Orb Faithful,
Happy breakdown day! I blinked, and suddenly, June was dead and gone. Now, staring down the barrel of July, with August just around the corner, this summer will soon be a wrap. Time feels like mercurial pixie dust. At the start of the year, I was watching fireworks on the beaches of Brazil, and now we are gearing up for the crown jewel of tennis.
I recently listened to Andy Roddick speak about this, and it resonated with me: “Why is the grass-court tennis season this short?” There are no Masters 1000 grass court events and maybe 4 or 5 tournaments to prepare for Wimbledon. Isn’t there money to be made in the world of grass? At a minimum, we should get the grass-court equivalents of Rome or Madrid. Halle and Queen’s are historic stops on the tour, but it feels like the clay court swing dominates the spotlight.
I've enjoyed the switch from watching the clay season. It almost makes too much sense to cut the clay court season in half and dedicate those remaining weeks to grass court tennis. I resonate with the grass court style of play; I simply don’t have the attention span to watch 3 to 4-hour clay court matches. There is a playing style that requires an attention to detail that the other surfaces don’t. It's been refreshing to see serve-and-volley tactics on the slicker grass.
Grass Court Headlines
Big headlines from the grass court season thus far are the results at Halle 2024 and Queens Club 2024. Both Jannik Sinner and Tommy Paul punched their grass court ATP tour tickets for the first time in their careers. I'll start with Tommy Paul and end with Sinner, as I would still take Sinner over Paul as a finalist for Wimbledon.
This guy Tommy Paul though, man, is fun to root for. It's really enjoyable to watch an American thrive on the ATP tour, his way. This season, we've seen Tommy Paul repeatedly make it to the semi-finals. Despite nearly getting his throat ripped out taking pictures with his “He’s mine” influencer girlfriend, Paul looked ecstatic about playing at such a high level all week and winning a prestigious trophy heading into Wimbledon. The vibes in the Paul camp couldn't be higher, and I'm here for it.
Jannik Sinner: “That boy cold”
Seriously, this guy is insane. Sinner has cemented himself as one of the greats and will be in the conversation moving forward. Plus, of course, being one of the new faces of tennis alongside Carlos Alcaraz. I was really impressed with how laid-back and jovial Sinner was in Halle—laughing on court, throwing in a couple of trick shots, and holding serve to take down Hubi Hurkacz in straight sets. He's thriving on grass, and the only things that might hold him back from a finals appearance are Carlos Alcaraz, his hip, and the bracket committee at Wimbledon.
Bracket Breakdown: Hot Hands, Court Jesters, and Dark Horses
Hot Hands:
- Carlos Alcaraz
- Jannik Sinner
- Alexander Zverev
- Tommy Paul
These guys have had the most recent success. Tommy, of course, being the odd man out, these four have had the hottest racquets in the game. I still lean towards Sinner and Zverev over Carlitos, but he’s proved me wrong every single time I doubt him. I expect to see at least 3 of these guys in the semi-finals, with Zverev being an absolute X-factor in all of this.
Court Jesters:
Alexander Bublik:
It's starting to get really hard to like this guy. I know coming from me that sounds hypocritical, but I mean it. I saw Bublik tied 1-1 against Musetti and just walked off the court after breaking in the first game of the third set. That was followed by an embarrassing loss to Chris Eubanks in Halle as the defending champion. He’s uranium-unstable when it comes to his game. He literally needs to lose the first set or two to get serious about playing tennis. Love 'em, but he's getting the Court Jester stamp for Wimbledon - I hope he proves me wrong.
Andrey Rublev:
This guy can’t keep his emotions in order. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but he's a psychopath. Every point he loses, it's like he just found out his puppy died. Playing tennis at a high level is already stressful enough - I simply can’t imagine losing my cool EVERY point. You'd think after what happened in Dubai this guy would just talk to someone about whatever is going on in the background. I don’t know if it's related to tennis or not, but something is OFF about this guy.
Dark Horses:
Alex De Minaur:
The complete opposite of Rublev, my biggest issue with De Minaur is that he doesn’t show enough emotion on the court. We usually get a roar after a win, but I think he could be a much bigger draw if he adopted a play or two out of Monfils' playbook. He has clear speed and plays a no-nonsense, no-flash style of tennis. Textbook professional. Dark horse.
Sebastian Korda:
Man, I (responsibly) bought in on Korda versus Carlitos in the French. I was the sucker at the end of it, but I’m going to keep giving Korda the ball. His length and heavy first serve should play well this week, making him a disaster matchup for anyone in the early to mid rounds.
Alejandro Tabilo:
Our Mallorca grass court winner. I’ve heard his name before, but he was electric in Spain. Not many notes on him, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on him to see how he responds after his second ATP tour title.
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