“Rafa, you put me on tennis!”

Arthur Cazaux developed a love for tennis at a young age, when he was sitting at his home in southern France watching the-then 19-year-old Rafael Nadal compete at Roland Garros.

Little did Cazaux know that the Spaniard would someday become one of the sport’s greatest players and the Montpellier native would be a professional tennis player himself.

Becoming a pro was a childhood dream for the #NextGenATP Frenchman, who is making rapid progress on the ATP Challenger Tour.

“My first tennis memory was when I was three years old and I watched Roland Garros on TV. Nobody in my family played tennis, but I watched Roland Garros with my father and I saw a Rafael Nadal match,” Cazaux told the ATP Challenger Tour media team. “I don’t know why but I was shocked. I fell in love with tennis and Rafael Nadal. Since that day, I’ve played tennis and I’ll never give up.

“I met [Rafa] in 2018 at the Roland Garros gym, I took a picture with him. It was my first junior Grand Slam, and I saw him. I was like, ‘I must take a picture with him!’ It was a big memory. Rafa, you put me on tennis!”

The 22-time major champion Nadal is not the only sporting legend that Cazaux idolises. He is also a big fan of basketball players Stephen Curry and the late Kobe Bryant.

“Kobe was one of my first idols, I was a big fan of his mentality in everything,” Cazaux said. “I tattooed a black mamba on my arm because [of his] ‘black mamba’ mentality.”

Cazaux is part of a promising list of young French stars that are making an impact early in their careers. The 2020 Australian Open boys’ singles finalist is one of three Frenchmen in the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race: Arthur Fils (4th), Luca Van Assche (6th), Cazaux (7th).

The 20-year-old Cazaux started the year on a 13-match winning streak (including qualifying) and claimed his second Challenger title in Nonthaburi, Thailand. This past week, Cazaux enjoyed a breakthrough run to the final at the Nottingham Challenger, where he fell short to three-time major champion Andy Murray.

“It was my first week on grass courts, it was a great feeling to play my first professional tournament on grass,” Cazaux said. “It was a long way to the final because I started from the qualies. In the last round of qualies, it was very tough because I played a British wild card [Daniel Cox] and I won 7-6 in the third, it was a tough match.

“I played at a very good level and it was a wonderful week. To reach the final against Andy Murray was the best final.”

Despite playing his first grass-court swing, Cazaux has continued his early success on the surface. On Thursday, he reached the semi-finals of the Lexus Ilkley Trophy after Sho Shimabukuro was forced to retire in the second set.

Cazaux will next meet Australian Jason Kubler in the last four Friday.

Is Andrey Rublev rustling up another deep run at the Terra Wortmann Open? The 2021 finalist booked his spot in the last eight at the grass-court ATP 500 event on Thursday with a 7-6(5), 6-3 victory against Yannick Hanfmann.

Rublev delivered a solid display to hold off the World No. 53 Hanfmann and improve his record in Halle to 8-3. Home favourite Hanfmann had led 5/3 in the first-set tie-break but was unable to push on and forge a repeat of his victory in the pair’s fourth-round meeting last month at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome.

“The important thing was I was able to win against a tough player like Yannick,” said Rublev. “The last time he beat me and he’s playing better and better. Especially on grass, he’s even tougher to play against because he has such a good serve and a good game at the net. I was able to win the match in two sets so I’m really happy.”

Take a bow, Andrey! 👏

🎩 @AndreyRublev97 @ATPHalle | #TerraWortmannOpen pic.twitter.com/xS2v5Idgq3

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 22, 2023

After winning five of the final six points to claim the first-set tie-break, Rublev carried the momentum into the second second, in which he established an ultimately unassailable 4-0 lead. With the OWL Arena roof closed during the second set to shelter the court from the torrential Halle rain, Rublev pushed on to a one-hour, 39-minute triumph in which he converted three of his six break points.

The World No. 7 will now prepare for his sixth tour-level quarter-final of the season against last week’s ‘s-Hertogenbosch winner Tallon Griekspoor. The 25-year-old Rublev is a 13-time ATP Tour titlist and is chasing his maiden crown on grass this week in Germany.

Griekspoor saved a match point against defending champion Hubert Hurkacz to notch a 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(8) victory and extend his winning run to seven matches. The Dutchman knocked off the sixth seed on his fifth match point, after Hurkacz battled back from 3/6 in the decisive tie-break to move within one point of the quarter-finals at 8/7.

The result levels the pair’s ATP Head2Head series at 1-1 less than one month after Hurkacz downed Griekspoor in five sets in the Roland Garros second round.

Entering Halle at a career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking of World No. 29, Griekspoor is seeking the third ATP Tour title of both this season and his career.

Gone from the ATP Tour, but still firmly in the minds of fans and players alike.

Roger Federer, a 10-time Terra Wortmann Open champion, was honoured in a special ceremony on centre court Wednesday at the grass-court ATP 500. It was the 103-time tour-level titlist’s first visit to a tennis tournament since his final match as a pro at the 2022 Laver Cup. For many, it was a happy reminder of what the Swiss great brought to life on Tour.

“Off court he was always extremely nice to everyone,” home favourite Alexander Zverev, who was beaten by Federer on the first of his two Halle championship-match appearances in 2017, told ATPTour.com. “He was a true gentleman, but he was still very, very private. He didn’t let a lot of people into his life, I think.

“On the court, it was always a joy to play him, because you knew the stadium would always be sold out, the crowd would always be on fire. So in that regard I think tennis misses him.”

