Earlier this year, weeks before Denis Kudla was preparing to play Dusan Lajovic in the first round of Roland Garros, the American was sliding on Har-Tru, trying to find his footing at ATP Challenger tournaments.

Kudla has been ranked inside the Top 100 Emirates ATP Rankings for almost a year now, since last July. But the 23 year old still finds ATP Challenger tournaments worth his time and commitment. At Challenger events, Kudla said, players of all rankings can try to string together a few nice wins and gain some much-needed confidence. With that self-belief, he said, most players can have a chance of beating almost anyone in the world.

“There’s so many good players here,” Kudla said in Savannah. “No matter what tournament you’re playing, what level you’re at, if you have confidence, you can pretty much play with anybody.”

Kudla played in two ATP Challenger events on Har-Tru earlier this year, the Sarasota Challenger and the Savannah Challenger. The Ukrainian-born American enjoyed varied results. In Sarasota, Kudla was the top seed but fell to then-World No. 190 Noah Rubin 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(8).

“The Challengers haven’t been so great for me this year,” Kudla said before starting in Savannah.

But he became more comfortable on the crushed stone. In Savannah, Kudla won his first-round match by coming back from a set down to beat clay-court veteran Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador. In the second round, Kudla dismissed Brian Baker, a former World No. 52 who’s making another comeback from injuries.

Kudla then dispatched Nicolas Jarry but lost in the semi-finals to Bjorn Fratangelo, who would later win the USTA Pro Circuit Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge and gain direct entry into Roland Garros.

This week will mark Kudla’s fourth time playing in Paris but only his second in the main draw. (He lost to Jan Hajek in the first round in 2013.) Kudla is hoping his recent success on the Challenger Tour helps his play at upcoming tour-level events, much like it did last year during a career breakthrough.

It was early June, and the right-hander had just finished up the clay-court season with disappointing results. Kudla failed to win a round at qualifying at Roland Garros and was 2-6 during tour-level play for the season. His ranking also had dropped 16 places since the start of the year to No. 139. “I wasn’t in a great place,” Kudla said.

With his new coach, Billy Heiser, Kudla headed to grass-court ATP Challengers to jumpstart his season. At the Surbiton Challenger, Kudla strung together four wins to make the final before falling to Matthew Ebden of Australia in a third-set tie-break. The next week, at the Illkley Challenger, Kudla won four more matches and then beat Ebden 6-3, 6-4 to capture his fifth ATP Challenger title.

That success led him to bigger things at tour-level events. He posted a career-best showing at a Grand Slam by reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon. His All-England Club run featured wins over then-World No. 23 Pablo Cuevas, #NextGen star Alexander Zverev and then-World No. 60 Santiago Giraldo of Colombia. In the fourth round, Kudla grabbed a set from then-World No. 9 Marin Cilic before falling in four sets.

Later that year, Kudla earned his best showing at a tour-level event by making the semi-finals of the BB&T Atlanta Open. “I was in a new mindset, just trying to stay positive,” Kudla said. “Everything just kind of came together in a really short period of time, which is not easy to do. But I took advantage of it and I kept going. I felt like it was one of the first times in my career where I played really well for a long period of time.”

With more Challenger success behind him, Kudla will try to start another impressive run this week at Roland Garros.

2016 ROLAND GARROS – This is the 49^th tournament in the Open Era (since 1968) and 83^rd at Roland Garros since 1925 (tournament was not held from 1940-45 during World War). In 1925, the draw was opened to players outside of France. The French Championships started in 1891 and this is the 115^th overall staging of the tournament. There are two former champions in the field – reigning champ Stan Wawrinka and nine-time winner Rafael Nadal (2005-08, ’10-14). There are a Grand Slam tournament record 51 players 30 & over in the main draw.

DJOKOVIC TOP SEED – This is Novak Djokovic’s 16th Grand Slam tournament as the No. 1 seed. It’s also the fourth time in five years at Roland Garros and the eighth consecutive Grand Slam in which Djokovic has been the top seed. Eight of his 11 Grand Slam titles have come as the top seed: ’11 & ‘15 US Open, ’12-13, ’15-16 Australian Open and ’14-15 Wimbledon. This will be the 21^st consecutive Grand Slam tournament in which he is a Top 2 seed.

