The 2019 tennis season begins....

[Jon]

I had a ticket for today's second qualifying round of the Edgbaston WTA tournament today but I couldn't make it, unfortunately. My brother went and said it was a great day for star-spotting - most of the top names are there and its much more intimate than Wimbledon.

As for the Brits, Dart and Watson have been handed wildcards to join Konta in tomorrow's first round. Dart is paired with Venue Williams in the doubles - Williams has played the vast majority of her doubles games with her sister, except once with Wozniacki in 2008 and once with MAdison Keys in 2018.

Another Brit, Naiktha Bains (a new name for me) won yesterday but lost in the final qualifying round today.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Dan "ought to keep his mouth shut" Evans has won the Nottingham men's final. Challenger level it may be, but the 125 ranking points for the title will push him back to 63rd in the rankings, and up to 34th in the YTD scores, which is higher than he's ever been ranked for a full year so if he keeps up that pace he will reach new career best level before long.

[Janik]

It was Dan Evans. Jamie Murray slapped him down.

The tramlines are not an extra 100%. There is significantly less court for each player to cover in Doubles than Singles. That is why it's less physical, and players have still be competing in that into their late 30s and even 40s for a many years, way before the recent trend in singles for this to be possible. For example, Daniel Nestor last played a main draw singles match in a Slam in 2001, aged 28. He last played a Doubles match in 2018, aged 45. He made the Aussie Open Men's Doubles Final in 2016 as a 43 year-old. See also the Bryan brothers, current age 41 and still being seeded in Slams.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Who was it a couple of weeks ago winding up the doubles players by saying none of them could make it on the singles tour, or words to that effect?

Has Andy Murray's admission that he can return to play doubles at Queens but is nowhere near fit enough for singles going to reignite that? Only I can't see any reason why doubles is any less strenuous than singles?

[Janik]

Nottingham Finals were confirmed this morning. Women's is #1 Garcia vs #2 Vekic and Men's is #1 Evans vs #13 Donskoy.

[Jimski]

We're off to see the semis day of the Birmingham tournament again this year (weather permitting!) If either match is as good as the semi last year between Strycova and Rybarikova, we're in for a treat.

[Janik]

Some of the draws for next week are out, with higher profile events on the schedule. On the ATP it’s a pair of 500 events at Halle and Queens. The WTA have a standard International in Mallorca but a Premier in Brimingham (Edbaston Priory Club).

Halle suffered a couple of significant late withdrawals, Dominic Thiem and Kei Nishikori pulling out. However the most important entrant should still be there as he goes for his 10th title at the event. That is Roger Federer, of course. He doesn’t have a particularly soft draw either, with John Millman in R1 and then either Jo-Wilfred Tsonga or Benoit Paire in R2. Other notable entrants are #2 Sascha Zverev, #3 Karen Khachanov and #5 Gael Monfils. There are three top 10 and a further four 11-20 players in total involved even after the loss of Thiem and Nishikori. Good work by the TD.
The only Brit in Germany is Inglot, who continues his new partnership with Krajicek. They play #2 Klaasen/Venus in R1.

Fascinating looking draw at Queens, which hasn’t suffered any late scratches (yet). A whole host of excellent R1 matches are in prospect, not least the one at the top of the draw #1 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Kyle Edmund! Working down we also have Nick Kyrgios vs Adrian Mannarino (of the two, only Mannarino has reached a Tour grass court final), Grigor Dimitrov vs #8 Felix Auger-Aliassime (Dimitrov was champion here in 2014), #3 Juan Martin del Potro vs Dennis Shapovalov, Fernando Verdasco vs Daniil Medvedev, #7 Stan Wawrinka vs Dan Evans (WC) and Cameron Norrie vs #2 Kevin Anderson (Anderson was runner-up in 2015). Not particularly easy draws for the Brits in there. One other British player has a wild card in addition to Evans, and that is Jay Clarke who will play Lucas Pouille in R1.
The third singles wild card went to Feliciano Lopez, the champion in 2017 and runner-up in 2014 and Andy Murray’s doubles partner. Murray’s return to the competitive stage will be tricky, as they have drawn #1 seeds Cabal/Farah in R1. I guess the Colombians are in two minds about this; it means a much bigger stage to play on than they usually have (it will surely go on Centre Court) but they are clearly cast in the role of heels! Other British or half-British doubles pairs involved are J.Murray/N.Skupski, Salisbury/Ram, and wild cards Evans/K.Skupski and Bambridge/O’Mara. As ATP500’s have a Doubles qualifying there was a chance that Draper/Norrie would join those pairs, except they handed over a walkover in Q1.
Draper did take to the court in singles qualifying, but lost in Q1 of that. Honourably though, beaten in three by #3 Bublik. The set Draper won was 6-1. One other Brit had a wild card into singles qualifying and James Ward has made use of it, beating #7 Gunneswaran in Q1. He now plays (ulp) #4 Ivo Karlovic in final Q.

