Looking for Tennis and Racket Sports International News?

Jan-Lennard Struff is playing some of his best tennis on home soil this week at the Terra Wortmann Open.

The German downed sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday, setting a quarter-final clash against Jannik Sinner, World No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings. The 34-year-old dropped just five points behind his first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and drew errors from Tsitsipas' backhand to advance after 67 minutes.

“It’s very special. The crowd was supporting me like hell and it was just an amazing feeling, amazing atmosphere,” said Struff, who did not face a break point. “It means really a lot to finally take this step.”

[ATP APP]

One day after saving a match point to defeat Luciano Darderi, Struff struck 22 winners to just five unforced errors to overhaul the Greek and avenge last month’s Rome loss to Tsitsipas. Their Lexus ATP Head2Head series is now tied at 4-4. Struff is 0-2 against Sinner with both meetings coming this season (Indian Wells, Monte-Carlo).

“I was very happy. Yesterday was a tough match. I was sick before and today in the morning, I felt good," Struff said. "I had good connection with the ball straight away and came in very well. I was serving pretty good, playing aggressive style. Very, very pleased with the way I played.”

In a big day for British tennis at the Cinch Championships, 29-year-old Billy Harris followed Jack Draper's upset of Carlos Alcaraz with a milestone result of his own at The Queen's Club. Behind a 6-4, 7-5 win against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, the English journeyman advanced to his first tour-level quarter-final in London.

Before he bids for his third win of the week on Friday, ATPTour.com brings you five things to know about the No. 162 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

[ATP APP]

Harris spent three and a half years travelling between tournaments in a van
Earlier in his career, Harris often travelled around Europe in a converted transit van to save money while competing primarily on the ITF World Tennis Tour — one step below the ATP Challenger Tour. In addition to driving from city to city in the van, Harris also used it for lodging.

"I was travelling around in my transit van for three and a half years, with a bed in the back, cooking on the roadside and parking up in McDonald's car parks," he said, as quoted in a 2023 BBC story. Harris owns five ITF singles titles, winning four in 2021 and one in 2022.

He picked up his first tour-level win last November in Sofia
Harris beat Switzerland's Marc-Andrea Huesler 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5) two months before his 29th birthday to record his first tour-level singles win. The ATP 250 was his only previous tour-level event before his appearance this week in London. He has tripled his career win total by reaching the Queen's quarters, improving to 3-1.

Carlos Alcaraz's title defence at the Cinch Championships came to an early end on Thursday courtesy of a 7-6(3), 6-3 defeat to home favourite Jack Draper. While the Spaniard was not happy with his performance, he is taking his first grass-court defeat since 2022 in stride.

"Of course it's tough to deal with the losses, but I think it's part of our lives," he said, crediting Draper for his play. "We have to [deal with it] as good as you can. After the losses, you have to take the positive things and of course the negative things just to improve to the next tournament."

 

For Alcaraz, that next tournament is Wimbledon, where — like at The Queen's Club — he will enter as defending champion. Prior to this week in London, Alcaraz had not competed on grass since his comeback victory against Novak Djokovic in last year's final at the grass-court major. While he was perfect on the lawns last season, Alcaraz remains a relative novice on the unique surface with a 17-3 record.

"I think the best way to be better on grass is to stay here, practise with players, physically doing good stuff on grass and the movement, really specific things," Alcaraz said when asked if he would return to Spain before Wimbledon, which begins 1 July. "In Spain or at my home, we don't have grass courts or really grass places just to practise.

Carlos Alcaraz’s second-round loss to Jack Draper Thursday at the cinch Championships could have a big impact on the battle for No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

Jannik Sinner, who last week became the first Italian in history to reach World No. 1, has an opportunity at the Terra Wortmann Open to consolidate his standing for the weeks to come.

Sinner has 9,490 live points, putting him 1,130 points ahead of live World No. 2 Novak Djokovic and 1,360 points ahead of live World No. 3 Alcaraz.

PIF ATP Live Rankings (as of 20 June)

Player	Current Pts	Max Pts
1) Jannik Sinner	9,490	9,890
2) Novak Djokovic	8,360	-
3) Carlos Alcaraz	8,130	-

The 22-year-old Italian can add an additional 400 points if he lifts the Halle trophy at the end of the week, which would give him a 1,530-point margin over his competitors.

Jack Draper earned the biggest win of his career Thursday at the cinch Championships, where he stunned top seed and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 7-6(3), 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.

Both men entered the match on winning streaks. Alcaraz had won eight consecutive matches thanks to his victory at Roland Garros, but Draper snapped that streak by claiming his seventh straight win after earning his first ATP Tour title last week in Stuttgart.

“It was a really tough match," Draper said in his on-court interview. "I knew coming out here Carlos is defending champion here, obviously won Wimbledon last year. [He is an] incredible talent and so amazing for the sport. So I had to come out and play really well and luckily I did today, so thank you.”

