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Less than a year had passed since Dominic Thiem claimed his first major title at the 2020 US Open, when in June 2021 he hurt his wrist at the Mallorca Championships presented by Waterdrop and was forced to withdraw during the first set of his opening-round match against Adrian Mannarino.

Three seasons on, the Austrian is back at the venue where he picked up the injury. That moment led to a slump from which he would never return to the form that helped him reach No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Now, at 30 years of age, Thiem is enjoying the Spanish grass courts at one of the last events of his career. He has said he will retire following Vienna later this year.

“I’ve had an amazing career, I’ve always put a lot of passion into it and I’ve given my all, but now that I’ve announced my retirement, I’m very happy, because it’s relieved a lot of stress,” admitted Thiem before his opener against Gael Monfils in Mallorca.

“I can’t wait to play my last tournaments, but also to do everything that comes afterwards. I’m trying to enjoy my last months as much as possible.”

Thiem forms part of a group of accomplished players on Tour who are close to saying goodbye to professional tennis.

Alex Michelsen made history on Sunday in Mallorca.

The #NextGenATP American earned his first grass-court win of the season at the Mallorca Championships presented by Waterdrop, where he defeated Nuno Borges 6-3, 7-6(4). By doing so, the 19-year-old became the youngest player to win a main draw match at the event.

“That’s pretty cool,” Michelsen said. “I had no idea that that was going to be a statistic, so I’m super happy with that and super happy with the win today.”

One year ago, Michelsen entered the Mallorca main draw as a lucky loser and nearly defeated Christopher Eubanks, who won the match 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-5. Eubanks went on to win the tournament.

“The island, there are not many places that you go on Tour that are better than this,” said Michelsen, who will next play third seed Adrian Mannarino. “The tournament is very well run, one of the best clubs I’ve ever been to. The courts suit my game. I almost beat Eubanks last year and he won the tournament, so just really enjoy being here and hopefully I can come here for many years.”

Neal Skupski and Michael Venus captured their first title as a team on Sunday at the cinch Championships, where they clawed past singles stars Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-8.

The seventh seeds played fearlessly in the crucial moments, closing the net and striking heavy returns. Skupski and Venus won 88 per cent (37/42) of their first-serve points and raised their level in the Match Tie-break to triumph in London after 77 minutes.

"It has been very special," Skupski said. "First time winning at Queen's, first time winning with Mike. We went to University together and we go back a long way. We have never been able to play on Tour much together, so this was nice to play with him."

The Briton and Kiwi, who were teaming in just their third tour-level event together, were impressive throughout their run at the ATP 500. They defeated second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the quarter-finals and downed 2023 champs Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the last four, not dropping a set in either match.

Skupski, 34, is the first Briton to win the doubles title at Queen’s since Andy Murray won with Feliciano Lopez in 2019. Venus, 36, is the first player from New Zealand to win the title in the Open Era (since 1968).

Tommy Paul captured his third ATP Tour title and first on grass Sunday at the cinch Championships, where he overcame Lorenzo Musetti 6-1, 7-6(8) in the final at Queen’s.

The fifth seed played with intensity and aggression throughout the 88-minute clash. After racing ahead, Paul recovered from failing to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set, and he rallied from 1/4 in the tie-break, saving one set point at 6/7 against Musetti, who was competing in his third tour-level final.

"Hearing about the names [of previous winners] in the locker room, it is unbelievable. It was my goal to put my name next to them," Paul said. "Thank you to my whole team."

King of Queen’s ?@TommyPaul1 outlasts Musetti 6-1 7-6(8).@QueensTennis | #cinchChampionships pic.twitter.com/7BP6feczHD

With his 27th tour-level win of the season, Paul ensured he will surpass Taylor Fritz and become American No. 1 for the first time in his career on Monday. The 27-year-old is set to rise to No. 12 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

It was far from an easy week, but Jannik Sinner won his first tournament as the World No. 1 in Halle.

The Italian star lost a set in each of his first three matches, but battled through on each occasion and ultimately defeated Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(8), 7-6(2) on Sunday to lift the ATP 500 trophy.

By winning his first grass-court title, Sinner became the eighth player in PIF ATP Rankings history (since 1973) to claim a trophy in his first tournament as World No. 1.

SINNER WINNER ? @janniksin is victorious in Halle after a 7-6(8) 7-6(2) win over Hurkacz.@ATPHalle | #TerraWortmannOpen pic.twitter.com/hBQEa1n7Rm

Players to win title in first event as World No. 1

A big week for Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori became even bigger on Sunday in Halle.

