Tommy Paul advanced to his first tour-level quarter-final on grass on Thursday when he dispatched former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-4 in a dominant performance at the Cinch Championships.

The American backed up his first-round win over sixth seed Denis Shapovalov with another strong display on the lawns in London on debut at the ATP 500 event. The World No. 35 took time away from Wawrinka by taking the ball early on return, while he saved all five break points he faced to advance after 65 minutes.

“This week is my first couple of main draw wins on grass. If you had asked me two years ago, I would have said grass was my worst surface. But when I started working with my coach Brad [Stine], he said grass will end up being my best surface and I have tried to mould my game on that,” Paul said. “I feel very comfortable out there, hopefully if not this year but next it will be my best surface.

“I feel I serve and volley well but every time I went to do so today, I missed my first serve, so I didn’t get many chances. I saw Tim Henman just now and he is one of my favourites because of the style of tennis he played and I told him, ‘Sorry for all those volleys I missed’. I like coming to the net and rushing people on the grass.”

Paul, who had never won a tour-level match on grass before this week, has now levelled his ATP Head2Head series against Wawrinka at 1-1 and will next play reigning champion Matteo Berrettini or American Denis Kudla.

“Getting that win Wednesday [against Shapovalov] was a big confidence booster. I came out here today [and] played really well from the start and I relaxed a little bit and everything came a little bit easier,” Paul added.

Earlier this season, the 25-year-old reached the semi-finals on hard courts in Delray Beach in February, while he advanced to the last eight at two tournaments in Adelaide and one in Acapulco.

Wawrinka was making his eighth appearance at The Queen’s Club, with his best result a run to the semi-finals in 2014. The 37-year-old will compete at Wimbledon later this month after receiving a wild card.

As ATP Tour stars competing at this week’s Terra Wortmann Open in Halle leave their hotel, they don’t emerge onto the busy streets of a major capital or jump in a car to head off to an out-of-town sports complex. Instead, they find themselves immediately face-to-face with the OWL Arena, the 11,500-capacity stadium in which they all hope to find grass-court success at the ATP 500 event.

“It’s a very unique set up,” says fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who defeated Mackenzie McDonald on Wednesday evening to reach his second-straight Halle quarter-final. “You rarely play tournaments nowadays where you have the hotel in the site, and everything is walking distance. Everyone is here.”

Halle is a small town of just over 20,000 people, tucked away in rural North Rhine-Westfalia, a state in north-west Germany. It is also home to the OWL Arena complex, which contains an on-site hotel for players and their teams and maintains a countryside feel despite the impressive arena at its heart.

“It’s unique, I think weeks like these are refreshing in a way,” said Nick Kyrgios, into the quarter-finals on tournament debut after overcoming Stefanos Tsitsipas in a three-set thriller on Wednesday. “Because you’ve got weeks like Miami, such busy weeks all the time. It’s really hard to relax and find that downtime.

“Weeks like this where you just go back with your team, [have] nice little dinners…there’s not much to do, you just really enjoy the time and the greenery and the quietness and the stillness.”

It’s not just the peaceful setting that appeals to the world’s best. The non-existent commute from the hotel to the courts also positively impacts the pre-match preparations for players, according to World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

“It changes your routine a little bit,” said the 26-year-old after winning his opening-round match against David Goffin on Wednesday. “Some tournaments, like the US Open or Shanghai, it can be up to one hour’s drive from hotel to site. So, if you play at six in the evening, you still leave the hotel at 11 or 12 and spend the whole day at the court.

“I like that way, but at the same time here [in Halle], I had the match at 12 p.m. I could wake up at eight, I didn’t have to wake up at six. I had a small tennis warm-up, two minutes from my room. Check in back to the room to take a shower, not even to the locker room. I’m [quote good at] adapting to things in life, so I like it both ways. It’s a change of setup.”

As they spend much of their year in the hustle and bustle of some of the world’s biggest cities, it can be easy to forget that many of the world’s best hail from small-town or rural backgrounds. For Kyrgios, Halle is a nice reminder of home.

“I like it,” said the six-time Tour-titlist. “I live in Sydney now, but I lived in Canberra my whole life and it’s quiet as anything, so I like places like this.”

Having reached the semi-finals last week at the Libema Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, a relatively small city in the Netherlands, Auger-Aliassime is enjoying two of the more serene weeks of his 2022 season. But that’s not to say you can’t have too much of a good thing.

“I like it for a change,” said the Canadian. “I don’t know if I would like it all the time, every week, because it is nice to go around the city and go to restaurants and walk around in the big cities of Europe or in America. But it is nice for a change.”

Two-time Queen’s Club champion Marin Cilic advanced to his ninth quarter-final at the Cinch Championships with an entertaining 7-6(6), 7-5 victory against Alexander Bublik on Wednesday.

Seventh seed Cilic battled back from an 0/5 hole in the opening-set tie-break by turning the tables to win the final five points, saving three set points from 3/6 in the process. He pressed home his advantage by taking a 3-0 lead in set two before Bublik got himself back in the match with his unique brand of shotmaking, complete with a bevy of underarm serves.

