'Too old for mind games' – Gauff and Bencic clash
French Open champion Coco Gauff comes through an on-court clash with opponent Belinda Bencic to reach the China Open quarter-finals.
French Open champion Coco Gauff comes through an on-court clash with opponent Belinda Bencic to reach the China Open quarter-finals.
Learner Tien advanced to his first ATP Tour title match on Tuesday at the China Open in Beijing, where he became the second-youngest finalist in tournament history. The 19-year-old rallied from 3-5 down in the second set against Daniil Medvedev, eventually advancing 5-7, 7-5, 4-0 after the 29-year-old was forced to retire due to injury.
The #NextGenATP American Tien was competing in his maiden tour-level semi-final and looked down and out when he trailed 1-4 and 3-5 in the second set. However, he capitalised on some Medvedev errors in the closing stages of the second set and then benefited from the 29-year-old’s lack of movement in the decider to advance after two hours and 26 minutes. Medvedev struggled to track down the balls in the third set, seemingly cramping.
“I was down 3-5 and 2-4 in the second and clawed my way back,” Tien said. “I didn’t think anything was wrong with him and then he came out of the bathroom break kind of limping, so I was not sure if he was cramping or if he was injured as he had tape on his leg. I think it was cramping and I have been there and it is not fun. All the best to him and it is not how you want to come through a match but I am happy to be in the final.”
Sinner vs Tien For The Title! 🏆
Who takes home the crown?@ChinaOpen | #ChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/iB3QwMWwMc
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 30, 2025
Tien now holds a 7-5 record against Top 20 players and is 2-0 against Medvedev in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, having beaten the former World No. 1 at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Tien is up 16 spots to No. 36 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and is also set to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF for the second consecutive year. The lefty is second in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah.
Tien will meet World No. 2 Jannik Sinner in the Beijing title match on Wednesday. Tien is the second-youngest finalist in Beijing history behind Rafael Nadal, while he is the third-youngest tour-level finalist this season. Only Miami winner Jakub Mensik and Buenos Aires champion Joao Fonseca were younger.
Medvedev struggled with his movement in the third set and had taping on his right knee. The World No. 18 was aiming to reach his second final of the year and first on hard courts since Indian Wells in March 2024.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]The 2025 Asian swing reaches its climax in China, where the ATP Tour’s finest are preparing to compete at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
Defending champion Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev headline the field at the Qi Zhong Tennis Center, while record four-time titlist Novak Djokovic will make his first appearance since the US Open.
ATPTour.com looks ahead at 10 things to watch from the Chinese ATP Masters 1000 event.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect Carlos Alcaraz’s withdrawal from Shanghai due to a left ankle injury.
1) Sinner Defends Crown: Sinner has kick-started his Asian swing in style at ATP 500 level in Beijing, where he takes on #NextGenATP Learner Tien in the final on Wednesday. A year ago, the Italian marched past Djokovic in the championship match to claim his maiden Shanghai crown, although a repeat final is not possible this time around because they are in the same half of the draw.
Watch Highlights Of Sinner’s 2024 Shanghai Final Triumph:
2) Zverev Seeks M1000 Triumph: Zverev is chasing his first Masters 1000 success of the season. The German is a seven-time champion at this level and a former finalist in Shanghai, where he defeated Roger Federer en route to the 2019 championship match (l. to Medvedev). Third in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, Zverev could take a big step towards Nitto ATP Finals qualification with a deep run in China.
3) Djokovic Back In Action: Djokovic will take on Marin Cilic or Corentin Moutet first up in Shanghai, where he is competing for the first time since his semi-final US Open defeat to Carlos Alcaraz on 5 September. The Serbian holds the record for most titles (four) and most match wins (39) in Shanghai tournament history, and the Serbian will hope his experience at the Qi Zhong Tennis Center can help him lift a record 41st Masters 1000 title, and his first since November 2023.
4) Fritz Eyes Biggest Title Since 2022: Taylor Fritz became a Masters 1000 champion in Indian Wells in 2022, and the American remains one of the most consistent hard-court performers on Tour. He reached the semi-finals in Shanghai for the first time in 2024, when he fell to Djokovic, and he will be seeking another deep run to boost his Nitto ATP Finals qualification chances. Fritz is currently fifth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.
5) Shelton Returns: Ben Shelton endured a tough end to his US Open campaign when he was forced to retire from his third-round match against Adrian Mannarino due to a shoulder injury. After a month of recovery, the World No. 6 is ready to go again in Shanghai, where he has a 5-2 record. The American lefty is sixth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, just 85 points behind Fritz, as he chases a Nitto ATP Finals debut.
