Week in Preview: Hamburg, Atlanta, Gstaad, Baku

Let no void go unfilled: This is the mantra of the pro-tennis scheduler. For the top players, late July is a much-needed rest period between surfaces and seasons; they have nearly a month off between the end of the grass swing at Wimbledon, and the start of the first major U.S. hard-court event, the Rogers Cup, in Canada in August. But while the stars can afford the time off—Novak Djokovic showed up this weekend at the tournament in Umag just to watch—the rest of the tour doesn’t have much time for vacation. Call this a Summer Interlude, rather than a full-fledged season of its own.

This interlude doesn’t lead into a Grand Slam, and it isn’t played on a specific surface or continent; there are tournaments on clay, grass, and hard courts, and they’re held in South America, North America, Europe, and Asia. The winners often come out of left field: On Sunday, 26-year-old Benoit Paire won his first career ATP tournament, in Bastad, while Bernard Tomic defended his title in Bogota a few days after being arrested in Miami.

Despite its laid-back name and lack of long-term import, the summer interlude is filled with action. Or at least it is filled with results; there are six ATP and WTA events being held on what should qualify as a slow week for the sport. Within that onslaught of scores, a few should catch the eyes of fans who are looking ahead to the bigger late-summer stories to come.

Hamburg, Germany
$1,427,165; 500 ranking points
Red clay
Draw is here

If the summer interlude has a crescendo, it happens in Hamburg. On the one hand, this tournament has taken a long slide down tennis’ prestige mountain over the last decade. Once known as the German Open, it’s now named for a gambling site; once a Masters event, it has been reduced to a non-mandatory ATP 500; once an integral part of the red-clay road to Paris, it now resides in the nether zone of late July and leads to nothing.

Yet despite all of those indignities, Hamburg has hung on gamely, and its $1.5 million in prize money will always draw a crowd. This year the tournament has been rewarded with the reappearance of Rafael Nadal, who is back for the first time since he won the title in 2008. All eyes, of course, will be on Rafa, as he attempts to find his forehand, boost his ranking, and build some momentum before traveling to North America next month. Nadal will have to be ready right away; his opening-round opponent is Fernando Verdasco, who beat him earlier this year in Miami.

First-round matches to watch:

Juan Monaco vs. Ernests Gulbis

Borna Coric vs. Roberto Bautista Agut

Tommy Robredo vs. German teen Alexander Zverev

Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. Bastad champion Benoit Paire

Gstaad, Switzerland
$488,000; 250 ranking points
Red clay
Draw is here

Did you know that David Goffin, all 150 pounds of him, is ranked No. 14 in the world? Did you see that coming? I confess that, as much as I love his shotmaking, I didn’t think he was imposing enough to rise that high. Like Gilles Simon, Goffin shows that timing, while it may not be everything, is still worth a little something in tennis.

Now we’ll see how well Goffin’s timing holds up under the pressure of new expectations. He’ll get to feel them this week in Gstaad, where he's the top seed. Looking at his underwhelming side of the draw—Pablo Andujar is the next-highest-seed—he shouldn’t be seriously challenged before the final. There he might face No. 2 seed Feliciano Lopez, or last week’s champion in Umag, Dominic Thiem.

Atlanta
$585,870; 250 ranking points
Hard courts
Draw is here

The road to the U.S. Open begins in modest, and familiar, fashion at this tennis mecca of the south. The BB&T serves, if nothing else, as a summer launching pad for the American men. With four qualifiers still to be placed, there were nine U.S. players in the 28-man draw. That includes two-time defending champion John Isner. Three wild cards: Frances Tiafoe, Ryan Harrison, and Christopher Eubanks. New IMG client Jack Sock. Tour stalwarts Donald Young, Steve Johnson, and Tim Smyczek. And one veteran starting his farewell tour: Mardy Fish. The second seed, Vasek Pospisil, may be from Canada, but as Sock’s doubles partner, U.S. fans might as well claim him, too.

Baku, Azerbaijan
$250,000; WTA International
Hard courts
Draw is here

As July draws to a close, the summer interlude slows to a crawl on the women’s side. Here in Baku, the tour’s highest-profile event this week, the top two seeds are 42nd-ranked Anastasia Pavlychenkova and 38th-ranked (and runner-up last week in Bad Gastein) Karin Knapp. The tournament’s most famous entrant, third-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, is already out, in straight sets, to Margarita Gasparyan. Even the last names can be deceiving here: The wild card named Safarova is Zuleykha, not Lucie; and the Pliskova is Kristyna, not her higher-ranked sister, Karolina.

First-round generational conflict to watch: 35-year-old Francesca Schiavone vs. 19-year-old Donna Vekic

Florianopolis, Brazil
$250,000; WTA International
Red Clay
Draw is here

Gustavo Kuerten’s hometown hosts this clay event, whose top two seeds are 64th-ranked Tatjana Maria and 69th-ranked Ajla Tomljanovic.

Also here: Fifth seed Bathanie Mattek-Sands. Can she build on her energizing fourth-round Wimbledon run?

Nanchang, China
$125,000; WTA 125K Series
Hard courts
Draw is here

The tours’ pursuit of the Chinese market continues apace. Here’s a chance for the country to showcase its local women’s talent: 16 of the 32 players in the draw are from China, and six are from Japan. There are only two Europeans participating, one of whom is—did you guess it?—top-seeded Jelena Jankovic.