FRENCH TITLE HOPES – It’s been 33 years since the last Frenchman, Yannick Noah, held up the champion’s trophy in 1983 (d. Wilander). He is the only French Grand Slam singles champion in the Open Era. Prior to that, Marcel Bernard won the title in 1946. The last French finalist at Roland Garros was Henri Leconte in 1988. The best results among active Frenchmen are by Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with semi-final results in 2008 and 2013, ‘15, respectively. The last Frenchman to reach a Grand Slam singles final was Tsonga at the 2008 Australian Open (l. to Djokovic).

BIG 4 DOMINATE – Since Roland Garros in 2005 when Nadal won his first Grand Slam title, the Big 4 of Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Andy Murray have combined to win 40 of the past 44 Grand Slam titles with the only exceptions the 2009 US Open (Juan Martin del Potro), 2014 Australian Open (Stan Wawrinka), 2014 US Open (Marin Cilic) and 2015 Roland Garros (Wawrinka). During the current stretch, Nadal has won 14 titles, Federer 13 titles, Djokovic 11 and Murray 2. The foursome have also won 52 of the past 56 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles going back to 2010 Monte-Carlo. During that stretch, Djokovic has won 23 titles, Nadal 13, Federer 8 and Murray 8.

THE REIGNING CHAMPION – Last year Wawrinka came in as the No. 8 seed (No. 9 ranked) and captured his second Grand Slam title, defeating the top two players en route: No. 2 Federer in the quarter-finals and No. 1 Djokovic in the final. At 30 years old, Wawrinka became the first 30 & over champion at Roland Garros since Andres Gomez in 1990. Entering this week Wawrinka, who is playing in Geneva, had a 3-3 record on clay with his best result the quarter-finals at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo last month (l. to Nadal). Last year Wawrinka came into Paris with a 6-4 record on clay. The last player other than Nadal to win back-to-back titles at Roland Garros was Gustavo Kuerten in 2000-01.         

RAFA EYES 10^th TITLE – Nadal attempts to win his 10th Roland Garros title in 12 years as he comes in with a 70-2 career record. Nadal’s only losses have come to Robin Soderling in the fourth round on May 31, 2009 and to Djokovic in the quarter-finals on June 3, 2015 (on Nadal’s birthday). In 2014, the Spaniard became the first player to win five consecutive titles at Roland Garros. He also won four in a row from 2005-08. Bjorn Borg is the only other player to win four consecutive titles. He did it from 1978-81. Nadal comes into Roland Garros with a 19-4 clay-court record on the season, having won back-to-back titles at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo (d. Monfils) and Barcelona (d. Nishikori). In his last two tournaments, he lost in the semi-finals at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid (l. to Murray) and the quarter-finals at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome (l. to Djokovic). He is seeded in the Top 4 for the 11^th time in 12 years (No. 6 last year).

KING OF ROLAND GARROS – In 2012, Nadal passed six-time winner Bjorn Borg with the most titles in Roland Garros history (since 1925). Two years ago he won for the ninth time.

TOUGH TO BEAT IN FIVE – Nadal has a sparkling 93-2 career record in best-of-five set matches on clay. His only losses were to Soderling in the fourth round in four sets in 2009 and last year to Djokovic in the quarter-finals. He’s been extended to five sets on clay only four times in his career, defeating Guillermo Coria in the 2005 Rome final and Federer in the 2006 Rome final (both 7-6 in the fifth) along with John Isner at Roland Garros in the first round in 2011 and Djokovic in the semi-finals in 2013.

CLAY-COURT DOMINATOR – Nadal has the best career match record on clay in the Open Era with a 363-34 mark (.914) and he’s 49-9 in clay finals. In 10 of the past 12 years he’s won at least two European clay-court titles coming into Roland Garros.

CAREER GRAND SLAM CLUB – World No. 1 Djokovic is looking to add his name in the history books by completing a career Grand Slam and become the first man to hold all four Grand Slam titles since Rod Laver in 1969. In the past nine years, Djokovic has reached the semi-finals or better seven times with a runner-up showing in three of the past four years: 2012, ’14-15. Six of his 11 losses at Roland Garros have come to Nadal, including from 2012-14.  Djokovic is trying to become the eighth player to complete a career Grand Slam and join Nadal and Federer, who are active members of the Career Grand Slam Club. Other players to accomplish the feat are: Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, and Andre Agassi. Six other players have won three of the four Slam tournament titles except Roland Garros: Arthur Ashe, coach Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg, John Newcombe, and Pete Sampras.

MOST ATTEMPTS TO TITLE – Djokovic is making his 12^th appearance at Roland Garros. The most attempts before winning the Roland Garros title in the Open Era is 11, most recently by Wawrinka last year and Federer in 2009. The most attempts to win any Grand Slam title in the Open Era is 14 by Goran Ivanisevic, who won Wimbledon in 2001.

