There is a hard court event being played in Prague this week on the WTA Tour, which follows the one in Athens last week, but in the main it is clay court tennis being played and that is an opportunity for players to pick up some important World Ranking Points.
Scattered tournaments means there are also scattered Tennis Picks with the backend of the tournaments last week not leaving too many matches to attack from the selection point of view.
It could end up being the case this week as well, but when there is the potential to make a selection, they will be made as the pages look for some momentum to take into the big hard court tournaments that are fast coming up.
Mayar Sheriff - 1.5 games v Simona Waltert: There has been a lot of tennis played by Mayar Sheriff to move back into the top 60 of the World Rankings and back to back titles could have accumulated the fatigue.
This past weekend the Final in Iasi had to be postponed until Monday due to heavy rain, but Sheriff was able to get the better of Paula Badosa and confidence will be high.
Mayar Sheriff had won a couple of lower level titles on the clay around the one Qualifying match defeat at Wimbledon, but the title won in Iasi will be a real confidence booster.
A 5-1 head to head advantage over Simona Waltert will give the higher Ranked player more belief, even if it is the Swiss player who is Seeded here in Hamburg.
Simona Waltert has not been playing badly having reached the Final of a Challenger event in Bastad, but she was beaten early last week in Iasi. The World Number 91 has a 2-4 record against top 100 Ranked opponents on the clay courts this season, although Waltert's numbers have been pretty steady in those matches and she has been able to offer some resistance.
Both of these players are going to be very confident on the return of serve, but Mayar Sheriff is playing with momentum and confidence and looks capable of edging past Simona Waltert once again, much as she did in their two clay meetings in 2025.
Mariano Navone - 2.5 games v Jan-Lennard Struff: Not only has Wimbledon Quarter Finalist Jan-Lennard Struff had to battle through a very tough opening match in Kitzbuhel, but he has had a tough season on the clay courts.
Expectations have been raised for a strong end to the season after the run in SW19, but the serve has not been quite as effective on the red dirt.
That will give Mariano Navone an opportunity in this Second Round meeting on Wednesday.
The clay court specialist has struggled with his own serve on this surface, but Mariano Navone has been the much superior return player of the two this season and that can be a telling factor. It was also the case when the two players met on the hard courts of Cincinnati last year, which should have been a match in conditions that would favour Jan-Lennard Struff, but which was won by a good margin by Navone.
Things will never be easy for Mariano Navone on the red dirt with a vulnerable serve, but he may have enough to contain some of the Jan-Lennard Struff threat and the World Number 47 can get the better of the Seed.
Alex Molcan - 1.5 games v Daniel Altmaier: The run to the Semi Final in Umag has given Alex Molcan another boost in his bid to move back up the World Rankings and he is playing well enough to continue his run here in Austria.
A 22-7 record on the clay courts in 2026 has certainly helped the left hander and another solid win over Sebastian Ofner in the First Round in Kitzbuhel will have given Alex Molcan a boost in confidence against a home player.
The serve has been a big part of the successes that Alex Molcan has had, but he has backed that up with confident returning.
Next up is a Second Round match against Daniel Altmaier who is a very comfortable clay court player in his own right and who produced an upset in the First Round.
Daniel Altmaier has produced some decent numbers behind serve and return on the clay courts himself, but he has been beaten twice by this opponent already this season and that is going to be difficult to shake off.
One of those defeats came at Wimbledon at the end of June in the First Round, while the other was a Second Round defeat in Munich in front of Daniel Altmaier's home fans.
Across those matches, Alex Molcan has been the superior server, although he has had to fight off more Break Points than Daniel Altmaier.
The meeting on the clay was very closely fought out, but Alex Molcan deserves the edge in this Second Round match if only because of his overall form on the clay courts and the kind of momentum that has been built up. He is the lower Ranked player, but the layers believe Alex Molcan should be the favourite and the lean is to agree with them as the Slovakian player continues rebuilding his position on the Tour.
MY PICKS: Mayar Sheriff - 1.5 Games @ 1.87 Bet Victor (1 Unit)
Mariano Navone - 2.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet Victor (1 Unit)
Alex Molcan - 1.5 Games @ 1.91 Bet Victor (1 Unit)
Season 2026: 176-147, + 10.75 Units (508 Units Staked, + 2.12% Yield)
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