Wild card Alexander Shevchenko snapped a four-match losing streak on Wednesday at the Astana Open, where he overcame Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-3 at the ATP 250 event.

Shevchenko earned his first tour-level hard-court wins in Washington in August, when he defeated Maxime Cressy and Sebastian Korda. The 22-year-old looked sharp against van de Zandschulp, breaking the World No. 68’s serve four times to advance in the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

Shevchenko, currently No. 84 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, will next play Hamad Medjedovic after the #NextGenATP Serbian advanced against Laslo Djere.

Medjedovic was leading 6-3, 2-1 on tournament debut when countryman Djere was forced to retire. The 20-year-old Medjedovic, who is the youngest player in the draw, is aiming for a deep run in Astana to boost his Next Gen ATP Finals chances.

The Serbian is currently ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Jeddah, having won three ATP Challenger Tour titles this year.

Daniil Medvedev holds a Tour-leading 33 wins on hard courts this year and has lifted four trophies on the surface, equal with Novak Djokovic. Arriving at the China Open this week, the World No. 3 is determined to add to his title collection.

“It’s my first time in Beijing. The tournament is super strong. So if you win it, it’s great. It’s a great memory. It’s great for the confidence. There are still some important tournaments to come, so the better you play the end of the season, the better you play the beginning of the next one,” Medvedev said during his pre-tournament press conference. “The motivation is to try to do all this, to continue proving to yourself that you can win these big tournaments, big titles, against big opponents.”

Medvedev is making his debut in Beijing and arrives at the ATP 500 event off the back of a run to the title match at the US Open, where he defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals.

The 27-year-old is excited by the possibility of facing top seed Alcaraz again this week, but is wary of the other threats in a stacked ATP 500 field. Eight of the Top 10 players in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings are competing in Beijing.

“I think if we face each other, we are both happy, we are both in the final,” Medvedev said when asked about potentially playing Alcaraz. “That’s a good goal, to try to make this happen.

“At the same time, as I said, so many good players. It’s tough. It’s like an ATP Masters 1000 here or a Grand Slam. In a way it’s even stronger than a Grand Slam, where you don’t have first rounds, where you maybe can get into the tournament, which sometimes can be the case in a Grand Slam… I think we’re going to see a lot of different results where the seeded players can lose and stuff like this because first rounds are never easy.”

Medvedev faces World No. 13 Tommy Paul in the first round and could play World No. 12 Alex de Minaur in the second round if the Australian can defeat 2016 champion Andy Murray in his opening match.

Medvedev feels his game is in good shape ahead of the event and is excited to play in China.

“The arena looks really nice,” Medvedev said. “I practiced both yesterday and today. It looks very, very nice. I’m sure there is going to be a lot of people during the matches. Let’s see. I only heard good things. First time I’m going to experience it. On ATP level, I think I only played in Shanghai and I really like it. I think it’s going to be the same here.”

Carlos Alcaraz arrives at the China Open with double motivation. If the Spaniard can capture his seventh tour-level title of the season at the ATP 500, he would close the gap to 315 points on Novak Djokovic in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

The Spaniard is chasing a second consecutive ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone finish.

“As I said a few times, we have a really beautiful battle for the No. 1 spot after the great performance Djokovic had in the American season,” Alcaraz said. “He’s the No. 1 right now. I’m coming here with extra motivation to try to recover it in the Race, of course, in the ranking. As I said, it’s something that I have in my mind every time that I practice, in every tournament.

“Is not obligatory for me to recover that, but of course you have to put the goals in the year. So for me No. 1 spot is one of the main goals for me. In these great tournaments, I’m looking to do great to be able to be close or recover that number.”

Alcaraz, who opens against qualifier Yannick Hanfmann in Beijing, is competing for the first time since he reached the semi-finals at the US Open earlier in September (l. to Medvedev). The 20-year-old is pleased with how his preparations have gone ahead of the Asian Swing.

“We have [had] quality practice at home before coming here, played some sets with players from the academy that are playing great,” said Alcaraz, who is 58-7 on the season. “I’m feeling great coming here. I had my first practice yesterday at the centre court. It was amazing to get in and step on the court see how it is to be playing in that court.”