DJOKOVIC ON A ROLL – Djokovic enters Roland Garros with an ATP World Tour-best 37-3 match record (14-1 vs. Top 10) and five titles this season. Last year he came into Paris with a 22-match winning streak (35-2 record). In the opening month of the season, he won the Doha title and then captured his 11^th career Grand Slam crown with a record-tying sixth title at the Australian Open. He also won ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in Indian Wells, Miami and Madrid. He will become the fifth player in the history of the Emirates ATP Rankings to hold No. 1 at least 200 weeks in his career and 100 consecutive weeks during Roland Garros (see below).

WEEKS AT NO. 1: Djokovic will reach 200 weeks at No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on May 23 and he will get to 100 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on May 30.

MURRAY IN FINE FORM – Murray is the No. 2 seed at Roland Garros for the first time in his career. The 29-year-old British star is coming off his 12^th career ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Rome where he defeated No. 1 Djokovic for the first time on clay (1-4). He also was runner-up at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid (l. to Djokovic). Murray has compiled an outstanding 29-3 match record (.906) on clay and reached four finals (3-1) in 2015-16 after putting together a 63-37 match record (.630) without a final on the surface from 2005-14. Murray is a three-time semi-finalist at Roland Garros (2011, ’14-15).

FEDERER SLAM STREAK ENDS – Federer’s record of 65 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments played ended with his withdrawal. Federer’s streak began at the 2000 Australian Open and he is the only player to compete in every Grand Slam singles draw in this century. There are six other active players in the Top 10 longest consecutive Grand Slam tournaments played, including Feliciano Lopez (57), Fernando Verdasco (52) and Tomas Berdych (51).

KYRGIOS ON THE RISE — The youngest player in the Top 20 Emirates ATP Rankings at No. 19 is Nick Kyrgios, who is the No. 17 seed at Roland Garros. The 21-year-old Aussie has played well in Grand Slam tournaments since Wimbledon in 2014 when he advanced to the quarter-finals. Since that tournament, Kyrgios has compiled a 16-7 match record in the last seven Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the third round or better six times. He also reached the quarter-finals at the 2015 Australian Open. At Roland Garros last year he reached the third round (l. to Murray). This season, Kyrgios has put together a 21-7 match record (7-3 on clay), posting a career-best five wins over Top 10 opponents.

COUNTRY COUNT – There are 42 countries represented in the main draw with the host country France leading the way with 16 players followed by Spain with 15, USA 10, Argentina 9 and Germany 7. There were 16 qualifiers, three coming from Germany and two from Argentina and Spain. Qualifier Radek Stepanek, at 37 years, 5 months, is the oldest player in the draw. The youngest player is last year’s Roland Garros junior finalist Taylor Fritz at 18 years, 6 months.

ON THE SIDELINES – There were seven withdrawals from the original direct acceptance list: Pablo Andujar, Juan Martin del Potro, Roger Federer, Andreas Haider-Maurer, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Gael Monfils and Tommy Robredo.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Stan Wawrinka captured his first home title with a win in Geneva. Read

Dominic Thiem successfully defended his Nice title with a win over good friend Alexander Zverev. Read

Novak Djokovic has a chance to complete a career Grand Slam in Paris. Read

Andy Murray is prepared for a “tricky” start to Roland Garros. Read

Rafael Nadal will face a difficult opponent in his first-round match in Paris. Read

Veteran Radek Stepanek braved the odds to qualify for Roland Garros. Read

MILESTONE WATCH

Here is a look at the players approaching career milestones:

– Baghdatis: One win away from 300 in career

– Djokovic: $326,596 away from reaching $100 million in career (must reach QF)

– Isner: Two wins away from 300 in career

– Nadal: Two wins away from 200 in Grand Slam play in career; six wins away from 800 in career

– Seppi: One win away from 300 in career  

BIRTHDAYS

22 May – Novak Djokovic (29)

24 May – Fabio Fognini (29)

27 May – Joao Sousa (28)

3 June – Rafael Nadal (30)

4 June – Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (33)

At last, Stan Wawrinka has won a title in his home country.

In a high-quality and entertaining final, the Swiss star dismissed Croat Marin Cilic 6-4, 7-6(11) on Saturday to win the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. The win gives Wawrinka his third title of the season and his first on clay this year. It also should build the Swiss star’s confidence as he looks to defend his Roland Garros title.

