French Open finalist Casper Ruud has withdrawn from next week’s ATP500 event in Halle, Nick Kyrgios and Matteo Berrettini – Wimbledon runner-ups over the previous two seasons – suffered frustrating defeats on their respective returns to grass, and more besides as the season’s cycle continues to turn…
Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Rublev top-three seeds in Halle
- Three-time Major finalist and world no. 4 Casper Ruud’s Halle withdrawal means he won’t feature on grass before Wimbledon after 14 matches across three different cities – Rome, Geneva and Paris since May 12
- Berrettini lost 6-1, 6-2 against compatriot Lorenzo Sonego in Stuttgart on Monday, having beaten him during their three previous H2H meetings while China’s Yibing Wu won 7-5, 6-3 at Kyrgios’ expense 24 hours later
- Berrettini is in the entry list to defend his Queen’s title for a second consecutive season next week, but there is a stacked core eager to ensure there’s a new champion this year – including Alcaraz, Rune and Norrie
- Corrado Barazzutti, Italy’s former Davis Cup captain, said last year’s Wimbledon quarterfinalist Jannik Sinner had been suffering from tiredness and that played a significant role during surprising defeats in Rome (Francisco Cerundolo, last-16) and Paris (Daniel Altmaier, R2)
Matteo Berrettini has endured a rough 2023 season so far, and his fortunes won’t suddenly change on grass – a surface that has been kind to him in recent seasons.
The former world no. 6 has dropped a further 12 ranking spots to #33 at the time of writing, after failing to defend last year’s points in Germany this past week.
He outlasted Andy Murray (6-4, 5-7, 6-3) in a three-set final twelve months ago, having beaten Sonego and 2021 US Open surprise package Oscar Otte en route to the finale. It makes the heavy defeat even more jarring, exacerbated by his poor form.
After a 3-3 run at the United Cup across singles and doubles competition with Italy, his hopes of a deep Australian Open run were extinguished by marathon man Murray in a five-set epic during one of the Major’s best first-round matches.
Since then, he’s lost four of his ten matches across five tournaments (Acapulco, Indian Wells, Phoenix, Miami and Monte-Carlo) and handed Holger Rune a walkover in mid-April, withdrawing through an ab injury.
This was his first appearance since then and he trudged off the court sheepishly, covering his face as he looked tearful and isn’t the only one in that regard.
Nick Kyrgios hasn’t been right since losing in five sets against Karen Khachanov at Flushing Meadows last September, during a quarter-final many expected the unpredictable Australian to pass with flying colours.
He went to Tokyo and won a pair of matches on double duty in singles and doubles alongside childhood friend Thanasi Kokkinakis, before being heartbroken to withdraw with a left knee injury. No worries, he’ll be ready with his home Major next.
Or so everyone was led to believe, because besides a few exhibition matches in Saudi Arabia and a jovial open session on Rod Laver Arena alongside 10-time champ Novak Djokovic on the eve of the tournament, Kyrgios’s been ruled out.
The same left knee had been bothering him, as I reported at the time, and eventually surgery was an option his team couldn’t ignore anymore.
He did the operation, subsequent rehab and 23-year-old Yibing Wu represented his first competitive match back for eight months in Stuttgart earlier this week, though it was clear during sequences of play that he’s still physically compromised.
Down periods are inevitable in a sport as relentless and draining as tennis often is, but for the pair’s sake, you can only hope their poor form doesn’t persist. As Casper Ruud himself has shown recently, tennis is richer with the best players on song.
Swiatek on grass, Zheng’s new coach and other tidbits
Iga Swiatek has conceded Wimbledon is a different challenge for the newly-crowned four-time Major champion, as she prepares for the transition to a short but stressful grasscourt season with plenty of room to improve.
Her 37-match winning streak was memorably ended by giantkiller Alize Cornet in round three at SW19 last year, and the 22-year-old will be hopeful for a deeper run at the one Major she’s yet to solve. During an interview with Eurosport, she said:
“I would say winning Slams gives you a kind of confidence that you can do it again on one hand, but on the other, everybody is watching you, targeting your back, so you feel that a little bit and the pressure is bigger.
It makes it actually more special for players who do it when they are on top, because it shows you can and are strong enough to do it, so I feel that right now.
I felt [after the Cornet loss] I still had a lot to learn about grass courts. It’s not an excuse, it’s the reality – I have the aptitude to play on grass but can’t yet do it on a satisfactory level.”
She’ll begin her grass season in Bad Homburg next weekend, where she’ll be joined by Victoria Azarenka and Bianca Andreescu among others per the entry list – including defending champion Caroline Garcia and the aforementioned Cornet.
Simona Halep’s drug suspension hearing was postponed for a third time late last month and while frustrating, the former world no. 1 maintains her innocence.
READ: Halep’s drug ban last October: What is Roxadustat, and what’s next for the two-time Slam champ?
The two-time Major champion voiced her anger at the delay on social media and will have missed at least three Grand Slam tournaments by the time she returns to competition, including Wimbledon next month where she won the title in 2019.
Still working to maintain high conditioning, she was pictured training at head coach Patrick Mouratoglou’s complex with Ukraine’s talented 20-year-old Marta Kostyuk this week – who herself rose two places to a new career-high world no. 33.
China’s top-ranked female player, 20-year-old Qinwen Zheng, has a new coaching member in tow. The world no. 24 will begin her grass stint at Eastbourne (WTA 500) later this month with Naomi Osaka’s old coach Wim Fissette, per Filip Dewulf.
Fissette has worked with a series of Grand Slam champions in the past, including Angelique Kerber, Victoria Azarenka, Halep and Kim Clijsters among others.
Tournaments going on this week…
All at the semi-final stage
Stuttgart Open, ATP250
Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Hubert Hurkacz [4]
Frances Tiafoe [3] vs. Marton Fucsovics [Q]
Hertogenbosch, ATP250
Jordan Thompson vs. Rinky Hijikata [LL]
Tallon Griekspoor [6] vs. Emil Ruusuvuori
Rosmalen Open, WTA250
Veronika Kudermetova [1] vs. Viktoria Hruncakova
Ekaterina Alexandrova [4] vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich [7]
Nottingham Open, WTA250
Alize Cornet vs. Jodie Burrage
Heather Watson [Q] vs. Katie Boulter [WC]
Picture source: Getty Images
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