After becoming the first-placed team in the PIF ATP Doubles Teams Rankings earlier in the tournament — they began the week in fourth — the Italians lifted the Terra Wortmann Open trophy. Bolelli and Vavassori defeated home favourites Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz 7-6(3), 7-6(5) on Sunday in the final.

That winning feeling ?

Vavassori and Bolelli lift the trophy in Halle ❤️@ATPHalle | #TerraWortmannOpen pic.twitter.com/IQyLt0YPpG

Last year, Bolelli and Vavassori lost the Halle final in a Match Tie-break. This edition, the top seeds did not lose a set in four matches.

Entering the championship clash, Bolelli and Vavassori held a 1-4 record as a team in tour-level finals. They found their best in the critical moments, saving all three break points they faced according to Infosys ATP Stats and winning both tie-breaks.

After knocking out top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden on Friday at the cinch Championships, Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov took out third seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic on Saturday to reach the final in their first event as a pair.

They followed a 7-6(1), 7-6(3) win against Bopanna/Ebden with a 4-6, 6-3, 12-10 victory in the semi-finals, saving a match point at 8/9 in the Match Tie-break. Despite being broken for the first time in the tournament in the opening set against Arevalo/Pavic, the fan-favourite duo responded quickly before capping their comeback in dramatic fashion.

Becoming Kings at Queens ?

This duo is into the final, but they need your help choosing a nickname ??@QueensTennis | #CinchChampionships pic.twitter.com/OPJmh94TB4

Fritz is through to the Queen's Club final for the second straight year after a runner-up finish with Jiri Lehecka in 2023. He will seek his first tour-level doubles crown in his fourth final. Khachanov has also reached three previous tour-level doubles finals, all at the ATP Masters 1000 level. He won Madrid in 2023 with Andrey Rublev.

The eighth seeds will next meet seventh seeds Neal Skupski and Michael Venus in Sunday's final. The Kiwi-British duo beat fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek 7-6(6), 6-4 in Saturday's second London semi-final.

Lorenzo Musetti became just the fifth Italian man to reach a grass-court tour-level final on Saturday at the cinch Championships, where he moved past Australian Jordan Thompson 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in London.

The 22-year-old opened his shoulders to hit through his groundstrokes in the fast conditions, producing an impressive display in the third set to advance to his third ATP Tour final. Musetti struck 14 winners and hit just four unforced errors in the decider according to ATP Infosys Stats, roaring in delight after sealing victory on his first match point.

"It was one of the toughest matches of the week," Musetti said. "Jordan was playing amazing, especially in the second and third sets. It was a really tough match. I am really proud of my achievement. I love this sport."

Musetti, who is up five spots to No. 25 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, holds a perfect two-from-two record in tour-level finals and will hope to improve that record when he meets Tommy Paul in the title match on Sunday.

Musetti has battled hard all week at The Queen’s Club, where he has also defeated Alex de Minaur and Brandon Nakashima in three sets. He holds a 7-1 record on grass this year, having advanced to the semi-finals in Stuttgart last week.

The grass-court swing continues on the ATP Tour this week at the Rothesay International and the Mallorca Championships.

Two-time champion Taylor Fritz and American Tommy Paul compete in Eastbourne, where Francisco Cerundolo returns as the defending champion at the ATP 250. Ben Shelton leads the Mallorca field, with Ugo Humbert also in action.

ATPTour.com looks at 10 things to watch across the two events.

FIVE THINGS TO WATCH IN EASTBOURNE

1) Fritz Aims For Hat-Trick: Top seed Fritz boasts a 9-2 record across four appearances at the ATP 250, where he lifted the trophy in 2019 and 2022, the latter coming a week before his Wimbledon quarter-final run. The American, searching for his second title of the year, has not won the same event three times in his career.

After notching three consecutive three-set wins to begin his Terra Wortmann Open campaign, Jannik Sinner finished the job in straight sets on Saturday. Still, he was made to work for his 6-4, 7-6(3) semi-final victory against Zhang Zhizhen.

The result saw Sinner through to his first grass final, with his best previous result on the lawns a semi-final showing last year at Wimbledon (l. to Djokovic). He will meet 2022 Halle champion Hubert Hurkacz in Sunday's title match.

"It means a lot. I had four very tough matches to go to the final," Sinner said in his post-match interview. "It was a good match today. Definitely more rallies than yesterday and that's exactly what I needed today. I'm happy and let's see what's coming tomorrow."

