Our regular tennis feature, The Base Line, returns this week as we look to keep you up to date with the relentless and fast-paced nature of the ATP and WTA Tours. Who were crowned champions, who struggled to make an impact, and what moments stood out the most over the past seven days?<\/p>\n
Winners of the week<\/p>\n
Jessica Pegula<\/a> made a major statement ahead of Wimbledon, winning her third title of the season after overcoming Iga Swiatek<\/a> in Bad Homburg, 6-4, 7-5<\/a>.<\/p>\n The American defeated Emma Navarro<\/a> and Linda Noskova<\/a> on her way to the title, which is also her second overall on grass.<\/p>\n The epitome of consistency, Pegula is the first player to win a title on all three surfaces this season, and she was just too good for her error-strewn opponent. Wimbledon has been an extremely open tournament on the women’s side in the last few years, and Pegula certainly will have her eyes on the title.<\/p>\n Despite the defeat for Swiatek, it has been a good week for the Pole, reaching her first final since the French Open last year and her first-ever on grass. She has seriously struggled on this surface during her career, but she can take plenty of positives.<\/p>\n Over in Eastbourne, 19-year-old Australian Maya Joint<\/a> continued her stunning breakout year, overcoming another rising star, Alexandra Eala<\/a>, in an utterly captivating and excellent final.\u00a0<\/p>\n Coming off the back of winning her maiden title in Rabat a few weeks ago, Joint played some powerful tennis all week, culminating in a 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(10)<\/a> victory against Eala. She is such an exciting talent, and now rises to 41 in the world rankings.<\/p>\n It was heartbreak for Eala, however, who couldn’t contain her emotions during a teary post-match speech.<\/p>\n She became the first woman from the Philippines to reach a WTA final, and had four championship points as she stood on the brink of more history. But it just wasn’t to be. There is very little doubt though that she will certainly win many WTA titles in the future, and she should be mighty proud of her efforts.<\/p>\n On the men’s side of Eastbourne, Taylor Fritz<\/a> continued his love affair with the tournament, beating Jensen Brooksby<\/a>, 7-5, 6-1<\/a>, to win his fourth title here.<\/p>\n It hasn’t been the most straightforward season for Fritz, as he has struggled with injuries and fitness problems. However, he has won a pair of grass court titles in Stuttgart and now Eastbourne in the last few weeks, and he continues to show his prowess on this surface.<\/p>\n Djokovic<\/a> (8) is the only active player with more grass titles than Fritz (5). He will most definitely be ready for Wimbledon.<\/p>\n Finally, Tallon Griekspoor<\/a> ended a two-year trophy drought as he captured the Mallorca title with a 7-5, 7-6(3)<\/a> win over Corentin Moutet<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Moutet, it was a first final appearance in over five years, but he remains without an ATP title to his name.<\/p>\n Strugglers of the week<\/p>\n For someone who is left-handed and possesses such a big serve, it is strange that Ben Shelton<\/a> has never quite looked comfortable on grass. The number one seed suffered a 6-4, 7-6(2)<\/a> defeat in his opening round match in Mallorca to Learner Tien, illustrating that fact.<\/p>\n He also lost in his first match at Queen’s last week to Arthur Rinderknech<\/a>, which doesn’t bode well for the American ahead of Wimbledon.\u00a0<\/p>\n After recovering from injury, another American, Tommy Paul<\/a>, had a tough time in Eastbourne, losing 6-4, 3-6, 6-3<\/a>\u00a0to British veteran Dan Evans<\/a>. Perhaps not too much of a concern for the world number 13 considering the context, but he does have quarter-final points to defend at Wimbledon, so he will need to find his best form as soon as possible.<\/p>\n Also in Eastbourne, the number one seed in the women’s draw, Daria Kasatkina<\/a>, has had an utterly dismal build-up to Wimbledon. The Australian suffered a\u00a07-5, 2-6, 6-4<\/a> loss to Lulu Sun<\/a> in the first round, meaning she hasn’t picked up a single victory on grass this season, losing all three of her matches on the surface. Not ideal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moment of the week<\/p>\n Maria Sakkari<\/a> took on Yulia Putintseva<\/a> in the first round of Bad Homburg, and after the former came out on top after two very tight sets, the best was saved for what happened after the match.<\/p>\n When the pair went to shake hands at the net, Sakkari was unhappy with Putintseva’s body language, telling her: “When you shake hands with someone, look them in the eyes<\/b>.”<\/p>\n Putintseva responded with a curtsy before the pair exchanged some more words, which included Sakkari telling her to “be like a human being”<\/b><\/p>\n Putintseva wasn’t done there though, taking to Instagram to share some clips of the Greek not looking players in the eye when shaking hands at the net, with the caption ‘the plot thickens’.<\/p>\n She finally ended it by saying: “By the way, not that I care. I shook her hand as most women do. Clearly not according to the ‘hugging protocol’ some men seem to follow<\/b>.”<\/p>\n Who doesn’t love some drama and a good old-fashioned rivalry in sport?<\/p>\n Rallies of the week<\/p>\n Hamad Medjedovic<\/a> may have lost his quarter-final in Mallorca to Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a>, but the Serb produced this utterly astonishing tweener lob winner to steal a point from the Canadian.<\/p>\n There must have been something in the air this week, as Fritz also pulled off his very own tweener, stunning Marcos Giron<\/a> with some incredible athletic and court coverage.<\/p>\n Upcoming event<\/p>\n The biggest and best event on the tennis calendar has finally arrived, as all eyes turn to Wimbledon. One of the most prestigious sporting events of the year, players will set foot on the gorgeous grass courts for the next fortnight, starting on Monday.<\/p>\n The third Grand Slam of the year has so many extraordinary storylines to keep an eye on. Can Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> fend off Jannik Sinner<\/a> to win a third straight Wimbledon? Can Novak Djokovic win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title? Can Jack Draper<\/a> deal with the sky-high expectations?\u00a0Can Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> finally win a Grand Slam title this year in what is set to be such an open women’s draw?<\/p>\n You can check out the Wimbledon draw for the men<\/a> and women<\/a> at Flashscore!\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our regular tennis feature, The Base Line, returns this week as we look to keep you up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-224192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114767128454200872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}