The Queens draw has two top 10 and five 11-20 players in total. But the strongest draw of the week by rankings is in Birmingham, with the World No.s 1, 2 and 3 Naomi Osaka, Ashleigh Barty and Karolina Pliskova all due to rock up. All excellent grass court players as well. But not defending champion Petra Kvitova, who has pulled out with the injury that kept her out of the French and is now a doubt for Wimbledon. 
Two other top ten players, again both excellent grass courters, are involved in Elena Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka taking the total to five. And also back amongst the seeds is World No.18 and British No.1 Johanna Konta (yet another comfortable with turf under her feet), who takes the #7 spot in the seeds list. There are nine top 20 players in total, and only 8 seeds meaning one of the top 20 is a dangerous floater (see below for who and whom she plays).
With all these names showing for the event, just like in London there are some superb R1 match-ups here. Again, going from top to bottom, #1 Naomi Osaka vs Maria Sakkari is a brilliant opener, Anett Kontaveit vs #7 Jo Konta is a tossup as a nasty draw for Jo (Kotnaveit is the highest ranked non-seeded player in the event), #Aryna Sabalenka vs Hseigh Su-wei offers a fascinating contrast in styles, Venus Williams (WC) vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich is an incredibly rare chance for British fans to see a Williams sister anywhere other than Wimbledon (Venus and Serena have only ever previously played a warm-up event once, I believe) and finally Donna Vekic vs #2 Ashleigh Barty is two very in form grass court players facing off. If this was a Wimbledon final in future no-one would bat an eyelid in surprise.
The two British main draw wild cards have gone to Harriet Dart and Heather Watson, who will play Yulia Putinseva and Barbora Strycova respectively. The chances are slim of anyone joining them from qualifying, but not none. All four wild card entrants, Freya Christie, Eden Silva, Tara Moore and Sarah Beth Grey, lost in Q1 to Aiava, #5 Pera, McNally and #4 Sharma respectively. However the same reason that Destinee Aiava was playing, the rain delays making for a lot of automatic scratches of players still playing elsewhere and opening up spaces for alternates like Aiava, has also benefitted a (freshly minted) Brit, Naiktha Bains taking advantage of a late invite to beat Liu in Q1, 10-8 in a deciding set break. Tight!
The Doubles draw for Edgbaston is yet to be released.

While Birmingham draws most of the attention, being a higher ranked tournament, some decent players are off to sunny Spain. And probably hearing stories of the weather in Britain this week, are glad of their choice. Leading the list in Mallorca is Angelique Kerber, with Anastasija Sevastova, Belinda Bencic, Elise Mertens, Amanda Anisimova and Caroline Garcia also due to play. They are all top 25 players, Kerber top 10.

[Janik]

ATP

Stuttgart
The Final is #7 Felix Auger-Aliassime vs Matteo Berrettini as noted above

Rosmalen
Talk about a time for the heavens to open over in Holland - both Men's Semi were being played simultaneously in an attempt to get them done. One Richard Gasquet against Jordan Thompson was standing at 7-5 5-3 to Thompson. The other Adrian Mannarino vs Borna Coric, was even more certainly right at it's conclusion with a final set tie-break about to start. And then play was suspended. Given it's now twenty to 10 local time, one assumes that is it for the evening.
The Doubles Final did get played as planned, and Dom Inglot successfully defend his title as he and Krajicek beat Daniell/Koolhof in a match breaker, 10-4. Well done, Dom!


WTA

Rosmalen
Somewhat better news for the Women in Holland, as both of their Semis were completed. Alison Riske winning we already knew about. She will try and break her run of reverses in Finals against #1 Kiki Bertens, who beat Elena Rybakina in two. Bertens will be going for her first senior grass court title at any level, and her first Tour title on home soil tomorrow.
She wasn’t playing in the Doubles final though as she and Schuurs (the 2nd seeds) lost to Kerkhove/Schoofs (WC) in the Semi. Schuurs vs Schoofs feels like peak Dutchness in name terms. The Doubles final, against #4 Aoyama/Krunic started, but didn’t reach the end of the first set before play was halted.

Nottingham
Donna Vekic completed victory in the match I was watching against Tatjana Maria, needing just one game on the resumption. The scoreline is bizarre, 5-7 6-0 6-0. Honestly, sets 2 & 3 were much, much closer than that. Loads of games went to deuce. It’s just Vekic won them all! The other Semi, #1 Caroline Garcia vs Jennifer Brady, started outside and got to 4-6 6-3 4-3 in Garcia’s favour. Based on what has happened earlier in the tournament, they will probably complete it indoors this evening.
The Doubles Final is know, Perez/Ar.Rodionova (both Aus) vs Krawczyk/Olmos (USA/Mex).


ATP Challenger

Nottingham
Semi line-up is #1 Dan Evans vs Go Soeda and #13 Evgeny Donskoy vs #14 Antoine Hoang. Busy day in the offing tomorrow, I guess. The forecast is currently dry all day, so fingers crossed.
Doubles is also at the Semi stage, or will be once this evenings matches are completed. #3 K.Skupski/Smith will be in it, but not Broady/Clayton (WC).

Manchester
Everything got played here, and outdoors to boot. Not that it went well for the Brits, Samantha Murray going out of the Singles at the Semi stage to #1 Magda Linette (she plays #3 Zarina Diyas in the final) and #1 Broady/Muhammad losing their Doubles Semi to Anderson/Paar.

[Janik]

Right, so as they wait to restart or move indoors (see below), a QF update or thereabouts.

