Those will 'only' be moving into the Second Round and will barely make a mark on the UK sporting radar, but those competing in Athens, Bastad, Gstaad, Isai and Umag will be looking to move into the business end of those tournaments and earn the chance to pick up vital Ranking Points.
Most of these selections should be completed way before the second of the World Cup Semi Final ties begin, but the reality is that the Football will take over all attention whether that is the case or not and most will likely be settling in to watch what is likely going to be a dramatic game to decide whether England or Argentina make it through to the World Cup Final scheduled for Sunday.
The opening Tennis selection of the week was not quite able to get over the line, but the next two both returned winners to make it a positive start to the week.
Keeping that going is the challenge in what is going to feel like a much quieter three weeks between Wimbledon concluding and the Canadian Masters beginning, but there are opportunities to exploit and that is the ambition ahead of the two big Masters hard court tournaments in August.
Maria Sakkari - 5.5 games v Harriet Dart: The WTA returned to Athens for the first time in thirty-five years this week and it is no surprise that Maria Sakkari has chosen to use the event as one of the preparation spots ahead of the US Open.
She reached the Third Round at Wimbledon and Maria Sakkari enters this week as the World Number 37, but there are some significant Ranking Points to protect over the coming weeks and earning a Seeding spot at the US Open will help. The Greek player is going to be given so much support here and she has to be highly motivated to want to put a strong week on the board and Maria Sakkari is rightly favoured to reach the Quarter Final.
It has not been the best year on the Tour for Maria Sakkari as she returns to hard court action, but she was a dominant winner in the First Round and has been playing at a more challenging level than Harriet Dart.
The British player had a disappointing grass court campaign and has failed to use the opportunities given to her to improve the World Number 152 spot.
Harriet Dart is turning 30 years old later this month and you do have to wonder if there is enough strong tennis left in her to push back into the top 100 of the World Rankings. There is only so many times players are going to want to go through multiple Qualifying Rounds to earn main draw spots in the biggest tournaments and Dart has almost exclusively been playing below the WTA 250 level over the last couple of years.
With that said, the hard court numbers are not that encouraging and this is a considerable step up in level of the usual opponents that Harriet Dart will face.
Three sets were needed to beat a Qualifier who is Ranked outside the top 300 in the First Round and Maria Sakkari can use the home crowd to get the better of Harriet Dart with some level of comfort on the scoreboard. These two met all the way back in 2017 on the grass courts when both were still pushing up the World Rankings and it was Sakkari who won comfortably on that day and she can record the breaks of serve needed to cover this handicap mark.
Alycia Parks - 2.5 games v Mai Hontama: You may expect most American players to leave Wimbledon behind and head back to North America to take in events ahead of the US Open.
Last year Alycia Parks decided to play in Prague in July before taking part in the big Masters events in Canada and Cincinnati and this year the World Number 70 has decided to play in Athens. This is in addition to entering the Prague hard court tournament next week and it does offer Parks an opportunity to pick up those vital World Ranking points to move back towards a career best mark set in August 2023.
She has not really kicked on as would have hoped with Number 40 being the best career mark so far, but that is much higher than Mai Hontama has been able to produce.
These days Hontama is operating outside the top 200 in the World Rankings, but she upset Magda Linette in the First Round and that will have given the 26 year old a huge boost in confidence. Mai Hontama returned really well in that First Round win and is going to have to do the same if she is going to reverse the result from when she was beaten by Alycia Parks last year in Prague.
It is a big step up for Mai Hontama who had lost all four hard court matches against top 100 Ranked opponents over the last twelve months before the First Round upset. Three of those defeats were to players Ranked between 84 and 99 and Alycia Parks should have the serving power to keep the scoreboard pressure on this opponent, much like she did in the 2025 match.
Alycia Parks is not an easy player to back to win matches having compiled a losing record on the hard courts over the last twelve months, but she is 11-9 when facing players Ranked outside the top 100 compared with 9-15 against those inside those positions. As long as she serves as she can, Parks should have the opportunities to break serve and that can see her win this Second Round match and cover the handicap.
Raphael Collignon - 2.5 games v Lorenzo Sonego: The 24 year old Belgian is playing on a career best World Ranking mark, but there will be disappointment that a bigger impact was not had on the grass courts after a strong showing in Halle.
Raphael Collignon moves back onto the clay here in Gstaad and he enjoyed significant success at Challenger level on the surface before reaching the French Open Third Round.
It will give him some confidence after coming through a tight three setter in the First Round and Raphael Collignon will certainly believe he is playing superior clay court tennis than opponent Lorenzo Sonego.
However, the Italian is very comfortable on the surface and has a win under his belt here, which deserves respect, even if Sonego struggled on the clay after missing two months of the Tour through injury.
Lorenzo Sonego won just two clay court matches through to the end of the French Open, but he played well enough at Wimbledon and has had a couple of decent runs in Paris that do deserve respect.
If he serves like he can, Lorenzo Sonego can put some real pressure on Raphael Collignon, although his numbers in 2026 have been disappointing. Again, some of that has to be put down to finding his rhythm back on the Tour, but Collignon may feel he is able to make some inroads on the return.
More impressive is the way in which Raphael Collignon has been serving on this surface and that may help build up the scoreboard pressure that eventually sees him crack through the World Number 83 in this Second Round contest.
Stefanos Tsitsipas - 2.5 games v Jerome Kym: If this match had been played twelve months ago, Stefanos Tsitsipas would have been a huge favourite, but he has been sinking in the World Rankings week to week.
Usually we would not see someone like Tsitsipas playing between Wimbledon and the Masters events on the hard courts leading into the US Open, but the Greek star has been struggling massively with his consistency.
Backing up that statement is Stefanos Tsitsipas being the World Number 85 heading into this tournament in Gstaad, but his win in the First Round is a reminder of how good this player can be when he is focused and finding his best tennis. It is a victory over a player that is significantly stronger than Jerome Kym, who has been given a Wild Card into this tournament, but who also had to battle to make it into this Second Round against the World Number 618.
Jerome Kym has spent the majority of his career away from the main ATP Tour and he has a 2-2 record against top 100 Ranked opponents on the clay courts.
He serves well, which makes him dangerous, but Jerome Kym has struggled on the return at a much weaker level than the opponent he is going to be facing in the Second Round.
This potentially makes Stefanos Tsitsipas a touch underrated in this match and the former World Number 3 can do enough to win and cover this handicap mark.
MY PICKS: Maria Sakkari - 5.5 Games @ 2.00 William Hill (1 Unit)
Alycia Parks - 2.5 Games @ 1.85 William Hill (1 Unit)
Raphael Collignon - 2.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (1 Unit)
Stefanos Tsitsipas - 2.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet365 (1 Unit)
Weekly Update: 2-1, + 0.74 Units (3 Units Staked, + 24.67% Yield)
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