6) Chasing Pack Eyes Turin: With plenty of points on offer, Shanghai could be a crucial juncture for several contenders aiming to ramp up their charge towards the Nitto ATP Finals. Alex de Minaur (seventh) and Lorenzo Musetti (eighth), who are both reached the Beijing semi-finals, currently occupy the final two qualification spots. Former Turin participants Felix Auger-Aliassime (10th), Casper Ruud (11th) and Andrey Rublev (12th) are best placed to haul them in.
7) Chinese Stars: Four of the five home favourites competing in the singles are in the top half of the draw. Among them, Wu Yibing will play a qualifier, with the winner to face Medvedev in the second round, while Shang Juncheng meets Aleksandar Kovacevic for the right to take on Karen Khachanov.
In the bottom half, Zhang Zhizhen opens against Sebastian Baez. Zhang is the only Chinese player to have reached the last 16 in Shanghai tournament history (he did so in 2023).
8) Mensik, Tien Compete: Jakub Mensik and Tien lead the #NextGenATP charge in Shanghai. Mensik, who currently leads the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, defeated Andrey Rublev and Grigor Dimitrov en route to the quarter-finals on event debut a year ago. Third-placed Tien, a finalist at the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, is set to take on Sinner in his first tour-level championship match on Wednesday in Beijing.
9) Wild Card Wawrinka: Former World No. 3 and three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka makes his second appearance at Masters 1000 level in 2025, and his first on hard courts, as a wild card. The 40-year-old Swiss plays Fabian Marozsan first, with the winner advancing to a showdown with fifth seed Fritz.
10) Cash/Glasspool Headline Doubles Field: Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool lifted their maiden Masters 1000 title as a team in Toronto in August, and the British duo will aim to back that up as the top seeds in Shanghai. Their rivals in China will include another team that has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals: Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]World number one Carlos Alcaraz beats Taylor Fritz 6-4 6-4 at the Japan Open to win his eighth ATP title of the year.
Carlos Alcaraz served Taylor Fritz some quick revenge on Tuesday at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships, where he ousted the American to win his eighth title of the season.
Just nine days removed from his Laver Cup defeat to Fritz, the World No. 1 stamped his authority with a classy 6-4, 6-4 championship-match performance in Tokyo, capping a remarkable debut run at the ATP 500 event. Now boasting a Tour-best 67 wins and eight trophies in 2025, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, Alcaraz is threatening to better his rival Jannik Sinner’s tally of 73 wins from last year.
“It’s been my best season so far without a doubt,” Alcaraz said. “Eight titles, 10 finals… That shows how hard I’ve worked just to be able to experience these moments and accomplish my goals. I didn’t start the year that good, struggling emotionally, so how I came back from that, I’m just really proud of myself, and of all the people around me who have helped me to be in this position.”
Another city, another crown 👑🏆@carlosalcaraz defeats Fritz 6-4 6-4 to conquer Tokyo for the first time and claim his 8th title of the season.@japanopentennis | #kinoshitajotennis pic.twitter.com/qhUBaSQpTp
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 30, 2025
Since losing to Sinner in the Wimbledon final in July, Alcaraz has responded with three consecutive titles at the ATP Masters 1000 in Cincinnati, the US Open and now Tokyo. With his 24th career tour-level crown, the 22-year-old Spaniard tied Alexander Zverev for the most among men born since 1990.
Although Fritz, who twice took a medical timeout to receive treatment on his left thigh, was unable to contain Alcaraz’s trademark firepower in the final, he has strengthened his bid to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals. Last year’s runner-up has jumped one spot to fifth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.
In the first ATP 500 final between two Top-5 players since October last year, there was no shortage of breathtaking winners and early entertainment. Yet it did not come without drama, and more fitness concerns for Alcaraz, who suffered an injury scare in his first-round win over Sebastian Baez.
After a nine-shot exchange in the fourth game, which ended with Alcaraz planting a high backhand volley into the net, the Spaniard stooped at the back of the court in a bid to regain his breath. He received a time violation warning from ATP umpire Fergus Murphy before taking a few extra seconds to regroup, but he then found a trademark lob over Fritz to hold serve in the ensuing point.
Watch Alcaraz leave Fritz out to dry with lob perfection:
Armed with his typically explosive forehand and instinctive returns, Alcaraz overwhelmed Fritz from all corners of the court and eventually converted his sixth break point to serve for the opener. During the first set, the Spaniard clocked a 9.7 Shot Quality on his forehand wing, from which he fired seven winners to just four unforced errors.