ATP

Stuttgart
The most interesting looking QF also proved to be the closest, #7 Felix Auger-Aliassime beating Dustin Brown (Q) 7-2 2-7 7-2. Those being the tie-break scores, as each set needed one of those to end it. It’s a wonder how long a match such as this would have lasted if Van Alen hasn’t dreamed up a way of curtailing sets. The other QF winners were #6 Milos Raonic, Jan-Lennard Struff and Matteo Berretini, the latter two translating good form on clay onto the grass.
The Semis here are also done. The all-Canadian affair was a disappointment as Raonic didn’t take to the court. Hopefully it’s precautionary and nothing too serious. Berretini won the other Semi, which is not the way I would have predicted it. Good final in prospect though as Auger-Aliassime and Berretini have both made two previous ones this year (all on clay). Auger-Aliassime is 0-2 and Berretini 1-1 in those (2-1 overall as he won a title in 2018 as well).
There is also a Canadian in the doubles final here, Shapovalov/Bopanna beating Kyrgios/Reid in the Semis. They will play Peers/Soares in the title match.

Rosmalen
#8 Richard Gasquet had a busy day yesterday, finishing off both his match with Mikhail Kukushkin and then beating Nicolas Jarry in the QFs. His Semi today is against Jordan Thompson, who beat #5 Alex de Minaur in three in the all-Aussie clash. The other Semi is Adrian Mannarino, a winner in three over #5 David Goffin and #2 Borna Coric, who won a long one over #7 Cristian Garin.
In the Doubles, Dom Inglot is one match away from defending his title with the aid of Krajicek following a Semi win over de Minaur/Vega Hernandez. They play Daniell/Koolhof in the final. Koolhof is a local, so good for the crowd.


WTA

Rosmalen
Lots happened yesterday, the headline probably being home favourite and top seed Kiki Bertens wrapping up her R2 win over fellow Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus and then following it up by beating Natalia Vikhlyantseva in the QFs. Bertens now plays Elena Rybakina (from Kazakhstan and a qualifier) in the Semis. Bertens has never previously made a singles final on grass at any level, not even ITF, and last played one on home soil in a $10k event a decade ago. Rybakina has never made a Tour final of any sort, and also doesn’t have even an ITF level one on grass to her name.
The other Semi has already happened, Alison Riske winning it against Veronika Kudermetova in three. Kudermetova beat Greet Minnen in three the QFs, Riske downed consecutive Russians having beaten Ekaterina Alexandrova in the QFs. For all Riske’s undoubted grass court prowess, it’s just her second Tour level final on the surface and that previous effort (Nottingham 2016) came up narrowly short against Karolina Pliskova. Riske also has a run of defeats in Tour finals matches to reverse, losing her last six (three of them in Shenzen) after winning her first back in 2014.
If Bertens doesn’t win her Semi, the Dutch will still have home players to cheer on finals day as the remaining Doubles semi features four Dutchwomen. It still might be Bertens, as she is one of these.

Nottingham
The QF winners here were #1 Caroline Garcia, Jennifer Brady and as reference above #9 Tatjana Maria and #2 Donna Vekic. Garcia was the only one to need three sets as she beat qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse. Brady got the best result beating #4 Maria Sakkari. Vekic and #8 Kiki Mladenovic was two close sets, which sort of lived up to its billing. A number of these matches were played on the indoor courts out of necessity, which is where the Semis may now end up being finished off/played fully. The existence of these is why the tournament is up-to-date, though this isn’t great for spectators and rather nullifies the claim to be a grass court tournament.
The last British pair in the Doubles, Grey/Silva, lost in the QFs. The similarity of the colour of the skies to the sound of their names didn’t help then!


ATP Challenger

Nottingham
Still playing catch-up, but #1 Dan Evans (WC) is through to the Semis after a R3 win over Mikael Ymer yesterday and one over Dominik Kopfer today. Both three sets though, which, with the amount of Tennis coming doesn’t sound ideal. He will play Go Soeda in the last four after Soeda beat #16 Lukas Rosol in the QFs (in two, as were all Soeda’s previous matches). Both are previous Nottingham finalists, Soeda in 2010 and Evo last year. The other QFs are #5 Dennis Novak vs #13 Evgeny Donskoy and Ruben Bemelmans vs #14 Antoine Hoang.
The Doubles is still only up to the QFs. Hoyt/Johnson lost in R1, Evans/Glasspool withdrew, presumably because of Evans and not Glasspool.


ITF

Manchester
The Indoor matches yesterday suited the Brits, Samantha Murray beating #7 Marie Bouzkova and Naomi Broady topping Gabriela Taylor (well a Birt was sure to win in the latter). The same two players subsequently played doubles matches on the same courts, #1 Broady/Muhammad beating all-brit pairing Barnett/Nicholls and Appleton/Murray going down to #2 seeds Jiang/Tang, before repairing outside to play each other in the Singles QFs. Murray won that 7-6(4) 6-2 and then presumably both went for the World’s longest ice bath to avoid muscle injuries through overwork.
Murray plays Magda Linette in the singles SFs today (Linette also had two singles matches yesterday) whilst Appleton/Broady have a Doubles SF to play.

[Janik]

The match got to 5-0 to Vekic in the third set, then the heavens utterly opened. Pity.

[Janik]

Maria is German, but married to a Frenchman, who is also her coach (they have a kid together). When he was called for an on-court coaching session, it was in French. But more than that, Maria just responded to serving a double fault with an "Ooh la la!". She's gone native!

