Stuttgart fans will be treated to a battle of close friends on Wednesday when Tommy Haas and Roger Federer square off in the second round of the Mercedes Cup.

The 39-year-old Haas advanced past Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 on Tuesday to get another chance at Federer, the top seed who received a first-round bye.

“I felt I served well… we both struggled a little with the returns. We used our chances when we got them. The key part to winning the match was getting that one more break point than my opponent. I’m obviously very pleased and anything can happen on grass,” said Haas, who converted two of three break points.

The 35-year-old Federer leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 13-3 but they haven’t played in more than three years, since the 2014 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Haas last beat Federer during the final of the 2012 Gerry Weber Open in Halle for his second grass-court crown. He also won Halle in 2009.

“We have known each other for a very long time,” Haas said of Federer. “We started to get closer around the time when my fiancée and his wife became friendlier. Then we had kids and started to hang out much more. We used to have the same agent, Tony Godsick, who is a very close friend of mine, so it was always an easy connection. [Federer] is a first-class guy. I have great times with him and I am happy to call him my friend.”

Haas, who plans to retire after this season, is making his seventh and final appearance in Stuttgart. He also advanced to the second round in 2015, the first year the tournament had transitioned from clay to grass.

Herbert’s countryman Benoit Paire was victorious in his Stuttgart opener, ousting eighth seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-4, 6-4. Paire landed only 45 per cent of his first serves but claimed 55 per cent of his second-serve points to advance. The 6’5” 28 year old has emerged as this season’s ATP World Tour “Iron Man” so far.

Stuttgart marks the 18^th ATP or Grand Slam tournament Paire has competed at this season – the most events possible based on the calendar. The Frenchman improved to 18-17 this season and will next play German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk, who beat Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Read More: Federer: ‘There Are No More Breaks Now’

Two-time finalist and home favourite Philipp Kohlschreiber moved into the second round when former World No. 8 Marcos Baghdatis retired after losing the first set 6-1. Kohlschreiber is looking to return to the Top 50 of the Emirates ATP Rankings after falling out on Monday for the first time since October 2011. He will next meet American Steve Johnson.

Spaniard Feliciano Lopez improved to 4-2 against Gilles Simon in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against the seventh-seeded Frenchman. The 35-year-old Lopez will meet Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, who outlasted German and 2016 Halle champion Florian Mayer 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(1).

Pole Jerzy Janowicz, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2013, set-up a second-round meeting against second seed Grigor Dimitrov after prevailing against Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in one hour and 59 minutes. The 26-year-old Janowicz saved six of seven break points.

Crushed brick has been replaced by mown lawns. Ribbed soles have been unlaced in favour of pimple-soled shoes. Baseline battles and lengthy rallies won’t be commonplace as knee-bending, dinks and sliced shots are now essential for success during the six-week grass-court swing.

World No. 1 Andy Murray was perfect on grass in 2016, with a 12-0 record (1.000), winning the two tournaments he entered: his fifth crown at the Aegon Championships (30-5 tournament record) and his second trophy at Wimbledon (53-9 event record).

The player Murray beat in both finals, Canada’s Milos Raonic, who brought on board three-time former Wimbledon champion John McEnroe for last year’s grass-court swing, went 10-2 (.833). The World No. 6 will be looking to add to his lone Grand Slam championship final appearance over the next five weeks.

France’s Nicolas Mahut, who is competing this week at the Ricoh Open, where he is a three-time champion (19-2 tournament record), had the third-best winning percentage on grass courts in 2016, going 8-2 (.800).

View Best Grass-Court Performers In 2016

Overall in ATP World Tour history, since 1973, Roger Federer leads the FedEx ATP Performance Zone for career grass-court matches with a 152-23 mark and 15 titles (.869 per cent). Federer has clinched seven Wimbledon titles and the same number at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle.

John McEnroe is second overall in the all-time list with a 121-20 grass-court record and eight titles (.858), followed by Murray, who has a 102-17 grass-court record and eight titles (.857). Bjorn Borg, who won Roland Garros and Wimbledon back-to-back for three straight years (1978-80) and the first player to wear pimpled grass-court soles, compiled a 61-11 mark, including six Wimbledon titles (.847). Pete Sampras, who won 10 titles and ended his career with a 101-20 tally (.835), is fifth overall.

