Grass court tournaments 2021

[PKBasu]

The grass court season is further curtailed this year, with just two Challengers (both in Nottingham). Prajnesh has apparently got into the main draw for the first week there.
sHertogenbosch is cancelled this year. So the grass ATP season will be:
Stuttgart (7th-13th June) - coincides with week 2 of the French Open
Halle & Queen's Club (14-20th June)
Mallorca & Eastbourne (21st-27th June) - and Roehampton for Wimbledon qualifying
Wimbledon (28th June-11th July) -- for which we'll have a separate thread of course
Newport, RI (12th-18th July).

Ramkumar, hopefully, will be playing every week of the grass season. It's a bit worrying that he is continuing on clay for next week at an Italian Challenger. It would have made more sense for him to have played the qualifiers at Stuttgart.

[Dinesh]

Ankita has made it to the main draw entry list at the Nottingham 250 with German Julia Wachaczyk. This tournament is on the 2nd week of the Roland Garros.

[PKBasu]

The two Nottingham Challengers for men are June 6th-13th and 14th-20th.
No Challenger during Wimbledon qualifying week.

[PKBasu]

Ankita has made it to the main draw entry list at the Nottingham 250 with German Julia Wachaczyk. This tournament is on the 2nd week of the Roland Garros.

This is really good news (although Ankita seems not to be betting on making it to the second week of the FO doubles ). She can play singles qualifiers at Nottingham too.
The WTA schedule on grass is:
Nottingham 250 - 6th-13th June
Birmingham 250 & Berlin 500 - 14th-20th June
Bad Homburg (Ger) 250 & Eastbourne 500 - 21st-27th June

[sameerph]

Ramkumar, hopefully, will be playing every week of the grass season. It's a bit worrying that he is continuing on clay for next week at an Italian Challenger. It would have made more sense for him to have played the qualifiers at Stuttgart.

Stuttgart is anyway a week after that Italian clay challenger ( RamK is still 6 out from there and not in the qualies entry list, so not sure if he will play).

But, in any case, RamK would not be able to make the qualies draw at Stuttgart. The Cut-off for qualies draw currently is at 78. He is more likely to play Nottingham challenger qualies the week after, here too as of now he is 5 out from qualies but should make it in the end. Even tougher entry list for Nottingham 2 challenger and as of now RamK is 18 out from qualies draw. Hope he gets to play both Nottingham challengers.

Prajnesh made the main draw at Nottingham 1 challenger and just 2 out from main draw at Nottingham 2 challenger. So, he would get to play them.

Sumit of course chose to stay on clay and will move to grass only for Wimbledon qualies.

[Rajiv]

Yes more or less the same what i wrote couple of days ago for our top 3 about their scheduling plans, and with only difference being ,Ram is continuing to play on clay next week at Beila where he is 2 out of the MD , and once the SE's are removed and with some more withdrawals should make the MD , it is fine to continue as he needs to accumulate points, having lost 4 to 5 weeks of tournament play, but strangely the same venue , before the FO qualies , he withdrew where the field was much weaker compared to next week and even the Chinese whom he beat in Zagreb went on to make the Semi's.

[PKBasu]

Sania was to have partnered Ankita in the Nottingham WTA next week, but her visa didn't come through early enough for them to enter together. So Ankita will be playing doubles, but with another partner.
Ramkumar will be in the qualifiers for the ATP Challenger I in Nottingham, starting on Sunday.

Sania will be pairing up with Bethanie Mattek-Sands in Eastbourne and Birmingham.

[PKBasu]

WTA Nottingham Open

[Q1] 5-Ankita Raina (IND, 183) vs. Ellen Perez (AUS, 243)

Two years ago, Ankita lost to Ellen in Q2 here in Nottingham. I hope she can turn the tables this year.

There seems to be just this round of qualifiers, and the winners of the 8 Q1 matches will all make the main draw. Other familiar names in the qualifiers are Samantha Murray Sharan, Naiktha Bains and Emily Webley-Smith (who has played a lot in India over the years).

[sameerph]

At French open, Elen Perez made the final qualifying round before losing to Belgian Minen, same player who beat Ankita in Q2 there. Perez put up a better fight against Minen. So,it will be tough match for Ankita. Hope she prevails.

[Rajiv]

At Nottingham1 Prajnesh to face 8th seeded Kamil Majchzak , In Dbls Ram partnering Antoine Hoang and a tough encounter against the top seeds, Quali draw not yet out at the time of writing

[Dinesh]

Ankita wins the match 7-6 6-4 Good win against a top-50 ranked doubles player (whose singles ranking maybe low due to her concentration in doubles). Katie Volynets, up next!

[Dinesh]

Oops! Maybe not? As FlashScore shows she’ll be playing Katie but the main draw has 8 Q spots. Maybe there is only one Q round?

Katie Volynets, up next!

[sameerph]

Yes, of course there is only 1 qualifying round and Ankita has aleady qualified for the main draw.

Good win for Ankita to start the grass season.

At WTA 250 Nottingham Open

[Q1] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,183) d. Ellen Perez (AUS,243) 76(5) 64

In main draw -

[R1] (Q) (5) Ankita Raina (IND,183) vs. Catherine Mcnally (USA,110)


Mcneelly had beaten Ankita easily in February in Australia. Lets see if Ankita can turn around this result.

[Rajiv]

So the quali draw is out , and Ram plays a British WC, Anton Matusevic,and should he overcome the first hurdle, faces the winner 5th Marius Copil v James Ward match for a place in the MD

[PKBasu]

Excellent win for Ankita, reversing her loss to the same player (Ellen Perez) at the same stage (final qualifying round) of the Nottingham WTA two years ago. So, this is progress!
Tough R1 match-up, but hopefully Ankita will be better-positioned to win against McNally on grass -- since Ankita has a match behind her, while her 19 year old opponent will be going in cold. Go Ankita!!