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.

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios both advanced Tuesday in Halle to set up their fourth ATP Head2Head meeting in the second round of the the Terra Wortmann Open.

Second seed Tsitsipas was a 7-6(1), 1-6, 6-3 winner over France’s Benjamin Bonzi, with his match immediately following wild card Kyrgios’ 6-3, 7-5 win over Germany’s Daniel Altmaier in OWL Arena.

“I can say playing him on grass for sure is going to be quite difficult,” Tsitsipas said of Kyrgios, against whom he holds a 1-2 record with one hard-court match in each of the past three years. “I’m just going to go out there and enjoy myself. Let’s see what that brings.

“He’s fired up playing on the grass-court season. I’m fired up too. I really hope to have a great match against him and be able to really sustain the level at its very highest.”

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The Greek found a high level at the key moments of his opening match against World No. 52 Bonzi, dominating the opening tie-break and regrouping for a strong final set after dropping serve three times in the second. After fighting off two break points to start the third set — denying Bonzi a fourth straight break of serve — Tsitsipas rediscovered his rhythm on serve and used three love holds to help close out the match behind a mid-set break.

Tsitsipas fired 14 aces in the match and saved seven of 10 break points while converting on two of his four break chances. 

“It’s one of those matches where I said to myself just go out and enjoy it… It was very spontaneous and very free-spirited. Thats the right way to put it. It really brought something different out there today.”

It was the second grass win of the season for Tsitsipas, who fell to Andy Murray in the Stuttgart quarter-finals last week. Kyrgios made the semi-finals in Stuttgart but was also beaten by Murray.

The Aussie improved to 4-1 this grass season and was pleased with his performance in his Halle debut against home favourite Altmaier.

“I felt pretty good,” said Kyrgios, who did not face a break point in the victory. “It’s a great court, indoors.

“I felt like I didn’t have my best serving day. But from the back of the court I did everything I could. Obviously it’s grass. And he’s a German, playing pretty free… he really started to get the crowd involved, got himself going. So I’m pretty happy with the way I closed that out.”

Eighth seed Karen Khachanov also advanced on Tuesday in Halle, getting past Aslan Karatsev, 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-2. Khachanov reached the quarter-finals in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last week before a loss to Felix Auger-Aliassime. He next faces Laslo Djere.

Stan Wawrinka will compete at Wimbledon for the first time since 2019 after receiving a wild card, the tournament announced on Tuesday.

The former World No. 3, a two-time quarter-finalist at the event, will play in the main draw at the grass-court major for the 16th time. The 37-year-old recently returned after undergoing two left foot surgeries last year.

The other players who have received men’s singles wild cards are Tim Van Rijthoven of The Netherlands and Britons Liam Broady, Jay Clarke, Alastair Gray, Paul Jubb and Ryan Peniston. There is one main draw wild card still to be announced.

Van Rijthoven enjoyed a dream run to the title last week at the Libema Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The 25-year-old, who was World No. 205, upset three players in the Top 15 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings — Taylor Fritz, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Daniil Medvedev — en route to the trophy. The Dutchman climbed to a career-high World No. 106.

Four men’s doubles team wild cards, all going to British duos, were also announced: Broady and Clarke, Julian Cash and Henry Patten, Gray and Peniston, and Jonny O’Mara and Ken Skupski.

Legend Serena Williams was among the six women who received a main draw singles wild card on Tuesday.