[Janik]

Tatjana Maria vs Donna Vekic is ongoing in the Nottingham Semis, and it's a real fun watch (Eurosport 2 for those in Britain). Maria is playing old school grass court Tennis, slicing loads and chip-charging. She has hit some awesome forehand sliced crosscourts returning from the deuce side, which I've no idea what Vekic was meant to do with in response. For a set the Croatian looked bemused about how to counteract this but now she has worked out that she needs to get to the net herself. So now we have a contest of 'who can get to the net first' and 'pass me if you can!'.

[Janik]

Quicker update this morning

ATP

Stuttgart
Up to the QFs as scheduled. Those feature just two seeds, #6 Felix Auger-Aliassime and #7 Milos Raonic (waves small maple leaf flag). That is because 5 of the 7 reaming seeds lost yesterday. The biggest casualty was top seed Sascha Zverev who lost in three to fellow German Dustin Brown. Brown vs Auger-Aliassime is the pick of today's QFs.

Rosmalen
Not quite on schedule, one R2 match (Gasquet-Kukushkin) remaining incomplete overnight. More seeds survive in this event, but the top one and biggest name is gone, Stefanos Tsitsipas being beaten by Nicolas Jarry in R2. #5 Goffin vs Mannarino looks like the best match on the card today.
In the doubles, all four seeded pairs lost in the QFs! That is obviously bad news for #3 J.Murray/N/Skupski and #4 Salisbury/Ram.


WTA

Rosmalen
The Women's draw in Holland is further behind where it is meant to be, with five out of eight R2 matches completed. One didn't start. Of the incomplete matches, one was #1 Kiki Bertens vs Arantxa Rus, which Bertens leads by a set and 4-3 overnight. Given the bittiness of the draw as a consequence of the delay it's not really possible to identify a most interesting last 8 match-up. Bertens might have a busy couple of days, as she is also seeded #2 in the Doubles, but still has her QF to play in that (the only one not yet done).

Nottingham
Somehow the organsiers have got this to the QF stage by the end of Thursday. With three somewhat drier days coming up, getting the singles done by Sunday evening looks well possible. The QF line-up features 6/8 seeds, but not Brits, #1 Caroline Garcia knocking out the last in Maia Lumsden since the last update. #8 Kiki Mladenovic vs #2 Donna Vekic stands out as the best match on the QF schedule.
The Doubles is also at the QF stage. Grey/Silva are involved as noted up thread. They are the only Brits as Bains/Christie lost in R1.


ATP Challenger

Nottingham
If the Women's draw in the East Midlands is pretty well up-to-date, the same cannot be said of the Men's. These guys are likely to be busy over the next few days, particularly with further showers due today and tomorrow. As things stand it's reach R3, which is the last 16 of this 48-man draw event. Two Brits are still involved, #1 Dan Evans having saved himself in set 1 against Jack Draper (see previous post) and won in straight sets to join Ryan Peniston at that stage. Evans plays #15 Mikael Ymer and Peniston #14 Antoine Hoang.
The Doubles is also behind, with just 4/8 R1 matches played to date and no QFs done so far. All British pairs are still alive, though Evans/Glasspool and Hoyt/Johnson are yet to hit a ball in anger as team. #3 K.Skupski/Smith won their R1 match yesterday, as did Broady/Clayton (WC) who toppled the 2nd seeds.


ITF

Manchester
As noted yesterday, the singles draw did not progress due to the rain. They are only at R2, with three days left. Gonna be busy bees there, with all R2 and QFs scheduled for today. If it's dry, which is what it's forecast to be. Bizarrely, two of the R2 singles matches are already underway as they are being played on the Indoor courts. These are the ones featuring Brits, Sam Murray vs #7 Marie Bouzkova and the all-local affair of Naomi Broady vs Gabby Taylor. Two others follow, with the other four singles matches on the Outdoor courts at 13:00. Then the QFs outside on Courts 1 and 2.
What did get played yesterday (Indoor) were the Doubles matches, the Brits going 3/4 as #1 Broady/Muhammad, Barnett/Nicholls (WC) and Appleton/Murray (WC) all winning, Taylor/Webley-Smith (WC) the only ones to fall.

[Janik]

OK, so where were we? Ah yes.

ATP

Stuttgart
Dustin Brown did win through to R2. He and #1 Sascha Zverev are playing at the moment, and Brown has won the opening set 6-4, but Zverev is about to serve for the second at 5-3. If anyone wants something to watch at the moment, this ought to be fun.
Cannuck-wise, Denis Shapovalov lost in R1 to Jan-Lennard Struff (not an easy draw as Struff did well on clay and is even better suited to grass) but Felix Auger-Aliassime and Milos Raonic both won. Raonic has since beaten Jo-Willy Tsonga in R2 via a third set tie-break to make the QFs where he will take on Marton Fucsovics. Auger-Aliassime also faces a Frenchman in R2, Gilles Simon, later today.
Nick Kyrgios lost to Matteo Berrettini in R1 of the singles (Berrettini subsequently beat #2 Karen Khachanov in R2). However Kyrgios/Reid did win their Doubles R1 against #2 seeds Mektic/Skugor. That set up a QF against Bambridge/O’Mara after the later beat Berrettini/Fucsovics, which the Aussies have recently won.

