Looking for Tennis and Racket Sports International News?

Wu Yibing made history on Wednesday evening when he reached the third round of the US Open, becoming the first male Chinese singles player to advance that far in tournament history (since 1881). No Chinese man had made the third round at a Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 1946..

You would never know it by how relaxed Wu was during his press conference after the match. When told by a reporter he was the “hot-trending topic” on Chinese social media, he reacted with a joke.

“I'm a good-looking guy, I guess,” Wu said, drawing laughs from the room.

The world is watching Wu, especially his fans in China. This is a big moment not only for Wu, but his country.

The 22-year-old was not always destined for stardom, though. Wu’s start in tennis came as a means to lose weight. His father Kang, a boxer, knew a track-and-field coach at a training facility. That coach sent four-year-old Wu to a badminton court for exercise.

Abdullah Shelbayh made tennis history Wednesday, when he stunned top seed Dominic Stricker 6-2, 7-5 at the Rafa Nadal Open by Sotheby’s. The 18-year-old became the first player from Jordan to win a match in ATP Challenger Tour history.

Shelbayh converted his third match point to upset the World No. 127 and collect his maiden win over a Top-200 player at the Challenger event in Mallorca, Spain. When the adrenaline started to wear off Wednesday night, the 2021 Wimbledon boys’ doubles finalist (w/ Daniel Rincon) began to replay the match in his head.

“I went in with the mentality to win,” Shelbayh said. “He was a tough opponent, he just won a Challenger right before the US Open. My coaches were just like ‘Give it all and try to enjoy the moment!’ But when I went to sleep, after the adrenaline and everything, I started thinking about every single point of the match. It's a great feeling, and gives me a lot of confidence for upcoming matches.”

Now in the quarter-finals of the Mallorca Challenger, Shelbayh didn’t realise before his first-round match that a win would seal Jordan tennis history. The Amman native hopes this week’s run will inspire other Jordanians to follow.

“It’s surreal,” Shelbayh said. “To do something for your country is a big achievement. I come from a small country where tennis is not a big sport and to do that, it means a lot to me to be in the history of my country. I actually never thought about that entering the match, but it feels amazing. I hope many players from Jordan show their talent in the near future and I can inspire them as much as possible.”

It was 50 years ago that the ATP was formed at the US Open in 1972, little more than four years after tennis entered the Open Era. Much has changed during the past five centuries, including the move of the American major from the grass of Forest Hills to the hard courts of Flushing Meadows and its cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium, named after one of the ATP's most influential pioneers.

As part of ATP’s anniversary celebrations, ATPTour.com has identified 50 game-changing moments of the past 50 years, beginning with the formation of the ATP at Forest Hills, and collated them in an immersive feature.

Here’s how it all began…

[ATP APP]

The Association of Tennis Professionals was formed when around 70 players convened under the centre court stands of West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, in September 1972 at the US Open. With the inspirational Jack Kramer at the helm, the former player and pro tour promoter accepted the role of chief executive officer on one condition: no pay.

Carlos Alcaraz demonstrated his US Open title credentials Thursday when he cruised past Argentine Federico Coria 6-2, 6-1, 7-5 to reach the third round in New York.

The Spaniard produced a dynamic and ruthless display as he entertained the crowd on Arthur Ashe Stadium. The third seed blasted 42 winners. He also moved forward effectively throughout, winning 78 per cent (36/46) of points at the net to level their ATP Head2Head series at 1-1.

“It is never easy to close [out] a match. Federico started to play very well. I had to stay calm to think [about] what I had to do at that moment. I stayed calm and focused in the tough moments,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview.

The 19-year-old now holds an 8-1 record against Argentines, having moved past Sebastian Baez in the first round. Alcaraz enjoyed an impressive run to the quarter-finals on debut in Flushing Meadows last year and will be aiming to better that this fortnight to strengthen his chances of becoming the youngest player to rise to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in history (since 1973).

He is one of four players – Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev and Casper Ruud - who have the opportunity to finish the US Open as the World No. 1. All but Nadal must reach the championship match to have a chance of leaving New York in top spot. More On Key Matches In Battle For No. 1.

Jannik Sinner was pushed to the limit in his opening match at the US Open, but the Italian got back on track Thursday.

The 11th seed eliminated American Christopher Eubanks 6-4, 7-6(8), 6-2 to reach the third round at Flushing Meadows for the second consecutive year. He will next play American Brandon Nakashima after the 21-year-old #NextGenATP star defeated former World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov 7-6(5), 7-5, 6-3.

In the first round, Sinner needed three hours and 35 minutes across five sets to claw past German Daniel Altmaier. Against Eubanks, he needed two hours and 24 minutes.