Alcaraz is making his debut in Beijing as the ATP Tour returns to the Chinese capital for the first time since 2019. While Alcaraz may lack experience at the hard-court event, his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero does not. Ferrero has competed five times in Beijing, reaching the semi-finals in 2005. Alcaraz is hoping to lean on Ferrero’s experience this week.

“He told me a little bit about this tournament. Of course, since 2004 until now the tournament has improved a lot. It is almost a different tournament. But he told me great things about this tournament,” Alcaraz said. “He played great the years that he has played here. Yeah, he told me that he enjoyed a lot playing here. Hopefully I feel the same way that he felt when he was playing.”

From teen prodigy to established Top 10 star, Jannik Sinner has become one of the most exciting young players on the ATP Tour.

Yet the story of the 22-year-old’s success is far from a one-man show, and for the 2023 season he has been accompanied at tournaments by any of four regular team members – coaches Simone Vagnozzi and Darren Cahill, physio Giacomo Naldi and fitness coach Umberto Ferrara.

The ATP Tour caught up with Team Sinner to find out more about the inner workings of the eight-time tour-level champion’s quest to reach the very top of the game.

Jannik Sinner & His Team” />

Jannik Sinner

“I would describe my team as nice people, happy people,” Sinner told the ATP Tour earlier this year. “Everyone knows very well what he has to do. I feel good with them and lucky to have them, so I think it is a very good team.”

Different coaches bring different ideas to the table. Sinner believes his open-mindedness to learn from the combined experience of Vagnozzi and Cahill, as well as physical specialists Naldi and Ferrara, is key to his continued development.

“Everyone is very important for me because for me it’s sometimes also good to mix it up a little bit,” said Sinner. “You don’t go to every tournament with the same people, but to have different voices sometimes, it’s very good. I think everyone is very important for me, because also with two different tennis coaches sometimes to have new things coming, you learn new things.”

Jannik Sinner” />

It isn’t just on the court where Sinner feels the benefit of his entourage, which also helps him stay relaxed amid the hectic ATP Tour schedule. He enjoys playing cards, watching football and basketball or going go-karting with his team, and also cites his entourage as key pillars of mental and emotional support.

“When I ask someone to join my team it’s not only if they are the best in their work but also how I feel with them,” said Sinner. “For me that is very important because we spend not only the time when we work together, but also at dinner and in the morning.

“I see more of them than my family, so you have to feel very comfortable. They also have to understand my problems, as I sometimes have to understand their problems even if they are a little bit older than I am. It is just important to talk about everything very openly.”

Simone Vagnozzi: Coach

Described by his fellow coach Cahill as “the one that’s really steering the ship”, Vagnozzi has worked with Sinner since February 2022. The Italian has been aware of his countryman Sinner’s potential for considerably longer, however, and believes the 22-year-old has the work ethic to match his prodigious talent.

“I’ve known Jannik from when he was 14. He played against one of my junior players, so I saw him for the first time there,” Vagnozzi told the ATP Tour. “We met a lot of times at tournaments when I coached [Marco] Cecchinato and [Stefano] Travaglia.

“It’s really nice to coach him because he’s a really funny guy. He has a really good character. It’s easy to coach Jannik also because he wants to improve a lot and go on the court always with a smile and everything, so for a coach it’s really good.”

Simone Vagnozzi” />

Vagnozzi takes the lead on the day-to-day coaching of Sinner after the Italian has been physically prepared and warmed up by Naldi and Ferrara. Vagnozzi works in tandem with Cahill, who possesses vast experience coaching top players (including former ATP World No. 1s Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt) and particularly focusses on helping their charge with the mental side of the game.

“Normally we are two coaches on the team, me and Darren Cahill,” explained Vagnozzi. “Sometimes we are together, sometimes we are alone with Jannik. Normally I do the technical stuff on the court. [Giacomo and Umberto] do the physical stuff before, then we go to the court and play for one hour and a half, normally with another player. We play some points, do some drills, and in the afternoon, we do one hour of technique. Serve, volley, slice. Normally this is the routine.”

Vagnozzi relishes working with a coach as highly regarded as Cahill and believes that the wider team assembled by Sinner is a good foundation to help him push on to greater things.

“The relationship is really good. Darren is a really nice person and also has an unbelievable [work record],” said Vagnozzi. “Umberto the fitness coach I’ve known for many years because we worked together with Cecchinato and Travaglia. The physio Giacomo is new, but he is a really nice guy, young. Right now, everything is working well.”