Ticking off the milestones ??

World No.1 @janniksin also heads into a 1st grass final 6-4, 7-6(3) over Zhang@ATPHalle | #TerraWortmannOpen pic.twitter.com/0rXohGdRcG

In a match of fine margins that hung on a knife's edge throughout, Sinner claimed his lone break point late in the opening set and saved the only break point against him to erase a set point for Zhang at 5-6 in the second. Sinner ripped a brave forehand winner to fend off that break chance, then made good on a fast start to the tie-break to escape in two sets in the pair's first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

The grass-court season continues to heat up at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne and the Mallorca Championships, both ATP 250 events. Among the stars in action across the two tournaments will be Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton and Ugo Humbert.

Before each tournament week, ATPTour.com looks at three players who might be good selections for fans in the PIF ATP Rankings Predictor.

Make Your Picks Now!

Taylor Fritz — replacing 45 points
Fritz won his first ATP Tour title in Eastbourne in 2019 and claimed another trophy at the ATP 250 in 2022. Will the American claim his third over the coming week?

The seven-time tour-level champion reached the quarter-finals last week at Queen’s Club, where he earned two wins before losing to Australian Jordan Thompson. Fritz now owns a 27-12 record this season.

Former champion Hubert Hurkacz moved to within one win of clinching his second title at the Terra Wortmann Open on Saturday when he overcame World No. 4 Alexander Zverev 7-6(2), 6-4.

The fifth-seeded Pole produced an impressive serving display in his semi-final clash against Zverev, firing 17 aces and saving all four break points he faced to earn his fifth Top 10 grass-court win.

"It needed to be really good," Hurkacz said. "He is such a good competitor and is playing good tennis, reaching the final at the French [Roland Garros] and playing at a really high level.

"I am really confident on my serve. I am serving really good. There were some moments but I managed to believe in my game and hit some good serves and good shots, so I stayed pretty calm."

With his one-hour, 33-minute triumph in Halle, Hurkacz improved to 1-3 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Zverev. Into his 11th tour-level final, the 27-year-old will aim to clinch his ninth ATP Tour title when he faces top seed Jannik Sinner or China’s Zhang Zhizhen on Sunday.

Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Ben Shelton lead a strong group of singles players who have signed on to play doubles at this year’s Wimbledon.

World No. 4 Daniil Medvedev has also entered but is two spots away from making the acceptance list cut with Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner. Andy Murray and Jamie Murray are eighth on the alternate list but would stand a strong chance of receiving a wild card if the two-time Wimbledon singles champion declares himself fit to play after undergoing a back procedure Saturday.

Tsitsipas will team with his brother Petros Tsitsipas for the second straight major. At Roland Garros the brothers took out fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek en route to the quarter-finals, where they were stopped by eventual champions Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic.

Ruud, No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings, will partner American William Blumberg. World No. 14 Shelton will partner Mackenzie McDonald. Other Top 20 singles players entered in doubles are Ugo Humbert (w/ Arthur Fils), Alexander Bublik (w/ Alexander Shevchenko), Sebastian Baez (w/ Dustin Brown).

Marcelo Granollers and Horacio Zeballos head the acceptance list along with Australian Open champions Matthew Ebden, a former Wimbledon doubles champion, and Rohan Bopanna.

Andy Murray will undergo a back procedure Saturday as he races the clock to be fit for a likely farewell appearance at Wimbledon.

The former World No. 1 retired from his second-round match against Jordan Thompson at Queen’s on Wednesday and acknowledged that he had been struggling with an ongoing back complaint.

Murray’s management team issued a statement Friday that read: “Andy is having a procedure on his back tomorrow. We will know more after this has taken place and will update further as soon as possible.”

His brother Jamie Murray, who this week is serving as tournament director at the cinch Championships, told the BBC on Friday: "He saw a specialist yesterday evening and he's basically trying to decide what his next move is.

"I don't think it's right for me to go into that personally, that's up to him, but I think he has got a few decisions to make.

In the face of a brilliant serving display from Jan-Lennard Struff, Jannik Sinner held firm Friday to advance to the Terra Wortmann Open semi-finals. Struff hit 18 aces and saved 16 of 18 break points — including all 11 in the second and third sets — but could not pull off the upset against the new No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

The Italian's 6-2, 6-7(1), 7-6(3) result was his third consecutive three-set win in Halle, after earlier victories against Tallon Griekspoor and Fabian Marozsan. Sinner lost a tie-break in each of the three matches.

