Monday 17 July 2023

ATP/WTA 250s: GSTAAD, BASTAD, NEWPORT, BUDAPEST & PALERMO

 


This week is tournament heavy and top-player light. There's four clay tournaments and then the only grass tournament in the USA in Newport, Rhode Island. Both tour's clay tourneys are in Europe - Gstaad, Switzerland, Bastad, Sweden, Budapest, Hungary and Palermo, Italy.

The only two Top 10 players contending this week are Casper Ruud, who chose to compete in Bastad instead of defending his title in Gstaad, where Andrey Rublev is also contending.  Then there's only four Top 20 players among all of the ATP 250s this weeks.

On the women's side in both WTA 250s, the highest ranked is Daria Kasatkina (11) contending in Palermo, as is #26 Qinwen Zheng. The rest of the two WTA field this week gives the lower-ranked players a chance to gain some points.

And a begrudging congratulations to the new men's Wimbledon men's champ Carlos Alcaraz. I hope all of your dreams came true and know your jinxes worked😕  Hopefully, Novak Djokovic will still be in some form for the USO and maybe Wimbledon next year.  Also congratulations to Marketa Vondrousova. Sadly Ons Jabeur is once again only a bridesmaid but had a helluva tournament, and Marketa is a welcome and worthy champ!

Besides the number of tourneys this week, this is the longest I've worked for a very long time in one day since I had to start from nothing, not having our right-hand woman content provider available. Which just proves to me and I hope all of you how critical Shirley Hartt is to the success of this Blog. So this may not be perfect, and the WTA info on Palermo totally stinks (the only way I knew of the few players I mentioned here competing in Palermo is from the Live Ranking site).

Enjoy👇

EFG SWISS OPEN GSTAAD ATP 250
ROY EMERSON ARENA
GSTAAD, SWITZERLAND
JULY 17-23-2023

Surface: Clay

Draws: Singles 28, Doubles 16

2022 Champion Casper Ruud d. Matteo Berrettini

Seeds: Roberto Bautista Agut, Miomir Kecmanovic, Lorenzo Sonego, Yannick Hanfmann, Zhizhen Zhang, Roberto Carballes Baena,  Mikael Ymer, Laslo Djere

Also entered: Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem

Wildcards: Fabio Fognini, Alexander Ritschard, Dominic Stricker



NORDEA OPEN ATP 250
BASTAD TENNIS STADIUM
BASTAD, SWEDEN
JULY 17-23, 2023

Surface: Clay

Draws: Singles 28, Doubles 16

2022 Champion Francisco Cerundolo (his maiden ATP title) d. Sebastian Baez

This is the 75th Anniversary of the tournament. In 2011 Robin Soderling became the first multiple titlist since Magnus Norman in 2000.

Seeds: Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, Lorenzo Musetti, Francisco Cerundolo, Alexander Zverev, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Sebastian Baez

Wildcards: Swedes Elias Ymer, Leo Borg, Dragos Nicolae Madaras


INFOSYS HOF OPEN ATP 250
INTERNATIONAL HALL OF FAME
NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND USA
JULY 17-23, 2023

Surface: Grass

Draws: Singles 28, Doubles 16

The first U.S. National Lawn Tennis Championship was played in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1881 on the now legendary grass courts at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. That tournament evolved into the US Open. The Infosys Hall of Fame Open remains the only professional tournament played on grass outside of Europe.
Tennis in Newport - art illustration by George Bellows when the tournament was the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Championship

Seeds (the Top 4 seeds have byes) Tommy Paul, Adrian Mannarino, Ugo Umbert, Mackenzie McDonald, Max Purcell, Jordan Thompson, Corentin Moutet

Also entered: John Isner, Stevie Johnson, Liam Broady

Wildcards: Kevin Anderson, Eliot Spizzirri, Ethan Quin



HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX WTA 250
ROMAI TENNIS ACADEMY
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
JULY 17-23, 2023
Surface: Clay

Draws: Singles 28, Doubles 16

2022 Champion Bernarda Pera d. Zhang Shuai

Seeds: Bernarda Pera, Zhang Shuai, Yulia Putintseva, Tatjana Maria, Elina Avanesyan, Kamilla Rakhimova. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, Nadia Podoroska

Protected Ranking: Kristina Kucova, Evgeniya Rodina

Withdrawals: Sorana Cirstea, Anna Kalinskaya, Kaia Kanepi



34 PALERMO LADIES OPEN WTA 250
COUNTRY TIME CLUB
PALERMO, ITALY
JULY 17-23, 2023


Surface: Clay

Draws: Singles 32, Doubles 16

2022 Champion Irina-Camelia Begu d. Lucia Bronzetti (Begu chose to compete in a WTA 125 in Iasi, Romania instead of defend her title here)

Since 1990 it has been part of the WTA tour. The tournament was categorized as either a WTA Tier IV or Tier V event from 1990 to 2008, became an International Tournament in 2009. In 2014, the license for the event was sold to Kuala Lumpur's Malaysian Open for 6 years  The tournament returned to Palermo in 2019 as a WTA International event, replacing Jiangxi International Women's Tennis Open which was moved to the autumn calendar as part of the China Open series..
Street Art in Palermo.
Alfredo James Pacino - Al Pacino's - link to the town Corleone- 40 miles from Palermo - is through his mother who was born Rose Girardi in Corleone, Sicily. As 'Michael Corleone' in 'The Godfather' I never knew how perfectly fit Pacino was for the part of 'Michael'

Seeds: Daria Kasatkina, Qinwen Zhang, Mayar Sherif, Elisabetta Cocciaretta, Jasmine Paolini, Lucia Bronzetti, Emma Novarro, Julia Grabher

Wildcards: Fiona Ferro, Camilla Rosatello


This week, thanks to JoJo!👍


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