Editor’s note: This story was translated from ATPTour.com/es

The challenge faced by Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Mallorca Championships is not unfamiliar to him. The Greek landed on the Balearic Island on Sunday aiming to make to it back-to-back titles at the grass-court ATP 250, something he has previously achieved in Marseille (2019-20) and at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (2021-22).

The No. 5 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings is yet to add to his trophy haul this season, although he has reached two finals. One of them came on Spanish soil, at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (the other was at January’s Australian Open).

Tsitsipas is fifth on the leaderboard of most tour-level wins in 2023 with 32. This week, he will hope for a trophy to reward his consistent winning on the grass of Mallorca. For his trip to the ATP 250, Tsitsipas is joined by his father and long-term coach Apostolos Tsitsipas, his brother Petros Tsitsipas (who is competing in the doubles), and his girlfriend, WTA Tour star Paula Badosa.

Badosa, who is recovering from a stress fracture to a vertebra, is preparing herself for a return to competition. On Monday morning she took part in a practice session under the supervision of Apostolos.

In the afternoon, she shared a practice court with Stefanos before the 24-year-old, who is the top seed in the singles draw, took to court to play his first-round doubles match alongside Feliciano Lopez.

A nine-time ATP Tour champion, Tsitsipas will take on the in-form Yannick Hanfmann in his opening match, after the German defeated Pedro Cachin 6-2, 6-1 on Monday.

Luca Van Assche’s first tour-level win on grass was a memorable one.

The #NextGenATP Frenchman prevailed 2-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4) in a thrilling first-round encounter against home wild card George Loffhagen on Monday at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne.

In the second set, Van Assche twice broke Loffhagen when the Briton was serving for the match. In the decider, the 19-year-old qualifier rallied from 1-3 before winning his second tie-break of the match for a see-saw two-hour, 56-minute victory.

Van Assche, who has claimed his first four tour-level victories this year and also won ATP Challenger Tour titles on hard courts and clay, is sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race. In the second round he will take on J.J. Wolf, who defeated sixth seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-2, 6-4 earlier in the day for his own maiden tour-level win on grass.

Eighth seed Miomir Kecmanovic also advanced to the second round on Monday, when the Serbian edged Wu Yibing 7-6(4), 7-6(5) on his Eastbourne debut. The World No. 41 next faces a maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash against Aleksandar Vukic, who also held his tie-break nerve to overcome Brandon Nakashima 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(5).

In the final match of the day, Marc-Andrea Huesler dashed home favourite Ryan Peniston’s hopes of another dream run in Eastbourne. The World No. 83 Huesler downed 2022 quarter-finalist Peniston 6-3, 6-2 to book a second round meeting with fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo.

Gregoire Barrere and Sebastian Baez also claimed opening wins on the Eastbourne grass. Barrere defeated Emil Ruusuvuori 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(4) to set a second-round showdown with Nicolas Jarry. Baez prevailed 6-3, 6-4 against Nuno Borges and will next play second seed Tommy Paul.

The first season of Break Point wrapped by digging deeper with Taylor Fritz and getting to know WTA player Aryna Sabalenka.

The settings were the Nitto ATP Finals and the WTA Finals, the respective tours’ year-end championships.

“This is what everyone has their sights set on,” Fritz said.

The American for the first time in the series spoke about his son, Jordan, from a previous relationship.

“I just hope as he gets older he understands what I’m doing and understands what I’m trying to do,” Fritz said.

The American added: “When I told him that I’m not the best tennis player in the world he was a little surprised and a little disappointed that I’m not the best. He’s not easily impressed.”

It was a breakthrough season for Fritz, whom the show followed during his first ATP Masters 1000 title run in Indian Wells and then at his lowest point of the season at the US Open. But Turin was his chance to end 2022 on a high. He was set to face Rafael Nadal, whom he had beaten at Indian Wells and lost to at Wimbledon.

“I feel like he [Rafa] really wants to just come out tomorrow and just beat the s*** out of me because Indian Wells was his first loss of the year,” Fritz said in his hotel room, alongside girlfriend Morgan Riddle. “It’s going to be an interesting one. It’s a big match. And obviously I just can’t stop hearing it from like, ‘Oh Rafa had his rib injury, blah, blah, blah, he would have killed you if he was fine.’ I’m just like, ‘Shut the f*** up.’ I don’t know, I’m sick of everyone trying to discredit the win. I just want to win and I want it to be fully just legit.”

Fritz would defeat Nadal before falling to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals to end the best season of his career.

The other player heavily featured in the final episode of Season 1 was Sabalenka. The show painted a picture of a player who has had both highs and lows.

“She’s intimidating,” Martina Navratilova said, complimenting Sabalenka and the powerful game she brings to the court.

On the other hand, Sabalenka has also gone through struggles both on and off the court, including due to Belarus’ support of Russia’s war in Ukraine. She went through a period in which she could not dial in her second serve, which became a hot topic throughout the tennis world.