"It was a very tough match," Sinner said. "I had chances in the second, had chances in the third, but couldn't use them. It was 0/40 [in the first game of the third set]. I just try to accept these kind of challenges. Obviously it has been very tough, also mentally. I'm very pleased to be in the next round, I played a lot yesterday, I played a lot also today — two and a half hours on grass, it's a long time. I'll try to recover for tomorrow and hopefully show some good tennis."

Playing in his first event as World No. 1, Sinner has yet to meet a seeded opponent. That trend will continue in Saturday's semis, when he takes on Zhang Zhizhen.

Sinner is bidding to become the eighth man in PIF ATP Rankings history to win the title in his first event as No. 1, and the first to do it since Andy Murray at the 2016 Nitto ATP Finals.

Tommy Paul reached his second tour-level grass-court semi-final on Friday at the cinch Championships, where he snapped Jack Draper’s seven-match winning streak.

The American played aggressively throughout the two-hour, five-minute encounter in west London, attacking the Briton’s second serve at every opportunity to earn a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory. Paul hit his flat groundstrokes through the fast conditions and won 51 per cent (18/35) of points on Draper’s second delivery to improve to 2-3 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

"I played good tennis and I like the grass. I knew today was going to be a battle," Paul said. "It is never easy against Jack, he has been playing such good tennis, so I am really happy to get through that one."

Flying the flag ???@TommyPaul1 hits the semi-finals 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 past Draper@QueensTennis | #cinchChampionships pic.twitter.com/ljHnC1oqLy

The home favourite Draper lifted his maiden tour-level title in Stuttgart last week and then upset World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the second round at Queen’s for the biggest win of his career by PIF ATP Rankings. However, he could not battle to an eighth consecutive victory, with Paul fresher in the third set.

Singles stars Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov continued their run at the cinch Championships on Friday when they upset top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden 7-6(1), 7-6(3) to reach the semi-finals in London.

Fritz and Khachanov saved one set point in the first set and were impressive in the crucial moments in the second set, saving all five break points they faced to advance after 80 minutes.

The eighth seeds are teaming for the first time this week, having beaten Francisco Cerundolo and Tomas Martin Etcheverry in their opening match. They will meet third seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic or fifth seeds Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic in the last four.

In other action, Neal Skupski and Michael Venus clawed past second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 7-6(5), 7-6(6).

"I think we played very well and deserved it in the end," Skupski said. "We can take confidence in beating a very good team in Joe and Rajeev. They have won Grand Slams together and are a very dangerous team on the grass."

Is this the week Alexander Zverev captures his first grass title?

A two-time Halle finalist, the German is looking to go one step further at the Terra Wortmann Open, where on Friday he rallied past #NextGenATP Arthur Fils 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.

The 27-year-old raised his level in the second set, breaking Fils to love at 3-2 amidst a run of winning eight consecutive points. Zverev, seeded second at the ATP 500, took free swings from the baseline and looked for opportunities to charge forward in the latter stages of the match.

With rain falling at the start of the third set, the roof at OWL Arena was closed for the decider. Cheered on by his home crowd, Zverev won 83 per cent of his first-serve points and was not broken across two hours, 30 minutes, improving to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Fils. The Rome champion is yet to be broken this week.

“After the French Open, I was hoping on grass I would play a bit quicker and not play for two-and-a-half, three hours every single match, but I’m continuing what I always do,” the Roland Garros finalist joked. “I’m happy to be winning and be in the semi-finals.”

Several tennis players are renowned for their exceptional volleying skills, an essential part of a strong net game. Here are some famous tennis players known for their volley prowess: 1. Rod LaverEra: 1960sAchievements: The only player to win the Grand Slam twice (1962 and 1969).Volleying Skill: Known for his extraordinary all-court game and deft t...

Who is better at cricket: Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Alejandro Tabilo?

That question was answered in the newest Lexus ATP Head2Head Challenge, which took place in London.

We're swapping rackets for wickets ?

It's time for the players to try their hand at some cricket in the latest #LexusChallenge ?@LexusUK | #Partner pic.twitter.com/RFsIzxibtr

The South American players joined England cricket stars Katherine Sciver-Brunt and Natalie Sciver-Brunt for a special tutorial and competition. Although they might not be the next Sachin Tendulkar, the tennis standouts picked up the sport quickly.

“It’s a tough sport. When I [made] the first swing, I didn’t hit any balls,” Etcheverry said. “I enjoyed it a lot, of course. I think I’m going to be a huge fan of this sport, cricket.”