ATP grass court season, week two: Underdog victory for Francisco Cerundolo at Queen’s; Frances Tiafoe triumphs at Halle
The 2026 grass court season is continuing at pace, with the 500-level events at the Queen’s Club in London and Halle in Germany taking place last week.
Both tournaments were won by relative underdogs, whilst there were British hands on the trophy at one of the concurrent Challenger competitions.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer and tennis fan AJ Becker takes a closer look at the salient stories from those events, as the great grass showpiece of Wimbledon draws ever closer.
Tiafoe’s time at Halle
Frances Tiafoe has at times operated comfortably within the realm of grass – sporadically delivering successes such as the Stuttgart title in 2023 – though consistency on the surface has tended to elude him.
Indeed, the last fortnight saw the 28-year-old achieve back-to-back quarterfinal-or-better placings at tour grass events for the first time in his career.
Following a satisfactory run to the last eight in Stuttgart, Tiafoe edged out Félix Auger-Aliassime in a tense final tie-break, dominated home wild card Daniel Altmaier then pulled off an upset against compatriot Taylor Fritz to become Halle’s first American champion.
Changes pay off
The last time the Maryland native tasted a tour title, it also came on German grass – the aforementioned 2023 Stuttgart Open.
Tiafoe will have been delighted to have ended the three-year drought – a relatively long timespan for a player of his talent – and to have already accrued more wins in 2026 than the 28 he managed throughout all of last year.
Tiafoe’s decision to bring his disappointing 2025 campaign to an early close and make alterations to his coaching team seems to be paying off; if he can carry this momentum into the hard court season, the erstwhile world no.10 may be on course for a strong finish to the year in terms of ranking, and potentially enhancing his record against Top 5 players (which still stands at 5-21).
Fritz grinds it out
As for Fritz, his ability to grind out victories is still intact, as is his capacity to get the better of Alexander Zverev – the Californian winning each of his last eight meetings with the new French Open champion.
Fritz was tested in almost every match he played at both Stuttgart and Halle, managing to find a way through in most of them. Indeed, reaching the final in five of the last six non-slam grass court events he has entered demonstrates admirable consistency.
Nonetheless, last year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist would likely have expected to bring home at least one of those trophies, considering his overall track record on grass and greater experience on the surface than many opponents.
Disappointment for Zverev
This edition of Halle can also be filed under ‘disappointing’ for Zverev; Germany’s number one saw his interest ended at the semi-final stage for the fourth straight year.
What he produced in North Rhine-Westphalia was very much in sync with how he has been throughout the season: winning matches without necessarily dominating opponents or producing his best tennis.
Incredibly, ‘Sascha’ is yet to defeat a Top 10 player in 2026 and has not done so on grass since he sensationally eliminated Roger Federer from Halle a decade ago!
Awesome Altmaier
Conversely, German audiences will have been thrilled at the progress of Altmaier, who has found himself venturing into the grass domain more fruitfully than in any past year.
The 27-year-old’s one-handed backhand was in full flow during stunning victories over former champion Hubert Hurkacz and last year's runner-up Daniil Medvedev.
With Jan-Lennard Struff struggling on the main tour, and others such as Maximilian Marterer and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe marooned in the ITF wilderness, Altmaier did his country proud by proving he is just as convincing as on his favoured clay, even if his record suggests otherwise – his only previous grass quarter-finals came at Antalya in 2017 and Mallorca in 2022.
His semi-final placing amounts to a remarkable turnaround at a tournament where he had failed to register a main draw win across five prior appearances.
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Cerundolo pulls off grass coup
By the same token, Francisco Cerundolo has steered himself from his more natural clay territory to the faster landscape of grass with resounding success.
Prior to last week, the Argentine held a grim (9-11) record on grass, winning a solitary match on the surface since his surprise title charge at Eastbourne in 2023.
As was the case in Sussex three years ago, Tommy Paul appeared to hold a clear edge going into the Queen’s final, based on what both players showed during earlier rounds. As was the case in Sussex three years ago, Paul ended the afternoon assuming runner-up position.
Mental toughness
Whilst much of his tennis was unconvincing, Cerundolo exhibited remarkable resilience and mental strength to come from behind in both the final and semi-final, as well as coming out on top in two other deciding sets.
The 27-year-old – whose younger brother Juan Manuel famously took Jannik Sinner out at Roland Garros – has been something of a ‘late bloomer’ in terms of when his career milestones occurred: tour debut at 20, top 100 entry at 23, first grand slam match win at 24.
With the biggest trophy of his career now secured, one suspects his acme may be yet to come.
