Top seed Philipp Kohlschreiber and #NextGen star Alexander Zverev spearhead German hopes at next week’s German Tennis Championships 2016. Not since Michael Stich in 1993 has a homegrown player lifted the trophy at this ATP World Tour 500 clay-court tournament in Hamburg.

The 32-year-old Kohlschreiber opens his campaign against Argentine Carlos Berlocq as he bids to win his sixth ATP World Tour title on home soil, adding to three Munich crowns and victories in Dusseldorf and Halle.

View Full Draw

The 19-year-old Zverev is seeded fourth as he looks to win his first ATP World Tour title. The Hamburg native reached the semi-final of his hometown tournament in 2014 (l. to Ferrer). The right-hander comes into Hamburg on the back of a strong showing on grass, reaching his second ATP World Tour final in Halle, where he beat Roger Federer in the semi-finals, and advancing to the third round at Wimbledon (l. to Berdych). 

France’s Benoit Paire is the second seed in Halle, with Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas seeded third and taking on Halle champion Florian Mayer in the first round.

Main draw play at the 110th edition of the tournament begins on Monday at Rothenbaum. 

For the first time in Andy Murray’s career, he’ll enter a Grand Slam final with more experience on his side than his opponent.

The second seed is into his third Wimbledon final after a convincing semi-final victory on Friday over No. 10 seed Tomas Berdych. The 2013 Wimbledon champion will now play for the title against sixth seed Miios Raonic, who defeated third seed Roger Federer in the other semi-final.

“It’s obviously the first time I’ll play a Grand Slam final against someone that isn’t Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic. So that’s different,” said Murray. “But you never know how anyone’s going to deal with the pressures of a Slam final. I just have to go out there and concentrate on my side and do what I can to prepare well for it.”

Murray will contest his 11^th career Grand Slam championship match, while Raonic is competing in his first. The Brit also has history on his side, leading their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 6-3 and winning their past five matches, including three this year. Murray most recently prevailed over Raonic in a deciding-set win in last month’s grass-court final at the Aegon Championships.

Although he is now extremely familiar with these occasions and Raonic’s game, Murray is no under illusions that his past experiences will guarantee him a victory.

“Milos is a very tough opponent,” said Murray. “He’s played very well on the grass this year and earned his right to the final by beating one of the best, if not the best player at this event. He deserves to be there.”

Murray’s success this fortnight can be partially attributed to Ivan Lendl, who rejoined Murray’s team last month. Having won Wimbledon and the US Open (in 2012) under the Czech-turned-American’s tutelage, he praised Lendl’s calming influence as an added benefit to his game.

“I had the best years of my career with him, but there are other people that go into it as well. I obviously wanted to work with Ivan again to try to help me win these events. That’s the goal,” said Murray. “I don’t think he’d be doing this job if he didn’t believe that I could. But the information I get from him, the psychological help that I get from having him around, being able to chat to him at these events and before the big matches makes a difference.”

Having lost his past three Grand Slam finals (all to Djokovic), Murray is eager to snap the streak. After more than a decade on tour, he said he’s gained awareness of just what it means to win a major.

“I guess the tournaments start to mean more to you the older you get. You start to appreciate the history of the events more. When you’re 18, 19, you’re probably not as aware about those things,” said Murray. “I know how difficult it is to make the final of these events and how hard they are to win, so it never feels normal. I never take this for granted.”

About two months ago, Tomas Berdych was in a far different place from where he stands today.

The 30-year-old Czech had just lost 6-0, 6-0 to David Goffin in Rome. The third-round defeat was Berdych’s first double-bagel loss in his hundreds of Futures, ATP Challenger and ATP World Tour matches. Berdych split with his coach and entered Roland Garros without any outside help. How he’d fare the remainder of the clay-court season and for the entire grass-court stretch was entirely up to Berdych, and the tour veteran has gone on to post some of his best runs at Grand Slam championships.

Berdych reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros for just the third time in 13 appearances. On Friday, he fell to second seed Andy Murray in the Wimbledon semi-finals. His All-England Club run marked his best showing there since he had reached the final in 2010.

“Right now, of course, it’s a bit of frustration,” Berdych said after the loss. “But overall, I think it was a good run. I think it was a good two weeks [that] definitely show me that’s the way to do it, that’s the way to go. That’s really positive signs for my second half of the year.”

Prior to Friday, Berdych had spent the most time on court out of any of the final four men at Wimbledon. The 6’5” right-hander had played 19 sets that lasted 13 hours and 19 minutes. To compare, Murray had played 17 sets and spent 11 hours and 11 minutes on court. Berdych’s fourth-round match against countryman Jiri Vesely spanned two days and lasted three hours and 56 minutes, with Berdych winning 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8), 6-7(9), 6-3.

But, despite all that time on court, Berdych said he felt refreshed for his semi-final contest.

“I was really ready for the match. It was all fine in terms of rhythm, in terms of time to rest and everything. It was difficult in the days before,” Berdych said. “Just before the semis, I got the day off. I got back in rhythm of how it is normally. So everything in that sense was fine. I was feeling good on the court.”

Murray, who won almost 80 per cent of his first-serve points, was just too good, Berdych said.

“He played really well. He was able to defend the game, really play very solid,” Berdych said. “For him, he just deserves to win.”