With wins for Pole Hubert Hurkacz over world number one Daniil Medvedev on the lawn of Halle, Germany, and Italian Matteo Berrrettini over Serbian Filip Krajinovic at the traditional event in Queens, London, the crucial week leading up to Wimbledon advances , where the ATP 250 in Mallorca, Spain, and the ATP 500 in Eastbourne, England, appear to complete the short grass-court season.
By SERGIO RIED
The ATP 250 in Halle (officially the Wortmann Championships) has been called “little Wimbledon” for the efforts of its founder, womenswear magnate Gerry Weber, who built the magnificent 12,500-seat stadium and adjoining courts, which has your name.
The dream of this millionaire amateur tennis player was to have a tennis venue as similar as possible to Wimbledon, the tournament he was passionate about. And for this he not only bought the grass that the All England Lawn Tennis Club was decommissioning, but also hired the “wizard of the lawn”, the legendary gardener of the English club Neil Stubley.
Thus he managed to attract the greatest players including Roger Federer who won the North Westphalia crown 10 times. On this occasion it was the Polish Hubert Hurkacz (10 ATP) who gave the blow by defeating world number one Daniil Medvédev 6-1 6-4 in the final, in a match to be forgotten by the Russian, who to make matters worse did not will be able to play Wimbledon due to the British ban on not accepting Russians or Belarusians in their tennis tournament.
Our only representative on the Halle lawn, Cristian Garin (37 ATP) fell in the first round against the young American Sebastián Korda (33 ATP) 6-2 6-3, sowing serious doubts about his future on the London grass.
For his part, the champion Hurkacz draws happy accounts with a view to Wimbledon and is noted among the candidates for the dreamed award of the Cathedral.
The other event of the week listed as the best ATP tournament in 2015, 2016 and 2018 is the London Queens (today the Cinch Championships); cabalistic for the large number of players who have doubled with Wimbledon. It is enough to mention that such a feat was accomplished by John MacEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, Leyton Hewitt, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, to have the dimension of this ATP 500. Although several steps later is Andy Murray who won it 5 times. In addition, many like Andy Roddick, assure that the grass of Queens is the best in the world, something in which the Italian Matteo Berrrettini (11 ATP) obviously agrees, who with his victory in the final over the Serbian Filip Krajinovic (48 ATP), 7-5 6-4, completes two consecutive titles and is running as a serious candidate for Wimbledon, a tournament in which he was a finalist last year.
It only remains to wait for the Mallorca Open, Spain, where Alejandro Tabilo (91 ATP) will face the French Benjamín Bonzi (52 ATP), and Eastbourne, Great Britain, where Cristian Garin has a difficult rival in the Australian Alex de Minaur (21 ATP). Two tasty snacks on the eve of Wimbledon, the oldest and most exciting tennis tournament in the world.
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