Now both men have made history for their country, leaving a permanent mark on the history books.
Andy Murray put away an off-colour Robin Soderling in the opening match of the ATP World Tour Finals in London on Sunday.
Second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi progressed to the quarter-finals of the St Petersburg Open after a hard-earned win over Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny. The 'Indo-Pak Express', aiming to make the ATP World Tour finals, beat their unseeded opponents 6-2, 2-6, 10-3 in the first round of the US $663,750 hard court event.
Should Carlos Alcaraz win Queen's final against Alex de Minaur he would reclaim the world number one ranking from Novak Djokovic.
Serbia's world number one Novak Djokovic will return to Davis Cup action after a season's absence when he leads his country against Croatia in the first round in March, he said on Wednesday.
Americans Bob and Mike Bryan beat Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram 7-6, 6-3 on Sunday to win the doubles title at the ATP World Tour Finals and regain the end-of-season number one ranking.
Andy Murray called on umpires to get tough on players taking too long between points on Thursday after being made to work hard for victory against a determined Fernando Verdasco at the ATP World Tour Finals.
Roger Federer booked his place in the ATP World Tour Finals for a record-tying 12th consecutive year when he dismissed South African Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4 to reach the third round of the Paris Masters on Wednesday.
The decision to lift the ban was met with protest from Ukraine, whose Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said it was "immoral" and urged Britain to deny Russian and Belarusian players visas.
Rafael Nadal reached the final of the Swiss Indoor tournament when he beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-6(7) on Saturday, a result that was good news for fellow Spaniard David Ferrer.
France's Richard Gasquet has been cleared to return to the tour after testing positive for cocaine, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said on Wednesday.
The third-seeded Indo-Kiwi combination prevailed 6-4, 5-7, 14-12 over the Australian-Swede combine of Matthew Ebden and Robert Lindsted, in the quarter-finals after saving three match points.
Leander Paes, on Sunday, won his first title of the season, combining with Canadian Adil Shamasdin to lift the Leon Challenger Tour tennis tournament's men's doubles trophy after a straight-set triumph in Leon.
Spain's Rafael Nadal defeated local boy Di Wu in straight sets to reach the second round of the China Open on Tuesday.
Swiss tennis star Martina Hingis has said that Li Na's retirement was a loss to world tennis, while also crediting the Chinese ace of raising the game's profile in her home country and across Asia.
ATP Tour remembered Maradona with a social media post saying "A champion and icon loved by all", accompanied with a picture of Maradona with Federer.
The 32-year-old debutant at the ATP's blue riband event won the first 11 games of the round-robin clash before a relieved Nishikori finally got on the scoreboard with an angled winner.
Novak Djokovic ruthlessly took Matteo Berrettini apart at the ATP Finals on Sunday as he began his quest to reclaim the number one ranking by winning his opening group match 6-2, 6-1.
World No 5 Kei Nishikori has withdrawn from this week's Shanghai Rolex Masters due to an injury to his left gluteal muscle.
Muguruza wins all-Spanish clash with Badosa at WTA Finals
Ramkumar became the first Indian in seven years to advance to the singles final of an ATP World Tour event but missed out on ending India's 20-year title drought when he lost the Hall of Fame final to Steven Johnson on Sunday night.
The world's top tennis players will swap rackets for game controllers this month after organisers of the cancelled Madrid Open said they will stage a virtual competition to raise funds for struggling professionals amid the coronavirus shutdown.
World No 1 Andy Murray started his new season with a surprise 7-6(4), 6-4 loss to David Goffin in the semi-finals of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
The former Wimbledon champion has decided to take on the tournament director's role at next year's World Indoor tournament.
Playing in his first competitive singles match on the ATP Tour since August 5, the 20-times Grand Slam champion showed no signs of rust in his second round win against Lithuanian qualifier Ricardas Berankis.
Former world number one Rafael Nadal ended his season on Thursday as he has yet to fully recover from a wrist injury that has hampered him since the French Open in May.
World number two Roger Federer has withdrawn from next month's Rogers Cup in Montreal, though he gave no reason for his decision in a statement released by organisers on Wednesday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Morgan, a 35-year-old former Florida University football player, was found dead on Monday after being reported missing by his family.
Indian tennis veteran Mahesh Bhupathi, teaming up with compatriot Saketh Myneni, won a hard-fought doubles pre-quarter-final on Wednesday to set up a mouth-watering clash with former partner Leander Paes at the ATP Chennai Open. They beat the Sood brothers -- Chandril and Lakshit -- 6-7, 6-4, 10-6.
Roger Federer said he is "definitely" intending to return to top-level tennis in 2023, but added that he had not made any concrete plans beyond his scheduled appearances at the Laver Cup and his home tournament in Basel later this year.
There comes a moment in all great sporting careers when the puzzle fits together and for Kei Nishikori it arrived on a sweltering early September afternoon in New York.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
India's Rohan Bopanna and Romania's Florin Mergea won their second title of the season together.
Stefanos Tsitsipas confirmed his meteoric rise into the highest echelon of men's tennis by battling back to beat Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-7(6) 6-2 7-6(4) in a compelling title duel at the ATP Finals on Sunday.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer believes that Rafael Nadal is still the favourite to win the French Open next month despite the Spaniard's recent struggles to regain form.
He may have entered the semifinal as the underdog, but Jannik Sinner's stunning victory over overwhelming favourite Novak Djokovic left the Melbourne crowd shocked.
Unheralded Joao Sousa completed a fairytale run at the Malaysian Open on Sunday when he beat France's Julien Benneteau 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the final to become the first Portuguese to win an ATP Tour title.
The 25-year-old Dzumhur recovered from a poor start to beat the Briton 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 and will bid to become the Balkan nation's first Tour winner in Saturday's title-decider against Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut.
Andy Murray could beat Roger Federer on Thursday and crash out of the ATP World Tour Finals or lose and go through to the semi-finals -- such is the conundrum he faces.
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