The dirt is still flying at Roland Garros, but the lawns are already alive on the ATP Challenger Tour. That’s right, it’s time for the grass season.

With freshly-painted lines and the smell of crisp blades of grass filling the air, the freshly manicured lawns of the Surbiton Racket & Fitness Club greet players and fans this week. High-octane tennis returns to the London suburb for a fifth straight year and 16th overall.

It is the first stop on the three-week grass-court swing, weaving from Surbiton to the northern U.K. city of Nottingham and the sleepy, picturesque town of Ilkley. In addition to being elite Challenger 125 tournaments, they feature some of the oldest venues on the circuit.

In fact, the Surbiton Racket & Fitness Club and the Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club are the two oldest clubs on the ATP Challenger Tour. Founded in 1881, the facility in Surbiton hosted the prestigious Surrey Grass Court Championships for 70 editions. It was also the site of both Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt’s first professional grass-court tournaments. Federer reached the semi-finals in his grass debut exactly 20 years ago.

Oldest Challenger Venues

Founded one year earlier, in 1880, the facility in Ilkley is nestled in the shadow of the iconic Cow and Calf Rocks. The Yorkshire region of England hosts the Ilkley Trophy for a fifth time this year. The champion is traditionally awarded a Wimbledon wild card, with Sergiy Stakhovsky reigning in 2018.

And while the site in Nottingham is not as historic, the fabled home of Robin Hood also hosts one of the more prestigious tournaments of the year. The Nottingham Tennis Centre previously held an ATP 250 event and now welcomes players for a combined ATP Challenger/WTA Tour event. #NextGenATP star Alex de Minaur lifted his first trophy at the Nature Valley Open a year ago.

A Look Back At 2018…

This week, the Surbiton Trophy features a loaded draw once again. Eight players feature in the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings, led by World No. 61 and #NextGenATP star Ugo Humbert, who is appearing in his first grass-court tournament as a professional. Matthew Ebden, a semi-finalist last year, is seeded second, while Jordan Thompson is third. Daniel Evans, also a 2018 semi-finalist, is the top British player in the field and seeded fourth.

Also descending on Surbiton is the big-hitting Ivo Karlovic and fellow veteran Feliciano Lopez. #NextGenATP Brits Jay Clarke and Paul Jubb are unseeded, as are Dustin Brown, James Duckworth and Tommy Paul. Jubb is one week removed from clinching the NCAA singles title for the University of South Carolina.

The doubles draw in Surbiton is equally as impressive, led by Marcel Granollers and Ben McLachlan. Reigning champion Luke Bambridge (w/O’Mara) is teaming with Marcus Daniell this week. Unseeded Aussie duos include Hewitt and Thompson, along with Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis. Last year’s singles finalist De Minaur is teaming with Matt Reid.

To say that Alessandro Giannessi survived the week in Vicenza would be an understatement.

The Italian was the last man standing on Sunday at the Internazionali di Tennis – Citta di Vicenza, celebrating a third ATP Challenger Tour title and first on home soil. Giannessi capped off a near-perfect campaign at the Tennis Palladio 98 with a 7-5, 6-2 win over countryman Filippo Baldi.

Alessandro Giannessi is the champion in Vicenza!

Third #ATPChallenger title for the ??, not dropping a set all week. pic.twitter.com/9Pk7veHH3i

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) June 2, 2019

While it might have been a flawless week for Giannessi, who did not drop a set from first ball to last, it was anything but for the tournament schedule. With storms moving through northern Italy, play was washed out on Monday and partially completed on Tuesday. And Wednesday was no different. The first round was finally finished on Thursday.

Giannessi was forced to play two matches on Friday to get back on track and he would storm – no pun intended – to the finish line. A 6-4, 7-5 quarter-final win over Marc Polmans was followed by an efficient 6-3, 6-3 victory over fifth seed and 2019 match wins leader Gianluca Mager on Saturday.

On Sunday, under perfect conditions, he earned his first title of the year. He was a dogged defender all week, denying 31 of 35 break points faced in heavy conditions.

The 28-year-old Italian previously lifted the trophy in Szczecin, Poland in 2016 and Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina last year. Having ascended to a career-high inside the Top 100 two years ago, following a semi-final run at the ATP 250 in Umag, the World No. 164 is looking to return to the club.

After a dramatic day of fourth-round singles action at Roland Garros, perhaps it’s fitting that the day’s final match did not come to a conclusion.

Seventh seed Kei Nishikori will take a 6-2, 6-7(8), 6-2 lead against home favourite Benoit Paire into Monday, as play was suspended after 9:30 p.m. due to darkness on Court Suzanne-Lenglen. The winner of this match will face second seed Rafael Nadal, the 11-time champion.

A year ago, Nishikori needed five sets and just one minute shy of three hours to beat Paire in front of his home crowd at Roland Garros. And the Frenchman has made it difficult on the two-time quarter-finalist, saving a set point at 7/8 in the second-set tie-break to even the match at one set apiece.

Nishikori could have been disappointed with his loss of momentum, as he broke Paire at 3-5 in the second set to get back on serve, and saved two set points in the tie-break before eventually hitting an inside-out forehand into the net, sending Paire and the fans into an absolute frenzy.

But the World No. 7 refocused, breaking in his second return game of the third set to regain his confidence, then breaking again as darkness descended on Roland Garros, quickly finishing off the set to go to sleep with a two-sets-to-one lead.

Nishikori, who is competing in the fourth round in Paris for the fifth consecutive year, is trying to reach his 11th Grand Slam quarter-final, while Paire seeks his 200th tour-level victory and his first trip to a major quarter-final on his 34th attempt. If the Frenchman manages to pull off a comeback Monday, he will tie Todd Woodbridge for the fourth most attempts before making the last eight at a Slam.

Nadal holds a strong FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against both players. The Spaniard has won 10 of his 12 FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against Nishikori, and he has defeated Paire in each of their four meetings.

Did You Know?
Nishikori has a 13-1 record when he faces an opponent who is competing at their home country’s Grand Slam. The Japanese star is 9-1 against Frenchmen at Roland Garros.