The dog days of summer are upon us.
Following a furious stretch of two Grand Slams in the span of a little more than a month, it’s nothing but clay-court ATP 250s for a while. Well, for two weeks at least. The midsummer clay-court swing begins in Gstaad, Bastad, and Umag and will continue in Estoril and Kitzbuhel before the North American hard-court summer gets underway in Washington, D.C. later this month.
There is no rest for the weary following Sunday’s Wimbledon final between Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev, won by the Italian in four sets. It’s time to break down the next three tournaments on a jam-packed ATP schedule.
EFG Swiss Open Gstaad
Where: Gstaad, Switzerland
Surface: Clay
Prize money: 612,620 Euros
Points: 250
Top seed: Alexander Bublik
Defending champion: Alexander Bublik
Draw analysis: Defending champion Alexander Bublik and two-time winner Casper Ruud headline the Gstaad bracket as the top two seeds. The main attraction, though, is 41-year-old Swiss Stan Wawrinka. He is making his final appearance in front of the home crowd as he comes down the stretch of an illustrious career that includes three Grand Slam titles. It is a rough draw for Wawrinka, however, because he could run into Ruud as early as round two. The bottom half is also home to Valentin Vacherot, Juan Manuel Cerundolo, Lorenzo Soengo, and Miomir Kecmanovic. Vacherot has not played since the French Open due to a foot injury.
Bublik’s title defense will get underway against either Quentin Halys or Federico Cina before the Kazakh potentially meets Jaume Munar in the quarterfinals and either Arthur Rinderknech or Ignacio Buse in the semis. Buse will kick off his week against Stefanos Tsitsipas after they faced each other in the Mallorca first round just a few weeks ago (the Peruvian prevailed in straight sets).
Hot: Ignacio Buse, Juan Manuel Cerundolo
Cold: Casper Ruud, Valentin Vacherot, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Pedro Martinez, Dominic Stricker
Quarterfinal predictions: Jaume Munar over Alexander Bublik, Ignacio Buse over Arthur Rinderknech, Raphael Collignon over Yannick Hanfmann, and Casper Ruud over Miomir Kecmanovic
Semifinals: Ruud over Collignon and Munar over Buse
Final: Ruud over Munar
Nordea Open
Where: Bastad, Sweden
Surface: Clay
Prize money: $612,620
Points: 250
Top seed: Andrey Rublev
Defending champion: Luciano Darderi
Draw analysis: Along with Bublik, Luciano Darderi took the post-Wimbledon clay swing by storm last summer. Although the Italian has not been in spectacular form this season, his clay-court spring featured a semifinal run in Rome. He has a great chance to go back-to-back in Bastad, where the bottom half of the bracket is also home to Mariano Navone, Botic van de Zandschulp, and wild cards Grigor Dimitrov and Moise Kouame. Dimitrov is coming off a fourth-round performance at Wimbledon, while Kouame reached the third round at Roland Garros. The 35-year-old and the 17-year-old could face each other in round two this week.
Another highly-touted teenager, Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, finds himself near the top of the draw. Like Ruud in Gstaad, Budkov Kjaer will try to get over the disappointment of Norway’s World Cup quarterfinal loss and give his country another reason to do the Viking Row. If he wins his opening match, the 19-year-old would meet No. 1 seed Andrey Rublev in the last 16. Solid clay-court players Alejandro Tabilo, Thiago Agustin Tirante, and Sebastian Baez will also have something to say about how the top half of the bracket plays out.
Hot: Nuno Borges, Moise Kouame, Jesper de Jong, Andrea Pellegrino
Cold: Hugo Gaston, Stefano Travaglia
Quarterfinal predictions: Sebastian Baez over Andrey Rublev, Thiago Agustin Tirante over Alejandro Tabilo, Mariano Navone over Botic van de Zandschulp, and Luciano Darderi over Nuno Borges
Semifinals: Tirante over Baez and Darderi over Navone
Final: Darderi over Tirante
Croatia Open
Where: Umag, Croatia
Surface: Clay
Prize money: $612,620
Points: 250
Top seed: Flavio Cobolli
2025 champion: Luciano Darderi (not playing)
Draw analysis: We never saw the French Open semifinal between fellow Italians Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi (Arnaldi withdrew because of an illness). Will we see it in the Umag championship match? Probably not. Cobolli is making a relatively quick turnaround from a different surface after advancing to the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Arnaldi has not won a single main draw-match since the Roland Garros quarters.
That being said, the draw does not offer a whole lot of danger for either Italian. Cobolli could face Pablo Carreno Busta in the last eight and either Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Alexander Blockx in the semis. Fabian Marozsan is Arnaldi’s nearest seed in the bottom half of the bracket, while potential semifinal foes include Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Dino Prizmic. Davidovich Fokina is bidding for his second consecutive ATP 250 title after the Spaniard finally won a tournament for the first time in his career last month in Mallorca.
Hot: Flavio Cobolli, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Vit Kopriva, Dino Prizmic, Daniel Merida
Cold: Valentin Royer, Damir Dzumhur, Dusan Lajovic
Quarterfinal predictions: Pablo Carreno Busta over Roman Andres Burruchaga, Tomas Martin Etcheverry over Alexander Blockx, Henrique Rocha over Matteo Arnaldi, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina over Dino Prizmic
Semifinals: Etcheverry over Carreno Busta and Davidovich Fokina over Rocha
Final: Davidovich Fokina over Etcheverry
who ya got?
Darderi over Rublev
ADF over Cobolli ( depends on Cobolli)
Ruud over Bublik
The biggest crapshoot will be Umag.
Bublik in Gstaad
Rublev in Bastaad
Dino Prizmic in Umag.
on the Priz bandwagon i see
Prizmic won his first match. I have him a few rounds