Tennis news, analysis, tournament coverage, and rumors
As ever, there was no shortage on entertaining action on the ATP’s Challenger Tour. A number of players stormed to unexpected triumphs whilst others slumped to disappointing defeats. Here are some of the stories you might have missed: Not one, but two crowns Illya Marchenko, once ranked as high as 49th in the world, won […] READ MORE
Speaking of this week’s Challenger Tour action, you can’t omit the unfortunate Florence incident. We’ve already covered it here and you should check out the article if you didn’t hear about a chair umpire who sexually harassed a ball girl and pep talked one of the players. Onto some better sportsmanship, Mikael Ymer took home […] READ MORE
In a second-round match of the 2019 Firenze Tennis Cup, the seventh seed Pedro Sousa played Italian wildcard, Enrico Dalla Valle. The chair umpire, Gianluca Moscarella, made some remarks to one of the players and the court staff that should not be left unpunished. Sousa, a huge favorite before the match, went down 5-3 in […] READ MORE
The whole tennis world heard about him last weekend, when in a Davis Cup tie between Finland and Austria, Emil Ruusuvuori defeated the World no. 5 Dominic Thiem. To avid followers of the ATP Challenger Tour, the Finn has been one to watch for at least a month or two. The 20-year-old started his year […] READ MORE
The Pekao Szczecin Open, the only highest category Challenger event this week, capped off on a high note. Jozef Kovalik, last year’s Hamburg European Open semifinalist, defeated defending champion Guido Andreozzi in a classic near three-hours final. Earlier in the tournament, Andreozzi and Kovalik threw out the highest seeds. The Argentinian got the better of […] READ MORE
Guido Andreozzi will try to become the first man to defend the Pekao Szczecin Open title. Together with Guillermo Duran, he also made the final in doubles last year. In the 2019 edition, Andreozzi partnered with Andres Molteni and managed to clinch the title. Winning both singles and doubles in the same year was only […] READ MORE
Last year’s Roland Garros semifinalist Marco Cecchinato has been struggling for his form lately. The Italian failed to repeat his biggest achievement and lost 710 ranking points, dropping a first-round match in Paris to Nicolas Mahut. Between the beginning of May and the Pekao Szczecin Open, Cecchinato won just two matches in 14 tournaments. So […] READ MORE
Florin Mergea, a former ATP no.7, and Rio Olympics silver medalist, is well-known to all doubles aficionados. A late-bloomer, the Romanian retired back in 2010 due to lack of singles success, but decided to come back and focus on doubles a few months later. He’s found the most success in partnerships with Rohan Bopanna and […] READ MORE
After two days of frequent rain interruptions, the weather in northwestern Poland finally got better. The tournament had some making-up to do and t24 matches were played on five courts. The seeds came into play, including World No. 49 Albert Ramos-Vinolas. The Spaniard defeated Johannes Haerteis in two comfortable sets. Ramos-Vinolas got a good read […] READ MORE
By far the biggest surprise of the day at the Pekao Szczecin Open was Philipp Kohlschreiber losing in his first match. The German came back to the Challenger Tour searching for form and it doesn’t look like he’s found it yet. Last week at the AON Open in Genoa, Kohlschreiber lost in the quarterfinals to […] READ MORE