A LOOK BACK

International Challenger Chengdu (Chengdu, China): Top seed Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei picked up a staggering 28^th ATP Challenger Tour title by defeating second seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 6-3, 6-4. The 33 year old wins his second title of the year and is now 20-3 in Challenger finals since 2008. Donskoy was seeking his second Challenger win of 2017 after prevailing this March in Zhuhai.

Thindown Challenger (Biella, Italy): Fifth seed Filip Krajinovic of Serbia saved his best tennis for the final by defeating local favourite Salvatore Caruso 6-3, 6-2. The 25 year old has won three Challenger titles this year after also prevailing in Heilbronn in May and this past month in Marburg. Caruso was appearing in his first Challenger final.

Open Castilla Y Leon (Segovia, Spain): In an all-#NextGenATP final, Jaume Munar delighted the home crowd by prevailing over Alex De Minaur of Australia 6-3, 6-4. The week was a remarkable turnaround for Munar, who had only won a single main draw match this year at the Challenger level. The Spaniard is currently No. 301 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, but will surpass his career-high ranking of No. 243 when the newest standings are released on Monday.

De Minaur drops to 0-2 in Challenger finals. The 18 year old has already jumped nearly 150 spots in the Emirates ATP Rankings this year and will move inside the Top 200 in Monday.

Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships (Lexington, Kentucky): Fourth seed and #NextGenATP American Michael Mmoh scored an upset 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 win over third seed John Millman of Australia. Mmoh served to stay in the match at 5-6 in the second set, but rebounded to win his first Challenger title of the year and second overall. Millman was aiming to prevail again in Lexington after taking the title in 2015.  

Svijany Open (Liberec, Czech Republic): Fourth seed Pedro Sousa of Portugal picked up his second Challenger title of the year by defeating Guilherme Clezar of Brazil 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. The 29 year old also finished runner-up last week in Tampere. Sousa won his maiden Challenger crown this February in Francavilla.

A LOOK AHEAD

There are four Challengers on the schedule this week, with a new $150,000 event in Jinan, China, taking top billing. Lu and Donskoy return as the top two seeds, while #NextGenATP South Koreans Duchkee Lee and Soon Woo Kwon are the third and sixth seeds, respectively.

The $100,000 event in Aptos, California, celebrates its 30^th consecutive year of play. Past champions include Andy Murray, Patrick Rafter and Marcos Baghdatis. Malek Jaziri of Tunisia is the top seed and Jordan Thompson of Australia is the second seed. Six #NextGenATP players are in the draw including Aussie Akira Santilan, Americans Taylor Fritz and Noah Rubin, and Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. An all-#NextGenATP battle also highlights the opening round as seventh seed Casper Ruud of Norway plays Quentin Halys of France.

The $50,000 Challenger in Floridablanca, Colombia, is back for the ninth consecutive year. Guido Pella of Argentina is the top seed and Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic is the second seed. Local favourite and 2014 champion Alejandro Falla is also in the draw.

Lastly, the $50,000 event in Portoroz, Slovenia, returns for the fifth straight year. 2014 champion and local favourite Blaz Kavcic is the top seed, Peter Gojowczyk is the second seed and Krajinovic looks for another title is the sixth seed. An intriguing all-#NextGenATP first-round is also in the draw featuring De Minaur and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.

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Mexico has continued to treat Sam Querrey well in 2017. The American defeated Rafael Nadal this March to take the title in Acapulco, and the second seed has now prevailed at Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel presentado por Cinemex in Los Cabos by winning Saturday’s final over wild card and #NextGenATP Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

“It’s really exciting to win here. I felt like I played really well. This tournament only keeps getting better, so I’m already excited to come back next year,” said Querrey. “I think the last couple of months have been the best I’ve played and if I can keep this going the rest of the year, it’ll be my best year on tour yet.”

Querrey picks up his 10^th ATP World Tour singles title and second of 2017, marking just the second time in his career (2010) that he’s won more than one title in a season. His victory will also put him back inside the Top 20 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since July 2013.

Despite the loss, Kokkinakis can take heart in achieving the best result of his career. The 21 year old had never reached an ATP World Tour quarter-final prior to this week. He is the lowest-ranked finalist (No. 454) since then-World No. 966 Raemon Sluiter at the 2009 Ricoh Open.

“I’m obviously disappointed at the moment. I definitely thought I could have done better, but I have to look at the positives in that this is my best week on tour. Hopefully this is just a small step,” said Kokkinakis. “The good news is that I have a lot of things to work on and I’m still having tight matches with some of the best players in the world.”

