By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday July 17, 2022
Carlos Alcaraz takes his place as the top seed in Hamburg. We look ahead, and also back.
Photo Source: AFP
A quartet of 250 events in Bastad, Budapest, Lausanne and Newport kept tennis fans busy during the first post-Wimbledon week.
Next week we’ll look ahead to more of the same, with a 500 on the men’s side in Hamburg (250 for the women), plus 250s in Gstaad for the men and Palermo for the women.
Next Week's Draws: Hamburg ATP | Hamburg WTA | Swiss Open ATP | Palermo WTA
Last Week's Draws: Lausanne WTA | Bastad ATP | Budapest WTA | Newport ATP
First a look back at the week that was...
All Argentina in Bastad
It was a step-up week for Argentina’s generation next at the Nordea Open in Bastad, Sweden. The top two seeds – Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev – each fell to Argentinian players.
Francisco Cerundolo, who eventually won his maiden title, took out World No.5 Ruud in the second round, while Sebastian Baez, who reached his third final of 2022, defeated Rublev in the semifinals.
Cerundolo, 23, and Baez, 21, are most certainly going to play a big part in the future of Argentinian men’s tennis.
In Sunday's final, Cerundolo scored the 7-6(4), 6-2 triumph final to become the ATP’s 8th first-time winner in 2022. Both players have climbed from outside the top-100 to well inside the top-35 since the season started.
Martic on track in Lausanne
It has been a solid stretch or Croatia’s Petra Martic. She is 4-0 against the WTA’s top-20 in 2022 and recently reached the second week at Wimbledon. The 31-year-old is coached by Michael Geserer now and the German, who formerly coached Julia Goerges and Jennifer Brady, appears to be helping her thrive – in a big way.
Martic defeated Olga Danilovic in the final on Sunday at Lausanne, claiming her first title since 2019. The former World No.14 will jump back into the top-60 with her title.
Cressy Flips the Script
Make it nine ATP first-time title winners in 2022, as Maxime Cressy rallies from a set and break down against Alexander Bublik to take the title in Newport. Bublik even had break points for a double break in the second set with Cressy serving at 4-0.
He was not happy about letting that giant lead slip.
Cressy, meanwhile, is set to jump to 33 in the ATP rankings on Monday. If he ends up getting seeded at the US Open, many players will be happy about not having to potentially face him in the opening round.
Pera from qualifying to maiden title in Budapest
Bernarda Pera of the United States was 0-4 in semifinals heading into this week at Budapest. But the qualifier passed that hurdle and then some, winning the title without dropping a set to become the fourth WTA first-time titlist in 2022. Pera defeated Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic for the title – she is the third qualifier to claim a title on the WTA Tour this season.
Rusty Gets his Due
Aussie Lleyton Hewitt was officially inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday in Newport. He gave a thoughtful 15-minute speech and was careful to thank all of those who helped him on his road to success. It was a no-frills speech, not fancy, and quite serious. A perfect way for a man that rode his warrior mentality to the top of the sport to show his gratitude to others and to the sport.
Hewitt gave a verbal tour of his coaches, from Darren Cahill to John Newcombe to Peter Luczak, and eventually an emotional tribute to Tony Roche. Watching, we could get a feel for the depth of the relationship, and the bond that both share as stewards of Aussie tennis.
It was a lovely moment to reflect on the grand history of Australian tennis and the shining career of Hewitt, who gave so much blood, sweat and tears to the game and thrilled fans, peers and pundits alike over the course of his illustrious career that saw him win 30 titles, two Slam singles titles and become the youngest No.1 in ATP history.
Enjoy the full speech below:
The Week that Will Be
Now we’ll look ahead to an interesting week on tour, with a joint event in Hamburg that features Carlos Alcaraz and Anett Kontaveit.
Alcaraz chooses clay
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz will continue his breakout 2022 season by featuring at the Hamburg European Open, where he is the top seed. The Spaniard, who owns a 35-5 record on tour this season, has elected to defend his title next week in Umag as well, which means he probably won’t play in North America until the National Bank Open in Montreal (August 8-14).
The World No.6 will race Germany’s Nicola Kuhn in his first round match at Hamburg, and could face Sebastian Baez or Filip Krajinovic in his second round contest. If the seeds hold, he’d face Russia’s Karen Khachanov, the No.7 seed, in the quarters, and Holger Rune, the No.8 seed in the semis.
In the lower half of the draw, Andrey Rublev is the No.2 seed. No.3 seeded Diego Schwartzman and No.5 seeded Botic Van de Zandschulp are also there.
Interesting that Alcaraz has chosen to stay in Europe to play on the clay this summer. The Spaniard is comfortable on all surfaces and may just want to keep stress on his body to a minimum in the second half of the season.
Kontaveit the top seed in Hamburg
Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit was the story of the second half of the women’s season in 2021, but she has struggled to meet expectations in 2022. Kontaveit has won just three matches since Miami, and parted ways with Dmitry Tursunov, the coach that helped her dominate the tour last season when she reeled off titles in Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca before reaching the title match at the WTA Finals in Guadalajara.
The current World No.3 is 17-9 on the season but few of those wins have come of late. Now working with Torben Beltz, the former coach of Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu, Kontaveit will look to get things back on track on the clay of Hamburg.
Another player to watch in Hamburg is second-seeded Daria Kasatkina – the 13th-ranked Russian also reached the last four at Roland-Garros.
Ruud and Berrettini in Gstaad
Casper Ruud will take his top seed at the EFT Swiss Open, and Matteo Berrettini makes his return, taking his place as the No.2 seed. It was the Italian who had bad luck at Wimbledon. He was one of the pre-tournament favorites but had to pull out due to Covid.
Trevison top seed in Palermo
At the Palermo Ladies Open, Roland-Garros semifinalist Martina Trevisan will do honors as the top seed. The Italian reached the quarterfinals at Budapest last week. Yulia Putintseva is the No.2 seed in a draw that also features France’s Caroline Garcia and rising French teen Diane Parry.