GLOBAL CHICK’S WEEKLY TENNIS WATCH – INCHING CLOSER TO WIMBLEDON

Written by: Global Chick on 15th June 2015

GLOBAL CHICK'S WEEKLY TENNIS WATCH - INCHING CLOSER TO WIMBLEDON |

Let’s be honest – the only grass we really care about is almost at the end of the District Line (that’s the green one on the Underground map) and we are getting ever closer to strawberries and Pimms.

The grass rollers are now in full effect. As are umbrellas if last week’s trials and tribulations in Nottingham are anything to go by, with the rain postponing the women’s singles final until Monday morning.

It is a bug bear, not just of a British summer, but of outdoor tournaments where players expect to be all fleet-of-foot and tumble-free!

Anyway, with no further ado, let us cast our eye over the pick of this week’s tournaments while we perfect our Pimms recipe.

ATP Halle

Halle gets this week’s prize for biggest hitter, as Roger Federer has proved since his 2000 debut, winning it nine times. So perhaps not so much the Gerry Weber Open, but the Roger Federer Open – he has his own alley-way named after him and everything!

All joking aside, it is a court where his preparations have stood him in very good stead for greater glories at Wimbledon.

At the opposite end of the draw Kei Nishikori looks to have a decent draw, looking to go better than his performance last year at Halle, where he lost to Federer.

But for us the key question is will Tomas Berdych make his play to show that he can be a force to contend with on grass again. The 2007 champion is looking to assert himself with the Big Four, or perhaps now even the emergence of a Big Five. If he succeeds, will we need to call them the Slightly Larger Six?

ATP Queen’s Club

Oh now this is more like it. Smartly dressed people let out for the day from the Big Smoke, Pimms flowing freely, ball-girls all of a dither over defending champion Grigor Dimitrov – why it must be Queen’s. There seems to have been no issue with its moving back a week, and a jolly good job too.

Three time champion Andy Murray is installed as top seed, and the expectations will be huge on him after his spirited gallop to the Roland Garros semi-finals, and much talk of how his fitness is back to his Slam winning days and his recovery is much improved after his back surgery.

Britain’s Andy Murray during a training session for the Aegon Tennis Championships at the Queens Club in London, Britain, 15 June 2015. EPA/ANDY RAIN

He starts against qualifier Yen-Hsun Lu but could face Dimitrov in the quarter-finals. That feels ominous, in that Dimitrov ended his Wimbledon defence at that same stage. But the Bulgarian has struggled a bit to regain some of that confidence that he had last year, as he reached his first Slam semi-final.

Another potential former champion could await in the semi-finals as Marin Cilic looks to regain some of his fine form of last year and let’s not forget at the bottom of the draw we have newly crowned Stuttgart champion Rafael Nadal opting to play at Queen’s this year, along with second seed and French Open champion Stan Wawrinka.

This is a high class field at Queen’s this year, and for our money, this is the tournament to watch this week.

WTA Birmingham

While we are on the subject of high class fields though, Birmingham has really picked up the pace this year, and the field is pretty impressive. Simona Halep heads up the troops no doubt keen to put aside a clay court season where she may well have been expected to perform a lot better. What has really impressed us this year though is her attitude. She has refused to panic at her losses but the grass court season will be the time to see if all that continued positivity comes to anything!

Meanwhile home hopes lie with the British No. 1 Heather Watson making her comeback after injury delayed her grass court season start, and ably assisted by a bunch of wildcards into a class main draw.

Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in action against Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic during their semifinal match for the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 04 June 2015. EPA/YOAN VALAT

Defending champion Ana Ivanovic had looked like a little lost lamb at the start of the clay court season, so you could have knocked us down with a cotton wool bud when she made her way to the French Open semi-final, and despite yet more coaching woes, this going-it-mainly-alone lark seems to be paying off for her as she seems to be getting a little more confidence.

Our one to watch will be Victoria Azarenka – she continues to be a danger in any draw as she makes her way back up the rankings. We know she won’t be happy until she feels she’s back where she belongs at the top of the game, and it can’t be long now, surely?

All in all, it’s not a bad way to start the countdown to strawberries now, is it?

Topics: AEGON Championships, Ana Ivanovic, Andy Murray, Atp World Tour, Federer, global chick, Halle, Tennis News, Wta

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10sBalls_com says:

June 15, 2015 at 11:02 am

GLOBAL CHICK’S WEEKLY TENNIS WATCH – INCHING CLOSER TO @Wimbledon- http://t.co/jrULiYIiIm #Halle #atpworldtour #AegonChampionships #WTA