I guess that all of us are still under the impression of the Roland Garros finals, especially the men’s final that brought all of the entertainment. But just as life, the tennis season must move on and we are already fully within the short, but nevertheless full grass season. In this update, we want to give a short overview of the schedule, the players to look out for and other things to consider.
The schedule
Even though there are only a couple of weeks of grass court tennis, the schedule fits a lot of interesting and exciting tournaments, with the highlight of course being the 2025 Wimbledon. In the build-up, the first Challenger events were already held during the second week of Roland Garros and it continues with the first tour-level events now.
June 9 – 15 : ATP 250 Stuttgart, ATP 250 ‘s-Hertogenbosch
June 16 – 22: ATP 500 Queen’s Club, ATP 500 Halle
June 22 – 28: ATP 250 Mallorca, ATP 250 Eastbourne
From June 30: Wimbledon
Not on the list is the ATP event in Newport, U.S., that fell to the latest “One Vision” ATP update, which wants to focus on fewer but bigger tournaments on tour level. This will force some of the American players that used this for a home break to either travel or stick with the Challenger level. Apart from that, most top players will focus on the second week with the prestigious 500 events. Alcaraz will head the Queen’s Club event in London, while Sinner and Zverev will play in Halle and then head to the UK.
Generally, most of the seeds for Wimbledon below the top 3 will try to play at least two tournaments, as many of them are already in the matches of the first week. Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz and Sascha Zverev are playing in Stuttgart this week, while Daniil Medvedev, Hubert Hurkacz and Karen Khachanov are playing in the Netherlands.
The WTA will share some events with the men, but especially Germany has evolved as the women’s capital of grass court tennis lately. With events in Berlin and Bad Homburg, the majority of top players will see their first action on grass there.
June 9 – 15: WTA 500 London, WTA 250 ‘s-Hertogenbosch
June 16 – 22: WTA 500 Berlin, WTA 250 Nottingham
June 22 – 28: WTA 500 Bad Homburg, WTA 250 Eastbourne
From June 29: Wimbledon
The advantage of the women’s schedule this year is that the 250 and 500 events are spread evenly between the weeks, giving players a chance to play multiple events or to balance their schedule further. Qinwen Zheng, Madison Keys and Emma Navarro lead the field in London this week, whereas Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek will start their run on grass at the later tournaments after resting a bit.
Players to watch in the 2025 grass season
Obviously, the favorites will remain the same on both the men’s and women’s tournaments, with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz seemingly miles ahead of the competition by now and Sabalenka aiming for revenge. Especially for the men, the usual suspects could be closing in on another deep run, with Djokovic looking good again and Musetti coming off a semifinal run last year. Alexander Zverev has not proven much on grass yet, and his season doesn’t give much cause for confidence either, but he will surely try to bounce back after Paris as well.
The dark horses on grass for the men usually benefit of their serve, with players like Hubert Kurkacz, Giovanni Mpetshi-Perricard and Reilly Opelka being the ones to look out for the most. But there are also the grass court specialists, such as of course Jack Draper or Tallon Griekspoor that grew up playing on this surface and need to be on a shortlist of surprises here. And finally, players like Joao Fonseca will see a new circumstance for their young career and who knows, if he hits his forehand as usual, he might make another surprise run.
For the women, the past Wimbledon winners already give good insight into the surprises that can happen on grass. Barbora Krejcikova was another example to this, as some of the top favorites usually had a hard time adapting from the clay. But it seems as if Sabalenka, Gauff and others have no tidied up their games and might not be subject to those problems. But if they are, there are the hard servers like Rybakina, Keys or Badosa, as well as the grass courters such as Raducanu, Muchova or Boulter waiting. In either case, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the end there is another final between top seeds for both men and women waiting.
