Tennis returns! From today you can watch tennis live on the Challenger Tour. There are two tournaments this week. Prague and Todi.
I should really write, “Men’s Tennis returns” because the women are already underway from last week with Fiona Ferro winning the WTA Tournament in Palermo. There is also an exciting tournament on the WTA Tour this week called the Top Seed Open in Lexington. Serena Williams was upset yesterday in the quarter-finals by #116-ranked Shelby Rogers so we need to be prepared to see some “strange” results as tennis returns. It will, therefore, be interesting to watch tennis live on the Challenger Tour and see what kind of upsets we get on the men’s side of the game.
The Challenger Tour is the below the ATP tour in status and prize money, but due to the COVID situation and the constantly changing ATP calendar, we will see Stan Wawrinka play the ICLTK Prague Open. You can check out the draw for that tournament here. After a bye in the first round, he will play the winner between Lukas Rosol (remember when he beat Nadal at Wimbledon by just teeing off every shot?) and Roman Safiullin.
It’s hard to say who will do well when tennis returns. Who has had a good “off-season”? Who can handle the new situation with fewer to no spectators? It’s all up in the air at the moment. We just need to be happy that tennis is back and enjoy the action as it unfolds.
Live-streaming tennis free
The Challenger Tour offers free live-streaming on the ATP website in case you are keen to watch some live tennis again! I sure am. I’m not sure about the situation in Todi, but I have already watched some of the action from the Prague Open. Below you can find the top seeds in Prague. Not a bad line-up with Stan Wawrinka, Jiri Vesely, Pierre Hugues-Herbert, and Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The top players in the Challenger Tour event in Todi include:
Federico Delbonis, Gianluca Mager, Stefano Travagli, and Andreas Seppi. All pretty accomplished players, especially on clay! Italy has become a very strong tennis nation these days with players like Fabio Fognini and Matteo Berrettini leading the pack.
Will you be watching the Challenger Tour and who do you think will do well or poorly as tennis returns?
2 comments
I watched the highligths from the Serena Williams vs. Rogers match on the WTA home page.
Looks like Williams is still experimenting with racquets. Some blacked out thing with orange or gold graphics this time. String pattern looks like the same 18×19 as before.
I believe it’s your official duty to find out the specs :)
Haha good comment! Will do my best :)