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.

Three-time major champion Andy Murray has won 13 of his past 14 Challenger-level matches, including title runs in Aix-en-Provence and last week in Surbiton. The Scot will look to maintain his form Saturday at the Rothesay Open, where he will face third seed Nuno Borges in the semi-finals.

It will be top seed Murray’s first encounter with the Portuguese No. 1, who won the biggest title of his career earlier this season at the Challenger 175 event in Phoenix. Murray and Borges will battle not before 2 p.m. local time Saturday. 

In the bottom half of the Nottingham Challenger draw, #NextGenATP Frenchman Arthur Cazaux will meet fifth seed Dominik Koepfer in the last four. The German Koepfer has reached four Challenger finals this year, including his triumph at last month’s Challenger 175 event in Turin, Italy.

Fans can live stream Saturday’s semi-finals in Nottingham by visiting Challenger TV, where all ATP Challenger Tour matches are free to watch live and on demand.

For App Users
To watch Challenger TV on the ATP WTA Live App, navigate to the screen you see when you open the app. On the purple navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, click the “More” button on the far right. The second option down will be “Challenger TV”, where you can select any match from any ATP Challenger Tour event that day.

To view Challenger scores, draws, schedules and more, select “Scores” on the navigation bar on the bottom of your screen. At the top there are two tabs: “ATP Tour & Hologic WTA Tour” and “ATP Challenger & WTA 125”. Select the latter and explore all the Challenger events for the week.

Netflix’s hit tennis docuseries, Break Point, is set to return on 21 June.

With unprecedented behind-the-scenes access with some of the best players on the ATP Tour and the Hologic WTA Tour, the show follows the likes of Nick Kyrgios, Iga Swiatek and more around the world as they try to shine under the spotlight.

The first five episodes of the series were released in January. Before the second half of the season is released, learn more about Netflix’s Break Point.

Who are the players featured in Season 1, Part 2 of Netflix’s Break Point?

The players featured in the next five episodes of Break Point are Taylor Fritz, Nick Kyrgios, Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Frances Tiafoe, Ajla Tomljanovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Other players included are Felix Auger-Aliassime, Matteo Berrettini, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Maria Sakkari.

Carlos Alcaraz and Anett Kontaveit contribute interviews for the next batch of episodes.

Who else appears in the next five episodes of Netflix’s Break Point?

Andy Roddick, Chris Evert, Maria Sharapova, Patrick Mouratoglou, Paul Annacone and Courtney Nguyen make appearances as experts. Ajla Tomljanovic’s father Ratko Tomljanovic, Ons Jabeur’s former agent Thibault Olivier, Taylor Fritz’s coach Michael Russell and Iga Swiatek’s coach Tomasz Wiktorowski also contribute interviews.

What are the names of the upcoming Break Point episodes and which players will be featured in them?

Episode 6 – Belonging
Tournament Focus: Wimbledon
Players Featured: Nick Kyrgios, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Ajla Tomljanovic

Episode 7 – Saints and Sinners
Tournament Focus: Wimbledon
Players Featured: Nick Kyrgios, Ons Jabeur

Episode 8 – Fairytale in New York
Tournament Focus: US Open
Players Featured: Ajla Tomljanovic, Taylor Fritz

Episode 9 – Under Pressure
Tournament Focus: US Open
Players Featured: Frances Tiafoe, Iga Swiatek

Episode 10 – One Last Chance
Tournament Focus: Nitto ATP Finals, WTA Finals
Players Featured: Aryan Sabalenka, Taylor Fritz

How many episodes are there in Netflix’s Break Point?

There are 10 episodes in the first season of the tennis docuseries. The first five episodes were released on 13 January and the next five will be released on 21 June.

Who produced Netflix’s Break Point?

Break Point is produced by Box to Box Films, the company behind Formula 1: Drive to Survive and Full Swing. The executive producers are Paul Martin and James Gay-Rees. Kari Lia is the showrunner.

Andy Murray passed a stern test from #NextGenATP Swiss Dominic Stricker on Friday to reach the semi-finals at the ATP Challenger Tour 125 event in Nottingham.

The Scot is yet to drop a set this week after defeating Stricker 7-6(2), 7-5 in the Rothesay Open quarter-finals. Murray lost just one point behind his first serve in the opening set to gain an advantage on the 20-year-old. Despite trailing 1-3 in the second set, Murray fought back and earned a decisive break in the 11th game before closing out the match in one hour, 48 minutes.

“Really, really tight match today against one of the best young players in the world,” Murray said in his on-court interview. “He has a really good game, huge shots from the back of the court but also really nice touch up at the net.

“I thought in the first-set tie-break I played really well, came up with some really good passing shots to get me that tie-break. In the second set, I think when I broke back immediately when he went 3-1 up, I think it gave me the momentum back and I felt like I was creating a lot of chances. That’s the best I’ve played across the last two weeks in terms of how I hit the ball and that was really positive.”

The three-time major champion has won 13 of his past 14 Challenger-level matches, including title runs in Aix-en-Provence and last week in Surbiton. The 36-year-old will next face Nuno Borges, who cruised past Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro 6-4, 6-4. Borges earned his biggest career title earlier this season, when he triumphed at the premiere Challenger 175 event in Phoenix.

In other Nottingham action, French qualifier Arthur Cazaux advanced to the semi-finals after ousting Gabriel Diallo 7-6(2), 7-5 and Dominik Koepfer moved past wild card George Loffhagen 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

The smile says it all 😀

8⃣ wins in a row for @andy_murray, who gets past Stricker 7-6(2), 7-5 to reach the semifinals in Nottingham!#ATPChallenger | @the_LTA pic.twitter.com/ykZWx2x4v5

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) June 16, 2023