British No.1 BRINGS it ?@jackdraper0 with the performance of a lifetime to topple defending champion Alcaraz@QueensTennis | #cinchChampionships pic.twitter.com/MDkFSbSaQN

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 20, 2024

The big-serving lefty thrilled his home fans with a dominant serving performance in which he did not lose a service game. The No. 31 player in the PIF ATP Rankings made good use of his wide serve in both courts to win 76 per cent of his service points according to Infosys ATP Stats and triumph in one hour and 39 minutes.

The world’s best players will compete in Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam event of the season. Jannik Sinner, the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz are among those in action.

Here's what you need to know ahead of the tournament:

When is Wimbledon?Wimbledon will be held from 1-14 July. The grass-court Grand Slam tournament, established in 1877, will take place at The All England Lawn Tennis Club in London, United Kingdom. The tournament director is Jamie Baker.

Who is playing at Wimbledon 2024?Wimbledon will feature Sinner, Alcaraz, seven-time winner Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and more. 

When is the draw for Wimbledon?The Wimbledon singles draw will be made on Friday 28 June at 10 a.m.
The Wimbledon doubles draw will be made on Friday 28 June at 12 p.m.

Jannik Sinner is quickly finding that being World No. 1 comes with its own set of challenges.

After fighting off an ultra-aggressive Tallon Griekspoor in a three-set first-round encounter, Sinner again found himself under siege from a free-swinging Fabian Marozsan Thursday before shaking off the Hungarian to win 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 and reach the quarter-finals of the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle.

Understanding that playing within themselves was not going to get the job done, Sinner’s two opponents this week at the grass-court ATP 500 have red-lined their games. The Italian, so far, has met the challenge, but he has needed close to his best tennis at the start of his grass season to stay alive.

[ATP APP]

Indeed, a piece of inspired brilliance was the catalyst for Sinner’s decisive break in the second game of the third set. On the first point of the game, Sinner lunged for a diving forehand short in the court, rolling 360 degrees before jumping back to his feet to hit a winning crosscourt backhand on the dead run past a dumfounded Marozsan at net.

Sinner, who is spending his second week atop the PIF ATP Rankings, is chasing his first grass-court title this week. He improved to 35-3 on the season after winning his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Marozsan.

In 2022, ATP partnered with You Can Play, a nonprofit organisation committed to furthering LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport. This followed an ATP player survey that highlighted the need for more comprehensive education around topics such as inclusive language and social media use.

This month, we are excited to share an exclusive conversation between Brian Vahaly, the former World No. 64 in the PIF ATP Rankings, and You Can Play, ATP’s LGBTQ+ inclusion partner.

In 2017, Vahaly became the first ATP player to come out as gay. This followed a successful career on the ATP Tour in which he navigated an environment that both overtly and subtly challenged his mental strength and sense of belonging. Today, his fearless work to spearhead LGBTQ+ inclusion in the sport continues in his role as First Vice President of the USTA.

In this open conversation, Vahaly reflects on his unique journey. He advocates for authenticity, emphasises the importance of locker room language and encourages players to use their global platform to promote acceptance.

Looking back, how do you reflect on your journey and relationship with tennis?
I started playing tennis when I was two years old. I love this sport. I love the relationships I have built because of this sport. I love it because tennis challenges you mentally, spiritually, and physically. Tennis altered the course of my life, not just from playing great matches at Masters events and Grand Slams, but my experience with tennis is what ultimately shaped me into the man I’ve become today.

Grass court tennis is still very much a two-touch sport.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Carlos Alcaraz’s undefeated run at the cinch Championships last year identified the vast majority of his points played at the grass court event were a maximum of just two touches for each player - four shots total. Three out of every four points (75%) were in the 0-4 shot rally length, where he carved out his most significant point-total advantage (+27) over his five opponents.

2023 Queen's: Alcaraz Rally Length

.table_component { overflow: auto; width: 100%; } .table_component table { border: 1px solid #dededf; height: 100%; width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 1px; text-align: center; } .table_component caption { caption-side: top; text-align: left; } .table_component th { border: 1px solid #dededf; background-color: #eceff1; color: #000000; padding: 5px; } .table_component td { border: 1px solid #dededf; background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 5px; }

 

Alcaraz played a dominant 75 per cent (521/696) of all points in the 0-4 shot rally length to win the first grass court title of his career last year at the cinch Championships. The first four shots include: serve, return, Serve +1 (first shot after the serve), Return +1 (first shot after the return)

Only one day remains until fans can relive the final 12 days of Roger Federer’s career. On Thursday, FEDERER: Twelve Final Days will be released on Prime Video.

