4 Tournaments spread across Europe

This week, tournaments are being held in:

Stuttgart - Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (WTA Premier category)

Barcelona - Barcelona Open Bancsabadell (ATP 500 category)

Istanbul - TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup (WTA International category)

Budapest - Gazprom Hungarian Open (ATP 250 category)

All these on red clay as Roland Garros draws closer.

Stuttgart:

Of the 28 women in the main draw, eight are from the worlds top ten, including number one seed Simona Halep, and 15 of the top twenty are competing - an amazingly strong field.

The top four have first round byes

One main draw first round match has been completed - Magdalena Rybarikova defeated Daria Kasatkina 6-2 6-2 and is “rewarded” with a second round clash against Halep.

Barcelona:

Rafa Nadal is the top seed and it could be a question of who will grab the runner up trophy as the Spaniard continues his dominance on the clay.

47 men are challenging Rafa, and the fifteen seeds have first round byes (13th seed Andrey Rublev was a late withdrawal). Including Nadal there are 4 top ten and nine top twenty players in the main draw.

Ten first round matches were played with no major surprises, but Ivo Karlovic had to fight all the way against wildcard Tommy Robredo, who hardly plays at all on the ATP tour these days.

In fact this was his first match for 2018: and Ivo just managed to scrape over the line 6-7(5) 7-6(8) 6-4, saving two match points in the process.

39 year old Karlovic had not won a match in Barcelona since 2006.

Istanbul:

World number 2, Caroline Wozniacki, is the only top twenty player in the field for this event, but it still has strong representation, including duel Grand Slam title winner Sveta Kuznetsova (2) and former Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwanska (3)

The eight seeds are all in the top fifty.

Two first round matches have been played, with Kuznetsova and Christina McHale victorious.

Budapest:

Lucas Pouille is the top seed and sole top twenty player in a 28 strong main draw in Hungary.

Despite their relatively low rankings, the form of some of the players, including Richard Gasquet (3), ensures that the tournament will be a success.

Four first round matches, including two three setters, have kicked off the event.