Former champions Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are already working hard at SW19 ahead of the season’s third Grand Slam at Wimbledon. Djokovic, Nadal, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka are among the stars who have been spotted training on the hallowed grass.

Djokovic will pursue his seventh title at The Championships, where he owns a 79-10 record. The Serbian has won 21 consecutive matches at the tournament, having emerged victorious at the past three editions of the event.

Nadal has won the first two majors of the season at the Australian Open and Roland Garros. The Spaniard will try to complete the third step of the Grand Slam at Wimbledon, where he has lifted the trophy twice, in 2008 and 2010.

Daniel Vallverdu, the current coach of Wawrinka and a former member of Murray’s team, posted a photo with both men as they continued their preparation for the grass-court major. Also in the photo was Ivan Lendl, Murray’s coach. 

A few slam 🏆’s and myself.
Today was a good day!@stanwawrinka @andy_murray #Ivan@Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/qlTYtyRfCz

— Daniel Vallverdu (@danielvallverdu) June 20, 2022

Qualifying for Wimbledon began on Monday, with Jack Sock leading seven Americans through to the second round. Main draw action at The Championships will be played from 27 June through 10 July. Prize money for the event will total a record £40,350,000.

Nick Kyrgios broke a sweat but did not break serve in a Mallorca Championships win against Laslo Djere on Tuesday. The Aussie did his damage in a pair of tie-breaks to advance with a 5-7, 7-6(1), 7-6(1) result in Spain despite a strong serving performance from the Serbian.

It was a reversal of his semi-final defeat to eventual champion Hubert Hurkacz last week in Halle, where the Pole came from a set down by winning two tie-breaks to defeat Kyrgios without a break.

“I’ve played good tie-breaks in my career and I know that if I’m serving well I’ve got a good chance,” the Aussie said after his Mallorca win. “He was serving really, really well today and he played the big points really well. I’m just happy to win.”

Kyrgios fired 24 aces but faced eight break points, saving seven of them to stay within touching distance as he struggled to find peak form. The Aussie stayed locked in to erase all six break points he faced in the third set — three in each of his opening two service games — and won 23 of his last 24 points on serve to secure the victory.

The World No. 45 dominated both tie-breaks, racing to leads of 3/0 and 5/0 in the second and third sets, respectively.

“Laslo is a tough competitor,” Kyrgios said post-match. “We grew up together in juniors so I knew he was capable of playing some good tennis. I’m proud of myself for that [win].”

Looking to improve upon a pair of semi-final runs on the grass in Stuttgart and Halle, Kyrgios advances to play home favourite and fifth seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round. 

“Another hard one,” Kyrgios previewed. “He’s a great player and he’s a great guy as well. He’s one of my mates on tour and he’s very nice to me.”

American Marcos Giron also won a third-set tie-break to advance on Tuesday in Mallorca, upsetting sixth seed Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6(6), 6-4, 7-6(2). Eighth seed Sebastian Baez was a 6-3, 6-4 winner against Jordan Thompson, while Daniel Altmaier downed Dusan Lajovic, 7-5, 7-6(2).

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The ATP Tour and Formula 1 have plenty in common, not least that both are inherently international sporting organisations with events and talent spanning the globe. Each is also involved in a Netflix series to showcase the life of the world-class athletes that compete for the top prizes in their respective sports.

ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi sat down with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali to discuss some of those commonalities and look ahead to the future of tennis through the lens of OneVision, the ATP’s transformational game plan to grow the sport.

“It has been important, very important,” Domenicali said of the Netflix series ‘Formula 1: Drive To Survive’. “I have to say when we had the idea, some of the teams and drivers were saying, ‘We don’t want to be involved.’

“But at the end of the day we are discovering that that was the right decision. It’s a different way of talking about Formula 1.”

Domenicali explained how the Netflix series helped his sport share the stories of its athletes beyond the competition on the track. Gaudenzi has a similar vision for tennis and is excited to provide more behind-the-scenes content to fans.

“It’s a concept of trying to grow the pie and trying to elevate the sport for everybody,” he said. “Ultimately, everybody will benefit.”

That same idea applies to OneVision, as Gaudenzi explained, with the goal of creating engaging and original media to provide a richer fan experience.

