Alex de Minaur and Lleyton Hewitt join Tsitsipas in s-Hertogenbosch
Right after the last point in the men's singles final at Roland Garros on June 9, the players and tennis fans will switch the focus to the grass swing that starts with Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart and Libema Open in s-Hertogenbosch. The 30th edition of the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships will gather solid field of players, with the top-10 star Stefanos Tsitsipas and the home favorite Robin Haase as the first players confirmed to battle for the title between June 10-16. The organizers have extended the players' list with three Aussies, led by the 20-year-old Alex de Minaur. A former junior Wimbledon finalist will make a debut in s-Hertogenbosch and should be among the title favorites if he brings his best tennis.
Last June, Alex was the finalist in Surbiton Challenger before winning the title in Nottingham, building the confidence for Wimbledon where he defeated Marco Cecchinato and Pierre-Hugues Herbert to set the third round clash against Rafael Nadal who ousted him in straight sets. De Minaur played a thrilling match against Ivo Karlovic in Newport, wasting a match point to end his grass swing and hoping for even better results in 2019, motivated after claiming the first ATP title in the hometown of Sydney back in January.
A former world no. 1 and mentor of de Minaur, Lleyton Hewitt certainly knows everything about this event, competing there for the first time back in 2001 when he won the title, beating Goran Ivanisevic and Roger Federer en route to the final where he took down Guillermo Canas to continue where he left at Queen's in the previous week. Lleyton played the Libema Open in 2015 after a 13-year break and will travel to the Netherlands again in June, entering the doubles draw with Jordan Thompson (he competed with Alex Bolt in 2018).
The Australian Davis Cup captain loves to play doubles occasionally with the rest of the Aussie squad, sharing the court with Alex de Minaur in Brisbane, Jordan Thompson in Sydney, John-Patrick Smith at the Australian Open and Alexei Popyrin in New York.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2U5J7bi
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