The 21 year old was sidelined from singles competition for 18 months with a laundry list of injuries, but returned to singles action this past May. In just his fourth tournament back, he defeated Milos Raonic at the Aegon Championships. Kokkinakis has only played seven tournaments this season, but will jump to around No. 225 when the newest standings are released on Monday.

Querrey picks up 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points and a cheque for $113,640, while Kokkinakis leaves Los Cabos with 150 Emirates ATP Rankings points and a cheque for $59,850.

The second seed needed just 17 minutes to race to a 4-1 lead in the opening set and went on to grab the early advantage, but Kokkinakis regrouped by scoring the lone break of the second set a 2-1 and eventually forcing a decider. It appeared that the Aussie was on his way to his first ATP World Tour singles title, but Querrey regrouped by breaking Kokkinakis for 2-0 in the final set and once more in the last game to prevail in one hour and 46 minutes.

Vasek Pospisil played a bit of street hockey when he was younger, but never had the experience of competing against NHL pros. On Saturday in Montreal, he had his opportunity at the annual Coupe Rogers Ball Hockey Challenge.

“It’ll be interesting. I hope I don’t embarrass myself!” said Pospisil ahead of the friendly game at Stade Uniprix.

Facing off against an NHL team that included Jonathan Drouin, Charles Hudon and Michael McCarron of the Montreal Canadiens, he more than held his own. The British Columbia native, who fondly recalls watching the Mario Lemieux-Jaromir Jagr-Ron Francis line as a kid (“that line was pretty crazy”), had his fair share of scoring chances and earned the praise of his hockey counterparts.  

“He was good,” said Alex Burrows of the Ottawa Senators. “He was really intense. He’s the same way on the court. He never gives up. Everything is Pospisil, they say. Everything is possible. It’s the same thing here. He worked hard. He had a blast. He was probably the best tennis player playing hockey.”

Dutchman Robin Haase and Canadian former pro Frederic Niemeyer took part in the action alongside Pospisil. Though this version of hockey proved to be new to Haase, he quickly settled in and enjoyed the experience.

“It was fun,” said Haase. “It took me about 20 seconds before I realised it’s not real field hockey, because in real field hockey, which we know in my country, you’re only allowed to play with one side of the stick. Here it’s both sides. That confused me a little bit, but after that it was fine.”

The NHL players, also represented by Antoine Roussel (Dallas Stars), Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida Panthers) and Alexander Killorn (Tampa Bay Lightning), held on to win the game 5-4.  

“I think it was a great experience to play against a tennis player,” said Huberdeau. “They were good. They were sweating a lot at the end, so they worked hard. It was great fun.”

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Treat Huey raced to the doubles title on Saturday at Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel presentado por Cinemex, with the second seeds requiring just 57 minutes to defeat Sergio Galdos and Roberto Maytin 6-2, 6-3. 

“It was a great match and a really good week for us. We played some good matches all week, but I thought today was our best tennis,” said Huey. “The city was unbelievable and everyone treated the players so well, so I can’t wait to come back next year.”

Cabal/Huey remained in control throughout the contest. The only minor blip came when they were unable to serve out the match at 5-2, but they regrouped with their fifth break of the championship in the next game.

“I’m really happy to win the tournament with Treat. It was our first time together and our first win, so it was amazing,” said Cabal. “It was an amazing tournament, great sightseeing and on the beach, so it was great to finish the week like this with a title.”

Huey picked up his first ATP World Tour doubles title of the season after a runner-up showing this February in Delray Beach with Max Mirnyi. Cabal won Munich and Buenos earlier this year with fellow Colombian Robert Farah. The pair also recorded runner-up showings in Geneva, Budapest and Rio de Janeiro.

Despite the loss, both Galdos and Maytin enjoyed the best week of their careers. They each had only won two ATP World Tour doubles matches outside of Davis Cup coming into Los Cabos.

Cabal/Huey pick up 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings point and split a cheque for $34,520. Galdos/Martin earn 150 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and split a cheque for $18,150.

During the past two years, in what has quickly become the breakout stretch of his young career, Alexander Zverev has had success on every surface. He has won indoor hard-court titles – St. Petersburg Open and Open Sud de France in Montpellier – and clay-court crowns – ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Rome and the BMW Open by FWU in Munich. He has twice reached the grass-court final at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle.

But Zverev had never won a title or even reached the final of an outdoor hard-court tournament. That changed on Saturday.

The 20-year-old German needed only 64 minutes to prevail past World No. 9 Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-4 in the Citi Open semi-finals in Washington, D.C. Zverev, who improved to 40-13 on the year and 5-5 against the Top 10, reached his fifth ATP World Tour final of the season.

