New week, same result.

Six days after Daniil Medvedev defeated Ilya Ivashka in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, he earned the same outcome on Thursday at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle.

Top seed Medvedev came through another tough opening set against the World No. 42, but ultimately proved too strong as he sealed a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory at the ATP 500 event in north-west Germany.

Medvedev was pleased to prevail in another high-quality clash with Ivashka, who was aiming to reach his fourth quarter-final of the season on the Halle grass.

“He is a great player,” said Medvedev after he improved his lead in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series to 3-1. “He had a lot of bad luck with injuries at the beginning of the season. At the end of last season he was playing really great tennis.

“I’ve known him since I was very young, we actually played [each other] in Futures, Challengers, and on the ATP Tour. He beat me once in Davis Cup, which is a really important tournament. So he knows how to play tennis, he knows how to play well on grass, so I’m really happy that two times in a row I managed to pass a tough test.”

It was by no means plain sailing for the World No. 1. Ivashka showed intent from the start in OWL Arena, striking cleanly through the ball to hurry his opponent. Yet just as in his opening-round win against David Goffin, Medvedev’s ability to find big serves at key moments proved crucial. He fended off three set points at 4-5 to stay in the opening set before going onto to clinch it in a tie-break.

Things were more comfortable for Medvedev in the second set, when a series of finely-crafted passing shots were the highlight as he wrapped up a one-hour, 36-minute victory to improve his career record on grass to 30-15.

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Medvedev next faces seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut in his maiden quarter-final appearance in Halle, after the Spaniard defeated Dutch qualifier Tallon Griekspoor 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-2. Despite reclaiming the No. 1 spot in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on Monday, Medvedev has not changed his approach stepping out on court in Germany as he seeks his second tour-level title on grass, even if his opponents might.

“I think it will depend on the player and the match, and on my level also,” he said when asked whether his opponents were likely to raise their game when facing the top-ranked player in the world. “Some are going to be a little bit intimidated that they are playing the World No. 1 and they have a tough draw. If they lose, maybe it is nothing special.

“And some on the contrary. Maybe they don’t have the best confidence at the moment and if they beat the World No. 1, that is where it starts.

“My goal is every time I go on the court just to be the best player possible, and if my opponent wins, congrats, and let’s go for the next one.”

It may have taken the best part of a decade, but Karen Khachanov was finally able to banish lingering grass-court demons against Laslo Djere on Thursday afternoon.

The 26-year-old recovered from a slow start to clinch a 7-6(4), 6-4 second-round win over Djere at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle. It was the pair’s second tour-level clash, but their first on grass since the Boys’ Singles at Wimbledon in 2013, a meeting Khachanov still remembers well.

“We played once [before] on a grass court at junior Wimbledon, I lost in three sets,” said Khachanov after his one-hour, 43-minute victory on Thursday. “I remember that match perfectly, what I did wrong in the third set. I think I was even a break up in the third and ended up losing 6-3. This time I took revenge on grass finally.”

The eighth seed rallied from a double-break down at 2-5 in the opening set in Halle, saving two set points on the Djere serve at 4-5 before clinching it via tie-break. An immediate break in the second set was enough to complete the turnaround for Khachanov, who was the more solid player despite firing just 19 winners to Djere’s 29.

“The first set was very tricky,” said Khachanov. “I was two breaks down and I don’t know how, but I managed to win the first set. I played a good tie-break, and it gave me a lot of confidence for the second set, from the beginning especially to keep pushing… I’m happy that I could turn it around, I could change the game and started to play better.”

The win takes Khachanov to a fourth quarter-final in Halle, where his best showing is a semi-final run from 2017. He next faces home favourite Oscar Otte, after the World No. 51 rallied to a 4-6, 6-0, 7-6(3) victory against Nikoloz Basilashvili to reach the quarter-finals on tournament debut.

Matteo Berrettini survived a scare at the Cinch Championships on Thursday to keep his title defence alive.

The Italian recovered from a slow start on a sun-baked centre court in London to rally past American lucky loser Denis Kudla 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 and extend his winning streak to six matches.

“It was a really tough match,” Berrettini said in his on-court interview. “We know each other really well. I am glad I am through. I think he played a really good match and most of the time I think he deserved to win, but I was there and worked hard and I am just really happy.”

The second seed, who lifted the trophy at the ATP 500 grass-court event last season, struggled to find his best level against the resilient Kudla in a hard-fought second-round battle.

