Adrian Mannarino plays Newport Challenger just four days after third-round loss at Wimbledon

NEWPORT, R.I.—On July 4^th, just before 11 a.m. ET, Andrey Rublev struck an ace to eliminate Adrian Mannarino from Wimbledon. Mannarino, who turned 37 while playing in SW19, won three qualifying and two main-draw matches at The Championships, his fourth grass-court tournament in four weeks.

For his efforts, the Frenchman afforded himself four days rest.

On July 8^th, just after 11 a.m. ET, Mannarino struck his first shot at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island. The ATP Challenger Tour event, 3,316 miles away from the All England Club, awards 125 ranking points and $28,400 to its champion—exactly 1,875 less points, and roughly four million dollars, less than Wimbledon’s winner’s haul.

“Was a tough decision for me to come here,” admits Mannarino. “My goal [is] to make the cut for the main draw in the US Open, and I saw after the [Rublev] match that I was still a little bit short.

“So I needed to come here to get a couple of wins if I want to make it.”

The chase for ranking points takes tennis players around the world, but even for a veteran globetrotter like Mannarino, this transatlantic turnaround was surprising. Given how recently he was a main-draw mainstay at the majors, however, Mannarino feels some urgency.

Mannarino was ranked a career-high No. 17 just last January, following an Australian Open that saw him win three consecutive five-set matches. He outlasted three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka in the first round, Jaume Munar in the second and surging Ben Shelton in the third—before understandably running out of gas against Novak Djokovic. The remarkable run netted Mannarino 200 ranking points. All but 10 of those fell off after a first-round loss in Melbourne this year.

Couple that hit with three unsuccessful title defenses in 2024, and Mannarino was outside the Top 100 in late January. By late March, he was nearly outside the Top 150.

Ever since, Mannarino has been clawing his way back.

“I felt like my body was exhausted, it’s been a long time on the road now,” says Mannarino. “But I still have one little effort to make.”

Mannarino’s history in this historic New England city also attracted him to enter what remains the only grass-court ATP tournament in the United States. He has played the Hall of Fame Open 11 prior years, when it was an ATP 250, and he won the tournament in his breakthrough 2023 season.

The lithe lefty flew overseas on Saturday, and his jetlag hadn’t fully subsided by Monday, when he was spotted on an empty practice court hitting serves and collecting his own balls.

“Every day I’m trying to get a better serve, a better volley as well,” says Mannarino. “My legs are not going to run forever, so I need to make some quicker points, be a little bit more offensive.”

In “real life,” as Mannarino put it Tuesday after a 6-3, 6-4 win over 205^th-ranked Yasutaka Uchiyama, he does not radiate the competitiveness he displays during matches. But succeeding in professional tennis requires unusual intensity, and the soft-spoken Frenchman is happy to oblige. On grass, which doesn’t allow players to wait out points—and demands three-dimensional tennis considering the ball’s ultra-low bounce—you can hear, see and feel Mannarino’s effort in every point he plays.

Tennis may not be everything in Mannarino’s life, but right now, it’s the biggest part of it. And as long as he can maintain the level demanded of him, he’ll continue his chase.

“I got to make my own mindset before the match, I’m trying to get into my bubble to go get it when on court,” says Mannarino, who gets a day off before facing Tyler Zink in the round of 16. “I still want to be here for another year, so I need to make some good results and I need to be hungry.”