We’re doing a segment called “This week in tennis”, where we look at what is happening on the tours and give our tournament predictions.
Thanks to Alex Mann for his tournament predictions for week 29.
Last week, we crowned three new champions on the ATP and WTA tour. Maxime Cressy won his first title at the grass-court event in Newport, USA, Bernarda Pera won her first WTA singles title on the clay in Budapest Hungary, and Francisco Cerundolo also captured his first ATP title defeating Sebastien Baez to win the Swedish Open.
Petra Martic was the only champion this week who had previously won a title on tour, lifting the trophy in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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One of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world
The biggest tournament of this week is the joint ATP and WTA event in Hamburg, Germany. The Hamburg European Open is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, with the first edition of the event taking place 130 years ago, in 1892.
Past champions have included Rod Laver, Guillermo Vilas, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on the men’s side.
Players Otto Froitzheim and Gottfried von Cramm won the men’s event six times during the early 20th Century.
The first edition of the women’s tournament was held in 1982, with Lisa Bonder-Kreiss winning the title. Past champions have included Steffi Graff, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Conchita MartÃnez, Martina Hingis, Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters.
Steffi Graff won the title a record 6 times, consecutively between 1987 and 1992.
The women’s event wasn’t held between 2003-2020 and Elena-Gabriela Ruse defeated Andrea Petkovic to win the title in 2021.
We also have an ATP tournament in Gstaad this week. While on the WTA tour, players will battle it out in Palmero.
Here are my predictions for this week’s tournaments.
Hamburg European Open (ATP 500 and WTA 250)
Pablo Carreno Busta will be looking to defend his men’s title from last year against a stacked lineup, including Carlos Alcaraz, the 2020 champion Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov.
Promising youngsters Lorenzo Musetti and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are also competing.
The third, fifth, sixth and eighth seeds, Diego Schwartzman, Biotic van de Zandschulp, Nikoloz Basilashvili and Holger Rune have already been knocked out of the tournament.
I think Alcaraz will continue his dominance on tour and win his first title in Hamburg.
Prediction – Alcaraz to win
On the women’s side, Anett Kontaveit is the top seed and will look to improve on her inconsistent year. The 2021 French Open champion, Barbora Krejcikova, is also in the draw as well as Aliaksandra Sasnovich and last year’s finalist, Andrea Petkovic.
Defending champion Elena-Gabriela Ruse lost in the first round to last week’s Hungarian Ladies Open champion, Bernarda Pera.
Krejcikova lost in the first round in Hungary last week, so I think she will be hoping to go deep in this tournament.
Prediction – Krejcikova to win
Swiss Open (ATP 250)
Gstaad, Switzerland, hosts one of the most picturesque tournaments on the tennis circuit. Set within the Swiss mountains, the 124-year-old event sees the defending champion Casper Ruud attempt to win a second successive title.
It won’t be easy for Ruud with big-hitting Matteo Berrettini, Roberto Bautista Agut, Albert Ramos Viñolas, Richard Gasquet and Dominic Thiem all trying to take the title from the Norwegian.
Thiem looks to be slowly improving after a long injury layoff, defeating Bautista Agut last week.
Berrettini hasn’t played since withdrawing from Wimbledon with Covid-19. However, with his big game and ability to play on all surfaces, I think he can regain his pre-Wimbledon grass-court form and take home the title.
Prediction – Berrettini to win
Palermo Ladies Open (WTA 250)
Martina Trevisan was the top seed at this year’s tournament but withdrew due to injury. Yulia Putintseva, Zhang Shuai, Sara Sorribes Tormo, and Caroline Garcia headline the action in Italy.
Caroline Garcia has made a good transition from the grass to the clay and made the semi-final of Lausanne last week, so I’m predicting the Frenchwoman to win.
Prediction – Garcia to win