Vagnozzi is certainly in no doubt of Sinner’s desire to rise to the top of the game. He named Sinner as the most competitive member of the team, even when it comes to card games or fun challenges that he and Cahill set on the practice court.

“Jannik wants to win everything,” said Vagnozzi. “Just yesterday we lost 20 bucks each, Darren and I, because he hit the ball can with his serve on the first try. If we say to him, ‘You get 20 Euros if you do it the first time and 15 Euros if you do it on the second’, [he always] does it on the first!”

Darren Cahill: Coach

One of the most respected coaches in the game, Cahill is clear as to why he decided to join Team Sinner.

“I think that there are a lot of young players at the moment on the men’s Tour that are exciting to watch and certainly exciting to work with,” said Cahill. “Jannik is one of those players… He works incredibly hard, he has great discipline. He’s a good kid off the court, his family’s awesome and he’s been well brought up, he’s got his feet firmly planted on the ground, he’s respectful, and he believes.

“He believes that one day the ultimate success will come to him and he knows that you don’t get there without a lot of hard work. He’s prepared to do the hard work.”

Darren Cahill” />

With Vagnozzi already in place as a full-time coach, Sinner brought Cahill on board in June 2022 with the belief that the Australian could add to his development.

“My role is more about the experience and how to help him mentally in these big moments, and to make sure that we’re working on the right stuff that eventually is going to get him to the place we want to be,” explained Cahill. “To help Umberto and Giacomo [as well] and work out when we need to practise for an extra 45 minutes, or when it’s good to send him back to the hotel to rest.

“It’s just the little things that make a big difference in a player’s career, and that’s kind of my role, more of an overseer of the team. So far, it’s been really enjoyable, and I love it.”

Like Vagnozzi, Sinner’s desire to win is something that impresses Cahill, even if the Italian occasionally leaves him with lighter pockets when things get competitive off the court.

“We have lots of laughs,” said Cahill. “We play lots of games against each other. Jannik is incredibly competitive, whether we’re playing cards or on the go-karts, or doing anything outside of tennis, he wants to win, and win badly. I think at times he’s more concerned with taking five Euros off me than he is about winning a $20,000 paycheque. He cares more about five Euros, winning it off me, and takes great satisfaction when he sees me taking it out of the wallet to give it to him as well.

“He’s a funny guy, a very funny kid. He makes it relaxing to be around. So far it’s been a pleasure to work with him. Hopefully he says the same about me, but it’s been great fun.”

Giacomo Naldi: Physio

Sinner is known for his electric movement along the baseline, something that he has previously attributed in part to the fact he was one of Italy’s top young skiers before he prioritised tennis. The man responsible for keeping Sinner’s body ready to race around the court is his physiotherapist, Naldi, the newest addition to the team.

“I’ve been working with Jannik since February,” said Naldi. “I’m from Bologna. I met Jannik in October of last year. They came to my clinic because he injured his ankle. We worked together for one week and then at the end of the year, they asked me if I wanted to join the team because their physio changed jobs. I decided to join them and I’m very happy to be with them.”

Naldi works closely with fitness coach Ferrara to ensure Sinner is ready to produce his best on court. His job is particularly important for the Italian star’s recovery, a crucial aspect to professional tennis given the tournaments and matches often come thick and fast.

“Our daily routine is composed of a pre-training section, which means some mobility, some preventive exercises,” said Naldi. “Me and [Umberto] in particular. My job is to work on his feet doing taping and his knee, some nice mobility and something for his body before he trains with the trainer and before the practice.

“The main part of my job is after a match or practice because I work with his muscles. So I do a massage, mobility [exercises] again, and also some osteopathic techniques, because I am also an osteopath and I try to do whatever he needs to recover his body.”

It was also Naldi who introduced the group to one its favourite off-court activities — the card game Buraco — a development that roused Sinner’s superstitious side.

“Since February when they learned to play, Jannik wants to play every day,” said Naldi. “The first time we played he won the tournament [in Montpellier], so now he wants to play every day.”

Umberto Ferrara: Fitness Coach

Since June 2022 it has been Ferrara, the fitness coach, who is responsible for helping Sinner reach his peak physical state for competition. Despite being a player who is known for his speed around court, Ferrara believes there is more to come from the Italian as he looks to make his mark at the top of the game.

