ATP Hamburg
Rafael Nadal will mark his return to Hamburg after a seven-year absence with a tough opener against compatriot Fernando Verdasco.
Nadal, down at 10 in the world after a tortuous year in which he lost his French Open title and suffered another early exit from Wimbledon, has decided to play the clay court tournament in a bid to resurrect his fortunes before heading for the US hard court season.
Nadal, 29, has a 13-2 career lead over Verdasco but his compatriot has won their last two clashes – on the hard courts of Miami earlier this year and on clay in Madrid in 2012.
In his last visit to the German city, Nadal defeated Roger Federer in the 2008 final.
He is 11-2 at the tournament, having only lost to Federer in 2007 and to former Roland Garros champion Gaston Gaudio in 2003.
“I am very happy to be back in Hamburg, I haven’t been here since 2008 so it’s great to be back in such a nice city. I have great memories about this tournament,” Nadal told the ATP website on Sunday.
"I think probably defeating Carlos Moya in 2003 was a very important match for me at the time but also I remember very well the match against Novak Djokovic in 2008 which was very emotional."
In his first tournament since Wimbledon, Nadal will be playing doubles also in Hamburg.
He is set to partner 18-year-old Jaume Munar, who also hails from Mallorca.
“I feel good, there are no problems. I look forward to this week,” said Nadal.
The Spaniard has already been defeated 12 times this year, including just a second career loss at Roland Garros and a second round exit to German journeyman Dustin Brown at Wimbledon.
In 2014, Nadal was beaten just 11 times. He was defeated only seven times in 2013 and lost a mere six matches in the whole of 2012.
“I need to accept that it is a new situation and face it with a good attitude and keep working hard to return to a good level,” said Nadal.
“I feel good. I don’t have any injuries and that is the important thing.”
The Hamburg tournament begins on Monday with Nadal’s countrymen Nicolas Almagro and Albert Ramos (against each other); Albert Montanes (against Florian Mayer); and Inigo Cervantes (against Lucas Pouille) in action. Taro Daniel and Jerzy Janowicz also face off.
On Tuesday, in addition to Nadal’s match, Croatia’s rising 18-year-old star Borna Coric, up to No 33 in the world rankings, faces a stiff test against Robeto Bautista-Agut, whom he just fell to in the third round of the Umag tournament last week. World No 98 Alexander Zverev, also 18, matches up with Tommy Robredo.
A day packed with notable names also sees Fabio Fognini take on Jeremy Chardy, Ernests Gulbis go up against Juan Monaco, Philipp Kohlschreiber play Benoit Paire – fresh off his first ATP title on Sunday in Bastad, Pablo Cuevas meet Diego Schwartzman and Andreas Seppi taking on Martin Klizan.
Nadal’s 18-year-old doubles partner Munar will also play a first-round singles tie against fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
ATP Gstaad
Russia’s highly-regarded 17-year-old Andrey Rublev, the 2014 French Open junior champion, highlights the first day of play at the ATP Gstaad tournament on Monday when he faces off with Horacio Zeballos of Argentina.
Rublev has held his own in his first season playing ATP-level tournaments, going 7-7 this year, with wins coming against Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco and Finnish vet Jarkko Nieminen, among others.
In Zeballos, he matches up with a qualifier, the 30-year-old world No 146. The Argentina has mostly played the Challenger tour this year, his last ATP singles win having been back in February in Quito.
Uzbek world No 70 Denis Istomin will also play Monday, against Maxime Teixeira of France, No 68 Federico Delbonis is tasked with Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli, and No 115 Dusan Lajovic will play Frenchman Calvin Hemery.
The draw features top seeded Belgian David Goffin, who went to the fourth round at Wimbledon, and Dominic Thiem, arriving in Switzerland after claiming his second ATP title in Umag.
WTA Baku
Dominika Cibulkova, the 2014 Australian Open finalist who has since struggled to reclaim the form she showed in that tournament, will be the highest-profile name playing Monday when the WTA Baku tournament begins. The Slovak, who reached a career high of No 10 early last year but is now down to 56, faces Margarita Gasparyan.
The top seed in the tournament, world No 41 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will take on Elizaveta Kulichkova, and Bojana Jovanovski, the world No 67, faces Andrea Hlavackova as well.
ATP Atlanta
Yen-Hsun Lu will face off with Tunisian Malek Jaziri on Monday as the ATP Atlanta tournament kicks off.
Monday’s play will also feature the final round of qualification featuring Denis Kudla, whose fourth-round march in Wimbledon as a wild card marked the best showing of any American at the All England Club this year, up against Marinko Matosevic and Jared Donaldson, an 18-year-old considered one of America’s brighter young hopes, trying to reach the main draw against Guido Pella.
The last day of qualification also sees Indian No 1 Somdev Devvarman attemp to gain entry against Japan’s Shuichi Sekiguchi.
Atlanta’s action will begin in earnest on Tuesday, when Alexandr Dolgopolov, Gilles Muller, Donald Young and Steve Johnson are among those in play.
Francis Tiafoe, 17, widely seen as the best young US talent, will also test his skills against Australia’s 27-year-old world No 62 Sam Groth.
The tournament features top seed John Isner, Wimbledon quarter-finalist Vasek Pospisil and American No 2 Jack Sock.
WTA Florianapolis
Brazil’s late-season claycourt tournament starts Monday with top-seeded world No 64 Tatjana Maria of Germany taking the court against Maria-Fernanda Alves.
World No 69 Ajla Tomljanovic, the low-profile tournament’s second seed, also plays Laura Pous-Tio.
Held only since 2013, it brings professional tennis to the east coast Brazilian island of Santa Catarina and featured Garbine Muguruza in the final last year.
Other recognisable names in the draw include Annika Beck, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Teliana Pereira.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