“I strongly believe that our sport is very well suited for the digital transformation that is happening,” he said, noting the near-daily competition which provides content nearly 300 days out of the year with more than 64 tournaments, including competition in more than 30 countries.

Another important part of the OneVision plan centres around elevating the ATP Masters 1000 events as the ATP Tour’s premium product.

“We are also mindful that we need to finance the Challenger Tour,” added Gaudenzi, “because we need the stars of the future, the talent and the younger players to be able to actually make a living when they are preparing for the Tour.”

OneVision: In Conversation With Stefanos Tsitsipas & Andrea Gaudenzi

Formula 1 has a similarly tiered system that also includes F2, F3 and F4 as a pipeline to the elite level.

At all levels, both leaders stressed the importance of economic transparency, and the need for all stakeholders to work together.

“I do see the value in the transparency,” Gaudenzi said, replying to Domenicali’s comments on F1’s efforts in that regard. “We’re trying to do the same thing to provide visibility to the players and also a share of the upside, of the future success, with our profit-sharing formula.”

Both agreed that, ultimately, their sports are competing against other sports leagues and the entertainment industry for the time and attention of fans.

“I keep trying to tell my stakeholders that we always have internal fights, [but] we’re actually competing with other sports like Formula 1, soccer or football, NFL,” said Gaudenzi. “We’re also competing with entertainment platforms, whether it’s gaming, whether it’s music, Spotify. We’re competing with Netflix in a way.”

Unity was a constant thread throughout the discussion — the concept that a rising tide lifts all ships — whether that be within the respective sports or across the sports industry as a whole.

“There’s a huge opportunity that comes through unity,” Gaudenzi summarised, “because the individual interest obviously doesn’t always match the collective interest of the sport.”

Domenicali closed with a vote of confidence for the ATP’s OneVision plan, congratulating Gaudenzi on the concept.

“I think will be a big boost up in the system,” he said. “You will have your challenges, but I’m sure that with your credibility and your authenticity, you’re going to be able to achieve that.”

Phase One of OneVision, approved by the ATP Board in June 2022, comes into effect from January 2023. Learn More About OneVision

Ryan Peniston had not played a tour-level match entering last week’s Cinch Championships, but he has not looked back since.

After reaching the quarter-finals at The Queen’s Club, the Briton made a good start to his run at the Rothesay International on Tuesday. Peniston rallied past #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-1 to reach the second round.

“Very, very happy with that. Tough start, but managed to fight thanks to you guys. Very happy with the win,” Peniston said in his post-match interview. “It’s been madness to be honest. A couple weeks ago it was a lot different. Now things have changed a little bit, but I’m loving it.”

Eighth seed Rune held a mini-break advantage at 4/3 in the second-set tie-break and was within two points of victory at 5/5, but was unable to convert. Peniston hit a deep backhand return to clinch the second set and never looked back.

The lefty won 72 per cent of his second-serve points to set a second-round clash against a Spaniard: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina or Pedro Martinez.

Italian Lorenzo Sonego also moved on with a 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(1) win against Australian qualifier James Duckworth.

Aslan Karatsev and Joran Vliegen sprung a surprise in their first tour-level match as a team on Monday at the Mallorca Championships, where they held their nerve in a pair of tie-breaks to edge fourth seeds Andrey Golubev and Maximo Gonzalez 7-6(1), 7-6(6).

Karatsev and Vliegen wrapped up the match with three consecutive points, the first of which fended off a set point for their opponents, to claim the second-set tie-break. Their next opponents at the ATP 250 event in Spain will be Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez or Tallon Girekspoor and Botic van de Zandschulp.

In the other opening-round match played on Monday in Mallorca, Austrian wild card duo Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler enjoyed a 7-5, 3-6, 10-4 victory against Sebastian Baez and Joao Sousa.

Mahut/Roger-Vasselin Advance In Eastbourne
At the Rothesay International in Eastbourne, Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin were 6-4, 7-6(8) winners against Top 50 singles stars Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Pedro Martinez. Mahut and Roger-Vasselin are chasing their second title together on grass after their triumph in Newport in 2013.

There was also opening-day success on the English south coast for Maxime Cressy and Ugo Humbert, who overcame Francisco Cerundolo and Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 4-6, 10-8, while Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Aisam-Ul-Haq-Qureshi downed home wild card pairing Julian Cash and Henry Patten 6-4, 7-6(4).