“He is a very good athlete,” said Ferrara. “He has improved in the last year, and I think he must improve a lot in the two or three next years. But actually, he is a good athlete.”

Like Naldi, Ferrara has a standard routine to his day working with Sinner, but has to remain flexible depending on how the Italian’s body handles his on-court exertions.

“We start in the morning with the exercise for mobility,” explains Ferrara. “Then we have a lot of exercises to ‘prehab’ for the injury that Jannik has had in the past on the ankles. Then we follow the routine about strength and speed, to move better. That’s it, but every day we change a little bit because it’s dependent on the state or shape of Jannik.”

Ferrara’s hard work played a role in enabling Sinner to become an ATP Masters 1000 champion for the first time in August in Toronto. That moment stands out for the fitness coach as a highlight of his time on Team Sinner. Ferrara also cherishes the importance of the team’s efforts in helping the Italian overcome tougher moments in his career.

“The best memory is the win in Toronto for sure, but I also like the times when we finish the rehab after an injury and we restart playing playing and practising,” said Ferrara. “For me these are very good moments.”

Jannik Sinner & His Team” />

Photo Credits: ATP Tour

As he began his title defence at the 2023 US Open, Carlos Alcaraz said he felt like a better player than when he won his first major title in New York. While the Spaniard could not repeat his trophy feat at the hard-court Slam, his statistics this season trump his 2022 campaign almost across the board.

There is one key measure by which Alcaraz is off his previous pace: the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Alcaraz debuted at World No. 1 following his US Open triumph last year and held onto that position to finish the year as the ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone. This September, he sits at No. 2.

But a closer look reveals that the 20-year-old has improved even by the measure of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

After finishing the 2022 season with 6,820 points, Alcaraz already has 8,175 points in this year’s Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. He’s just 770 points behind Novak Djokovic in the Live Race, with two ATP Masters 1000s (Shanghai, Paris) and the Nitto ATP Finals still to come, among other events.

Following his US Open semi-final defeat to Daniil Medvedev, Alcaraz revisited his claim that he is a better player this season.

“These kind of matches can happen even if I feel myself [a] different player, more mature,” he said, before going on to provide a harsh self-assessment.

“I thought that right now I am better player, to find solutions when the match is not going in the right direction for you. But after this match, I’m going to change my mind. I’m not mature enough to handle these kind of matches. So I have to learn about it.”

Alcaraz was understandably disappointed after bowing out in New York, but a broader perspective shows his strides in the past 12 months.

In 2022, Alcaraz finished the season with a 57-13 record, an 81 per cent win rate. This year, he stands at 58-7, good for an 89 per cent winning rate. Despite not making his season debut until mid-February after missing the start to the season with an injury, Alcaraz has already surpassed his win total from a year ago. His 58 victories lead the ATP Tour according to Infosys ATP Stats, with Medvedev (55) the only other player above the 50-wins mark.

Of his seven defeats this season, only one has come in straight sets — a stunner against Fabian Marozsan in Rome. Outside of that second-round defeat and a quarter-final exit in Toronto, Alcaraz has reached at least the semis at each of his 11 other tour-level events in 2023.

Alcaraz will hope to continue his consistent season in Beijing, where he is set to make his debut at the ATP 500. All of the remaining ATP Tour events in 2023 will be played on hard courts, and the Spaniard’s statistics on that surface are also among the best.

With a 21-4 record, his 84 per cent hard-court win rate this season is third best on the Tour, behind only Djokovic (97%) and Medvedev (86%). His 21 wins are among the Top 10, a tally limited by his absence during the Australian Swing to begin the year.

With Djokovic not competing in Beijing or the ATP Masters 1000 in Shanghai, Alcaraz has a golden opportunity to close the 770-point gap between the pair in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. By the end of the Asian Swing, Alcaraz could have his fate in his hands in his bid to repeat as ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone.

Liam Broady reached the Wimbledon boys’ singles final aged 17 and after turning 18, became the No. 2 junior in the world. After more than a decade, the Briton has made his biggest breakthrough on the ATP Tour.

On Tuesday, 29-year-old Broady cracked the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time by climbing to a career-high World No. 93. The lefty credits his surge over the past few years to a change in mentality, how he treats his career and his attitude on the court. Why did he make that shift?

