Ultimately the feeling was that I had ignored the way the tournament was developing at the Australian Open in 2024 and that set the entirety of the season behind schedule.
With a solid opening to 2025 under the belt, the feeling was that there was some confusion in the selections being made at the French Open and so I did not want to remain on a pathway that was not going to be leading to a positive return. Instead it was better to just take a step back and that proved to be the case with some many of the matches in the second week of the event also seemingly moving against the numbers.
It has been a tough tournament, but in a long season, you have to expect some of the lows although I am always keen to avoid them at Grand Slam events.
The numbers on the tournament were a disappointment, but that was far from the word that would have been used for the Men's Final last Sunday.
Jannik Sinner has to be feeling incredibly sick at blowing the chance to win a third Grand Slam in a row- he was up two sets and a break and then had three consecutive Championship Points in the fourth set, only to be eventually undone in a Champions tie-breaker at the end of the absorbing fifth set.
For fans of the sport who have lived through the Big Four era, it was an incredible Final put together by the two best players on the ATP Tour and you would be hard pressed to find too many people who are not anticipating Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz facing off on Sunday 13th July in the Wimbledon Final.
That Grand Slam Final will sit alongside some of the very best we have seen, but the Women's Final was not as strong in terms of quality, but had plenty of drama attached to it too.
Aryna Sabalenka is a fabulous player, but a late Grand Slam capitulation has become far too familiar for her, her team and her fans and she will head to Wimbledon with all of the attributes to win the title, except perhaps the most important which is the mental strength.
Some will consider that a harsh assessment of a player that has won multiple Grand Slam titles, but these late collapses have prevented the World Number 1 having double the number that is in the trophy cabinet.
The victor, Coco Gauff, has plenty of grass court pedigree of her own so the top two players are expected to be there or thereabouts, even if the Women's Wimbledon tournament has been wide open over recent years. There will be players who feel they can put the tennis together to have a big event when that begins in July and it will be interesting to see how the draw shapes up.
Before the third Grand Slam of the season gets underway, there are three weeks of grass court tournaments in the lead up to Wimbledon.
The short season is still one that some believe should be expanded, but there are a lot of players who cannot stand this time of the year and those are the vulnerable ones you have to look out for.
Form can be determined by results over the remainder of the month, including at the new WTA event being played at Queens this week.
Early matches have really provided a watching brief, although one or two selections came very close to being placed on a thread here.
I have noted that the layers are taking no chances with the total games marks being set for matches in Stuttgart and Hertogenbosch, where the ATP are playing (there is also a WTA event in the latter), and so the main focus for the remainder of this week could be on the WTA events being played, notably that one in West London not far from Wimbledon.
Selections will be made when they are fitting the criteria and the ambition over the last two and a half weeks of June is to build some momentum to take into the third Grand Slam of the season.
Emma Raducanu - 4.5 games v Rebecca Sramkova: Weeks before beginning her memorable run at the US Open, Emma Raducanu really announced herself to the British public by reaching the Fourth Round at Wimbledon.
Two top 50 Ranked players were beaten in that run, including Marketa Vondrousova who would go on to win Wimbledon in 2023, but suffice to say it has been a tough few years for Emma Raducanu who will be playing as the World Number 37 this week.
2022 was just a difficult season overall and 2023 injuries meant missing the grass court season entirely, but the British player is very comfortable on this surface. Last year she displayed that comfort with another Fourth Round run at Wimbledon, while Emma Raducanu also reached a Semi Final and a Quarter Final in warm up events.
A crushing First Round win at the reborn Queens tournament will have served as a reminder and Emma Raducanu deserves her strong favouritism in this match.
Some may disagree when noting that Rebecca Sramkova is only four places below Emma Raducanu in the World Rankings and playing in this Second Round after upsetting Wimbledon Champion Barbora Krejcikova in the First Round, but it should be noted that the latter is not looking like a player that will have another deep run in SW19 as injuries have held her back.
Back in 2016, Rebecca Sramkova did reach the Final of an event played on the grass courts, but at a level far below the WTA Tour... Since then it has been a real struggle for the 28 year old who has a 5-6 record on the grass and shown enough disdain for the surface to only have been involved in matches under the Wimbledon banner before taking part in the tournament here in Queens.
