Damian Kust

Wimbledon men’s qualifiers thread (updated as they make it) 1. Valentin Royer 🇫🇷 0-2 on grass in career going into this week, but he continues his breakthrough season (2-2 in CH finals) with a strong Q performance. Lost to Galan in 5 as WC in GS main draw debut at RG last month

Holmgren's winning run ends with a rough 1-6 2-6 loss to Lajal. Couldn't trust his 2nd serve and the extreme confidence on his FH led to some wild errors. Pineapple man very locked in, big serves at August's BH, relies on athleticism to stay in points and find FH counter spots.

Butvilas finally gets a win vsvEscoffier, was 0-3 and interestingly they were also supposed to meet in Segovia last year before Edas withdrew. Today he dominated the last two sets after dropping the opener. Been a tough year for Butvilas, but now makes b2b on Spanish hard courts

Goran keeping an eye on the boys, might be thinking who to coach next

AO junior champ Henry Bernet couldn't repeat his Zug QF run from 2024, but that's still a good showing and a return to form after the rib injury. Klein picks up his 7th win in a row 6-4 3-6 6-3, coming out on top in the fight for who gets to attack first on the fast Swiss clay

Prižmić's Umag run ends with a 6-1 2-6 3-6 loss to Darderi. Was up a set, but never really had a chance to follow it up as it got progressively tougher to compete vs Luciano's hammer FH. It also put a lot of pressure on Dino to be aggressive and eventually start overpressing.

US Open update: OUT: Hurkacz IN: Moller Next: Tabilo

Medvedev vs Wu brings up memories from US Open 2022 and match was almost the same too, just more extreme heat :) Yibing struggling to find a way to blast through Daniil off the baseline and not doing enough to mix it up, not much action when he's behind/neutral on return either.

Díaz Acosta was in Kitzbühel SF this time last year and now he's battling to make US Open Q in Zug. Good news for him is that he'll have only 50 pts to defend until the end of 2025 after this week and the form is clearly going up since he was able to start playing regularly again

These last 3 seasons for Rinderknech have felt very similar to me - he's mostly underperforming in the first half, then turns it on for the second half. Good chance for a 2nd ATP Tour final this week, will play Cazaux/Struff in conditions that suit him (but them too to be fair).

After being the finalist at two junior Slams in 2022 and spending a season at the University of Texas, Gilles-Arnaud Bailly has hit the pro tour again this year with a 40-14 ITF record. 3 titles, including M25 Uriage last week, and now he's in Tampere QFs in his first CH of 2025.

Having a more defensive playstyle can be a death sentence vs Basilashvili as he can keep cracking full-power shots off both wings with no end in sight when he's in good rhythm. But Prižmić stuck to it and finally started getting the cracks he wanted. Repeats the Umag 2023 QF run

Grueling battle between Zheng and Spizzirri. The 21yo had his patches of unreal shotmaking, but it was Eliot putting on the pressure in the 3rd with heavier groundstrokes and strong net play. Michael fought back with a last-minute surge from 3-5 0-30 on return, but loses 6-7(4).

Popyrin, who will be defending almost half his ranking next week, loses to Wu in Washington 5-7 7-5 3-6 today. Yes, he hits the bigger ball, but is also far more static as a ball-striker and Yibing's hand talent was on full display in the amazing game to break at 4-3 in the 3rd.

Båstad finalist De Jong into Umag QF. Defended so well and kept Mariano on his toes with the dropshot, had this sick game with two dropper/lob combos and pure 'lure him forward on your terms' action. Navone missed an easy smash to break back last game after saving 5 MPs at 3-5.

Cazaux was struggling to reach his 1st ATP Tour QF for a while, but now he's done it back to back in Gstaad/Kitzbühel. Game flows so much better with the altitude boost to the serve and he's got more options not to get pushed behind the baseline. Two tight sets vs Comesaña today.

Downside of winning titles just before important cut-offs is having to defend them next year. Last year's Tampere champion (and 2023 SFist) Rincon will miss the US Open after losing to Bartoň 6-4 2-6 1-6, Hynek using the variety in his game aggressively today. 📷: @ATPChallenger

Prižmić wins in Umag again, defeating Møller 6-4 6-2. Dino made QF as a 17yo in 2023 and might be ready for another big result. 1st set was so tight and could have gone either way, but with time his counter-punching and excellent defense in the corners just made Elmer spray.

Sakamoto was a bit banged up by the end, but still got one of the breaks back vs Spizzirri before Eliot sealed the deal. The American knows how to grind his opponents into the ground and some of his massive 2nd serve returns felt like they were stealing Rei's thunder even further

Celebrities spotted in Bloomfield Hills :) @AlGruskin and @zootennis?

First ATP Tour win for Wu since Shanghai, 6-3 6-1 over Monfils. Gael had some spectacular hard-court performances earlier in 2025, but looked his age today with even his court coverage not feeling as brisk as usual. Yibing's ball-striking dominated almost from start to finish.