move from Challengers to at least qualifying at these events [ATP World Tour 250 tournaments],” King said. “The opportunity to come and play guys in the Top 50 and Top 100, that’s where you really want to be. You want to be battling with these guys. And I’m glad I have the opportunity.”

His brother coaches him.

King is coached by his brother, Christopher King, who also grew up in Barbados.

Kei Nishikori is relishing his time back in Buenos Aires for the first time in five years. Guided by his coach, Dante Bottini, the Shimane native has done one of the most compulsory experiences that a visitor has to do: having a nice ‘asado’, an Argentian roast.

“This country is great and there are so many things that you can do. Yesterday I had a great steak. It was really tasty,” the No. 1 seed said.

“I am really excited to be back here. Dante has been helping me a lot, especially on clay courts, and for me it is very special to be here because he is from Argentina.”

It was Bottini’s idea for the then 17^th-ranked Nishikori to come to Buenos Aires in 2012. While so many people would see him as the perfect player for hard courts, his coach saw the possibilities on clay. He was right.

Over the past five seasons, Nishikori has been improving steadily on the clay as a consistent Top 10 player challenging the ‘Big Four’. He served notice on the clay with back-to-back titles in Barcelona (2014-2015), where he also played the final last year (l. to Nadal). And also in 2014, the Japanese player was runner-up at the ATP World Tour Mutua Madrid Open.

Nishikori returns to competition after losing to eventual Australian Open champion Roger Federer in the fourth round at Melbourne Park. “It was a tough loss”, Nishikori said.

“I learned many things after that match and I just tried to keep going, keep practising and just hoping to have a great result here. Would be great for my confidence.”

Despite the tough loss, it was not enough to keep him from watching the final. “It was a great match,” he said.

“It could have gone either way and both Rafa and Roger were playing great tennis. I am just happy to see them back in a final.”

Nishikori wants to build up his confidence. And with a scheduling change, now is the time to try the Buenos Aires-Rio de Janeiro swing.

“It’s a big change for me but I love playing on clay courts. I think it can be a good preparation for Europe,” he said. “I want to win these two tournaments.”