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.
ATP grass court season, week one: Kamil Majchrzak takes the title in Den Bosch, and Ben Shelton shows spirit in Stuttgart
Grass court tennis is its own self-contained universe: once the sport’s dominant surface, it has long since been relegated to a mere seven tournaments on the ATP calendar (out of a total of 65).
Nonetheless, the grass court milieu remains the context for so many of the game’s universal themes: rapid serves, lengthy matches, immaculate courts, British aspiration, warm summer days.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer and tennis fan AJ Becker takes a closer look at the salient stories from the opening-week events of June 2026, in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as the Challenger contests held in the UK.
French Open 2026: Key stories from Roland Garros so far, as Jannik Sinner’s shock defeat leaves tournament wide open
Chaos has unfolded across the men's singles draw at this year’s French Open, with half the Top 10 seeded players crashing out in the opening two rounds - including world #1 and overwhelming tournament favourite Jannik Sinner.
What’s more, a handful of players have pulled off unlikely victories, turning the competition into a remarkably open field where almost anyone seems capable of advancing deep into its latter stages.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer and tennis fan AJ Becker takes a closer look at the most salient events that have taken place on the Parisian clay in the past seven days.
ATP Tour news: Toby Samuel the shining star as British players fall short in French Open qualifying
At each of the four Grand Slam tournaments, 128 players battle through three qualifying stages to earn one of 16 places in the main draw – being involved in qualifying means a player was not ranked sufficiently high enough to gain direct entry.
For 11 of the 12 British competitors at the 2026 French Open, it was a case of au revoir to the terre battue until next year. Here, Sports News Blitz writer and tennis fan AJ Becker takes a closer look at the fortunes of Brits on the Parisian clay last week.
ATP Tour news: Ben Shelton masters Munich, Arthur Fils bosses Barcelona as Madrid Open looms
The ATP Tour clay-court season continued last week with simultaneous 500-level events taking place in Munich and Barcelona ahead of the Madrid Open.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer and tennis fan AJ Becker takes a look at the stories behind the winners, runners-up, and losing semi-finalists at both events.
ATP Tour news: Jannik Sinner downs Carlos Alcaraz to claim maiden Monte-Carlo Masters title
The ATP Tour clay-court season amounts to 10 frenzied weeks and takes in three Masters 1000 competitions, of which Monte-Carlo hosts the first, with a slower version of clay than subsequent events held in Madrid and Rome.
Monte-Carlo used to be dominated by Rafael Nadal, but with the Mallorcan now out of the equation, the tournament’s last seven editions have yielded five different champions. Here, Sports News Blitz writer and tennis fan AJ Becker takes a look at the key stories from this year’s event.
ATP Tour news: Sunshine Double 2026 – Five takeaways as Jannik Sinner sweeps Indian Wells, Miami
During March, ATP Tour stars competed on the west and east sides of America in the back-to-back Masters events collectively known as the ‘Sunshine Double’ – the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open.
As ever, the action provided plenty of talking points, with the winner of both achieving a feat never before realised and several players making names for themselves with deep runs. Here, Sports News Blitz writer and tennis fan AJ Becker takes a look at five key points from Stateside action.
Tennis news: Turin takes centre stage as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner chase year-end supremacy at 2025 ATP Finals
The ATP Finals in Turin have once again brought together the eight best players in men’s tennis for one last battle of the season - a week that could define not only a champion but the year’s ultimate number one.
Here, Sports News Blitz’s tennis writer Ben Phillips reports on the current standings in the ATP finals and looks into the sub-plot that is the year-end world number one.
Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in tennis: Is Saudi investment helping the sport or just sports washing?
For decades, tennis has been defined by its tradition. From the white-clad purity of Wimbledon’s Centre Court to the red clay battles of Roland Garros, the sport has long projected an image of elegance and integrity.
Yet in recent years, that image has collided with a wave of change. Saudi Arabia, already a major player in football, golf and boxing, is now making a serious move into tennis.
The question dividing fans and players alike is whether this influx of investment is a lifeline for the sport or another example of sports-washing designed to polish the image of a controversial regime.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer Ben Phillips explores how Saudi Arabia’s arrival in the world of tennis could shake the sport in years to come.
ATP betting tips: Get with reborn Andrey Rublev to keep his cool and conquer Los Cabos
Sports News Blitz’s Bookie Basher is still running hot after napping Jannik Sinner at 2/1 to win Wimbledon.
Read on for a breakdown of the best bets from the ATP action this week from SNB’s punting maverick.
Tennis news: A look back at Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov’s five consecutive Grand Slam retirements
Bulgarian tennis star Grigor Dimitrov has always been one of the most talented and stylish players on the circuit, but the story of his career has taken a difficult turn lately as he has been forced to retire due to injury in each of his last five Grand Slam tournaments.
Here, Sports News Blitz tennis writer Abhiram Varanasi takes a closer look at how this painful streak has unfolded.