– Five seeds in action in Rouen, including No. 1 Pavlyuchenkova and No. 2 Caroline Garcia. As for Stuttgart, they’ve got world No. 1 and new Lancôme ambassador Iga Swiatek, plus No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina. And Ons Jabeur, and Zheng Qinwen (also Lancôme!!). Basically there are no weak spots in this 28-player, top-shelf draw. ATP Tour – Thursday results (Stuttgart and Rouen are 6 hours ahead of EDT; Oeiras is 5 hours ahead) ************************************ Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Location: Stuttgart, Germany Surface: Indoor Clay Category: WTA 500 Dates: April 15 – 21, 2024 Prize money: $9 ..read more

– Porsche ambassadors Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu, both Grand Slam champions needing wild cards for varying reasons, were the spotlight evening match in Stuttgart. And it was hardly even the match with the biggest potential. There was Aryna Sabalenka vs Paula Badosa to follow – two good pals who ended up having to play each other in Miami, after all the personal tragedy surrounding Sabalenka. In the end, the battle of the former Slam champs was a bit of a dud. And the besties battle didn’t have a proper conclusion as Badosa retired midway through the third set. And in Oeiras, Canadian K ..read more

– The Barcelona tournament welcomed back Rafael Nadal, who won routinely Tuesday but had a thoroughly different customer Wednesday in Alex de Minaur. Lots of other seeds in the house: Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Lorenzo Musetti and more as the second round wraps up. In Munich, top seed and homey Alexander Zverev got under way, after a first-round bye. He had to wait through a long delay, but got it done. But in Bucharest, Cana-Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, scheduled for double duty in singles and doubles, only got the singles done as the doubles was rained out. He’s in the qua ..read more

– Unseeded Rafael Nadal got the latest possible slot for a first-round match on the main court – which happens to be named “Pista Rafael Nadal”. He gets through, largely on the back of 41 unforced errors by his young opponent. But also – he looked pretty good. Canadian Denis Shapovalov got his clay season under way in Bucharest, where he took a wild card. As often happens when he’s a wild card (although this year, it’s a rankings thing more than a last-minute-decision thing), it didn’t go his way against crafty Frenchman Corentin Moutet. At about the same time, Félix Auger-Aliassime played Max ..read more

– The loaded Stuttgart draw wstarted to show its seeds – some of which have not played a ton lately: Zheng Qinwen, Jelena Ostapenko and Marketa Vondrousova were on the sked for Tuesday. As well, Paula Badosa and Ons Jabeur got on the doubles court – and won. In Rouen, the top four seeds are in action: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Caroline Garcia, Anhelina Kalinina and Yuan Yue. Garcia escaped by the skin of her dentition. ATP Tour – Tuesday, April 16, 2024 final results (Stuttgart and Rouen are 6 hours ahead of EDT; Oeiras is 5 hours ahead) ************************************ Porsche Tennis Gr ..read more

– Last week was the last week before the six-week advance entry deadline, to get into the main draw at Roland Garros this year. For the women, it fell poorly; there were no WTA-level tournaments at which a great performance might make the difference between the big pot available even to a first-round, main draw loser. So some had to grind at the ITF level, and hope for the best. For the men, there was a Masters 1000 (admittedly a lot tougher for players on the bubble to get into) and a number of Challenger events in the last-minute scramble. Protected rankings legion among the women The top 10 ..read more

– Only one ATP level event, but a big one: the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo that had most of the top players (with the conspicuous exception of the injured Carlos Alcaraz, who withdrew from both Monte Carlo and from Barcelona this coming week, where he’s the defending champion). Stefanos Tsitsipas was the winner, beating three top-10 players along the way. And in doing so he moves back into the top 10 where few wouldn’t argue he belongs. So many moves this week – those who jump with good results, fall because they didn’t defend last year’s good result, and Challenger champs during the last week ..read more

– No WTA tournaments this week because of Billie Jean King Cup. Which doesn’t offer ranking points these days, even though it featured a lot of well-known players motivated to qualify for the Olympics. But there were other ITF-level tournaments. And with that, some rankings moves. But no changes in the top 35 and really only one in the top 70. The theme with the photos this week is the players as juniors; that’s how long they’ve been on the Open Court radar. For the complete, updated ranking report effective Monday, click here. ATP Rankings Report – As of April 15, 2024   Jessica Bouza ..read more

– The Porsche-decorated Stuttgart tournament was all alone in its time slot a year ago, with a cutoff that meant if you weren’t top 30, you didn’t have a chance to get in. But that has changed this year, as the Rouen tournament (a WTA 125 before this) not only upgraded to a 250 – but also invested in changing its indoor hard surface to indoor clay for the occasion. As well, the beautiful Centralito in Portugal welcomes the women, in a joint ATP Challenger / WTA 125 event outdoors. ATP Tour – Monday, April 15, 2024 final results (Stuttgart and Rouen are 6 hours ahead of EDT; Oeiras is 5 hours ..read more

– Action on three fronts as the clay-court season gets seriously under way – a 500 in Barcelona with a 48-player draw (but no Carlos Alcaraz, and Rafael Nadal TBA), and 250s in Munich and Bucharest. The Bucharest tournament, named the Tiriac Open for you-know-who, was Novak Djokovic’s Serbia Open. The license had always been owned by Tiriac, who leased it to the Djokovic for a few years but wanted it back (or wanted an excessive price to sell it). It had already been moved to Bosnia last year, because Djokovic’s tennis centre was undergoing renovations with an eye to upgrading their event. But ..read more