Rosmalen
Not much of note happening from a general perspective here, though Stefanos Tsitsipas has been taken the distance in his first match by Nicolas Jarry. If Tsitsipas goes out, young Aussie talent Alex de Minaur (seeded #3) probably becomes the most interesting player for the neutral to follow. He has secured his QF spot.
In the doubles, Inglot/Krajicek are through to the Semis after beating top seeds Kubot/Melo in the QFs. This matters to Dom Inglot, as he is the defending champion so has lots of points on the line. Inglot/Krajicek will play the winners of #4 Sailsbury/Ram and de Minaur/Vega Hernandez. The British/American pair are a set down, though. #3 seeds J.Murray/N.Skupski are through to the QFs and will face local pair Haase/Rojer later.


WTA

Rosmalen
Of course, Rosmalen has women too! The most notable result there so far is young talent Aussie Destinee Aiava (get used to hearing this phrase, it looks like Australian Tennis is in for a serious resurgence) beating #2 Aryna Sabalenka in R1. Aiava didn’t back it up, losing to Kudermetova in R2 though. Sabalenka wasn’t the only seed to fall. In fact, the only one still standing is #1 Kiki Bertens, who is yet to start he R2 match with Arantxa Rus. That is an interesting match-up as Rus, despite her Spanish-Russian name, is Dutch (she was in on a wild card and beat a fellow Dutch wild card in R1). Rus was once thought of as a potential top rank player, and certainly was ahead of contemporary Bertens in the eyes of those running Dutch Tennis as a kid. That isn’t how things have turned out. The other name to look for in this draw is Greet Minnen, a big serving young Belgian who is good on grass. She qualified and has made the QFs.
Amanda Anisimova didn’t play after all. She just left her withdrawal from the event rather late.
Doubles here? Nothing worth mentioning for us.

Nottingham
Despite the rain, R1 was completed by the end of yesterday. Let’s work down the draw, picking out the Brits and anything else worth mentioning. Naiktha Bains tour debut proved tough, heavily beaten by #1 Caroline Garcia. Garcia now plays Maia Lumsden, who had a more successful first ever Tour appearance when she downed British qualifier Tara Moore in two
Heather Watson didn’t get much traction against #4 Maria Sakkari, losing in two. Harriet Dart did better, beating Vera Lapko in three in R1 and then going a set up on #6 Alja Tomljanovic today. But it went wrong from there and Dart is out. Katie Swan also departed, beaten in two by Bernarda Pera in R1. The big name left in the draw (in addition to Sakkari, I suppse) is #2 Donna Vekic. She is through to the QFs.
Very few Doubles games have been played, but in those that have Grey/Silva picked up a win.


ATP Challenger

Nottingham
This had got up to the completing R2 for the bottom half by yesterday evening. First of all the qualifying needed completing. That saw Ryan Peniston win through, but Llyod Glasspool go out. Peniston then played fellow qualifier Brydan Klein in R1 and won that from a set down. That set up a meeting with #2 Bernard Tomic. Peinston won the first set of that on a breaker and was a game up in the second when Tomic retired. Peniston is now through to R3, and going well.
Others in the bottom half were Paul Jubb, Evan Hoyt (both wild cards) and James Ward. Hoyt and Ward lost in R1 to Mirza Basic and Stefano Napolitano respectively, but Jubb won though, beating Juergen Zopp in three. Jubb subsequently lost in R2 to #5 Dennis Novak in two close sets.
In the top half, wild card Jack Draper got a good win in R1 over Chung Yun-seong. He will now play (in fact is now playing) wild card/top seed Dan Evans in R2 (the apparent contradiction in that description feels somehow apt for Evans!). Draper was a break up in the first and served for it a few minutes ago, but now it’s 5-4 and Evans is battling to hold serve and level. Worrying news for the other Brit in the top half with Wimbledon around the corner, Jay Clarke retiring hurt early in the second set against James Duckworth.
No Men’s Doubles matches have been completed to date.


ITF

Manchester
We were still in qualifying last update. To summarise, Katarzyna Pitak lost in Q1, Emily Appleton lost in Q2 but Samantha Murray qualified. Murray then beat Asia Muhammad in R1 of the main draw, which pitted her against #7 Marie Bouzkova in R2 after Bouzkova beat wild card Alicia Barnett. The winner of that will play another British wild card after NaomiBroady toppled #4 Lin Zhu in R1 and Gabby Taylor beat Viktoriya Tomova. Other results were less promising, Katy Dunne retiring after three games against #8 Whitney Osuigwe and Emily Webley-Smith (WC) well beaten by Katherine Sebov.
It’s raining again today in Manchester, with outside play in the singles abandoned. It’s going to be a busy weekend. They are at least getting R1 of the doubles out of the way on some indoor courts that were available, with all 8 matches due this afternoon. Broady/Muhammad are the top seeds. The other Brits involved are all wild card pairs, with Barnett/Nicholls, Taylor/Webley-Smith and Appleton/Murray all playing.

[Janik]

The Men's R1 in Nottingham is complete btw. Not sure quite how they have managed that. Some Women's R1 matches have been played. Nothing has happened in the Doubles, though. R1 is also getting played in Manchester, with local girl Naomi Broady recording a much needed win.

[Janik]

Play must be completed by next Monday at the latest. One day is all the slippage allowed. And yes, tournaments have been abandoned incomplete before. There must be a significant threat of that taking place.