View Best Grass-Court Performers According To FedEx ATP Performance Zone

You have got to win small to win big.

Pablo Carreno Busta is enjoying a breakout season, boasting a career-best Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 17 this week, following his strong run to the Roland Garros quarter-finals. For good measure, he is also ranked No. 18 in doubles, which is only one spot off his career best that he achieved in January after reaching the Australian Open doubles semi-finals.

His climb up the Emirates ATP Rankings very much mirrors his playing style – patient and steady. Carreno Busta has been ranked in the Top 100 in singles for 201 consecutive weeks since 5 August 2013. This is his sixth week in the coveted Top 20.

But just how dominant has he been this season compared to the past couple? What are the metrics that have underpinned his rise?

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Carreno Busta’s 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons identifies small gains over long periods of time.

Carreno Busta: Points Won 2015-2017 Seasons

In 2015, Carreno Busta actually lost more points than he won, finishing the season just outside the Top 50 at No. 67. This is actually typical for players in the 50-100 range. They look successful, but overall they experience a point deficit for the season.

The 25-year-old Spaniard leapt to No. 30 at the end of 2016 by winning just 216 more points than he lost. That represented just 2.2 per cent of his total points (9,774) for the season. From 2015 to 2017, including during the past two weeks at Roland Garros, Carreno Busta has played 22,119 points. He has won just 395 more points than he has lost, representing 1.7 per cent of his total points.

Improvement this year has been powered by making a lot more first serves.

Carreno Busta’s Serving Improvement

Carreno Busta is impressively ranked 11th in the ATP Stats Return LEADERBOARDS, powered by Infosys Nia Data, and 31st on the Serve Leaderboard. One area the Spaniard can improve on when serving is making more first serves on break points.

He is ranked fourth best in 2017 in first serves made at 68 per cent, which was the exact same number he put up at Roland Garros during his quarter-final run. But when facing break point this year, that 68 per cent average has dropped to just 62 per cent (155/252).

As wildly successful as Carreno Busta is, with a Top 20 ranking and more than four million dollars in career prize money, he has barely won more matches than he has lost (102-98), and he has won just 50 per cent of the total points in his career. His ranking speaks to dominance on tour, but the metrics suggest a far more level playing field.

Carreno Busta is definitely on a collision course with a Top 10 ranking. A point here and there will be all that it takes to achieve it. #NextGenATP German Alexander Zverev is currently No. 10, winning 52 per cent of his points in 2017 – the same as Carreno Busta.

The near future looks bright for the Spaniard as well. He has zero points to defend from last year’s grass-court season, so he may get to single digits sooner rather than later.

See Who’s Pushing Carreno Busta In The Emirates ATP Race To London

Four #NextGenATP players found their feet early on the grass at the Ricoh Open as they surged into the second round on Tuesday in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Qualifier Daniil Medvedev edged sixth seed and home favourite Robin Haase 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and 18 minutes, saving 12 of the 13 break points he faced.

The 21-year-old Russian, who reached his first ATP World Tour final in Chennai at the start of the year (l. to Bautista Agut), claimed just the second tour-level grass-court win of his career.

Medvedev, who uses a Tecnifibre racquet, set a clash with fellow Next Gen ATP Finals hopeful Thanasi Kokkinakis. The Australian, who is working his way back from a lengthy injury layoff, was a 6-4, 7-5 winner over Mikhail Youzhny. The 21-year-old Kokkinakis struck 16 aces as he claimed the first win of his comeback, following first-round exits in Lyon (l. to Istomin) and Roland Garros (l. to Nishikori).

“It was very tough [to close it out],” said Kokkinakis. “I didn’t get off to a great start, but then came back and played pretty well. I was up 6-2, 4-2 and serving really well, but I knew it was going to be tough to keep serving that well the whole match. He really started playing a lot better at the back end of the second set. I got a bit tighter for sure. I hadn’t served out a match in a long time. It was good to get those nerves out the way.

“It feels great to be competing again, there’s only so long you can practise for. It’s so frustrating being on the practice court for ages. Physically I’m not 100 per cent, still got some things I need to sort out with my body. I’m trying to manage it while I’m playing. That’s the tough part. I’m trying to get the matches in and that workload into my body.”