Paul goes deep again
Even though he looked well-positioned to come away with the title, it has to be said that Paul has rarely looked at his best this season and hasn’t consistently been a threat to the top players on tour.
Nevertheless, the New Jerseyan continues to forge deep runs on a regular basis, with excursions to finals on hard (Delray Beach) and clay (Houston, Hamburg) as well as on the London grass.
Indeed, if recent grass seasons are anything to go by, Paul is among the surface’s current best performers – lifting the Queen’s title in 2024, and holding a hugely positive (37-19) career win-loss record.
Humbert & Nakashima reach semis
His semi-final opponent Ugo Humbert has also mastered the art of grass court tennis to the nth degree, attaining a last four placing on the surface in six of the last seven seasons.
His performance against the dangerous Hamad Medjedovic was particularly impressive - although since winning the Halle title in 2021, Humbert has lost all five of his grass semi-finals.
The switch from clay to grass has also rejuvenated the confidence of other losing semi-finalist Brandon Nakashima, whose standout result was undoubtedly his straight sets victory over world No. 6 Alex de Minaur.
Nakashima had won just two of his 22 previous career clashes with Top 10 players; de Minaur’s overall level and consistency have slid noticeably in recent months.
Fery stands tall among home crop
The combination of guaranteed wild card opportunities and the familiarity of playing at home – especially on a surface where many lack exposure – creates opportunities for aspirant British players to make significant strides in the rankings.
At a venue which dates back 140 years, it is arguably a venture of prestige as well as of finances and ranking points.
To his credit, wild card Arthur Fery navigated his way to his first tour-level quarter-final (and a new career-high of #118) by defeating the far less experienced Toby Samuel in the first round, then taking advantage of a physically compromised Adrian Mannarino in the second.
At that stage, British presence in the tournament came to a jarring halt, thanks solely to Cerundolo’s greater ability to master pressure moments.
It is unlikely any other home competitor will look back on Queen’s 2026 with a sense of satisfaction.
Norrie and others disappoint
Former runner-up Cameron Norrie put in a wretched display against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who holds a negative career record on grass.
In addition, wild card Jack Pinnington Jones plumbed Devon Loch-esque depths of startling bottlery when 6-5, 30-0 ahead in the decider versus Canada’s Denis Shapovalov.
Harry Wendelken managed to see off Australian duo Adam Walton and Aleksandar Vukic – bringing him close to the Top 200 – only to be sunk by his inexperience and limited range of shots in the first round proper against Botic Van de Zandschulp.
Moreover, Johannus Monday’s limitations at tour level were painfully exposed as he lost in the first round of qualifying, with Liam Broady falling at the same stage.
It is worth recalling that Broady made the third round at Wimbledon in both 2022 and 2023, then lost considerable momentum by early 2024, with the blame for that turn of events falling largely upon Broady himself (indiscipline and lack of fitness).
Success for Searle
Even as the local players at Queen’s redefined the term “anticlimax”, one of their compatriots was having an infinitely more enjoyable time across the Irish Sea.
Henry Searle was the Junior Wimbledon champion in 2023, since when his tennis development has been sure, if his progress patchy – only advancing to the quarter-finals or better in three of the 22 Challenger main draw events he’d played in prior to his Dublin delight.
Although winning the competition is only worth 75 ranking points, those points have elevated Searle to a career peak of #263 - the achievement should serve to invigorate and re-energise the left-hander, ahead of the Wimbledon qualifiers.
The 20-year-old from Wolverhampton will be joining the many British tennis soldiers at the grass wars; will he return victorious or wounded?
Incidentally, the home crowd experienced their own magic moment at the first Challenger contest staged in Ireland since 2008, as wild card Conor Gannon – ranked outside the Top 1000 and with barely so much as a Davis Cup win to his name – put some jaunt to his haunt by defeating former Top 20 player Bernard Tomic, who seems weary and unable to recapture the spark of his earlier days.
O’Connell wins at Nottingham
Finally, Australia’s Chris O’Connell – steering by coordinates of big serves and numerous aces – took the Nottingham title over Otto Virtanen of Finland, who for his part has made back-to-back grass Challenger finals.
O’Connell could too easily be mistaken for many other Australian players who mine the same territory (such as Walton and Vukic), though he also proves that one doesn’t need to be flashy to be successful.
The British contingent did not make a lasting impression, with seasoned Billy Harris our sole quarter-final presence.
One cannot help but feel that an overall Brit-versus-opponent-record of 4-6 came as a disappointment to many who were awaiting the tournament – given that this was (until 2008) a prestigious tour event, won by such grass connoisseurs as Grosjean and Gasquet, Siemerink and Srichaphan.
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