Academy Award-winning director Asif Kapadia and his co-director Joe Sabia provide unprecedented access into the end of Federer’s career, from insight into the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings’ decision to retire to his final moments on court.

In anticipation of the documentary’s release, ATPTour.com looks back at Federer’s final match at the 2022 Laver Cup.

The Swiss took to the court one final time alongside great rival Rafael Nadal.

The pair met 40 times in their legendary Lexus ATP Head2Head series and three more times in tour-level doubles matches. But this was their first time sharing the same side of the court in an official match.

Andy Murray retired from his second-round match at the cinch Championships against Jordan Thompson after five games due to struggles with his back. Afterwards, the Scot revealed how concerning the injury is.

“Obviously it wasn't great. I have been struggling with my back for a while,” Murray said. “I had loss of power in my right leg. So loss of motor control, had no coordination. Yeah, couldn't move.”

Dealing with the back was not new to Murray. The 37-year-old explained it was sore in the run-up to the Queen’s Club ATP 500.

“It was pretty sore in my match yesterday. Yeah, it was sore through today. But I was able to manage it. I wasn't comfortable playing, but I was able to manage it,” Murray said. “During my pre-match warmup, I was pretty uncomfortable, and then I walked up the stairs just before going on the court, I didn't have the usual, just normal strength in my right leg. It was not a usual feeling.

“I don't know how many of you were watching, but the first two balls I hit in the warmup, my right leg, it was so uncoordinated. I had no coordination. Right leg just was not working properly.”

Chinese No. 1 Zhang Zhizhen scored his second Top 5 victory Wednesday when he upset third seed Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5) at the Terra Wortmann Open.

From 3/5 in the third-set tie-break, Zhang won four consecutive points to stun the World No. 5 and become the first Chinese player to reach the Halle quarter-finals.

“A really tough match. Last time I lost a third-set tie-break [in Stuttgart last week]. And today again, a third-set tie-break. I was thinking, ‘Okay, it’s time. The perfect moment to get revenge’,” Zhang said. “I’m super happy that today I handled it to the end.”

The 27-year-old dropped six consecutive games from 2-2 in the second set but recovered a break deficit early in the decider to pull within striking distance. Zhang, whose previous Top 5 victory came against Casper Ruud at last year's US Open, again fought off a challenge on serve at 4-5 in the third set, when Medvedev was two points away from victory.

ZZZ ON FIRE?

Zhang takes down No. 3 seed Medvedev 6-3 2-6 7-6(5)!@ATPHalle | #TERRAWORTMANN pic.twitter.com/5kdI3bKgBg

Sebastian Korda continued his impressive grass-court season on Wednesday at the cinch Championships, where he won a close second-round clash against Grigor Dimitrov.

The American, who is competing at a career-high No. 23 in the PIF ATP Rankings, battled hard to earn a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 victory against the 2014 Queen’s Club champion.

“It was a big struggle. We were both serving well and waiting for our chances and there weren’t many. But when they came, I tried to take them,” Korda said. “It is incredible playing at Queen’s, it is one of my favourite tournaments.”

?Korda on course?@SebiKorda takes out [3] Dimitrov to reach the quarter-finals@QueensTennis | #cinchChampionships pic.twitter.com/D0Mq4aT6zX

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 19, 2024

Korda was more consistent from the baseline than Dimitrov, committing nine unforced errors compared to 17 from the Bulgarian, according to ATP Infosys Stats. With his two-hour, one-minute win, the 23-year-old earned his seventh Top 10 victory and third on grass.

Liam Broady headlined the initial wild cards for Wimbledon as announced by tournament organisers on Wednesday.

Broady, Jan Choinski, Jacob Fearnley, Arthur Fery, Billy Harris, Paul Jubb and Henry Searle have reached received a main draw wild card.

This will be Broady’s seventh appearance in the main draw of The Championships. In each of the past two editions, the lefty has advanced to the third round. Choinski, Fery and Jubb have also played in the main draw before.

Fearnley, Harris and Searle will debut in the main draw of the grass-court major. Searle won the boys’ singles event at SW19 last year.

[ATP APP]

Oliver Bonding, Charles Broom, Jay Clarke, Felix Gill, George Loffhagen and Jack Pinnington Jones received a qualifying wild card.

Neal Skupski and Michael Venus got their cinch Championships campaign underway on Wednesday in London when they defeated singles stars Ugo Humbert and Ben Shelton 6-4, 6-3.

The seventh seeds were aggressive throughout the 69-minute clash on the lawns in west London, striking deep returns and closing the net sharply to reach the second round. Skupski and Venus are teaming for the second time this season and next play Alex de Minaur and Sebastian Korda or second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

[ATP APP]

Other singles teams to fall in London included Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie and Sebastian Baez and Adrian Mannarino. Sixth seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin beat Draper and Norrie 6-4, 6-4, while fifth seeds Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic downed Baez and Mannarino 4-6, 6-3, 10-3.