“The most important thing against Alexander is to keep focus,” Cilic said post-match. “You never know what’s coming. He made it a little bit crazy in the second set and out of nowhere started to do these underarm serves and slices and drop shots, just breaking up the rhythm. He broke me there, so it was not comfortable to play [at the] end of the second set.”

Bublik used two underarm serves to escape 0/30 at 0-3 and later broke Cilic to love to get back on serve. But the Croatian stuck to the task and clinched the match with his second break to avoid another tie-break and a possible third set.

“It’s unconventional tennis that he plays, and he’s quite good at it,” Cilic said of his opponent. “Great serve and then backs it up with some of those things. Never easy, especially on a grass court, the ball stays low. Most importantly, I kept my focus and I served well at the end of the second set, and that was the key.”

Cilic improves to 34-11 at The Queen’s Club, where he won the title in 2012 and 2018 and reached the final in 2013 and 2017.

Emil Ruusuvuori awaits in the quarter-finals after the Finnish qualifier defeated #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper, 6-2, 7-6(2) earlier on Wednesday. Draper made headlines in his home nation with a first-round win over fourth seed Taylor Fritz but could not find an answer against the smooth game of Ruusuvuori. 

The 23-year-old saved the only break point he faced in the match while converting on seven of his nine chances.

Currently at a career-high of No. 56 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Ruusuvuori’s London quarter-final run has moved him up nine places to No. 47 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

Felix Auger-Aliassime has defeated two former NCAA champions from UCLA in as many days, following up his first-round win over Marcos Giron with a 7-6(7), 6-1 victory over Mackenzie McDonald on Wednesday at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle.

The Canadian saved a set point at 6/7 in the opening tie-break with a stinging return and won the next two points to pocket the set. McDonald brushed off that frustration to hold in the opening game of set two, but Auger-Aliassime dominated from there, winning 16 of the next 17 points to take command of the match.

“It was a very positive performance from my part,” said the Canadian. “The first set was a good example of a typical grass-court match, both players really serving well and holding their serve. I think it’s the kind of set where it’s just frustrating for both, to lose it. We both had really good chances to win that one.”

Auger-Aliassime also took the opening set against Giron on Tuesday, but dropped his focus briefly in the second and was forced to win a decider. He had no such trouble closing out the match against McDonald, as he won the last six games in a row.

“The level that I played in the second set, I felt like even if I didn’t win the first I would have gotten myself some chances,” he said. “But as soon as I got the first break in the second set, I started playing better and better.”

Hubert Hurkacz awaits in the quarter-finals after the Pole’s 7-6(5), 6-3 win over defending Halle champion Ugo Humbert earlier on Wednesday.

“Hubi is a good friend of mine. A great grass-court player, a great player overall,” Auger-Aliassime previewed. “A semi-finalist at Wimbeldon last year, he’s shown why he can be a top player on this surface. It’s going to be a tough one. We played in the first round [in Halle] last year and it went my way, but he was looking good today.”

Fifth seed Hurkacz has moved into the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings with his progress this week, up from No. 12. He will be seeking his first win in his third ATP Head2Head meeting with Auger-Aliassime on Friday.

Hurkacz defeated American Maxime Cressy in the Halle opening round to notch his first grass-court win of the season before his win against Humbert. He fell to Marton Fucsovics in the Stuttgart opening round last week.

Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury have met Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares on some of the game’s biggest stages. Their three previous meetings, all victories for Ram/Salisbury, came in 2021 at the Australian Open, US Open and Nitto ATP Finals.

The American-British pairing improved to 4-0 in the matchup on Wednesday with a 7-6(2), 7-6(3) victory at the Cinch Championships. The teams traded opening-set breaks at The Queen’s Club in London before Ram/Salisbury dominated the first tie-break. After the pair saved a set point to hold for 5-5 in the second, they closed out the match with another strong performance in the tie-break, winning the final three points, including two on return.

The victory marked a milestone for doubles World No. 1 Salisbury, who picked up his 150th match win.

Ram and Salisbury advance to the quarter-finals, where they will face Tuesday winners Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara.

Second-seeded Croatians Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic claimed a 6-4, 6-2 victory against the British pairing of Ken Skupski and Jonny O’Mara on Wednesday, booking their place in the quarter-finals. Denis Shapovalov and Rohan Bopanna are through to the semis after defeating Colombians Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal, 6-3, 6-4.

Seeds Advance In Halle
Third seeds Tim Puetz and Michael Venus joined fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the semi-finals at the Terra Wortmann Open. Puetz/Venus defeated Matwe Middelkoop and Simone Bolelli, 7-6(3), 6-4, in the lone match of the day that did not require a Match Tie-break in Halle.

Dodig and Krajicek were 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 winners over Aussies Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell, the 2022 Australian Open finalists. Each team broke once in the match before the Croatian-American duo took the Match Tie-break.

In an all-German encounter, two-time Roland Garros champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies edged Oscare Otte and Daniel Altmaier, 6-7(8), 6-3, 10-8.