“I enjoyed every single second, [apart from] the five minutes I was on the floor after I hurt my ankle,” Alcaraz joked about his Tokyo debut. “I’m really happy with the level that I played, with everything. Starting the week not good with the ankle, and the way that I came back from that, I’m just really happy about it.”
Fritz took a medical timeout at the end of the first set to receive treatment on his left thigh, which was strapped after three games of the second. The American’s movement was significantly hindered, and he struggled to cope with Alcaraz’s variety throughout the second set.
Even though Fritz drilled a low backhand winner down the line to earn one of the breaks back late on, Alcaraz recovered by serving out the match on his second attempt after 93 minutes. He now leads Fritz 4-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Hugo Nys and Edouard Roger-Vasselin recovered from previous 2025 heartbreak in style on Tuesday afternoon at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo.
The second seeds toppled Rohan Bopanna and Takeru Yuzuki 7-5, 7-5 in the final to capture their first title of the season at the ATP 500 event. Nys and Roger-Vasselin fell in the Marrakech and Washington finals this year, but made no mistake in the Japanese capital, where they won 29 of 34 first-serve points, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
“This is our third final of the year, first title, so we keep going,” Nys said. “We hope to [qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals] by the end of the year, so we still have work to do.”
Nys and Roger-Vasselin are ninth in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, just 110 points adrift of Christian Harrison and Evan King in the qualification spots. They Monegasque-French duo is aiming to make its team debut at the the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin in November.
It marks Roger-Vasselin’s third Tokyo title after triumphing in 2013 with Bopanna and in 2019 with Nicolas Mahut. The 41-year-old Frenchman now boasts a 29-20 record in tour-level finals.
“Rohan, we were here 12 years ago winning the title, so it’s great to be on this court again with you,” Roger-Vasselin said to Bopanna. “You’ve been around for a couple of years… It’s always nice to see you. You’ve been a big part of my life.”
With his run to the championship match in Tokyo, the 45-year-old Bopanna became the second-oldest tour-level men’s doubles finalist in the Open Era. In just their second tournament together, he and partner Yuzuki saved three match points en route to defeating top seeds Harrison and King in the semi-finals.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Already the oldest man to win a major title, the oldest ATP Masters 1000 champion and the oldest first-time doubles world No. 1, Rohan Bopanna is now the second-oldest tour-level men’s doubles finalist in the Open Era. After the Indian’s run this week at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships, only John McEnroe has reached a doubles final at a later age.
Teaming with Japan’s Takeru Yuzuki, Bopanna advanced to his 64th tour-level final with a dramatic victory on Monday. The pair saved three match points to upset top seeds Christian Harrison and Evan King 4-6, 6-3, 18-16, setting up a Tuesday final showdown against second seeds Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Hugo Nys.
At the age of 45, Bopanna has reached his first tour-level title match since winning the Miami ATP Masters 1000 last March with Matthew Ebden.
McEnroe was 47 when he won the 2006 San Jose title with Jonas Bjorkman. The American returned from retirement for two doubles tournaments that season, winning San Jose in February and reaching the quarter-finals in Stockholm in October, also with Bjorkman. His San Jose title came after 12 years out of the game; in his final tournament before his initial retirement, McEnroe lost to Bjorkman in the Rotterdam doubles semi-finals in February of 1994.
Bopanna won the last two finals he played, making history with titles at the Australian Open and Miami last year at the age of 43. With his Australian Open title, he climbed to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings for the first time.
McEnroe first reached doubles world No. 1 in 1979 at age 20. The American won 77 tour-level doubles titles and earned 544 tour-level doubles wins in his career. Bopanna is seeking his 27th title and 538th win in the Tokyo final.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Carlos Alcaraz reached his ninth successive ATP-level final after overcoming Norway’s Casper Ruud.
Spaniard Martin Landaluce boosted his chances of qualifying for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF on Sunday when he won the ATP Challenger Tour 125 event in Orleans, France.
The 19-year-old, up three places to fifth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, downed top seed Raphael Collignon 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-3 in the Co’met Orleans Open final.
Landaluce lifted his second Challenger trophy, but this one was a work of art — literally. The Orleans Challenger was celebrating its 20th anniversary, and true to tradition, every champion receives a painting commissioned from a local artist. Landaluce’s prize was a vibrant red painting, depicting a pyramid of 20 tennis balls, symbolising the tournament’s 20 editions. It was painted by Natacha Toutain.
