ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Gael Monfils launched the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in style with a daring stunt in Rotterdam. The Frenchman took to the roof of a hotel to fire balls across the street to suspended stunt “ball kids”, who were dangling in front of a vertical tennis court. 

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“It was different, it was fun,” said Monfils. “It was cool that we tried something new. But they didn’t catch the ball, so I’m pretty disappointed! With the wind, it was tough for me to be precise, but I think it’s tough for them to catch it. But it was cool. It was a good try.”

Defending doubles champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau played with Richard Krajicek and Dutch wheelchair tennis star Esther Vergeer on a special court in front of Rotterdam’s Central Station.

David Goffin and Viktor Troicki met fans and signed autographs.

Argentina Open – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was a busy man in Buenos Aires.

The Frenchman visited a traditional Argentine Asador to learn how to make two very well-known and popular sandwiches, the choripan and the bondiola. View Photo

“I like Argentinian meat, it’s one of the best in the world,” said Tsonga after the experience. “I’m used to cooking at home and I have a big barbeque at home.”

Tsonga and Juan Monaco visited Buenos Aires Playa to play some mini tennis with fans. View Photo

Tsonga also joined Dominic Thiem for a practice tie-break with some highly-trained ball dogs. View Photo

Leonardo Mayer, Fabio Fognini, Guido Pella and Dusan Lajovic were on hand for kids’ day as they played some points with children in wheelchairs and hit balls into the stands. View Photo

Santiago Giraldo and Nicolas Almagro did on-stage interviews and signed autographs for fans.

Memphis Open – Memphis, Tennessee

The Bryan Brothers, Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey took to the basketball court during Monday night’s Memphis Grizzlies game at FedExForum for a shootout. View Photo

Taylor Fritz (18), Tommy Paul (18), Frances Tiafoe (18), Michael Mmoh (18) and Jared Donaldson (19) posed together in front of the Racquet Club’s Memphis Open 40^th anniversary tournament sign to mark a record five American teens in the main draw of the tournament. Read More

Benjamin Becker (view photo) and Malek Jaziri (view photo) attended the Memphis Grizzlies game Saturday night, meeting up with Dirk Nowitzki and Salah Mejri of the Dallas Mavericks.

Steve Johnson, Dudi Sela and Scott Lipsky took time away from the Memphis Open to visit St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, meeting fans and signing autographs. View Photo

Sam Querrey, Max Mirnyi and Max’s brother Peter visit FedEx headquarter in Memphis to try out the flight simulator. View Photo

Roberto Bautista Agut kept up his strong early season form in Rotterdam on Wednesday as he reached the second round of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament with a 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-3 victory over Joao Sousa.

The Spaniard has a 13-2 mark in his best start to an ATP World Tour campaign, with two titles already in Auckland (d. Sock) and last week in Sofia (d. Troicki). He goes on to face Jiri Vesely for a quarter-final spot.

Philipp Kohlschreiber was the first player through to the quarter-finals as he defeated qualifier Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-2 in 70 minutes. The German also reached the quarter-finals last week in Sofia (l. to Troicki) and goes on to challenge second seed Marin Cilic.

Cilic, the 2014 finalist, held his nerve to beat fellow big-server Gilles Muller 7-6(2), 7-6(7). There were no breaks of serve in the two-hour encounter.

“I was expecting a close match,” said Cilic. “Luckily I was serving well today and I was mentally focused. I was close to breaking a few times in the second set and put pressure on his serve. Gilles is a very difficult player to play against indoors and I’m happy to be through.”

Eighth seed Viktor Troicki celebrated his 30th birthday by striking 14 aces in a 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 victory over qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov in two hours and six minutes. He now plays teenager Hyeon Chung.

Elsewhere, Jeremy Chardy battled his way past lucky loser Evgeny Donskoy, a replacement for Richard Gasquet, by saving one match point at 7/8 in the third set tie-break to win 6-7(9), 6-4, 7-6(8) over two hours and 23 minutes. He’ll next meet fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, a qualifier.