Roger Federer” />

_{^{Roger Federer greeted hundreds of fans during his visit to Halle on Wednesday. Photo Credit: TERRA WORTMANN OPEN/Valentin Diehl.}}

Another home hope in the Halle field, Yannick Hanfmann, recalls Federer inspiring him as a young player.

“Any time he is around, it’s a good thing, because the guy is a hero to so many. To me as well. I remember I took a trip to Switzerland through a contact, and I was able to meet him. We took a picture when I was maybe 13 or 14 years old, and then a few years later we actually had a practice week together in Dubai. That was surreal, and we kind of recreated that picture.

“I miss Roger of course. I wish I had played him one time. I was close [once] to playing him in a draw. Roger is a legend, so it [was good] to have him here.”

Jannik Sinner is digging deep on the Halle grass at the Terra Wortmann Open.

The fourth seed held off the powerful Lorenzo Sonego on Thursday for a 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 second-round triumph at the ATP 500. Sinner saved all eight break points he faced in an intriguing two-hour, 52-minute encounter inside OWL Arena to reach his ninth tour-level quarter-final of the year.

It was the second three-set win in a row on event debut for Sinner, after Richard Gasquet pushed him the distance in his opening match. The 21-year-old will next play the winner between home favourite Jan-Lennard Struff and Alexander Bublik.

More to follow…

In 2019, Czech star Tomas Berdych announced his retirement from tennis after a storied 17-year career. In the same year, countryman Jiri Lehecka made his tour-level debut, representing his nation in the Davis Cup.

Four years on and the 21-year-old Lehecka is the face of Czech men’s tennis, the same position former World No. 4 Berdych held season after season. The World No. 36, who faces Carlos Alcaraz at the Cinch Championships on Thursday, has already achieved a series of impressive results on Tour. He advanced to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open in January and reached the semi-finals in Rotterdam (2022) and Doha (2023).

His success caught the attention of Berdych, who after spending time with Lehecka in Dubai, decided to join the team on a more regular basis.

“It is great having Tomas with me,” Lehecka told ATPTour.com in London. “He was in Monte-Carlo and he was in Rome and he will join us on Sunday here in London to do two weeks here at Wimbledon. I think that the cooperation works well.”

Berdych captured 13 tour-level titles in his career, including an ATP Masters 1000 crown in Paris in 2005. He was in the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings from July 2010 until October 2016, reaching the Wimbledon final in 2010.

Lehecka, who also works full-time with coach Michal Navratil, is delighted to have Berdych’s experience to lean on.

“He already has a different perspective from which he sees things,” Lehecka said. “He can see it from a different position because he was there for a long time. He played really good tennis on grass so he can give me some good tips on how to play.

“I think that it works well. We’ll see what the season brings, but for now I think that it’s helpful and that we gave him some small insight back to the game. I think that he started to miss it a bit, not playing. He likes to just to be around it I think.”

Now working together, Lehecka revealed that Berdych was a major inspiration for him when he grew up.

“I remember watching him during the final of the Davis Cup in 2012 when Czech beat Spain in Prague,” Lehecka said. “That was the first time where for me it was like, ‘Wow, this is one of the moments which I would love to feel myself’. It was funny because when I spoke with him, for him it is not that different. After all, 25 to 35 is not as big a difference as if you are 11 or 21. It was a funny moment and we had some fun talking about it.”

Lehecka will hope to channel Berdych’s grass-court abilities when he takes on World No. 2 Alcaraz in the second round at The Queen’s Club.

The 21-year-old is competing in his fifth tour-level event on the surface, having earned his second grass-court win in his first-round match against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in London. The 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up is a huge fan of the surface despite his limited experience.

“I think that the grass season is the holiday of tennis because it requires something more from everyone,” Lehecka said. “From taking care of the grass with the ground keepers to everyone else who is trying to take care about the tournament because grass is grass. You can’t just build a court and leave it there. The grass quality here is huge and I think that Queen’s is an amazing tournament.

“It’s the surface where it really shows you the truth. It’s a surface where you really need to show your skills. If you’re not a good player, then you will never have a good result. It’s not like one of the surfaces where you can just run around and try to grind it out. You really need to have that shot quality to get the point. I’m a very big fan of all to that.”

Lehecka will aim to show everyone his grass-court abilities when he meets Alcaraz. If the 21-year-old can upset the World No. 2, he will capture the third Top 10 win of his career and could climb into the Top 30 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

Fresh off their first title of the season in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski overcame a stern test Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals at the Cinch Championships.

The top seeds survived a hard-fought battle against defending champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 6-7(3), 7-6(3), 10-7. Neither team faced a break point throughout the one-hour, 54-minute contest.

The British-Dutch duo will next face Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden, who won this year’s ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells and defeated Jamie Murray and Michael Venus 7-6(8), 7-6(5) on Wednesday.

Third seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury also advanced after they moved past Andre Goransson and Ben McLachlan 7-6(4), 7-6(4). In quarter-final action, Taylor Fritz and Jiri Lehecka escaped Nicolas Mahut and Fabrice Martin 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-6.

Top Seeds Advance In Halle
Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer downed Tallon Griekspoor and Robin Haase 6-4, 6-4 after winning 30 of 36 first-serve points at the Terra Wortmann Open. The Salvadoran-Dutch duo will next face home favourites Oscar Otte and Jan-Lennard Struff in the last eight.

Wild cards Otte and Struff rallied to beat Hubert Hurkacz and Jannik Sinner 6-7(5), 6-2, 10-7. Marcelo Demoliner and Andreas Mies defeated Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz 6-4, 7-5.