[ATP APP]

It was by no means a stress-free win for the Italian, who was tested in a lengthy second-set tie-break, in which he needed four set points. But once the 2019 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals champion escaped that tie-break, he surged to the finish line.

Daniil Medvedev is the defending US Open champion and the World No. 1. Yet quietly, the 26-year-old is marching through the draw.

The top seed ousted Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the third round at Flushing Meadows for the fifth consecutive year. He has now won 20 of his past 22 matches at the year’s final major.

“In general I'm happy with my level in the third set, so that's great. At the end of the match it was getting better and better,” Medvedev said. “At the same time a win is the most important, three sets. Try to get out as early as possible even if it is pretty late. Looking forward for [the] next round.”

[ATP APP]

Medvedev will next play China’s Wu Yibing, with the prospect of a fourth-round blockbuster against Australian Nick Kyrgios if they both win their next match.

Fast-rising Briton Jack Draper has stunned US Open sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in a result that has implications for their respective Milan and Turin qualification hopes.

Draper's 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over the Canadian Wednesday night further strengthens his commanding lead in fifth spot in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan as he closes in on a debut appearance at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals from 8-12 November.

The result also deals a blow to 2021 US Open semi-finalist Auger-Aliassime's quest to make his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals. The 22-year-old is sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and had the opportunity to put distance between himself and rivals, including Andrey Rublev and Hubert Hurkacz, with a deep run at Flushing Meadows. Now he is at risk of seeing last year’s Turin qualifiers pass him in the Race this fortnight.

"Obviously Felix is an incredibly tough opponent, that's why he's at the top of the game,” Draper said. “I played a really good match today, a special occasion out here."

Making his US Open debut, Draper claimed his second win over a Top-10 player Wednesday, backing up his victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas in Montreal earlier this month.

Nick Kyrgios battled through a tough four-setter against Benjamin Bonzi on Wednesday at the US Open to reach the third round. Kyrgios and “scratching and clawing” for a win have not always gone hand in hand, but that is exactly what he did inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The 27-year-old is as motivated as ever.

“I feel like in this part of my career, I just don't want to let people down. I feel like I'm representing so many people. I know how much work goes into it with my team, there's a lot of people supporting me,” Kyrgios said. “I just remember doing a press conference here like maybe three or four years ago, I lost in the third round, I just felt horrible because I kept not exceeding expectations, winning.”

Kyrgios has done a lot of winning over the past two months. After advancing to his first major final at Wimbledon, he won the Citi Open for the second time and ousted World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in Montreal.

But with that success has come a realisation — Kyrgios has proven to himself he can make deep runs at the highest levels in the sport. That has led him to put more pressure on himself.

Rafael Nadal takes a perfect 20-0 Grand Slam winning streak in 2022 into Day Four at the US Open, where he will take on Italian veteran Fabio Fognini, who stunned the Spaniard inside Arthur Ashe stadium seven years ago. Nadal continues his pursuit of the No. 1 Pepperstone ATP Rankings Thursday, as does his 19-year-old countryman Carlos Alcaraz.

ATPTour.com looks at five things to watch on Day Four at Flushing Meadows.

1) Rafa Aims To Avenge 2015 US Open Loss To Fognini:Rafael Nadal, who won his opening match in four sets against Australian Rinky Hijikata, has lost only twice in Grand Slams from two sets to love up. Fabio Fognini made history at the 2015 US Open, when he became the first to accomplish the rare comeback (Tsitsipas accomplished the same feat at ‘21 Australian Open). The 22-time major champion will be determined to avoid any similar history making feats by the Italian, who came from two sets down Tuesday in the opening round.

Despite that loss seven-years ago, Nadal has won eight of his past nine meetings with Fognini, and leads the ATP Head2Head 13-4. The four-time US Open titlist is the current No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings and is chasing his third major crown of 2022 in just his second tournament back from suffering an abdominal injury at Wimbledon.

“Things are not perfect when you are not competing very often,” Nadal said. “When you come back from injury. You need to be humble enough to go through this process and accept that you need to fight and you need to accept that you are going to suffer.”

Fabio Fognini is one of tennis’ great showmen. The charismatic Italian is capable of competing against anyone on the circuit on his day. The 35-year-old shotmaker knows he will need to be at his very best Wednesday evening when he plays four-time US Open champion Rafael Nadal.

“I know that it’s going to be really tough. I know that he’s the favourite. I know that he’s everything,” Fognini told ATPTour.com. “I’m just one of a thousand. He’s probably one of two or three. But let’s see. I know how to play, I know his game. He knows me. We know each other very well and I’ll try at least to play my best tennis and enjoy as much as I can.”