Mektic and Koolhof arrive in London in good form, having advanced to the final on grass in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden also advanced to the second round, defeating Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler 6-4, 6-4. Ebden and Bopanna have won tour-level titles together at the Australian Open and in Miami this season.

In the final full week of January in 2018, Jannik Sinner played qualifying for an ITF World Tennis Tour event in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Then 16, he had not yet earned a PIF ATP Rankings point.

Standing across the net in the second round was a Hungarian named Fabian Marozsan. The 18-year-old rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory that day, and he has not faced the Italian since.

That will change Thursday when Marozsan plays new World No. 1 Sinner in the second round of the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle.

“I remember that I was going to play against an Italian player who was very young and I just saw the last game of his match. He played very fast, he was moving into the court and putting a lot of pressure on the opponent and I said, ‘Okay, it's not going to be easy. But he's still young, and maybe I have a chance to win against him’,” Marozsan recalled from their meeting in Egypt. “That was maybe my first or second year of the ITFs. I just started the Futures tournaments and I was still still a young player, but he was much younger than me.”

[ATP APP]

Thinking back more than six years to that encounter, Marozsan believed Sinner could be a “really good player, but not the No. 1”.

There is no place like home. That showed when Jannik Sinner returned to his hometown of Sexten in the Dolomites last week to celebrate his ascent to the top of the PIF ATP Rankings.

“If you imagine coming from here, a tennis player, it’s very, very strange,” Sinner said in a special behind-the-scenes documentary of the first Italian World No. 1’s visit.

The 22-year-old provided a film crew unprecedented access throughout his trip. Sinner gave fans a look at his life growing up in the mountains. The special feature helps tell the story of how Sinner evolved from a kid in a small town known for skiing to the best tennis player in the world.

“I have my house here, and here is the other house with [my] grandma and grandpa and they always cooked for me and then after, I had to wear the ski stuff because I went to skiing immediately from two to four, and then twice a week I was playing tennis and that was it,” Sinner said. “You got it on camera!"

[ATP APP]

The Italian added: “We played football and we were all the time together with friends and nobody had a phone. We only had a watch and the parents they said, ‘Look, at five you should be at home’. And sometimes you arrived at 5:15 and then the parents, they got p****d a little bit!”

It is only fitting that Luciano Darderi’s two title runs this season, one on the ATP Tour and another on the ATP Challenger Tour, have come in Argentina and Italy, the two countries where the 22-year-old has split time throughout his life.

Born in the coastal town of Villa Gesell, Argentina, Darderi was ‘around five years old’ when he received his first tennis racquet as a gift from his grandmother. Little did he and his grandmother know that ‘Luli’ would become a Top 40 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, with his father Luciano as his coach.

“I remember when I was six or seven, I would go by bicycle with my dad and play together,” Darderi recently told ATPTour.com. “It was a court at a hotel, close to the forest and beach. After 10 or 11, I was going to Buenos Aires because they play more tennis there and I started playing more tournaments.

“It's really special for me and my dad too. We have arrived at the level, the ranking, the dream that we've had together. This fast, at 22 years old, is really special. In one year, we are doing a lot of things and I think we have a lot more things to do.”

[ATP APP]

Set to face German Jan-Lennard Struff in the first round of the Terra Wortmann Open on Wednesday, Darderi realised his potential competing at junior tournaments aged 10, when he started spending six months in Argentina and the other half of the year in Italy, where his grandfather resided. “I started to play 100 per cent and I started to think about playing professionally,” said Darderi, who moved to Italy at age 11.

Alexander Zverev navigated through a tricky opening-round test Tuesday at the Terra Wortmann Open, where the second-seeded German defeated countryman Oscar Otte 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.

Aiming to go one step further than his two finalist appearances in Halle (2016, 2017), Zverev stayed patient to outlast Otte in baseline exchanges and capitalised in pressure moments with first-strike tennis to advance.

"A week ago, I was playing on clay still basically. He made it very tough for me, no rhythm at all," Zverev said in his on-court interview. "That's how grass-court tennis is sometimes and I'm just happy with the win. He did make it extremely difficult for me, so credit to him. I'm obviously happy that I won and hopefully it's going to be a level above in the next match."

The qualifier Otte routinely presented challenges to Zverev, often serve-and-volleying and absorbing the World No. 4's firepower with off-pace slice. But the Roland Garros finalist stuck with his heavy hitting, crushing 54 winners to his 40 unforced errors, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to win in two hours, 17 minutes under the OWL Arena roof.

Zverev improved to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Otte, who has troubled the 22-time tour-level titlist in both of their meetings. Otte led Zverev two-sets-to-love in the first round of Roland Garros in 2021 before the two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion roared back to win and later reach the semi-finals.