All eyes are on the Parisian terre battue, as the ATP World Tour’s stars slide and glide across the red clay at Roland Garros. But elsewhere, some people’s focus is completely on something else: grass. In just more than a week, the players will begin the grass-court swing during which six ATP World Tour events — two at the 500-level and four at the 250-level — lead into Wimbledon, with the Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open held directly after the year’s third Grand Slam championship. The Gerry Weber Open, which will take place from 16 to 24 June 2018 in Halle, Germany, is undergoing final preparations, as the crew works to prepare Gerry Weber Stadion for the wear and...
Rafael Nadal will begin his quest for an 11th Roland Garros title against Alexandr Dolgopolov, but all eyes in Paris will be on a loaded bottom half, which features Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov, 2015 titlist Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori and 2016 champion Novak Djokovic. In-form second seed Zverev, the winner of 16 of his past 18 matches (and an ATP World Tour Tour-leading 30-8 overall), will have to beat Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis in his opener, with the prospect of a fourth-round clash against Wawrinka or Lucas Pouille. Thiem or Nishikori may then lie in wait for the recent BMW Open by FWU and Mutua Madrid Open champion in the quarter-finals. World No. 8 Thiem, who has reached back-to-back...
Two-time defending champion Stan Wawrinka has accepted a wild card to play at next week's Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. “We are very happy to offer a wild card to Stan Wawrinka,” said the event’s co-owner, Rainer Schuettler. “We know perfectly everything that Stan has brought to our tournament. We hope that his choice to come and defend his title will be beneficial and that he finds the taste of victory at the Parc des Eaux-Vives.” This will be Wawrinka's fourth appearance at his home clay-court event, at which he owns a 9-1 record. It will also mark his sixth event of the year. The 33-year-old returned this week in Rome, making his first appearance on the tour since Marseille...
Following the success of the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan in 2017, the second edition of the tournament, taking place at Fiera Milano from November 6-10, will continue to trial a best-of-five set format, shorter sets to 4 (tie-break at 3-All), No-Ad scoring, and No-Lets, the ATP announced on Tuesday at a press conference at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. Other innovations such as Electronic Line Calling through Hawk-Eye Live, a 25-second Shot Clock, In-Match player coaching via head-sets will also be back for the second edition. The player warm-up will be reduced by a further minute (from 5 minutes to 4 minutes) from the second player walk-on, while players will be instructed to use a towel...