“Partly the feeling like I’m a bit of a disappointment to what my junior career was, and feeling like I was wasting my talent. I also didn’t really want to live with that feeling anymore of being rubbish or being trash at tennis and knowing I could do something about it,” Broady told ATPTour.com in July. “Whereas nowadays, I go to bed at night and I feel like, ‘Yeah, I’m doing everything I can to be better at the sport.’ I’m doing everything I can to try and achieve what I can and if I don’t, at least I can say I’ve done that.

“I’m a big believer in karma and stuff. I think if you do the right things, good things happen, whether that’s during your career or after it.”

Broady was immortalised on Netflix earlier this year when his match against Nick Kyrgios was covered on Break Point. But the Briton has proven he is far more than a complimentary character in a docuseries. He is himself one of the best players in the world, and credits his progression to his maturity.

“I think for years I struggled a lot with finding the right mentality and I think that’s part of growing up. I think the quicker you can grow up, the better player you’ll be,” Broady said. “A prime example: Rafa Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer. I mean, Roger actually probably peaked a little bit older than some of the other guys. I think his first Slam, he was 21 or 22.

“I just think it’s a matter of when you reach that maturity and obviously for me, it’s come 10 years later than some of those guys.”

The lefty believes the moment the switch flipped for him was around age 26, especially at the start of the 2020 season.

“I kind of decided, ‘Okay, let’s focus on the tennis now. It’s your profession, you only have one career, and let’s see how well we can do’. It’s kind of grown from there,” Broady said. “I wish I’d have made that decision when I was 18 years old and had another seven or eight years of learning the way that I’ve learned over the last three or four years. But that’s not the way it works sometimes. The last three years, really, I’m very proud of what I’ve managed to do.”

Broady vividly remembers winning just three games in the first round of qualifying at the 2020 Australian Open against Ilya Ivashka. He had enjoyed a “really good” pre-season and his first match of the year was over in just 73 minutes

“My first reaction was to go and get really drunk and go and have a good time in Melbourne and I just kind of thought, ‘I’ve been doing that now for three or four years, that’s not making things better, it makes it worse,’” Broady said. “I had a phone call with my coach straightaway and I said ‘Look, I don’t want to talk about the match, I don’t want to talk about how I played. I want to just say, let’s make a promise now that I’ll commit everything to my tennis for the next 12 months and we’ll see where we’re at. Then if it doesn’t go well, then maybe I’ll leave the sport. If it does go well, then let’s talk again.’”

^{Liam Broady and sister Naomi Broady, who reached World No. 56. Photo: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour}
The Briton made an ATP Challenger Tour final and semi-final that year and also qualified for Roland Garros. Each season since he has consistently put himself in position to play on the world’s biggest stages. Last year he made the third round at Wimbledon with a win over Diego Schwartzman. This year at SW19, Broady upset Casper Ruud to make the third round.

“These matches are magical moments, and you never know, at the end of the day, you might never get a chance to play them again,” Broady said. “So that’s a huge motivation of mine, to get more and more of those moments, and players who are in the Top 50, Top 20, they’re playing those matches all the time. That’s where I want to be.”

British lefties have enjoyed success in recent years. Jack Draper, another former Wimbledon boys’ singles finalist, has taken the ATP Tour by storm. Henry Searle won the junior title at The All England Club this July.

“It felt really quick when Jack Draper made the final, and now even more so I’m being consigned to the annals of history now,” Broady said. “There are two guys that have done it since me and in a few years I’m sure there’ll be three guys. Before you know it, no one will remember that I did it. That’s sport, it moves on quick. Tennis waits for no one. If you stand still, then you fall behind. It’s as simple as that.”

But Broady is not falling behind. Aged 29, he is playing as well as ever. The evidence is in his Pepperstone ATP Ranking. He has also earned the respect of his peers, including British No. 1 Cameron Norrie.

“I know for him that’s been a huge goal to crack the Top 100, so I’m very impressed and I knew he had it in him,” Norrie said. “It just kind of shows what kind of person he is, the perseverance, and it is well deserved. He works harder than anyone, so I’m glad he’s made that jump and I think he can keep going. I don’t see why not.”

Eight of the Top 10 players in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings are set to compete at the China Open in Beijing, including debutants Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev. In addition to the star-studded ATP 500, this week will also see ATP 250 action at the Astana Open, where home favourite Alexander Bublik joins Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem in the field.

