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Last week saw the grass season officially start with two ATP events, two WTA events, and one challenger event in England.
With plenty of ITF events around the world as well, it was a busy week for the Aussies.
ATP
It was a successful week in Stuttgart with two Australians making the quarter final in the ATP event on grass.
Bernard Tomic, who was born in the German city, made his seventh quarter final for the year in his first grass event of the season. He lost to Rafael Nadal in the final-eight match in three sets, after winning the second in a tiebreaker.
Tomic is now 0-12 against the ‘Big 4’ in ATP events.
Sam Groth also made the quarters in Germany and continued his good form after winning the Manchester Challenger last week, defeating Feliciano Lopez in the second round to record his first top-20 win on the tour. He then lost to finalist Viktor Troicki in the final eight.
In the other event, in Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, it wasn’t a great week for the Aussies, as both Lleyton Hewitt and Marinko Matosevic lost in the first round.
Hewitt, who is on his last grass season, got a wildcard and lost to the eventual champion Nicolas Mahut.
The best result in doubles was John Peers making the semi-final in the Netherlands with Jamie Murray.
WTA
The women also played in Hertogenbosch this week but no Australians played in the main draw.
Only the Rodionovas – Anastasia and Arina – played in the Netherlands, facing each other in the second round of qualifying, with Arina making the final round, where she lost to Urszula Radwanska after having match points in the second set.
In doubles the sisters combined to make the semi-finals.
At the other event, in Nottingham, Australia was represented by Ajla Tomljanovic, Jarmila Gajdosova, and Casey Dellacqua.
Gajdosova – after qualifying – lost in the first round with Tomljanovic following suit against Lauren Davis.
Dellacqua made the second round before falling to Croatian Ana Konjuh in straight sets.
ATP Challenger
Four Challenger events were held this week in Europe.
All Aussie eyes were focused on the grass event in Surbiton as only one Australian competed in Caltanissetta, Moscow, or Prague.
Adam Hubble, a doubles specialist, lost in the first round of doubles at the Caltanissetta Challenger.
In Surbiton seven Australians competed in the grass event in south east London.
Like last week, when Groth won on the grass in Manchester, another Aussie tasted success at a grass Challenger.
Matt Ebden, who had made six straight quarter finals in his last six Challenger events, won his first final at an ATP event since the end of 2013.
After not losing a set during his four wins to make the final, he was pushed all the way by American Denis Kudla in the decider. Ebden lost the first set in a tiebreaker, before winning the second set 6-4. The Western Australian was then 5-2 down in the final set before coming back to win five of the next six games, and the tiebreaker seven points to five, to take out his fifth Challenger title.
After a horror 2014, which saw him slip over 130 spots in the rankings, it has been a good return to form from Ebden. He now has a wildcard for Wimbledon after winning the title.
Thankyou 🙂 "@BritishTennis: Congratulations @mattebden for winning Aegon Surbiton Trophy at @SurbitonRFC! pic.twitter.com/A6Yt1RhS5w"
— Matt Ebden (@mattebden) June 13, 2015
ITF
The ITF circuit was a scene of so close, yet so far, with no Australian winners last week.
In Croatia Gavin Van Peperzeel made the final as the number 1 seed, losing in a dramatic, four-hour match to Michael Linzer.
A week ago in the Australian file, I paid credit to Jeremy Beale for travelling to Africa to play in an event in Mozambique. Last week he made his first ITF final in Mozambique as he battled through two tough matches in the second round and the quarter final.
Unfortunately for Beale he was no match for Lloyd Harris in the final, losing 10 of the last 11 games to fall short of his first title.
In doubles, at the Turkey event South Australia’s Brad Mousley partnered with Tuna Altuna to make the final, where they were defeated by a French and Belgian combination.
On the women’s side it was a successful week for Sally Peers and Sara Tomic. Both are younger sisters of Australia’s number 1 doubles (John Peers) and singles players (Bernard Tomic) in the ATP.
Peers, who has been as high as 145 in the world, made the final at the 10,000 Bol event in Croatia. After defeating the first seed in the second round, the Victorian was defeated by Gabriela Pantuckova in the final.
It was a similar story for Tomic who made her first final in Egypt, defeated by the number 1 seed, Alice Matteucci, in straight sets.
Finally, in the United States, Ellen Perez made the doubles final but also fell at the final hurdle, losing 10-8 in a super tiebreaker.
Rankings
After his result in Mozambique the week before, Jeremy Beale moved 538 spots to 1437 in the world. He was the largest climber.
Matt Ebden’s win in Surbiton saw him up 35 spots to 154.
The women’s rankings have not been updated because of the Nottingham event not finishing until Monday night. A full wrap will be in next week’s edition.
This week
The grass season continues as players visit Queens, Halle, and Birmingham (WTA).
Lleyton Hewitt will play his final matches in Queens, with the four-time champion looking for one last title win here. Can he do it? Find out next week on the Australian file.
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