A champ and his trophy 🏆 #ATPChallenger | @RFETenis pic.twitter.com/D5WSmhZ1sf
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) September 28, 2025
“I don’t have much art at home, so I have plenty of space!” Landaluce said with a smile. “I think it’s beautiful, it’s very bright. I think I’m going to put it in the gym, because that’s where I work and where I push, and this trophy is thanks to that.
“I said yesterday that I wanted to bring the trophy back home, and that’s what I did. It’s amazing. This is a very beautiful tournament and it’s an honour to win this tournament.”
A former junior No. 1, Landaluce won the US Open boys’ singles event in 2022. He captured his maiden Challenger title last October in Olbia and is now aiming for his maiden trip to the 20-and-under Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF. The event will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 17-21 December.
The Madrid native is closing on his Top 100 debut, currently sitting at No. 111 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.
“It will happen if I still play this game, keep pushing and working day by day,” Landaluce said of his Top 100 potential. “I’m not thinking about a goal, because if I reach it, I’m going to have more goals. I’m going to be very close to it and it will be more pressure than a good thing, so I’m just thinking to play my best and play my game. My goal is to be my best version.”
Spizzirri closing in on Top 100 after Jingshan title
American Eliot Spizzirri is also approaching his Top 100 debut following his latest triumph. The 23-year-old, a former University of Texas standout who finished back-to-back seasons as the No. 1 player in the ITA singles rankings (2023, 2024), won the Jingshan Open, where he ousted Australian Alex Bolt 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Spizzirri, a two–time Challenger champion, is No. 105 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.
Eliot Spizzirri in action at the Jingshan Challenger. Credit: Jingshan Open
Shelbayh secures second title, first in two years
Abdullah Shelbayh returned to the winner’s circle for the first time since September 2023 by winning the Las Vegas Tennis Open. The lefty downed American Alex Rybakov 6-2, 6-4 in the championship match. Two years ago, Shelbayh made history by becoming the first player from Jordan to win an ATP Challenger Tour title.
Gaubas downs home favourite Rocha in Lisbon final
Lithuanian Vilius Gaubas won a hard-fought, three-hour, three-minute final at the Del Monte Lisboa Belém Open to claim his third Challenger crown. The 20-year-old rallied past home hope Henrique Rocha 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Gaubas, World No. 165, is the highest-ranked Lithuanian in the PIF ATP Rankings.
Vilius Gaubas celebrates winning the Lisbon Challenger. Credit: Álvaro Isidoro/FPT
Burruchaga defeats five countrymen en route to Buenos Aires title
Roman Andres Burruchaga capped a memorable week on home soil at the Buenos Aires Challenger, where the 23-year-old did not drop a set all tournament en route to his second trophy at that level. Burruchaga defeated five fellow Argentines, including in the final, which he won 7-6(4) 6-3 against Alex Barrena.
Roman Andres Burruchaga triumphs on home soil in Buenos Aires. Credit: Buenos Aires Challenger
Could this be the tournament at which Daniil Medvedev returns to form?
The former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings earned a resounding 6-3, 6-3 victory Monday evening against World No. 3 Alexander Zverev to reach the semi-finals of the China Open.
The 29-year-old is into the 60th tour-level semi-final of his career and his first since June in Halle. He will take on #NextGenATP American Learner Tien, who upset him at this year’s Australian Open, for a place in the final.
“It’s great, but I always want more,” Medvedev said of the milestone he reached. “In the beginning of your career, numbers are important. When you achieve a lot, it’s more about just doing your best, and I haven’t been doing my best since some time, so I’m happy to be back in semis playing great, beating great opponents.”
According to Infosys ATP Stats, Medvedev saved all four break points he faced and won 86 per cent of his first-serve points to avoid facing too much pressure against the second-seeded Zverev.
“I played great, I was controlling the game pretty well. I felt like I had all the chances,” Medvedev said. “He had only, I think, one game on my serve where he put a lot of pressure on me and luckily I made a great game to save it. And other than that, I think I put a lot of pressure on him, played great and I’m happy to win.”
Entering the match, Medvedev was just 1-2 against Top-10 opponents this season, with his lone victory coming against Zverev in Halle. He now has won five consecutive matches against Zverev and leads their Lexus ATP Head2Head series 14-7.
This was Medvedev’s first Top-5 triumph on hard courts since beating Andrey Rublev at the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals. The No. 18 player in the PIF ATP Live Rankings had been 0-10 since.
“I definitely played as I wanted to today, not missing much, aggressive when I need to, defensive when I need to, running great,” Medvedev said. “So definitely improving and looking forward to try to improve even more.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]