Five years ago, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina won the Wimbledon Boys’ Singles title. Although the Spaniard arrived at The Queen’s Club this week with a 1-3 tour-level record on grass, he has shown this week he is plenty capable on the surface.

Davidovich Fokina battled past Australian Alex de Minaur 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 after two hours and 16 minutes to reach the quarter-finals at the Cinch Championships.

“When you play the first match, it’s always tough, because the grass is slippery and you have to be physically so strong,” Davidovich Fokina said in his on-court interview. “When you are winning matches, you have more confidence with yourself and this match against Alex brought me a lot more.”

The 23-year-old thrilled the London crowd with his entertaining tennis. “Foki” slipped and slid here and there, but crucially was locked in on break points — both for and against him — and that made the difference. Davidovich Fokina saved eight of the 10 break points he faced and converted all three he earned to secure his second win of the week.

“To play on grass, you have to be focussed on every point because it can escape, the games, so quickly. And Alex is a very good player here on grass,” Davidovich Fokina said. “I had to be [focussed] every point, because I knew I had my chances. I’m so happy for the win.”

Davidovich Fokina will next play Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp, who defeated former World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov 7-6(5), 6-3. Like the Spaniard, van de Zandschulp began the tournament with one tour-level victory on grass. Now he has three, having also eliminated Briton Paul Jubb in the first round.

On Monday, Daniil Medvedev reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Two days later, he wasted no time in backing up that status on court at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle.

The top seed was imperious in completing a 6-3, 6-2 win over David Goffin on Wednesday to reach the second round at the ATP 500 event in Germany for the first time.

“It was a great match,” said Medvedev after his victory. “David is a tricky player. I think that’s why I went to play last week. It’s always an advantage when you played some matches and your opponent didn’t.

“[The] first set was really tight, like always on a grass court. I feel like he was missing his rhythm a little bit, I was trying to serve fast, it was not easy for him. I managed to keep this momentum until the end and that was enough today.”

Goffin had won the pair’s only previous tour-level meeting on grass, a five-set victory in the third round at Wimbledon in 2019, and the Belgian was by no means below-par in the first-round clash. Yet Medvedev found a consistently high level from the start on OWL Arena, giving the 2019 finalist few opportunities to counter in a 64-minute victory.

Medvedev appeared in control of a high-quality first set thanks to a break in the fourth game, but as he served for it at 5-3 Goffin’s clean-hitting carved out a break-back opportunity. The World No. 1’s ability to find big serves at important moments had defined his run to the final at the Libema Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last week, however, and his delivery was precise once again as he fended off the break point at 30/40 before going on to convert his second set point.

An all-around performance from Medvedev in the second set made it increasingly difficult for World No. 39 Goffin to stick with his opponent. Medvedev raced to a 4-0 lead, and although he again needed to find a big serve to fend off break point and hold for 5-1, the top seed was comfortable in serving out for victory having fired 17 winners, including six aces.

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Medvedev missed much of the 2022 European clay season due to a hernia procedure, and he acknowledged the break was a contributing factor to his bright start on the grass this year.

“The clay seems like a long season for me, especially I struggle mentally a lot on it, so I always feel like I am a little bit worn out after Roland Garros,” said Medvedev. “[This year] I just played two tournaments [on clay], and still Roland Garros, even though I played good there, it is tough for me to play on clay. So it’s not that easy, but definitely I am more fresh than [earlier] years.”

A second-round meeting with Ilya Ivashka now awaits Medvedev in north-west Germany, where the 26-year-old is chasing his maiden title of the 2022 season.

Chun-hsin Tseng’s rapid rise up the Pepperstone ATP Rankings continued this week with his latest major milestone. The #NextGenATP star from Chinese Taipei entered the Top 100 for the first time on 13 June on the heels of a stellar start to the 2022 season.

Both Tseng and fellow 20-year-old Jack Draper broke into the Top 100 on Monday, and the two sit at seventh and fifth, respectively, in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan.

While Great Britain’s Draper has earned recent headlines with big wins over Lorenzo Sonego and Taylor Fritz, Tseng has competed in both the Australian Open and Roland Garros main draws this season in addition to his excellent record on the ATP Challenger Tour.

Tseng first entered the Top 200 last December after winning his first Challenger title in Maia, Portugal. He credits that triumph with sparking his game heading into the new year.

“After my first title in a Challenger in Maia, I believed that I could do something on the Tour and I started to know my game better and use my weapons better,” he told ATPTour.com. “I found my rhythm and I knew that I could break through. This Challenger I will remember the most, because it helped my confidence when I was really down, and that was very important mentally.”

Tseng has added to his trophy count this season, winning two more Challengers (in Bengaluru, India, and Murcia, Spain) in addition to reaching a third final. He then qualified for Roland Garros last month without dropping a set, but fell in five sets to Joao Sousa in the first round. 

Tseng began playing tennis around the age of five, when his father, Ed — whom he calls his “biggest influence” — took him to play on clay courts in Chinese Taipei. His parents owned a food stand at the Lehua night market in Taipei, where they sold a dessert made of fruit and sugar. Tseng and his younger brother often helped out until he began travelling for tennis.

