Still bubbling, but some want clay

USO, Week 2; ATP Kitzbuhel; WTA Istanbul

So in this weird year (because of the shit) the ATP and the WTA decided to give some options for those that didn't travel to the USO. And given that we're gonna have RG soon, they naturally opted for some clay prep. These tournaments are moved from their regular weeks in the calendars to the 2nd week of USO.

TEB BNP Paribas Tennis Championships, Istanbul

Morning haze

WTA International (280 points) on clay. 30 players in the draw (top two seeds have byes in the 1st round.) The 8 seeds go from #34 to #81. Not bad. And here they are: Kuznetsova, Peterson, Hercog, Garcia, Watson, AVU, Diyas, Doi. Other notables (for some definition of that...): Kovinic, Voegele, Sasnovich, Schmiedlova, Tig, Gasparyan.

DRAW

DOUBLES DRAW

OOP

Patricia Maria Țig - No wonder she's keeping the mask on, she's holding a coronavirus as her 1st Trophy!

Generali Open, Kitzbuhel

Austrian Alps

ATP 250 on clay. The top 4 seeds have a bye in the R1: Fognini, Schwartzman, Lajovic, Basilashvili. The other 4 do not: Hurkacz, Nishikori, Pella, ARV. Who else is there? Nishioka, Ruusuvuori (ha!), Lopez, Thompson, Sinner, Kohlschreiber, Albot.

DRAW
DOUBLES DRAW
OOP

Miomir Kecmanovic - His 1st trophy. And it's a cool one.

USO

BJK National Tennis Center

Lotsa stuff happened. Some good, some bad. Life... it's like that. So who's left? Twelve men (oh what an opportunity for them... I wonder who's gonna be able to not botch this...) and twelve women. Some already in the QF, some fighting today to get there. Let's see.

The Women

1st Quarter:

Yulia Putintseva - If you squint you can see the horns. I swear!

Brady[28] v Putintseva[23]

2nd Quarter:

Naomi Osaka

Osaka[4] v Rogers.

3rd Quarter:

Serena Williams

Cornet v Pironkova

Sakkari[15] v Serena[3]

4th Quarter:

Sofia Kenin

Muchova[20] v Azarenka

Mertens[16] v Kenin[2]

The Men

1st Quarter:

The Shap

PCB[20] v The Shap[12]

2nd Quarter:

Alexander Zverev

Coric[27] v Zverev[5]

3rd Quarter:

Daniil Medvedev

Berrettini[6] v Rublev[10]

The Tiaf v Medvedev[3]

4th Quarter:

Dominic Thiem

De Minaur[21] v Pospisil

FAA[15] v Thiem[2]

MEN'S DRAW

MEN'S DOUBLES DRAW

WOMEN'S DRAW

WOMEN'S DOUBLES DRAW

OOP - this might be on a daily basis, so might not work after Monday!

Dominic Thiem - hanging by a thread (on my list)

Naomi Osaka - HC GS Queen!

Mate Pavic, Bruno Soares

Laura Siegemund, Vera Zvonareva (in reverse order)

And the unfortunate coda again:

• Live and up to date stats about coronavirus

• Another site with up to date stats

• Daily youtube update with the scientific side of the fight against covid-19 , explained in pretty intelligible terms. (That links to a playlist, just click on the freshest clip. Or you know... get really into it from the beginning.)