THE TENNIS WEEKLY WATCH – WHO’S HITTING THE GRASS IN STUTTGART, ‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH AND NOTTINGHAM

Written by: Global Chick on 8th June 2015

THE TENNIS WEEKLY WATCH - WHO'S HITTING THE GRASS IN STUTTGART, 'S-HERTOGENBOSCH AND NOTTINGHAM |

Photo by Brett Connors Photography

By Global Chick

The clay court season is over, long live the grass! For an extra week as well no less. This is the first year that sees a longer grass court season, but it does make a brutal turnaround and transition, which actually makes this first week quite intriguing.

As you would expect a lot of the big names are out of action, but there are a few notables that will draw us keen tennis fans back to the TV – oh no we hardened souls are not tennised out at all!

ATP Stuttgart

Of course it goes without saying the biggest name on the block is Rafael Nadal this week. He had dropped to his lowest ranking in a decade, clinging on to his place in the Top 10 this week. Darn it, that number 10 is going haunt him for a while isn’t it?

He comes into Stuttgart as the top seed, with US Open champion Marin Cilic as the second seed (Cilic actually snuck one place up the rankings this week). So Stuttgart wins our ‘Biggest draw of the week’ award for two ATP Top 10ers doing their thing.

Interestingly after a couple of lacklustre runs in Halle, Nadal is pitching his tent at Queen’s Club this year where he has always made the quarter-finals or better, so it will be fascinating to see how he gets on in Stuttgart as it moves from clay to grass this year.

ATP & WTA ‘s-Hertogenbosch

Sigh, the only awards this tournament wins is the won for most bizarre spelling of all time, with the men’s field led by the big-serving Ivo Karlovic. But the women’s draw takes on an interesting twist as Genie Bouchard picked up a wildcard to try and make up for a disappointing time of late.

The Canadian has looked pretty lost on court, and was one of the big droppers in the rankings this week, after falling in the first round, failing to defend her semi-final points of last year. With the prospect of defending her final points at Wimbledon looming, this is the time for Bouchard to try and pick up her confidence and on paper she ought to go well.

Meanwhile our favourite glitter warrior princess Jelena Jankovic tries to get her season back on track. She lit up Indian Wells with a run to the final before injury pretty much wrote off her entire clay court season. Grass is not really her friend, but this year she has exuded such passion for just wanting to play after injury woes, and it would be great to see her make a good run here with no real pressure on her.

Photo by Brett Connors Photography.

WTA Nottingham

Another player who has had a rough time of things is Agnieszka Radwanska. Parting ways with latest super-coach on the block Martina Navratilova, Radwanska has slipped out of the Top 10 since the start of the year, but the 2012 Wimbledon finalist has a real chance to make up some ground as she took a wildcard and the top spot in the inaugural Aegon Open in Nottingham.

With top Brit Heather Watson sadly pulling out of Nottingham to allow an elbow injury to recover, the tournament has a top name to bring in the crowds for the week, so it would be great if that results in a top draw final to end their week on.

Let’s not forget there are a couple of weeks now for those all-important seeding positions to be locked in, and for now our extra week on the green stuff could really make that dash into Wimbledon fortnight really exciting. Now – where’s my lawn-mower…?

Topics: Atp, global chick, Grass tennis, Nottingham, S Hertogenbosch, sports news, Stuttgart, Wta

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10sBalls_com says:

June 8, 2015 at 9:46 am

THE #TENNIS WEEKLY WATCH – WHO’S HITTING THE GRASS IN #STUTTGART, ‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH AND #NOTTINGHAM- http://t.co/dgbc14yxro #sHertogenbosch