“In the beginning, it was tough, because we didn’t know anybody to play with,” he explained. “I learned to play in school. But the Federation helped me to meet coaches and visit academies and clubs and I began to travel more and more.”

After he won the Les Petit As junior tournament at age 13, he began training at the Mouratoglou Academy, where he stayed for four years.

“If you want to play professionally, you have to go outside the country and many people can’t afford to do it and also bring a coach,” Tseng continued. “If I get better and better and keep going up the rankings, my father wants to start a tournament in Taiwan and help them. We want to give the Taiwanese players the chance to play at home, so they don’t have to travel a lot.”

Now coached by Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh, with whom he had worked at the Mouratoglou Academy, Tseng is competing this week in Parma as he seeks his third Challenger title of the season, and the fourth of his young career.

Stan Wawrinka and Frances Tiafoe played the match of the day Tuesday at the Cinch Championships, with the Swiss advancing at The Queen’s Club after three tie-break sets.

Wawrinka’s 7-6(2), 6-7(6), 7-6(5) victory against his London doubles partner marked a winning return to the grass in his first match on the surface since Wimbledon 2019.

“That was a long time ago,” he said with a laugh. “It’s never been my best surface but today was great. Great match. [Tiafoe] is a great friend, we played doubles yesterday. We always play some big battles, so I’m really happy to get through that one.”

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Wawrinka had a match point at 6/5 in the second-set tie-break, but the American erased it with an ace before sending the contest to a decider. Both men displayed brilliant shotmaking at key moments in the match, with Wawrinka playing some of his best tennis to stop Tiafoe from serving out the match at 5-4 in the third.

The American rode the momentum from the second-set tie-break to an instant break in the decider, but could not close out the match as Wawrinka raised his level late. After getting back on serve at 5-5 with his first break of the match, Wawrinka saved three break points in a five-deuce game to edge in front 6-5. 

After jumping out to a 6/3 lead in the tie-break, he closed out the match on serve on his third chance of the tie-break — his fourth match point overall.

“I was fighting well. I think the level was not bad and I’m happy with the win,” Wawrinka said post-match. He improves his tour-level record this season to 3-3, playing in his fourth event after returning from a foot injury.

“It’s part of the process,” he said of his progress so far. “It takes time to be back at my age after more than a year off of the Tour. I’m enjoying the atmosphere. I’m enjoying playing in front of fans like today.”

Wawrinka will next face sixth seed Denis Shapovalov or Tommy Paul, who were knotted at one-set all when play was suspended due to darkness. Paul took the opener, 6-4, before the Canadian claimed the second, 6-2.

A smile beams across the face of a tired but ecstatic Ryan Peniston as he takes a seat at The Queen’s Club on Tuesday.

An hour earlier, the British wild card had earned the win of his life, upsetting World No. 5 Casper Ruud to reach the second round at the Cinch Championships on his ATP Tour debut.

The victory is reward for the hard work the 26-year-old has given to the sport since he first started playing as a child and for all players on Tour, a moment like this would feel special. However, it feels extra sweet for the World No. 180 due to the difficulties he has faced in his life.

When he was one, Peniston was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer found in children. The Briton had surgery to remove a tumour before he underwent an extensive period of chemotherapy in London. It was a period of his life Peniston become more aware of when he grew older.

“It is a difficult period to look at. I don’t remember anything when I was younger and even when I was a kid I didn’t know that much about the situation. It is only in the past 10 years that I have become more interested and asked my parents to tell me,” Peniston told ATPTour.com when discussing his illness.

“I am sure my parents didn’t really want to talk about that time in their life as it must have been so hard for them, like everyone around me. But it gives me a lot of strength when I look back to it,” Peniston added. “I think any other kids or families that are going through such a tough time, if they can have any kind of glimpse of hope or see what is possible, that would be a great.”

The 26-year-old was declared cancer-free a year after he started receiving treatment. Despite not being able to recall that difficult period, Peniston feels it has hugely shaped him into the individual he has become.

“It has hugely changed my perspective [on life],” Peniston said. “When I am having a tough day about something or getting annoyed about something little, I kind of remind myself that I literally might not have been here 25 years ago. When I think about stuff [that has annoyed me], It makes me relax and I try and enjoy everything. It definitely makes these kinds of days a little bit sweeter.”

The Briton successfully made a full recovery, but he has suffered long-term challenges from the treatment. Peniston remains fairly upbeat when sharing the difficulties he faced, further solidifying the positive outlook he has on life.

“The chemotherapy affected my growth. I was really small up until I was 14 or 15,” the 6’0″ Peniston said. “I was almost a foot smaller than some of my friends. In that aspect, it almost helped me in terms of tennis because I was able to work on some skills maybe other players weren’t working on. For example my movement, using my hands and tactics.

“Other people were serving big at 14. It has helped me a lot and when I started growing a bit it made me appreciate it as I was so small when I was younger. The biggest long-term aspect of it has been my mentality, though.”

Peniston’s movement, touch and determination were on show for all to see against Ruud as he transferred his off-court character onto court in his match against the Roland Garros finalist.