The World No. 82 caused Berrettini problems with his intensity and consistency for large periods but was ultimately unable to prevail. Kudla broke back to level at 4-4 in the third set but then missed a forehand on top of the net to lose serve in the next game.

World No. 10 Berrettini, who fired 22 aces in the match, capitalised on his chance, fending off one break point to hold serve and advance after two hours and 45 minutes.

“I have felt a lot of support since the first match last year,” Berrettini added. “That is why I love to come here. The Club is great but the crowd is unbelievable, they helped me a lot today, so thank you.”

The 26-year-old now leads Kudla 3-2 in their ATP Head2Head series and will next play American Tommy Paul in the quarter-finals.

Berrettini has yet to lose since he returned to Tour last week following right-hand surgery. The six-time tour-level titlist soared to the trophy in Stuttgart, before he defeated Daniel Evans in his opening match in London.

Kudla was aiming to earn his first Top 10 win and reach the quarter-finals at The Queen’s Club for the second time, after enjoying a run to the last eight in 2013. He arrived at The Queen’s Club in good form, having defeated Andy Murray en route to the final at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Surbiton last month.

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British wild card Ryan Peniston continued his dream ATP Tour debut run by edging Argentine Francisco Cerundolo 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and one minute.

The 26-year-old, who upset top seed Casper Ruud in the first round, rallied from a break down in the third set as he demonstrated an abundance of grit and quality in front of a raucous home crowd to reach the quarter-finals.

“I don’t think I want to wake up from this anytime soon,” Peniston said in his on-court interview. “I took a lot of confidence from the last match against Casper [Ruud] and came out guns blazing. [The] second set didn’t go to plan, he kept fighting. Francisco is a great player. I just managed to fight in the third set and got over the line and I am pretty happy with it.”

Last year, when he was No. 375 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Peniston lost in the first round of qualifying in London. Following his win against Cerundolo, he is up to No. 145 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. The Briton will next face Filip Krajinovic after the Serbian downed American qualifier Sam Querrey 4-6,6-3, 6-4.

It is the first time Krajinovic has reached the quarter-finals at a tour-level event on grass. The 30-year-old, who enjoyed a run to the semi-finals in Montpellier on hard courts in February, is up to No. 38 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

Tommy Paul advanced to his first tour-level quarter-final on grass on Thursday when he dispatched former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-4 in a dominant performance at the Cinch Championships.

The American backed up his first-round win over sixth seed Denis Shapovalov with another strong display on the lawns in London on debut at the ATP 500 event. The World No. 35 took time away from Wawrinka by taking the ball early on return, while he saved all five break points he faced to advance after 65 minutes.

“This week is my first couple of main draw wins on grass. If you had asked me two years ago, I would have said grass was my worst surface. But when I started working with my coach Brad [Stine], he said grass will end up being my best surface and I have tried to mould my game on that,” Paul said. “I feel very comfortable out there, hopefully if not this year but next it will be my best surface.

“I feel I serve and volley well but every time I went to do so today, I missed my first serve, so I didn’t get many chances. I saw Tim Henman just now and he is one of my favourites because of the style of tennis he played and I told him, ‘Sorry for all those volleys I missed’. I like coming to the net and rushing people on the grass.”

Paul, who had never won a tour-level match on grass before this week, has now levelled his ATP Head2Head series against Wawrinka at 1-1 and will next play reigning champion Matteo Berrettini or American Denis Kudla.

“Getting that win Wednesday [against Shapovalov] was a big confidence booster. I came out here today [and] played really well from the start and I relaxed a little bit and everything came a little bit easier,” Paul added.

Earlier this season, the 25-year-old reached the semi-finals on hard courts in Delray Beach in February, while he advanced to the last eight at two tournaments in Adelaide and one in Acapulco.

Wawrinka was making his eighth appearance at The Queen’s Club, with his best result a run to the semi-finals in 2014. The 37-year-old will compete at Wimbledon later this month after receiving a wild card.

As ATP Tour stars competing at this week’s Terra Wortmann Open in Halle leave their hotel, they don’t emerge onto the busy streets of a major capital or jump in a car to head off to an out-of-town sports complex. Instead, they find themselves immediately face-to-face with the OWL Arena, the 11,500-capacity stadium in which they all hope to find grass-court success at the ATP 500 event.