ATPTour.com looks ahead at 10 things to watch this week.

FIVE THINGS TO WATCH IN BEIJING
1) Alcaraz Returns To Action: Alcaraz is set for his first tournament since his semi-final defeat to Medvedev at the US Open. The Spaniard enters Beijing just 770 points behind Novak Djokovic in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, which also serves as a barometre for the battle for ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone. With strong results in Beijing and the following week at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, Alcaraz could leave Asia in fist place in the Live Race. He will face a qualifier in the first round in Beijing.

2) Medvedev Seeks To Extend Hard-Court Dominance: Medvedev has earned 38 hard-court wins this season, with the World No. 3 claiming four titles in 2023 on his favourite surface. Prior to his run to the US Open final, the 27-year-old’s hard-court form peaked earlier this season when he reached five straight ATP Tour finals, winning four titles, capped with a trophy at the Miami ATP Masters 1000 in early April. The Beijing second seed will need to be ready from the first point as he opens against World No. 13 Tommy Paul.

3) Rune, Sinner Seek Consistency: The 20-year-old Holger Rune and the 22-year-old Jannik Sinner are both in the top eight of both the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and the Pepperstone ATP Live Rice To Turin — but their positions are flipped across the two. World No. 4 Rune is clinging onto the all-important eighth spot in the Live Race, while World No. 7 Sinner is in fourth place in the Live Race, with a 1,310-point cushion over the Dane. They are seeded to meet in the quarter-finals in Beijing. Rune will open against Felix Auger-Aliassime and Sinner faces Daniel Evans.

4) Laver Cup Stars Make Trip To Asia: A host of Laver Cup competitors will make the journey from Vancouver to Beijing this week, including Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina from Team Europe and Auger-Aliassime and Paul from champions Team World. Stefanos Tsitsipas, who withdrew from Laver Cup with injury, is also in the ATP 500 field.

5) Zverev, Murray Among Other Big Names: The Beijing field has star power from top to bottom. World No. 12 Alexander Zverev will make the trip after a run to the Chengdu title, while Andy Murray travels from Zhuhai, where he was beaten by Aslan Karatsev in three sets in the second round. Murray opens against Alex de Minaur and could play Medvedev in the second round.

FIVE THINGS TO WATCH IN ASTANA
1) Griekspoor Seeks Third Title: After winning the first two titles of his career this season in Pune and ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Tallon Griekspoor hopes to continue his breakout season in Astana. He enters the event as the top seed, at a career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking of No. 24.

2) Home Favourite Bublik: Kazakhstan’s Bublik has not won a singles match since his run to the Wimbledon fourth round (0-4). The 26-year-old will bid to get back on track with the support of the Kazakhstani fans in his home nation’s capital. The third seed will open against Marton Fucsovics or Sebastian Ofner

3) Wawrinka, Thiem Add More Star Power: Both Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem are competing in their first ATP Tour event since the US Open. Wawrinka reached the third round in New York (l. to Sinner) and then split a pair of Davis Cup matches, while Thiem was forced to retire in the US Open second round with an abdominal issue. The Swiss and Austrian could meet in the second round at the ATP 250 in a battle of former major champions.

4) Lehecka, Korda Lead Youth Movement: The 21-year-old Jiri Lehecka and the 23-year-old Sebastian Korda are both former Next Gen ATP Finals runners-up — Lehecka this past season (l. to Nakashima) and Korda in 2021 (l. to Alcaraz). Both will be among the seeds in Astana, with Korda entering after a semi-final run in Zhuhai.

5) Murray/Venus Lead Doubles Field: Jamie Murray and Michael Venus are the top seeds in the doubles draw, fresh off winning their fourth title of the season together in Zhuhai. The doubles field also includes Americans Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow and the British-Finnish pairing of Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara.

Alexander Zverev completed a hard-earned title run on Tuesday evening in China as he claimed a 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 6-3 championship match win against Roman Safiullin at the Chengdu Open.

Zverev sealed his third three-set win in four matches at the ATP 250 by holding firm in the face of a clean-hitting display from Safiullin, who was competing in his maiden tour-level final. Zverev was two points from defeat at 5/5 in the second-set tie-break but he raised his level to seal a two-hour, 56-minute triumph and claim his 21st tour-level crown.