Meanwhile, I'm depressed to hear that Amazon have bought the rights to screen the WTA in the UK from 2020 to 2023 to add to the US Open and ATP rights they already had. That means my contribution to the Tennis threads will be much reduced as there is no way I'm watching on Amazon.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

One of the rainiest June weeks in England in living memory (Mon-Thurs inclusive all rainy, obv that's just a forecast in the case of tomorrow) does make me wonder how on earth the Nottingham tournament will be able to complete all its rounds in the scheduled week. Has an outdoor tournament ever had to be abandoned for persistent rain? I'm guessing the answer is that it will just slip into as much of next week as necessary, but that would presumably cause havoc with next week's tournaments. It's one thing for a Grand Slam final to slip to a 3rd week Monday, where it's clearly more important than anything else the players would have been doing, but isn't it a lot trickier for a humble tourney at the bottom end of the main Tour spectrum?

[Janik]

On to this week, and there are two grassy events for both the ATP and WTA.

Let’s start with the ATP, which has play in Germany, the event on a lovely court in Stuttgart and Rosmalen (aka 's-Hertogenbosch and Den Bosch) in the Netherlands which has hosted a pre-Wimbledon warm-up for years. Roger Federer isn’t defending his Stuttgart title this year as he was busy playing on clay for once, which leaves Sascha Zverev as the top seed. He has a potentially fascinating R2 match coming up against fellow German Dustin Brown, if Brown can get through his R1 match (Brown has already qualified).
Apart from that, interest probably centre on Nick Kyrgios’ playing singles again (he faces Matteo Berretini in R1 and is also playing doubles w/ Reid this week). Other stories are the latest step on the comeback trail for Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, who is already into R2, and how the coterie of talented Canucks do, Milos Raonic, Dennis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Alliasime being the #6, #7 and #8 seeds respectively. On a British front, Bambridge/O’Mara play the Doubles.
Over in Holland, Stefanos Tsitsipas is the top seed and biggest name in the Men’s draw. One notable thing is happening in the Doubles though – Jamie Murray is playing with Neal Skupski (they are the #3 seeds) for the first time since they hooked up after Murray ended his previously successful but recently foundering partnership with Bruno Soares. It has also split up the Skupski brothers team (Ken should ask Andy Murray if he is at a loose end for some tournaments!) and also the longstanding Marach/Pavic pairing as Marach will now play with Soares. But not this week as Bruno pairs with Peers to be top seeds in Stuttgart. Makes love triangles seem easy and straightforward… Also in the Dutch doubles (Men’s) are #4 Salisbury/Ram, fresh from making the QFs in Paris, and Inglot/Krajicek (not that one! An American called Austin K).

“Men’s” are Rosmalen is a joint ATP/WTA tournament. The Women’s draw has some big names in it, such as Kiki Bertens, looking to put her French Open ruining bug behind her, Aryna Sabalenka, looking to do the same with her latest Slam defeat vs Anisimova and Elise Mertens. They are the top three seeds. Sabalenka has a fascinating R1 match against Aussie wild card Destinee Aiava to play. No Brits are involved in this in singles or doubles as the WTA has a British-located event in Nottingham.
The Tournament Director in Nottingham (Rebeccas James) did a good job assembling her field, with a number of talented grass court specialists signed up. Too good in fact, as defending champions Ash Barty, runner-up Jo Konta and Marketa Vondrousova were all overworked after Paris and have scratched from the event. D’Oh! She must be looking with somewhat green eyes at Rosmalen, where Amanda Anisimova has not pulled out. She still has some good players, with the top three seeds now being Caroline Garcia, Donna Vekic (champion in 2017) and Maria Sakkari. And, of course, lots of Brits, some of whom litter Garcia’s path. Naiktha Bains will make her Tour singles debut against the Frenchwoman in R1 (all of Bains Aussie wild cards were to the qualies only), and the winner of that plays Tara Moore (who came through qualifying) or Maia Lumsden (a wild card) in R2. Moore is a previous Quarter-Finalist in Beeston while for Lumsden it is also a first ever WTA match. The other wild card has gone to Katie Swan, who will play Bernarda Pera in R1. Hopefully she is in a better head space than recently. There are still two more Brits playing, Heather Watson and Harriet Dart not needing a helping hand to be involved. Watson has landed a tough draw against Sakkari in R1 whilst Dart plays Vera Lapko.
Moore was the only Brit to make it through Nottingham qualifying. She beat #2 Martincova and benefitted from a retirement from Gatto-Monticone. Otherwise Freya Christie, Eden Silva and Sarah Beth Grey also lost in Q1. All four needed wild cards to enter. Christie w/ Bains and Silva/Grey play the doubles, again via wild cards.

And now, to confuse matters further, as well as the WTA International with it’s 32 woman draw (and $250k prize pot), there is also an ATP Challenger going on in Nottingham at the same time. This is again a $125k with a 48-player main draw. The main draw wild cards for this are Dan Evans, Jack Draper, Paul Jubb, Evan Hoyt and Liam Broady. They join by right entrants Jay Clarke and James Ward in R1. Or R2 in Evo’s case, as he clearly didn’t need a wild card to enter being a top 100 player, and only had to use one as playing was a post-entry deadline choice. Indeed Evans is the top seed for the event (all 16 Men’s seeds get R1 byes). Once again the qualifying draw is just 4 man/2 place, with Ryan Peniston and Lloyd Glasspool wild carded in. Actually, I’m wondering now if this means the Surbiton one was not a lack of entries but the planned structure – 48 men straight in, expect the lowest ranked two who face two extra wild cards. If Peniston and Glasspool win through they will play each other in R1 proper, making it effectively a mini-tournament, the prize of which is taking on #2 Bernard Tomic in R2.
Doubles in the Challenger is poor abandoned K.Skupski w/ Smith (Aus) as a seeded pair (#3) and Evans/Glasspool, Hoyt/Johnson and Broady/Clayton as wild cards.

