Andy Murray’s victory at Nottingham took him to his highest singles ranking in over five years and raised hopes of a Wimbledon seeding.
When Murray was ranked 839th in the world in July 2018 as he recovered from his first hip surgery, challenging at grand slams again seemed a forlorn hope but he has fought back into the world’s top 40.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the Scot’s road back.
Ranking history
Back-to-back titles at the Lexus Surbiton Trophy and the Rothesay Open Nottingham have lifted Murray to 38th in the ATP world rankings.
That is his best position since he was listed 34th in the April 23, 2018 update, with a turbulent period in between as Murray battled his hip problems.
He had dropped out of the top 100 by June of that year and to a career low of 839 in the July 16, 2018 edition of the rankings.
He remained outside the top 200 until October 2019 and though he climbed to 102 in July 2021, he ended that year ranked 134th and did not re-enter the top 100 until February 7, 2022 when we was 95th.
He made the top 50 briefly last June and for most of the year from August onwards. After dipping back as low as 70 in February, he has now spent five straight weeks in the top 50 since the May 8 update.
Tournament wins
Murray’s only tournament win on the main ATP Tour since his surgeries came at the 2019 European Open in Antwerp.
That came via an impressive win over fellow three-time grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka in the final, while his semi-final opponent Ugo Humbert would go on to win the event the following year.
He reached further finals in Sydney and Stuttgart last year and Doha this February, where he lost to Daniil Medvedev.
His grass-court wins in Surbiton and Nottingham made it three titles for him on this year’s ATP Challenger Tour, having also won on the clay of Aix-en-Provence in May.
Queen’s record
Murray now takes his form to the biggest grass-court tournament outside of Wimbledon, knowing a deep run in the cinch Championships at The Queen’s Club could earn him a spot among the 32 seeds at SW19.
His past record there offers plenty of encouragement, with a record five titles to his name.
He won the event ahead of his two Wimbledon triumphs in 2013 and 2016 as well as in 2009, 2011 and 2015 to stand alone as Queen’s Club’s most successful player.
He will need to reach at least the quarter-finals this year to have a chance of being seeded at Wimbledon and the less-encouraging omen is his somewhat boom-and-bust record – outside of his five wins he has reached just one other quarter-final, which he lost to Andy Roddick in 2008.
Murray has lost in the last 16 four times – most recently two years ago against Matteo Berrettini – and the last 32 three times with a solitary last-64 exit back in 2006.
Madrid Open: Nadal roars to victory against De Minaur
Rafael Nadal delighted his home fans at the Madrid Open as he roared to an impressive victory over Alex de Minaur on Saturday.
The Spaniard battled to a 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 victory to earn his first win over a top-20 player in the world rankings since the ATP Finals back in 2022.
De Minaur had beaten Nadal last week in Barcelona, but the five-time Madrid champion was not to be denied this time in front of a crowd which included King Felipe VI along with football stars Zinedine Zidane and Vinicius Jr.
Emerging triumphant from an epic 77-minute opening set proved decisive, with Nadal more comfortable in the second as De Minaur missed an opportunity to become the first player to beat him in consecutive weeks since Novak Djokovic achieved the feat way back in 2011.
Nadal will take on Pedro Cachin in the third round after the Argentine dumped out Fances Tiafoe in three sets.
"I'm super happy to be able to be competitive against a great player like Alex and play over two hours," Nadal said, per the ATP Tour website.
"It means a lot to me and the atmosphere here is just a joke, so I can't thank enough everybody here.
"It still needs time [until I am back to my best]. I think for moments it has been a good level of tennis. I was able to do positive things, but still on and off.
"But I really believe that tennis hasn't been an issue for the last two years. More the physical issues.
"If I am able to play weeks in a row and if I am able to play tennis, then I'm going to see how far I can go and how competitive I could be. But that's not the case yet, just step by step and let's see how I recover."
Elsewhere at the tournament, Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner, playing as the top seed at a Masters 1000 event for the first time, cruised to victory over fellow Italian Lorenzo Sonego to start his campaign in style.
It took Sinner just 69 minutes to win 6-0 6-3 and improve to 26-2 in a remarkable 2024 season so far.
“I know Lorenzo quite well and we have a good friendship off the court, we play Davis Cup together, we practise a lot together,” Sinner said.
“The mental side was a little bit different than it used to be, so I'm just happy how I handled the situation. He didn't play at his best. I think we saw this. I wish him all the best for the rest of the season.”
Progress was harder to come by for Daniil Medvedev as he lost the opening set to Matteo Arnaldi, though the third seed eventually battled through 2-6 6-4 6-4 to book a third-round clash with American Sebastian Korda.
There was a surprise result, though, with Brazilian qualifier Thiago Monteiro ending the fine recent form of Stefanos Tsitsipas with a 6-4 6-4 victory.
Tsitsipas was 10-1 on clay this year going into the match, but the sixth seed crashed to a shock defeat just a week after Monteiro had lost in the first round of a Challenger Tour event in Portugal, marking a rapid reversal of his fortunes.
“Every week you have a new opportunity," said Monteiro. “These past few weeks I wasn’t feeling really good on the court. I was trying to do well at Challengers but it didn’t work.
“I just kept up the hard work, day by day. Even when I was not feeling good and not winning matches, I kept believing in myself, and this week it has paid off.
"For sure one of the biggest wins of my career. I knew it was a really tough match and I tried to just believe in myself all the time."
Sunday’s matches will see Nadal’s compatriot Carlos Alcaraz continue his campaign with a third-round clash against Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Swiatek soars into Madrid Open last 16 after dropping just two games against Cirstea
Iga Swiatek stormed through to the Madrid Open last 16 following a dominant straight-sets victory over Sorana Cirstea.
The world number one dropped just two games as she inflicted a comprehensive 6-1 6-1 rout on her Romanian opponent in the Spanish capital.
Swiatek, who was runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka in last year's event, will play Sara Sorribes Tormo in the round of 16 after the Spaniard defeated two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka.
The Pole is now 26-4 for the season, in which she has already triumphed at the Qatar Open and Indian Wells Open, as she eyes the ninth WTA 1000 singles title of her career.
Data debrief
Swiatek is through to her sixth round of 16 from seven main-draw appearances in WTA 1000 events on clay (85.7 per cent) - the highest percentage rate among players with at least five such appearances since the format's introduction in 2009.
The three-time French Open champion also boasts the best WTA match win rate of any player since 2000 on clay (87 per cent). Overall, only Chris Evert (94.5 per cent), Margaret Court (89.5 per cent) and Steffi Graf (89.2 per cent) boast a higher percentage in the Open Era.
Alcaraz begins Madrid Open campaign with emphatic win
Carlos Alcaraz continued his fine record at the Madrid Open with an emphatic 6-2 6-1 victory over Alexander Shevchenko on Friday.
The two-time defending champion made it 12 straight wins at his home tournament to ensure he will face Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild in the last 32.
Alcaraz was playing his first match on the ATP Tour since March 28 after being unable to compete in the Monte-Carlo Masters and Barcelona Open due to an arm injury.
But he was still able to make a fine start to his clay-court season, breaking serve in the first game and racing to victory in only one hour and eight minutes.
Data Debrief
Sometimes the scoreline can be harsh on a beaten player, but on this occasion Alcaraz was clearly dominant, breaking the Kazakh seven times in the match and forcing 11 break-point opportunities while conceding only three for his opponent.
That allowed the Spaniard to claim a dominant victory despite being broken once in each set. He will now turn his attention to a clash with Seyboth Wild, who battled past Lorenzo Musetti with a 6-4 6-4 win.
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