Alexander Zverev collected his 20th ATP title of his career with a straight sets win over Serbia’s Laslo Djere. Does this mean Zverev returns to top 10?
Zverev Nearing Top 10 (This week in Tennis)
No German had won the clay-court tournament in Hamburg since Michael Stich, in 1993. 30 years later, Zverev ended the wait with a flawless performance in the final. Surprisingly, it was the German’s first ATP title since winning his second ATP Finals title in 2021. The win catapults Zverev up the ATP rankings as he looks to return to the top 10. He is currently at 16 in the world.
Zverev wasn’t the only player to pick up the trophy in his home nation. The world number 1, Iga Swiatek demolished Laura Siegemund 6-0, 6-1 to lift her first title on home soil in Warsaw, Poland. The Pole will certainly use this as a springboard into the hard-court season as she prepares to defend her US Open title in September.
Stan Wawrinka reached his first ATP final since 2019 in Umag, but couldn’t quite cross the finish line. Instead, Alexei Popyrin, despite some cramps, won the title after a hard-fought 3-set final.
Taylor Fritz had to fight quite hard in Atlanta to defeat Aleksandar Vukic from Australia, but got it done, winning 6-4 in the final set.
Who wins in DC?
This week sees ATP and WTA players jet off to DC, Washington to participate in the 500 level tournament. Nick Kyrgios won the title in 2022 but had to pull out of this year’s tournament as he continued to recover from injury.
Off the back of his win in Atlanta last week, Fritz will look to win back-to-back titles as he leads the field in DC, Washington. Fellow Americans, Frances Tiafoe, Seb Korda, Christopher Eubanks, Ben Shelton and J.J. Wolf will also be looking to win the title in their home nation.
Felix Auger Aliassime, Hubert Hurkacz, Grigor Dimitrov, and Alexander Bublik are also competing.
Given the sizable draw, there are a lot of names who could take home the title this week.
One player who could snatch the title is Alexander Bublik.
He had an amazing grass-court season, lifting the title in Halle and reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon. His big-serving game will come in use on the fast courts of DC.
Bencic to win Citi Open?
Liudmila Samsonova is the defending champion but must be on top form if she is to defend her title.
This year’s top seed is the world number 4, Jessica Pegula, while other top ten players, Caroline Garcia, Coco Guaff and Maria Sakkari have also entered.
Daria Kasatkina, Belinda Bencic and Madison Keys are other players who could threaten this week.
This is a hard tournament to predict, given the fact that not many players have played since on the grass courts of Wimbledon.
I will go with the Swiss, Bencic, to lift her third WTA 500 of the year. Bencic is a player who plays well on all surfaces.
After her first-round loss at this year’s French Open, Bencic went straight to the grass courts of Wimbledon, reaching the fourth round and narrowly losing out to world number 1, Iga Swiatek.
She will quickly adapt to the hard courts and take home the title.
