It’s not unfamiliar to see players take a few years to find their footing on the ATP World Tour, but Nicholas Monroe recently achieved a career milestone at age 34. The American, who celebrates his 35th birthday this week at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship, reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final this year in Miami. Paired with Jack Sock, they defeated several top teams en route to the championship match, including top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers, and Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan. “Jack is probably the best doubles player in the world right now, in my opinion, so that was always going to be a lot of fun. We gel...
Tennis players are known for being creatures of habit, but Donald Young is having a year of new experiences both on and off the court. The 27-year-old American is enjoying a rich run of form over the past two months on the ATP World Tour, which he credits to loosening up and being more open to trying new things. His changes in routine have played a part in his rapid rise up the Emirates ATP Rankings, jumping nearly 40 spots since February to his current standing of No. 42. He's seeded seventh this week at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston and opens his campaign on Wednesday against Thiago Monteiro. “I’ve just been more...
Next Gen ATP American Ernesto Escobedo cracked the Top 100 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time this month, jumping well over 200 spots since April 2016. The 20-year-old California native talks about the best gift he ever received, the first professional tennis match he ever watched and when he knew he loved the sport. First moment I realised I loved tennis When I was about eight years old and started to play in tennis tournaments. I loved being on the court being myself or competing with someone else. I played basketball and soccer, but tennis was always in my heart. First tournament I played It was five minutes from my house in West Covina at a club...
Damir Dzumhur, Bosnia-Herzogovina's No. 1, has gained Top 10 wins during the past 13 months against Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych and Rafael Nadal. The 24-year-old Sarajevo native tells ATPWorldTour.com about how he got sick of playing Roger Federer, his first celebrity crush and why he decided to fly first class after the 2014 Australian Open. First moment I realised I loved tennis Maybe when I was 3 or 4. My dad was a tennis coach... I would go almost every day with him because I just liked it. No one was really pushing me. I wanted it. First coach and most important lesson he/she taught me My father... To always fight. I am trying to be a fighter. Sometimes I...
It had been more than a month since Craig Boynton had last seen Steve Johnson, and ordinarily, that wouldn't cause anything to be different in their coach-player relationship. But, then again, Johnson hadn't been living his usual life since the two had last connected, after the Paris Masters in November. Last November and December, Johnson underwent his most intense off-season to date. The American radically changed everything about his diet – what he ate, how much he ate, when he ate – and dropped 15 pounds off his 6'2” frame. Johnson, who had been wanting to drop the extra weight for years, weighed nearly 200 pounds when he and Boynton returned from Paris last November. The next time they saw...