Expert Paul Annacone said: “No matter what your level is, you’re only good as your mind lets you.”

Sabalenka, who is shown during a visit to her apparel sponsor as a fun, energetic personality, also went through tough times as she struggled off the court.

“I honestly thought I was going to stop playing tennis because it was so bad,” Sabalenka said in one clip.

The powerful righty fell just short of capturing the WTA Finals title in the championship match against Caroline Garcia. But in the closing montage she explained how much mentally stronger she felt than before. Sabalenka then proved prophetic.

“Next season it’s my year guys,” she said, flashing a wide smile and two thumbs up.

One of the most memorable moments from the first season of Netflix’s Break Point came in Episode 6, which detailed Nick Kyrgios’ mental struggles at Wimbledon in 2019.

It was revealed that Kyrgios checked into a psych ward in London that year. The Australian’s father, George, sister, Halimah, and manager, Daniel Horsfall, shared emotional recollections of that period in Kyrgios’ life.

“He has not told a soul what they said in there,” Horsfall said. “That conversation they had in that room, no one knows.”

Paul Martin, one of Break Point‘s executive producers, explained that it was Kyrgios who steered the production team towards sharing the moment.

“I think it is just a process. It was never a narrative that we tried to force. I think when you spend time around Nick, you understand that there’s something bigger at play,” Martin told ATPTour.com. “Clearly there’s this stuff going on, stuff in his head and all that stuff. But it wasn’t a case of saying, ‘Hey, listen, we really need to get to the bottom of this.’

“It was a case of us spending time with him and seeing him evolve as a person and a player from Australia to Wimbledon. And then just the trust that our production team had strung up with him that he felt that he was suddenly willing to share when he hadn’t been before. When we started filming, I don’t think we ever dreamt that we would go where we went with Nick. And I think that was driven by him. It wasn’t driven by us and us trying to paint this kind of picture of Nick. It was a very open and honest perspective of himself, driven by Nick.”

According to Martin, the episode helped humanise Kyrgios and athletes in general.

“I think it was difficult, because everyone kind of looks from the outside at professional athletes, and they think that everything’s harmonious in their home life and their personal life and their background. And therefore, when they go on court, they should behave in a certain way, or they go on a pitch and they should behave a certain way,” Martin said. “What everyone tends to forget, I think the success of all our shows has always been about bringing that human element into these personalities and into these sports.

“Once you understand Nick’s background and his story, maybe it doesn’t excuse some of his behavior, but it certainly gives you an understanding, a different perspective on it. And I think that’s what we tried to do.

Kyrgios wanted to provide a different perspective for fans, according to Martin.

“I think it’s testimony to his kind of openness and honesty that he really went there. And he talked about it, when he’d really never talked about that stuff with anyone before,” Martin said. “I think it was a real surprise to some of the people closest to him looking to really go to that depth and talk about those feelings that he dealt with, and had to face.”

After five months of hard work, Lloyd Harris tasted tour-level victory once again Monday at the Mallorca Championships.

The South African delivered a dominant serving performance to oust seventh seed Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-2, 7-6(2) and reach the second round at the grass-court ATP 250. It was a first tour-level victory since January for Harris, who came through qualifying to reach the main draw in Spain.

“It’s never easy. I feel like my preparation for the match was boosted by playing some matches in qualifying,” said Harris, who won 89 per cent (33/37) of points behind his first serve. “Obviously, he’s been doing really well… Playing in Spain, in front of a Spanish crowd [who gave] good support to him. I’m happy I got through.”

The former World No. 31 Harris missed the second half of 2022 after undergoing wrist surgery and has built his comeback gradually. The 26-year-old holds a 10-5 record for the season on the ATP Challenger Tour but arrived in Mallorca off the back of four consecutive defeats at tour-level.

With that streak now snapped, Harris’ next test in Mallorca is a maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with his fellow qualifier Roman Safiullin. The World No. 94 Safiullin defeated #NextGenATP Jordanian Abdullah Shelbayh 6-1, 6-4 in his opening match.

In other Monday action in the Balearic Islands, the in-form Yannick Hanfmann charged past Pedro Cachin 6-2, 6-1 to set a second-round meeting against top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. Hanfmann is now 15-9 for 2023, a tally that includes a run to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in Rome.

Eighth seed Roberto Carballes Baena edged Ilya Ivashka 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 for his first tour-level win on grass since 2019. The home favourite next meets Corentin Moutet. American Christopher Eubanks held off his #NextGenATP countryman Alex Michelsen 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-5 to set a meeting against his close friend Ben Shelton.

The second seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina’s opening opponent in Mallorca will be Pavel Kotov. The lucky loser defeated Li Tu, the man he had lost to in the second round of qualifying, 7-6(4), 6-3.