“He’s playing the best tennis of his life for sure,” said Zverev of Safiullin. “The way he was winning this week, I think he beat a lot of great players quite easily, so I knew that he was playing well. Obviously, I’m happy to be able to come back and to win this title.”

The little jump of happiness 😂

Your 2023 #ChengduOpen Singles Champion: @AlexZverev 🏆@ChengduOpen pic.twitter.com/Cr3AWUysG4

— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 26, 2023

Safiullin had lit up Chengdu with a series of clean-hitting displays en route to the final and he did not let up for the championship match, striking 33 winners to his opponent’s 25. He saved three set points from 4-5, 0/40 to win the opening set, but the World No. 10 Zverev dialled in behind his big first serve and finished the stronger as he improved to 14-6 in tour-level finals on hard courts.

Zverev, who also triumphed in Hamburg and reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros earlier this year, is now 46-21 for the year after missing the second half of the 2022 season with a serious ankle injury. His victory on debut in Chengdu also boosted his standing in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. Zverev is now in seventh place as he looks to return to for a sixth appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals, where he is a two-time champion.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame’s annual Fan Voting is back again for 2023, with six accomplished ATP and WTA players among this year’s candidates for the Class of 2024. From 27 September through 9 October 2023, tennis fans around the world can cast their ballots to help these players achieve induction into the Hall of Fame.

The six nominees in the Player Category for the Class of 2024 are:

• Carlos Moyá of Spain, winner of 1998 Roland Garros and former World No. 1
• Daniel Nestor of Canada, a former doubles World No. 1 and winner of 12 major titles in doubles and mixed doubles
• Leander Paes of India, winner of 18 Grand Slam titles in doubles and mixed doubles and a former doubles World No. 1. He makes history as the first Asian man nominated for the Hall of Fame in the Player Category.
• Cara Black of Zimbabwe, former doubles World No. 1 and a 10-time Grand Slam champion in doubles and mixed doubles
• Ana Ivanović of Serbia, former World No. 1 and 2008 Roland Garros champion
• Flavia Pennetta of Italy, former doubles World No. 1 and 2015 US Open singles champion

Paes is a new addition to the ballot, while the other five players return in the Player Category.

Fans can learn more and weigh in with their ballots at vote.tennisfame.com during the voting period. While fans can only vote once, they may vote for as many candidates as they would like.

How The Vote Works:
The Official Voting Group, comprised of tennis journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers, will submit their vote.

The top three vote-getters in the Fan Vote will receive bonus percentage points on their result from the Official Voting Group. The candidate with the highest result in the Fan Vote will receive three additional percentage points, while second and third place will receive two and one additional percentage points, respectively.

To be elected, a candidate must receive an affirmative vote in 75 per cent or higher of ballots submitted from the Official Voting Group or a combined total of 75 per cent or higher from their Official Voting Group result and Fan Vote bonus percentage points.

The 2024 ballot will also include two nominees in the Contributor Category: former player and longtime broadcaster Vijay Amritraj and renowned journalist Richard Evans. (There is no fan voting for the Contributor Category.)

For additional information on the Class of 2023 Fan Vote and the ITHF’s induction process, visit tennisfame.com.

Karen Khachanov returned to the winners’ circle for the first time since 2018 on Tuesday when he captured the title at the Huafa Properties Zhuhai Championships.

The top seed overcame Japanese star Yoshihito Nishioka 7-6(2), 6-1 in the final at the Chinese ATP 250 hard-court event to clinch his fifth tour-level title and first since Paris nearly five years ago.

Khachanov played ‘big-man’ tennis throughout the one-hour, 43-minute clash. After recovering from squandering a break advantage in the first set to edge a tight opener, the 27-year-old opened his shoulders in the second set, unleashing on the forehand to overpower Nishioka.

Khachanov struck 34 winners, including nine aces, to improve to 4-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against the eighth seed. Khachanov was competing in just his second tour-level singles event since his Roland Garros quarter-final in May, when he suffered a stress fracture in his back. His victory in Zhuhai seals a stunning comeback week.

The top seed lost in the first round at the US Open on his return in August, but looked close to his best in Zhuhai, dropping just one set en route to the title. Khachanov, who also triumphed on Chinese soil in Chengdu in 2016, is up to No. 14 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

Nishioka was competing in his fifth tour-level final and chasing his third title. His last tour-level crown came in Seoul in 2022.