For many, facing Nadal on a massive stage like Arthur Ashe Stadium during an evening session would be a daunting task. While Fognini was clear that Nadal is the favourite, he has defeated the Spanish superstar at Flushing Meadows before.

In the third round of the US Open in 2015, Nadal took a two-set lead against Fognini. The Italian caught fire from there and surged past the lefty for one of the most stunning comebacks in recent memory. It was the first time Nadal had let slip a two-set advantage at a Grand Slam. When asked what he remembers from that night, Fognini pointed to one thing.

“That I won!” Fognini said, chuckling. “That’s the most important thing.”

Nick Kyrgios came to a fork in the road Wednesday night at the US Open and chose the hard path to victory against gritty Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi. But after a spectacular finish, during which he won the last nine points of the match, the Australian survived 7-6(3), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and will play American J.J. Wolf in the third round.

“I was hanging by a thread. His level today was incredible,” Kyrgios said. “He was up a break in the fourth and it could have gone either way. I played some really risky tennis late in the fourth, which paid off, and I’m really happy to get through.

“I felt like Benjamin was eating up my serve, making so many returns,” he said. “But 30 aces helps a lot. When my serve is going the rest of mygame tends to follow.”

[ATP APP]

Kyrgios hit 65 winners, including 30 aces, and mounted a spectacular recovery when he found himself staring down the barrel of a fifth set when serving at 4-all 0/40 in the fourth set. Kyrgios hit a winning drop shot from the back off the court, a nonchalant crosscourt forehand winner and a huge ace up the T to get back to deuce. And that was just the start.

Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski became the first team to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals on Wednesday when they reached the second round of the US Open. The Dutch-British tandem will compete in Turin at the season finale, which will be held from 13-20 November.

Koolhof will compete in the Nitto ATP Finals for the second time after lifting the trophy alongside Nikola Mektic in 2020. This is the first time Skupski has qualified for the year-end championships.

The first-placed team in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings has won six doubles titles together this season, highlighted by ATP Masters 1000 victories in Madrid and Montreal. They have also triumphed at ATP 250 events in Melbourne, Adelaide, Doha and ’s-Hertogenbosch. This is the first year Koolhof and Skupski have competed as a pair.

"It will be my first experience of playing it and it's been a goal of mine for many years," Skupski said. "It's a nice goal to tick off and hopefully we can do well. Hopefully Wes can show me the way to winning the title."

"It's a great showcase for doubles with only the best eight teams in the world and I'm really looking forward to it," Koolhof said.

Fifth seed Casper Ruud continued his under-the-radar push towards becoming the new World No. 1 at the US Open after rallying from a set down Wednesday to defeat Dutchman Tim van Rijthoven.

After dropping the first set in a tie-break, the Norwegian rebounded strongly to win 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

[ATP APP]

Ruud, who reached his first major final this year at Roland Garros, saved six of seven breaks points and withstood 52 winners – including 20 aces - from van Rijthoven and will next play the winner of Americans Tommy Paul and Sebastian Korda.

Ruud must make the US Open final to have a chance of finishing the tournament No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Andy Murray had plenty of thinking to do early in his second-round clash against #NextGenATP American Emilio Nava at the US Open on Wednesday, but the former World No. 1 raised his level to prevail 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, 6-0 and reach the third round in New York.

The 20-year-old Nava clinched a lung-busting 84-minute opening set with a stunning forehand pass to heap pressure on his experienced opponent, but Murray bided his time and began to unpick the Nava game with some consistent baseline hitting on Arthur Ashe Stadium. The 2012 champion won 14 of the final 15 games to reach the third round in New York for the first time in six years.

“I think I started to take the ball on a little bit more,” said Murray in his on-court interview when asked how he had turned the match around. “He was dictating a lot of the points in the first set. Once I started to hit the ball a little bit bigger, a little bit deeper, I was then able to control the points more.

“He (Nava) also played a really long first-round match, a five-setter against John Millman. I think that’s the first five-setter that he’s played, so it’s not always that easy to recover and I think his level dropped a little bit in the third and fourth sets. But he’s a brilliant young player and he’s going to have a very bright future.”

[ATP APP]

Have Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury found their best form in time for another dream run at the US Open?

The defending champions and top seeds were clinical in seeing off Federico Coria and Cristian Rodriguez in the first round on Wednesday at the hard-court Grand Slam, where they clinched the solitary break of serve in both sets to seal a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

[ATP APP]

The American-British duo lifted its second ATP Masters 1000 trophy of 2022 at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati 11 days ago and picked up where it left off with a rock-solid showing in New York. Ram and Salisbury faced no break points and fired 29 winners against their Argentine-Colombian opponents to book a second-round clash against Sander Gille and Lukasz Kubot or Aslan Karatsev and Luke Saville.