Prior to the win over Krejcikova, Rebecca Sramkova had never beaten a top 100 Ranked player on the grass and this should be a match where Emma Raducanu feels pretty comfortable, especially with the surface having a bit more wear on it.
The Sramkova first serve can be an effective weapon and that deserves some respect, but she is going to have to take risks with it and that means the percentage being made is likely to hover around the 52-55% mark. That should open the door for Emma Raducanu to turn the screw on the return of serve and the British player has been able to produce a 6-2 record on the grass when facing players outside of the top 20 in the World Rankings over the last twelve months.
Her return has not always been the most efficient, but Raducanu had her eye in during the First Round win and can back that up with another strong performance.
Diana Shnaider - 2.5 games v Katie Boulter: A French Open that ended prematurely will have disappointed Diana Shnaider, but the youngster showed some solid grass court qualities last year and may feel she can put together some strong results on this surface again.
The crushing First Round win can only offer the World Number 12 some real confidence to take into this match, which is going to be far from easy against a home player who will have the crowd firmly behind her.
Katie Boulter will still be hoping she can earn a Seed for Wimbledon and she is the current World Number 34, while in recent years she has shown her passion for grass court tennis. Throughout her career, Boulter has proven to be a very comfortable player on a surface that so many struggle to deal with, and she has a 29-12 record in main WTA tournaments played on the grass since the Covid cancelled 2020 grass court season.
Despite that, Katie Boulter will perhaps be a little disappointed that the win-loss record drops to 17-11 when only considering matches played against top 100 Ranked players in that time. She is also just 12-10 when facing opponents that are Ranked higher than her when the match is played, and eleven of those wins were in either 2021 or 2022 when Katie Boulter was Ranked outside of the top 100.
She still had to win the matches, but it is a real worry that the current British Number 1 has a 1-4 record against opponents Ranked higher than herself since cracking the top 100 in her own right.
Even her First Round win over Ajla Tomljanovic was a real battle- the Australian is a very good grass court player too, but she is only returning from an injury and is the World Number 64, while Tomljanovic will be frustrated at creating 14 Break Points compared with just 6 for Katie Boulter.
This is a significant step upwards for Boulter, who will need the crowd to get behind her and push her through, but the Birmingham Quarter Finalist and Bad Homburg Champion from 2024 should have the power to come through.
Elena Rybakina - 5.5 games v Heather Watson: The first match on a grass court can always be an awkward experience, even for a former Wimbledon Champion like Elena Rybakina.
Her performance at Roland Garros has to offer some encouragement to a player who continues to deal with off court issues that are clearly impacting her play on the court.
Elena Rybakina has every tool you would want if you were going to build a proper grass court player- she is perhaps a slightly weaker mover than ideal, but the big serve and the powerful aggressive groundstrokes makes the World Number 11 a real contender when Wimbledon rolls around.
She will be given a test by Heather Watson, even if the 33 year old British player has slipped down the World Rankings. These days it is the likes of Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter who will make the headlines for British Women's tennis in the summer and Heather Watson has not only fallen to World Number 164, but she was beaten early in a lower level event in Birmingham.
Heather Watson has to feel she has benefited from needing to win a couple of Qualifiers to take her place in the main draw in Queens and she was able to best World Number 27 Yulia Putintseva in the First Round without dropping a set.
However, this feels like a considerable step upwards against a former Wimbledon Champion and especially when you factor in Heather Watson's 3-8 record in her previous eleven grass court matches before entering the Qualifying draw here.
All three of her defeats last year were in competitive matches, but none of the opponents were nearly as highly Ranked as Elena Rybakina is and the question really is about how quickly the higher Seed can get into the groove on the grass.
The expectation is that the first set could be more competitive, but Rybakina may begin to move through the gears into the second set and that can see her progress to the Quarter Final with a solid win on the board.
MY PICKS: Emma Raducanu - 4.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (1 Unit)
Diana Shnaider - 2.5 Games @ 1.91 William Hill (1 Unit)
Elena Rybakina - 5.5 Games @ 1.91 Bet Victor (1 Unit)
2025 Season: 90-75, + 8.10 Units (203 Units Staked, + 3.99% Yield)