Like Medvedev, Ernesto Escobedo earned the second grass-court win of his career as he defeated lucky loser Jason Jung 6-4, 6-2 in 64 minutes. The 20-year-old American, a semi-finalist in Houston in April (l. to Bellucci), goes on to face Aljaz Bedene.

Watch: Escobedo At Home Uncovered

Wild card Stefan Kozlov completed a perfect start for #NextGenATP players as he battled past Dustin Brown 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in 89 minutes. The 19-year-old American claimed his first tour-level win of the season as he set a second-round clash with third seed Ivo Karlovic, a winner of three grass-court titles.

World No. 81 Alexandr Dolgopolov upset fifth seed Steve Darcis as he reached the second round with a 6-2, 7-6(3) win in 88 minutes, hitting 10 aces. Making his debut at this ATP World Tour 250 tournament, the Ukrainian next faces Vasek Pospisil.

“I think I played well,” said Dolgopolov. “I had all the chances in the first set and broke him twice. It was quite comfortable in the second set. I think he played better and I was returning a little worse. Happy to finish in two sets.

“I’ve been playing better [on grass] in the past few years. I’ve made the third round at Wimbledon a couple of times, lost five-setters to [Grigor] Dimitrov and [David] Ferrer. My first few years on tour it was tough, I didn’t like it, I was falling all the time and couldn’t understand the footwork. Even though my game suits the grass, I wasn’t happy with the surface, but now I’m enjoying it much more.”

Second seed Alexander Zverev will open his campaign against Adrian Mannarino after the Frenchman dismissed Australia’s Jordan Thompson 6-4, 6-1. Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, who uses a Tecnifibre racquet, also advanced, beating Japan’s Yuichi Sugita 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-0.

DOUBLES

Third seeds and 2015 Wimbledon champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau prevailed past Frenchmen Jonathan Eysseric and Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 7-6(6). Aussies John Peers and Thompson dismissed #NextGenATP players Zverev and Kokkinakis 6-3, 6-3.

Fourth seeds Fabrice Martin of France and Daniel Nestor of Canada survived a tight battle with Dutchmen Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop, moving into the quarter-finals 6-1, 6-7(10), 11-9.

By virtue of his stellar performances this season, and particularly over the past two months, Rafael Nadal has thrust himself to the forefront of the sport once again and in strong contention for his fourth year-end No. 1 finish in the Emirates ATP Rankings (2008, 2010, 2013).

In winning 24 of his 25 matches on the European clay-court swing, the Spanish superstar has lifted three ‘Big Titles’ – his 10th Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, his fifth Mutua Madrid Open and his 10th Roland Garros crown. The Open Era leader for most clay-court titles won (53), also picked up his 10th Barcelona OpenBanc Sabadell trophy in April.

With 45 ‘Big Titles’ – 15 Grand Slams and 30 ATP World Tour Masters 1000s – it has inched Nadal closer to long-time rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. The Spanish superstar wins one big title for every 3.5 events played, an average marginally bettered by Djokovic, whose 47 elite titles have been captured for every 3.4 events played.

Nadal currently leads the Emirates ATP Race To London, a calendar-year points race that started in the first week of January, with 6,915 Race points. As the first player to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, he is 2,870 points ahead of No. 2-placed Roger Federer, winner of 50 ‘Big Titles’, who has 4,045 Race points. From 17 April to 12 June, Nadal has added 4,680 Race points from five events to his total.

When asked about an assault on No. 1, following his historic title run in Paris, the 31-year-old Nadal said, “I am playing well and I am in a good position… If I am able to keep playing well, [then] why not?”

Current and Former Champions’ Big Titles Won (Records Since 1990)

 * Becker’s four other Grand Slam titles came before 1990.
** Edberg’s three other Grand Slam titles came before 1990.

All eyes now turn to Federer to see how the Swiss will respond in the No. 1 battle as the ATP World Tour moves to grass in the next five weeks. The 35-year-old is making his eagerly anticipated return to action at this week’s Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart. Nadal is scheduled to compete at next week’s Aegon Championships.

Since 2004, the year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings has either been first or second in the year-to-date standings after Roland Garros.

Nadal has been among the top two in the year-to-date standings after Roland Garros in 11 of the past 14 years. This is the first time since 2010 that Nadal and Federer occupy the top two spots in the Emirates ATP Race To London at this stage in the season.