“I played a great match. I played well from the baseline. I returned pretty well… I was holding serve quite comfortably, so I’m happy with how I played,” Zverev said.

The fifth seed will go for his fourth title of the year and fifth of his career on Sunday when he faces 15^th seed Kevin Anderson. The South African prevailed past Jack Sock of the U.S. 6-3, 6-4.

Read More: Anderson Advances To First Final In Two Years

“He’s playing unbelievable tennis. He won against Dominic in a great match. He beat Jack today,” Zverev said. “It’s going to be a tough final. If I can play as well as I did today, hopefully I can get out with a win.”

Zverev has won both of their FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, but both matches went three sets. Zverev beat Anderson en route to his Internazionali BNL d’Italia title in Rome earlier this year and at the Citi Open in 2015.

The #NextGenATP star and Nishikori had never played before Saturday’s second semi-final, but the German dominated from the start and never let Nishikori into the match.

Zverev broke the right-hander in the second game and cruised on his serve. For the match, Zverev won 94 per cent of his first-serve points, dropping only two of them (31/33). The 6’6” right-hander also punished groundstrokes, keeping Nishikori on his heels, and looked to attack often, winning eight of his nine net points.

Nishikori, who played a two-hours and 39-minute quarter-final on Friday, never had an answer for Zverev’s power. During the second set, the German broke in the third game and served out the match. He never faced a break point.

Zverev had a light evening planned for Saturday night. Asked what he was going to do in the next few hours to prepare for Sunday, Zverev said, “I’m going to have dinner, do some work with my physio, probably play some FIFA with Marcelo Melo, who’s in the final of the doubles tomorrow, and that’s about it. Then go to sleep.”

Henri Kontinen of Finland and John Peers of Australia will play for their second tour-level title of the season on Sunday at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. The top seeds and Australian Open champions beat third seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 6-7(8), 7-5, 10-8 to reach the ATP World Tour 500-level final.

Kontinen/Peers hit 10 aces and saved six of seven break points to advance in one hour and 43 minutes. The semi-final was the second consecutive match they’ve clinched in a Match Tie-Break. They advanced to the semi-finals by beating Croatians Ivan Dodig and Mate Pavic 7-5, 4-6, 14-12.

Kontinen/Peers will face Marcelo Melo of Brazil and Lukasz Kubot of Poland, who beat Americans Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach their first Citi Open doubles final. Melo and Kubot have now won an astounding 17 matches in a row, dating back to their title sprints at the Ricoh Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Gerry Weber Open in Halle and Wimbledon. Kubot/Melo beat Kontinen/Peers in the semi-finals at SW19.

Their last loss was more than two months ago, on 2 June, to Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus in the second round of Roland Garros. Harrison/Venus went on to win the clay-court Grand Slam title.

It has been an arduous comeback at times for Kevin Anderson, who has dealt with a myriad of injuries during the past two years since cracking the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings in October 2015.

But the South African took another big stride in returning to that elite group on Saturday. Anderson hit 12 aces and saved all five break points to overcome home favourite Jack Sock 6-3, 6-4 in the Citi Open semi-finals in Washington, D.C.

The South African reaches his first ATP World Tour final in two years, since August 2015, when he beat Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert for the Winston-Salem Open title, his third. On Sunday, Anderson will go for his fourth ATP World Tour crown and his first 500-level title when he faces either #NextGenATP German and fifth seed Alexander Zverev or second seed Kei Nishikori, who are scheduled to play at 7 p.m. local time in Washington.

Anderson reached three finals during that 2015 season – Memphis, The Queen’s Club, and Winston-Salem – which saw him finish at year-end No. 12 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. But last year, left knee, right shoulder and ankle and groin problems forced him to retire from two matches and withdraw altogether from nine tournaments. This season, Anderson worked through hip injuries to start the year but he’s gradually felt healthier, and his level and confidence have followed.

He entered the semi-final against Sock with a tournament-best 50 aces and having already saved a match point to knock out top seed Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals. Sock, however, had yet to drop a set in Washington and looked to be regaining the form that helped him win two ATP World Tour titles on the hard courts earlier this season (Auckland, Delray Beach) and reach the semi-finals at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March.

Anderson, though, jumped ahead from the start and didn’t let up. He broke Sock to lead 2-0 and was vocal throughout the 36-minute first set, frequently saying “Come on” and keeping himself focused on the match despite sometimes windy conditions. In the second set, Anderson again broke early and pushed away danger with big serves. While serving at 3-2, the right-hander erased two break points with aces to maintain his break lead. He served out the set to advance in 91 minutes.