“It’s a very unique set up,” says fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who defeated Mackenzie McDonald on Wednesday evening to reach his second-straight Halle quarter-final. “You rarely play tournaments nowadays where you have the hotel in the site, and everything is walking distance. Everyone is here.”

Halle is a small town of just over 20,000 people, tucked away in rural North Rhine-Westfalia, a state in north-west Germany. It is also home to the OWL Arena complex, which contains an on-site hotel for players and their teams and maintains a countryside feel despite the impressive arena at its heart.

“It’s unique, I think weeks like these are refreshing in a way,” said Nick Kyrgios, into the quarter-finals on tournament debut after overcoming Stefanos Tsitsipas in a three-set thriller on Wednesday. “Because you’ve got weeks like Miami, such busy weeks all the time. It’s really hard to relax and find that downtime.

“Weeks like this where you just go back with your team, [have] nice little dinners…there’s not much to do, you just really enjoy the time and the greenery and the quietness and the stillness.”

It’s not just the peaceful setting that appeals to the world’s best. The non-existent commute from the hotel to the courts also positively impacts the pre-match preparations for players, according to World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

“It changes your routine a little bit,” said the 26-year-old after winning his opening-round match against David Goffin on Wednesday. “Some tournaments, like the US Open or Shanghai, it can be up to one hour’s drive from hotel to site. So, if you play at six in the evening, you still leave the hotel at 11 or 12 and spend the whole day at the court.

“I like that way, but at the same time here [in Halle], I had the match at 12 p.m. I could wake up at eight, I didn’t have to wake up at six. I had a small tennis warm-up, two minutes from my room. Check in back to the room to take a shower, not even to the locker room. I’m [quote good at] adapting to things in life, so I like it both ways. It’s a change of setup.”

As they spend much of their year in the hustle and bustle of some of the world’s biggest cities, it can be easy to forget that many of the world’s best hail from small-town or rural backgrounds. For Kyrgios, Halle is a nice reminder of home.

“I like it,” said the six-time Tour-titlist. “I live in Sydney now, but I lived in Canberra my whole life and it’s quiet as anything, so I like places like this.”

Having reached the semi-finals last week at the Libema Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, a relatively small city in the Netherlands, Auger-Aliassime is enjoying two of the more serene weeks of his 2022 season. But that’s not to say you can’t have too much of a good thing.

“I like it for a change,” said the Canadian. “I don’t know if I would like it all the time, every week, because it is nice to go around the city and go to restaurants and walk around in the big cities of Europe or in America. But it is nice for a change.”

Two-time Queen’s Club champion Marin Cilic advanced to his ninth quarter-final at the Cinch Championships with an entertaining 7-6(6), 7-5 victory against Alexander Bublik on Wednesday.

Seventh seed Cilic battled back from an 0/5 hole in the opening-set tie-break by turning the tables to win the final five points, saving three set points from 3/6 in the process. He pressed home his advantage by taking a 3-0 lead in set two before Bublik got himself back in the match with his unique brand of shotmaking, complete with a bevy of underarm serves.

“The most important thing against Alexander is to keep focus,” Cilic said post-match. “You never know what’s coming. He made it a little bit crazy in the second set and out of nowhere started to do these underarm serves and slices and drop shots, just breaking up the rhythm. He broke me there, so it was not comfortable to play [at the] end of the second set.”

Bublik used two underarm serves to escape 0/30 at 0-3 and later broke Cilic to love to get back on serve. But the Croatian stuck to the task and clinched the match with his second break to avoid another tie-break and a possible third set.

“It’s unconventional tennis that he plays, and he’s quite good at it,” Cilic said of his opponent. “Great serve and then backs it up with some of those things. Never easy, especially on a grass court, the ball stays low. Most importantly, I kept my focus and I served well at the end of the second set, and that was the key.”

Cilic improves to 34-11 at The Queen’s Club, where he won the title in 2012 and 2018 and reached the final in 2013 and 2017.

Emil Ruusuvuori awaits in the quarter-finals after the Finnish qualifier defeated #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper, 6-2, 7-6(2) earlier on Wednesday. Draper made headlines in his home nation with a first-round win over fourth seed Taylor Fritz but could not find an answer against the smooth game of Ruusuvuori. 

The 23-year-old saved the only break point he faced in the match while converting on seven of his nine chances.

Currently at a career-high of No. 56 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Ruusuvuori’s London quarter-final run has moved him up nine places to No. 47 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.