Andy Murray continued his red-hot grass court form on Saturday when he advanced to the final at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Nottingham.

The former World No. 1 moved past Nuno Borges 6-3, 6-2 at the Rothesay Open to earn his ninth consecutive win on the surface. Last week, Murray became the oldest grass-court champion in Challenger history (since 1978) when he triumphed at the Lexus Surbiton Trophy.

The 36-year-old will chase his third Challenger Tour title of the year on Sunday when he meets Arthur Cazaux in the final. The #NextGenATP Frenchman defeated Dominik
Koepfer 7-5, 6-2 in Saturday’s other semi-final at the Challenger Tour 125 event.

In a dominant performance against Portugal’s Borges, Murray struck the ball cleanly on return, breaking four times to advance after 74 minutes. The Scot is up four spots to No. 40 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings as he continues his quest to be seeded at Wimbledon next month.

Murray, who is yet to drop a set in Nottingham, has often found his best level on grass. He won Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016 and has clinched a record five Queen’s Club crowns (2009, 11, 13, 15, 16).

Tallon Griekspoor rode a wave of home support to the championship match Saturday at the Libema Open, where the Dutchman claimed an impressive 6-4, 7-5 semi-final win against Emil Ruusuvuori.

The sixth seed claimed a solitary break in each set to hold off the hard-hitting World No. 42 Ruusuvuori and reach his second ATP Tour final. Griekspoor broke the Finn’s serve in the opening game of the match and saved all four break points he faced from then on to wrap an 89-minute triumph and advance to play Jordan Thompson for the trophy at the grass-court ATP 250.

“Once again [it was an] unbelievable atmosphere in a packed stadium,” said Griekspoor in his on-court interview. “[There is] nothing better to play in front of. I started off well, got the break in the first game which is always nice. It took some pressure off my own games.

“I thought he picked up his game at the beginning of the second set. I tried to focus on my own games and tried to sneak the break at 5-5. A really good service game to end and once again really happy with my performance.”

Griekspoor’s victory ensured there would be a Dutchman in the ‘s-Hertogenbosch final for the second consecutive year. His countryman Tim van Rijthoven upset Daniil Medvedev to claim the title a year ago, and Griekspoor admitted that he has the opportunity to fulfil a long-held ambition when he steps on court to face Thompson on Sunday.

“Winning an ATP event at home is a dream,” said the World No. 38, who won his maiden ATP Tour title in Pune in January. “First you start dreaming about winning an ATP [event] and I got that one. I’m close to the next [dream]. Let’s try to go one more match and try to take the title at home.”

Thompson earlier booked his spot in the final by prevailing 7-6(5), 6-3 in an all-Australian clash with Rinky Hijikata. It was his fourth tour-level semi-final, all four of which have come on grass, and his experience showed as he held his nerve for a one-hour, 56-minute victory to end the 22-year-old Hijikata’s dream run.

Thompson saved the only break point he faced in what was the first all-Australian tour-level semi-final since Patrick Rafter defeated Lleyton Hewitt at the 2001 Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. With his run to a second championship match in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (he also reached that stage in 2019), the 29-year-old Thompson has risen 27 spots to No. 76 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

The draw for the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle has delivered a host of intriguing first-round encounters, not least a second ATP Head2Head meeting between Felix Auger-Aliassime and Dominic Thiem.

Thiem defeated Auger-Aliassime in straight sets at the 2020 US Open three years ago and the Austrian wild card will hope for a repeat result when he competes on grass for the first time since 2021 at the ATP 500. Thiem and the fifth-seeded Auger-Aliassime, who reached the semi-finals at Halle’s OWL ARENA last year, are in the same quarter of the draw as second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who opens his campaign against Gregoire Barrere.

Fourth seed Jannik Sinner is also in the bottom half of the draw in Germany. The Italian will make his Halle debut against Richard Gasquet, with the winner set to take on whoever prevails in a big-hitting battle between Nick Kyrgios and Lorenzo Sonego.

Headlining the Halle field is Daniil Medvedev, who reached the championship match in 2022. The top seed looks to bounce back from early defeat in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last week in a first-round match against a qualifier. Should Medvedev reach the quarter-finals, he could face home favourite and two-time finalist Alexander Zverev, who takes on Roberto Bautista Agut in his opening match.

Hubert Hurkacz delivered one of the performances of the 2022 grass season to down Medvedev in last year’s final in Halle. The Pole defends his crown as the sixth seed, and he will hope to make a fast start against a qualifier. Andrey Rublev is a potential quarter-final opponent for Hurkacz: The third seed is chasing his first tour-level title on grass at the OWL Arena, where he faces a tough opening test against the fast-rising Chinese star Wu Yibing.

Frances Tiafoe advanced to his seventh tour-level final and first on grass on Saturday when he battled past Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics 6-3, 7-6(11) at the BOSS OPEN in Stuttgart.

The American, who did not face a break point in the match, saved six set points in an epic second-set tie-break to book his spot in the championship match after one hour and 37 minutes.

The third seed Tiafoe is chasing his third tour-level title and second of the season this week, having triumphed on clay in Houston in April.

Tiafoe is making his debut in Stuttgart, with his best result on grass prior to this week runs to the quarter-finals at The Queen’s Club in 2018 and 2021. The 25-year-old is up one place to No. 11 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings and will break the Top 10 for the first time if he wins the trophy in Germany.

The 25-year-old will meet fourth seed Hubert Hurkacz or Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in Sunday’s final.

Fucsovics, who was aiming to reach his fourth tour-level final, is up 20 spots to No. 66 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.