And finally, in addition to the event at Full Tour level this week and the Men’s Challenger, there is an ITF $100k in Manchester at the Northern Tennis Club.
Katy Dunne was the only Brit to claim a main draw place by right of ranking. She will be joined in that by wild cards Naomi Broady (ranked #406 these days, the top 100 seems a while ago), Gabriella Taylor, Alicia Barnett and Emily Webley-Smith. These five might yet welcome Emily Appleton and Samantha Murray to the party, as both of these are into final qualifying and also Katarzyna Pitak, whose Q1 match was delayed by rain. Alice Gillian, Holly Hutchinson, Scarlett Hutchinson, Aleksandra Pitak, Kimberly Alinafe Mpukusa, Ellie Tsimbilakis, Victoria Allen and Lillian Mould will not be invited, as all lost in Q1.

[Janik]

Right, clay is done. Now on to grass and the Great British Summer [checks outside window, sees the rain pelting down, ponders]

It actually kicked off last week at Challenger level with the Surbiton Trophy for both Men and Women. This was a $125k/48 player draw for the Men and a $100k/32 player for the Women. In both cases that is the highest categorisation possible on the ATP Challenger and Women's ITF Tours.

For some players, the wait is clearly interminable and they rush onto the lawns at the first opportunity they get (“Every day on clay is a day better. Because it’s a day closer to the grass court season!” Ashleigh Barty, 2018. Um, yeah, about that, Ash…). All four of the singles finalists are surface specialists. That would be Alison Riske and Magdalena Rybarikova in the Women’s, and Viktor Troicki and Dan Evans in the Men’s. The champions were Riske, who beat Rybarikova 6-7(2) 6-2 6-2 to defend her title (Rybarikova was the winner in 2017) and Evo who won 6-2 6-3 against Troicki for what, a little surprisingly, was his first grass court title above Futures level.

Other British results from Surbiton included James Ward getting to R3 (l to Kudla, another good grass court player), which was decent as it included a R2 win over 12th seed Sergiy Stakhovsky, who once beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon. I wonder if Stakhovsky realised at the time that doing that made him a scalp forevermore and every other player doubly determined to beat him?!? Ward beat a British wild card, Paul Jubb, in three sets in R1 (all Ward’s matches went the distance). That was to be a familiar story for all the Men’s wild cards, Ryan Peniston (three sets vs Brands), Evan Hoyt (vs Sugita), Liam Broady (3 vs Kubler) and Lloyd Glasspool (vs Koepfer) all also falling at the first stage. As did Jay Clarke (l in 3 vs Donskoy) and Andrew Watson, but at least Clarke got in via his ranking and Watson earned his spot by qualifying.
The qualifying competition was actually a little bizarre as it incorporated just 4 players for 2 places! And both losers in that, Alastair Gray and Brydan Klein, got into the main draw anyway as two more late withdrawals meant there were only 48 male entries in total. Maybe consider sticking with a 32-man draw next year, organisers? Both Lucky Losers were eliminated in R2, which is where Gray was parachuted into after 3rd seed Jordan Thompson withdrew!

On the Women’s side, Heather Watson got in by right. She picked up two handy wins over #4 Evgeniya Rodina (who beat Madison Keys at Wimbledon last year, I wonder if she knew etc…) and Madison Brengle before losing in the QFs to Rybarikova. Katy Dunne parlayed a wild card into the same round, beating qualifier Ankita Raina and Tereza Smitkova before losing in three to Riske (just one of two sets Riske lost all week). No other Brits made R2, wild cards Naiktha Bains (on her home debut after switching from Australia earlier this year) losing to Grace Minnen, Maia Lumsden falling to Brengle and Jodie Anne Burrage losing an agonisingly tight one to Vera Lapko. That was 5-7 7-6(8) 6-7(6), which must have taken hours. Bains and Lumsden’s losses were straight sets.

On the Doubles court, Watson/Wickmayer made the Women’s final before losing to Brady/Dolehide. They beat Bains/Broady in the QFs along the way. Dunne/Webley-Smith also made the QFs but didn’t take to the court, whilst Grey/Silva lost to the eventual champions in R1.
The best runs in the Men’s pairs were Evans/Glasspool and Bambridge w/ Daniell, who both made the SFs before going out. Evans/Glasspool beat the #2 seeds in R1 and got past a notable pairing in the QFs, Kokkinakis/Kyrgios as Kyrgios made a quiet return to action (he only played the singles) following the Italian Open farrago. One other pair played, Broady/Clayton justifying a wild card by winning their first match before being beaten in the QFs by top seeds and eventual champions M.Granollers/McLachlan.

[Janik]

Zverev won the title in Geneva, 10-8 in a deciding set tie-break. I'm sure playing an on-and-off marathon three set match was not his ideal for the day. It is, however, his first title of 2019 and so was important in reversing the trend of recent months.

