There is still tennis away from the bright lights of Paris this week. So what else is happening?
ATP Challenger Tour:
Little Rock 75, USA:
Australia’s Jason Kubler took out this title last year, and while he is off to a great start at Roland Garros this year, another Aussie will be hoping to do some damage on the hard courts of the US. Marc Polmans has his ranking inside 200, and will be the 3rd seed here, only marginally behind Tung-Lin Wu of Taipei, and Nicolas Moreno de Alboran from the USA. This shapes as a nice opportunity to earn some valuable points for Marc.
Troisdorf 75, Germany:
Just the second edition of this event, and it has drawn a fairly strong field. This is likely due to the proximity of Paris, with those bowing out of qualifying, heading across the border. We have 6 players in top 150 here, compared to none playing in the USA. Top seed is Russian, Pavel Kotov, while Hungarian, Zsombor Piros takes his place at the opposite end of the draw, as second seed.
Vincenza 75, Italy:
A staple during the first week of Roland Garros for the last 9 years, Vincenza is back on the calendar. A nice field has assembled, with plenty of top 200 players trying to take that next step. A couple of Italians lead the seedings, with Francesco Passaro, and Luca Nardi as the top two players by ranking. Interestingly, both Francesco and Luca haven’t won a match in their last 4 tournaments, so it will be interesting to see who can improve on that.
ITF Women’s Tour:
W60, Brescia, Italy:
Plenty of Roland Garros qualifiers who didn’t make it through to the main draw here. No Aussies making an appearance though. Polina Kudermetova will hold the top seed at a ranking of 142, which is within touching distance of her highest ranking of 140. This is a good chance for her to smash through that, although she hasn’t been in great form of late. Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima slots in just behind Polina. She just fell at the last stage of French Open qualifying, so will be hoping to make amends here.
In other news, Australia’s Jaimee Fourlis will be the top seed in the W40 event in Slovenia. She will be joined by compatriot Seone Mendez.
Over in the W40 event in Portugal, the Aussies have great representation, with Olivia Gadecki and Arina Rodionova as the top two seeds. Other Aussies in the field, are Alexandra Bozovic,
Alana Parnaby, and Gabriella da Silva Fick.
As always, there are lots of other Aussies playing at ITF 25K, 15K level and Junior level. Follow us on Twitter all through the week for the latest daily scores.
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