“It’s a dream come true to be able to win a title in Switzerland, after all these tournaments,” Wawrinka said. “To be able to do it here in Geneva, in the event’s second year is something special. The fans were great. They made a lot of noise today.”

The World No. 4 jumped ahead early in the final against Cilic, who was playing for his first title of 2016. Wawrinka broke the World No. 11 to gain a 2-1 lead and later served out the set. The 31 year old didn’t face a break point in the opening set.

In the second, though, Cilic earned the first break to go up 3-1 and consolidated it to lead 4-1. But Wawrinka broke the Croat at 3-5 to get the second set back on serve. The home tournament blasted KC and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s The Way (I Like It)” after Wawrinka broke back. The Swiss No. 2 then held at love to tie the match at 5-all and later forced a set tie-break.

In the tie-break, Cilic had five set points but lost all five. On Wawrinka’s second match point, Cilic slapped a backhand long to give his opponent the match and the title.

“Marin is a great player,” Wawrinka said. “He really ramped up the pressure toward the end, with those set points, so it was nice to be able to finish off the match.”

Wawrinka had played for the singles title in Gstaad in 2005 and for the doubles title there in 2004 and 2008 but lost all three times. On Saturday, he erased those memories with his first Swiss title. He will receive 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points and €88,900.

Cilic will receive 150 Emirates ATP Rankings points and €46,820. The 6’6″ right-hander also heads into Roland Garros with renewed confidence in his game. Geneva was his first clay-court tournament of the season and his first tournament since March because of a right-knee injury.

“It was an amazing week for me and this was something… I was not even expecting,” Cilic said of his run to the final. “I definitely have great enthusiasm now for (Roland Garros).”

Dominic Thiem successfully defended his Open de Nice Cote d’Azur title, overcoming a stern test from #NextGen star Alexander Zverev 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 on Saturday.

Thiem claimed his sixth ATP World Tour title and third in 2016, having lifted the trophy on the clay of Buenos Aires and hard courts of the 500-level event in Acapulco. He is the 10th player to retain a tour-level title this year and the second to do so in the seven-year history of the Nice event. Nicolas Almagro also won back-to-back titles in the French city, in 2011-12.

“It’s been an unbelievably great week,” said Thiem. “The first time I had to defend a title and I made it. Maybe I played better in the three matches before this, but a final is always special. You have so much to win and so much to lose. I played a solid third set and I’m really happy. My arm is a little tired, but I will be ok for Roland Garros on Monday.” 

ATP World Tour Repeat Titlists In 2016

Zverev looked to be in control from the start, earning four break points on Thiem’s serve early in the opening set. The German would convert his fourth with a backhand return winner, streaking to a quick 4-2 lead. But Thiem would clamp down, breaking back for 4-all after an untimely nose bleed forced Zverev to the sidelines for a medical timeout. The German teen double faulted to give the break back and did so once again when facing his first set point. Thiem would reel off six straight games to snatch the opener and grab a quick break in the second set.

But Zverev was not finished just yet. The lead vacillated once again, with the 19 year old breaking back immediately and claiming six of the next seven games to force a decider, as Thiem called for the trainer with an apparent right shoulder injury.

Zverev would fight hard, but it wasn’t enough, as Thiem found a second gear in the decider. The Austrian won 24 of 29 points in the third set to secure the title. He fired five aces and converted six of eight break chances to emerge victorious after one hour and 39 minutes.

Thiem improved to 36-10 in 2016, already equaling his career-best 36 match wins from a year ago. He is just one victory shy of Novak Djokovic’s tour-leading mark. The 22-year-old Austrian takes home €82,450 in prize money and 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points.

Appearing in his first ATP World Tour final, Zverev was bidding to become the first teen titlist since Marin Cilic in New Haven 2008 and the youngest winner since Kei Nishikori in Delray Beach, also in 2008. The German #NextGen star, who earns €43,430 and 150 Emirates ATP Rankings points, saved two match points in stunning second seed Gilles Simon in the quarter-finals, before upsetting fifth seed Joao Sousa in the semis. He is the third different teenager to reach a title match on the ATP World Tour this year, joining Borna Coric (Chennai, Marrakech) and Taylor Fritz (Memphis).

“I spent about 12.5 hours on court this week, so I’m a bit tired,” said Zverev. “Against a player like Dominic, who is one of the best clay-court players right now, you have to be at your best to beat him. There’s not a lot of chances. It’s really tough to win when you’re not at 100 per cent.”