Refreshed after his Roland Garros semi-final defeat against Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz is excited to compete on grass this week at the Cinch Championships, where he will make his debut.

The Spaniard arrived in London on Saturday and quickly took to court in an attempt to adjust from the Parisian clay to the lawns of west London.

“I arrived in London Saturday morning and I had my first practice on grass yesterday,” Alcaraz said during his pre-tournament press conference on Sunday. “I was not able to practise too much at home as we have no grass courts. I need to adapt my movement and shots on the grass, but I am really happy with the practice I have had here.”

Alcaraz is making just his third tour-level appearance at a grass-court event this week at the ATP 500, having advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon last year. The top seed, who revealed he rested for four days following his defeat in Paris, has lifted 10 tour-level titles in his career, with seven coming on clay and three on hard courts.

Determined to make his mark on grass, Alcaraz shared his thoughts on the surface.

“The most difficult part is to move well on grass. You need to be more careful than other surfaces, so for me to move on grass is the most difficult,” Alcaraz said. “The most comfortable is going to the net and playing aggressively all the time. For me it is similar to other surfaces with my style. Playing that style is comfortable and I like it.

“There are a lot of players who slice on grass. I am not one of them, so I have to think about the movement. I have to be focused on every movement and shot. For me it is more tiring when you are moving on grass. It is totally different, so you have to be really specific.”

World No. 2 Alcaraz will begin the quest for his fifth tour-level title of the season against French qualifier Arthur Fils. The 20-year-old will be working alongside Samuel Lopez in London, with coach Juan Carlos Ferrero taking the week off to spend time with his family. The Spaniard will return to Alcaraz’s team next week ahead of Wimbledon.

Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic clinched their fifth tour-level grass-court title as a team on Sunday when they moved past Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz at the BOSS OPEN in Stuttgart.

The second seeds produced a strong serving performance at the ATP 250 event, winning 86 per cent (31/36) of points behind their first delivery to defeat the Germans 7-6(2), 6-3.

The Croatians have now captured 16 tour-level trophies as a team and two this season, also clinching the crown in Auckland in January. Pavic, 29, also triumphed in Stuttgart in 2022 with Hubert Hurkacz, while it is Mektic’s first success at the tournament.

Home favourites Krawietz and Puetz were seeking their first title of the season together. Earlier this season, they also reached the final on home soil in Munich.

Despite playing his first tournament in 20 months, Kei Nishikori has produced a high level this week to reach the final at the ATP Challenger 75 event in Palmas del Mar, Puerto Rico.

The former World No. 4 defeated Brazilian Gustavo Heide 6-4, 6-2 Saturday to advance to the Caribbean Open championship match. Nishikori broke Heide’s serve at 4-5 in the opening set to gain an advantage on the 21-year-old, who was playing in his first Challenger semi-final.

Nishikori, 33, continued to absorb the qualifier’s heavy hitting, playing with consistency and depth to frustrate Heide and advance after one hour, 26 minutes. The Japanese star dropped just one point behind his first delivery in the second set.

The 12-time tour-level titlist will next meet American Michael Zheng in the final after the teenager moved past Kazakh Beibit Zhukayev 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) in a rain-disrupted semi-final.

This week marks Nishikori’s return to competition after extended time off due to injuries. After undergoing arthroscopic left hip surgery last year, Nishikori is playing his first event since the BNP Paribas Open in October 2021.

Should Nishikori go one step further to triumph at the hard-court event, it would be his first title at any level since he won the ATP 250 event in Brisbane in 2018.

Fans can live stream the Palmas del Mar final for free at Challenger TV. The match will start Saturday at 4pm ET/Sunday 5am Tokyo.

Zizou Bergs is aiming to defend his title this week at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Ilkley, but this time around the Belgian will not have to face his coach Ruben Bemelmans, whom he defeated en route to the ‘biggest title of his career’ one year ago.

The 24-year-old Bergs started working with former World No. 84 Bemelmans just three weeks before they were standing across the net from each other at the Ilkley Trophy last season. Ahead of the tournament, Bergs was enjoying dinner with his team when Bemelmans checked his phone and saw the Ilkley Challenger qualifying draw for the first time.

“He started laughing super hard and I was like, ‘Don’t say we play each other first round!’” Bergs recalled to ATPTour.com. “It’s actually quite funny. It was crazy, we looked at the draws, first round of qualies against each other. He was there as my coach but also as a player. We started working part-time around the time of Roland Garros.”

The next day, then-ranked No. 207 Bergs defeated Bemelmans 7-6(5), 6-4 at the grass-court event and later advanced to the main draw. He did not stop there.

Bergs went on a dream title run and saved a championship point to down Jack Sock in the final.

“After our match, Ruben stayed in Ilkley to coach me. Straight away, I won my biggest title,” Bergs said. “That was definitely a special moment.”

Bemelmans’ qualifying match against Bergs, which was his penultimate match as a pro player, is one that will be a story for them to tell for years to come.

“I remember my first match point I was like, ‘This could be the last point of Ruben Bemelmans!’” Bergs said. “Then the second match point again… Then it happened and I felt so bad that I won that match because his career was like over. But then after the match I said, ‘Are you fine?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, it was emotional, but I really had fun this match and I played well, so I’m very satisfied.’”

^{Zizou Bergs triumphs at the 2022 Ilkley Trophy. Credit: Lewis Storey/Getty Images for LTA}

In October, the 35-year-old Bemelmans received a qualifying wild card at the ATP 250 event in Antwerp, where he put a bow on his career in front of a home crowd. Bergs has continued his progress on the ATP Challenger Tour. In February, he reached a career-high No. 112 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and two months later, he captured his fifth Challenger title in Tallahassee, Florida.

Bergs will next begin his Ilkley Challenger title defence Sunday against fifth seed Jurij Rodionov.