Oh, and doubles. When I last updated the Skupskis were a set up in their QF in Lyon and Bambridge/O'Mara yet to start their last eight encounter. Well, both won those though the Skupskis were taken to a deciding set breaker. The Skupskis also won their Semi. However both pairs ran into #2 seeds Dodig/Roger-Vaselin in the end, #4 Bambridge/O'Mara being heavily beaten in the last four and #3 N./K.Skupski being closer but still going down in two in the final.

[Janik]

Almost the final update of this before heading to a dedicated thread for the Slam. The players who go into that high on confidence but not fresh are Dayana Yastremska, Yulia Putinseva and Benoit Paire. They won the events in Strasbourg, Nuernberg and Lyon, beating Caroline Garcia, Tamara Zidansek and Felix Auger-Aliassime respectively.
Taking them in order, Strasbourg was Yastremska's second title of 2019 following a hardcourt win in Thailand back in February and the third of her career (all within the last 12 months, but then, she is only 19). It was very close as well, decided on a final set tie-break after the first two sets were 6-4 5-7. Yastremska is now 3/3 in finals.
A first-time champion was assured in Nuernberg once the identity of the finalists was known; Putinseva had lost in two finals previously, whilst Zidansek was playing her first ever title match. Zidansek took the first set but Putinseva (the no.1 seed for the event) came back to break her duck.
Like Yastremska, Benoit Paire joined the select group of players to have won two titles in 2019 by claiming the Lyon crown (he also won in Morocco earlier in the clay season). However, with all due respect it's still his 18 year-old opponent who generates the most interest. It was a second final of the year for Auger-Aliassime, both on clay. Such has been Auger-Aliassime's rise that he was actually the higher ranked of the two players in the final (seeded #4 in this event to Paire's unseededness). One to watch for in the next fortnight...

You'll note an event is missing from that - Geneva. That is because the final has been suspended for rain. Sascha Zverev currently leads Nicolas Jarry 6-3 2-5. Neither will want to stay in Switzerland any longer than today.

[Janik]

Oh, and one thing to come out of the stories about Boulter is the nature of her injury - a spinal stress fracture. That sounds ominous.

[Janik]

Qualies are over, and no Brits made it through after Swan was beaten in straight sets by Kucova.

Swan did have another opportunity soon after losing due to the brief presence of an unexpected name in the Women's draw (and indeed spectator at Swan's match) - Katie Boulter. Boulter and her team haven't handle the situation well. It seems entirely evident that she has only delayed the formality of withdrawing until she was able to claim the 50% 1st round loser prize money her ranking entitles her too. She isn't wrong in doing that, the prize money increase for R1 losers at slams was an entirely deliberate policy to better renumerate players in the 50-100 bracket and make careers at that level and just below more sustainable (Boulter is actually down to 112 now due to points she hasn't been able to defend), and this year's rule about 50% payouts for those who showed up on site but then withdrew before playing was a necessary corollary to that - we had scores of R1 retirements in the 2018 slams from players patently unfit to play but still starting so as to get their 'wage'. But she should have been up front, saying I'm going to Paris and back in a day to be paid as that is money I've earned for my previous efforts and don't deserve to be denied just because I was unlucky enough to get injured (sick pay, anyone?). If they wanted to be less up front, she could have made the trip on Wednesday and still collected the money, and then her name would never have appeared in the draw, though it would have been on drawsheets as a withdrawal with a lucky loser replacement. So, anyway, the lucky loser spot Boulter's actions opened up? It didn't go to Swan. Neither did the other LL place in the Women's draw that has come up so far (i.e. I don't think Boulter is alone here).

There are also three LL spots in the Men's draw, one of which is down to Nick Kyrgios withdrawing with a bug. Uh, yeah, convenient that. Keeps him away from the court after the events in Rome and also his next mouth-brain disconnect where he trashed Roland Garros as a tournament, both in absolute terms and in specific comparison to Wimbledon. He was likely to get a very hostile reaction from the French crowd after that, and he has proved that he struggles to handle hostile crowds. Better for everyone that he takes some time away. Particularly Cameron Norrie, who had landed Kyrgios in the initial R1 draw!

[Janik]

Which may have Katie Swan in it, but won't include Heather Watson. Both had three setters today, Swan winning hers 7-5 in the decider despite dropping the middle set on a bagel, Watson going down to an agonisingly narrow defeat, 5-7 7-6⁶ 6-7³.
Heather was a break up three times in the final set, including serving for it at 5-3. She even reached 40-15 in that game, but didn't convert either match point (unforced error, return winner) and a few minutes later found herself a break down at 6-5. She broke back, established a 3-1 lead in the decisive tie-break, but then Grammatikopoulou won six straight points. She had early broken Grammatikopoulou at 3-5 down in both set 1 and set 2, i.e. when having to break to stay in the match on the second occasion. The momentum should have been all with her when it was her turn to have the balls in hand and four points to collect to win.
Katie, by contrast, rode her momentum after breaking Wang when she was serving for their match at 5-3 in set 3. Swan won 16 of the next 17 points from then to the tape (break to love, hold to love, break to 15 incl. two Wang double faults, hold to love).

Swan now plays Kristina Kucova in final q tomorrow.

[Janik]

Yes. But I don't have time to start it at the moment...