The 26-year-old, who attended the University of Memphis before turning professional in 2018, beamed as he reflected on the clash with Ruud, while he analysed his journey to this moment.

“During the match and when I managed to win the emotions were running really high,” the World No. 180 said. “It is indescribable really when the crowd were getting involved and cheering. It is just a surreal feeling.

“Ever since I started playing on the Tour in 2018 I haven’t been swayed away too much. I have had a vision and a dream of what I wanted to achieve and kept pushing towards that even when I lost.”

For Peniston, victory in front of a packed home crowd will live long in his memory. The wild card will next face Miami semi-finalist Francisco Cerundolo in the second round. However, before that, he will allow himself to celebrate his standout win, which has propelled him to No. 156 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

“I am going to celebrate with my team and family and enjoy the moment as much as I can,” Peniston said. “I think I will sleep a lot better tonight than I did last night. Then as a tennis player, you get to enjoy the win and then a couple of hours later you have to think about the next match.”

Roland Garros champions Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer picked up where they left off in Paris with an opening-round victory in Halle on Tuesday. The second seeds at the Terra Wortmann Open were crisp in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the first-time doubles pairing of Felix Auger-Aliassime and World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

The Salvadoran/Dutch duo scored one break in each set and did not drop serve in the victory.

“Honestly, when we saw the draw, we knew it would be a tough match,” Arevalo said of competing against two of the Top 10 singles players in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

“One of the best players in the world right now is Daniil, and Felix has always been on top in the last two or three years and he is still super young. So he is a potential No. 1 in the world at some point. But we are confident, we just won our biggest title as a team, our biggest achievement, and we have a lot of confidence right now and we feel like we are playing well even though it’s a different surface.”

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The switch from clay to grass presented no problems for the pair, who posted an impeccable 97 per cent win rate (30/31) on first serves in the contest.

“We are doing the things right and today, honestly, I think we played a perfect match,” Arevalo added. “We served well, we returned well and there were a couple of moments when we faced break points, but we escaped and I think that was key, because you don’t want to give these guys [a chance] to get back into the match. They are super dangerous, and if you give them those opportunities, they can easily take it and turn the match around. So I think we were lucky also to execute in those break points and keep the lead.

“Obviously for me it is a huge achievement. I never in my life imagined that I would beat the World No. 1 in singles, and No. 9 in singles as well! It’s just crazy what is happening.”

Top seeds Horacio Zeballos and Marcel Granollers were also victorious Tuesday in Halle, scoring a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Tallon Griekspoor and Alex Molcan. The German duo of Yannick Hanfmann and Jan-Lennard Struff also advanced, defeating Dustin Brown and Dominic Stricker, 4-6, 6-3, 10-2.

Britons Advance At Queen’s Club
Two British men advanced to the doubles quarter-finals in London as part of two separate teams. Cameron Norrie teamed with Aussie Alex de Minaur to upset third seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski, 7-6(4), 5-7, 10-6, in a dramatic match that featured 21 combined break points. But just three of those chances were converted, with De Minaur and Norrie saving 10 of the 12 break points against them.

Great Britain’s Lloyd Glasspool paired with Finland’s Harri Heliovaara for a 7-5, 6-3 win against the French team of Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Glasspool and Heliovaara were not broken in the match despite facing five break points.

After all four of the other Top 5 seeds fell victim to first-round upsets at the Cinch Championships, defending champion Matteo Berrettini restored order at The Queen’s Club in London on Tuesday.

The second-seeded Italian, fresh off winning his sixth ATP Tour title in Stuttgart, defeated home favourite Daniel Evans, 6-3, 6-3, on centre court. The Briton — who won an ATP Challenger Tour title last week in Nottingham — created seven break chances, but Berrettini erased each one to escape in straights.

“We both won a tournament last week so we were feeling confident and I think we showed it on the court,” Berrettini said post-match. “That’s why I’m even happier for my win.”

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Both sets included late drama. In the first, Berrettini broke in the eighth game and then saved two break points in serving for the set. But that paled in comparison to the close of set two.

Leading by an early break, Berrettini battled through four deuces at 4-3, saving three break points to extend his lead behind clutch serving. The ensuing game went eight deuces, with Berrettini ultimately converting his fourth match point.

“The last two games were really long,” he assessed. “But thats the beauty of tennis. We were fighting really hard.”

The 26-year-old improved to 5-0 following surgery on his right hand, all on grass. Prior to his Stuttgart triumph, he had not competed since Indian Wells in March.

“I love to play on grass. I love to play here,” he said. “I got a surgery a few months ago and I didn’t know if I was able to play this grass season so I’m really thankful to be here. Obviously every match is important for me. Now it’s time to think about the next match. Of course the goal is to win again.”

The Italian claimed the 2021 Queen’s Club title before reaching the Wimbledon final, finishing the grass season with an 11-1 record. He will look to extend his perfect grass-court record this year against qualifier Denis Kudla, who closed play on Court 1 with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win over Lorenzo Sonego.

The American reached the Surbiton final on the ATP Challenger Tour two weeks ago, beating Andy Murray in the semis, but lost to Alexander Bublik in the opening round last week in Stuttgart.