Ram and Salisbury are chasing their third Grand Slam crown as a team following their triumphs at the Australian Open in 2020 and in New York a year ago. They have been consistent performers at the majors in 2022, reaching the semi-finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon either side of a quarter-final run at Roland Garros.

Daniel Elahi Galan’s secret to progress this year on the ATP Tour, as strange as it may seem, has been taking a break.

Disciplined work is ever present in the Colombian’s career, but downtime has been the most significant contributor this season and he is reaping the rewards. On Monday, almost a month after breaking into the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Galan defeated World No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round of the US Open.

Not only was it the best win of his career, it was also one of the biggest in the history of Colombian tennis, which has not seen a victory over a Top-5 player since Iván Molina took down then-No. 3 Manuel Orantes in Tehran in 1975.

“This result is part of a long process and the product of so many things we’ve been preparing for many years,” said Xando, Daniel’s older brother (four years his senior), who coaches alongside their father, Santos.

“People often see the amazing things, but behind that there is a lot of sacrifice and hard work. This win is a reward for the sacrifice and those day-to-day battles,” Xando said of his brother’s current form.

After seeing fellow Top-10 seeds Stefanos Tsitsipas and Taylor Fritz crash out of the top half on Day 1, top seed Daniil Medvedev and sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime won’t take anything for granted when they suit up for battle in the US Open second round Wednesday.

ATPTour.com looks at five things to watch on Day Three at Flushing Meadows, where Medvedev continues his title defense and Felix faces dangerous young Brit Jack Draper.

1) Felix Meets Draper For First Encounter:Felix Auger-Aliassime, semi-finalist at the US Open last season, is at a career-high No. 8 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. The Canadian should expect a fierce challenge in his first meeting with fast-rising 20-year-old Jack Draper.

Felix, who boasts 37 wins this season including his maiden ATP Tour title in Rotterdam, has had success in New York dating back to his junior days. The Montreal native claimed the boys’ singles title at Flushing Meadows in 2016 and the boys’ doubles title with countryman Denis Shapovalov in 2015. Last year, the 22-year-old became the first Canadian men’s singles semi-finalist in tournament history.

#NextGenATP lefty Draper, who is making his US Open debut, is hungry for his second Top 10 win. After earning his first win over a Top 10 player earlier this month when he ousted Tsitsipas in Montreal, the Brit looks to strengthen his hold on a spot at the eight-player Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals with an upset over Auger-Aliassime Wednesday. The 2018 Wimbledon boys’ singles finalist has won four ATP Challenger Tour titles this year, a season record he shares with Argentine Pedro Cachin.

It took time for Rafael Nadal to discover his rhythm on Tuesday evening at the US Open, but the four-time champion found it to advance to the second round.

The Spaniard rallied past #NextGenATP Australian Rinky Hijikata 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 at Flushing Meadows, where he is competing for the first time since he won the 2019 title. The second seed has won 19 of his past 20 matches at the season’s final Grand Slam, and he has triumphed in all 20 of his matches at major championships this year.

"It's been a long wait. For some time I thought I may not be able to be back, so I am super happy. Night sessions are the best," Nadal said. "I just have to be humble and accept the process, day after day in practices and matches and stay positive."

Nadal will next face a tough challenge against Italian Fabio Fognini, who rallied from two sets down against the 22-time Slam champion in New York in 2015. Nadal leads the pair’s ATP Head2Head series 13-4.

[ATP APP]

Sam Querrey remembers a moment in his hotel at the 2007 Australian Open, when he was a 19-year-old first embarking on his professional career. When he walked into the elevator, World No. 1 Roger Federer was there.

“I remember he introduced himself to me. He said, ‘Hey Sam, Roger, welcome to the Tour’, something along those lines. ‘It’s good to see you here’,” Querrey remembered. “It was pretty cool for a guy like that to come up to a new player like myself.”

It was a pinch-me moment for the teenage Querrey, a recognition of his arrival on the circuit. More than a decade later, following his first-round loss at the US Open against Ilya Ivashka, the American’s illustrious career has come to a close.

Querrey retires having lifted 10 ATP Tour singles trophies, climbed to a career-high No. 11 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and earned 23 victories against Top 10 opponents.

“My body is getting a little tired. I’ve been at the US Open since 2006. I’ve got two little kids. I want to go do something else,” Querrey said. “I want to test my mind somewhere else and try something new. It feels like this is the right time.”