ATP Barcelona & Munich: Alcaraz Eyes Back-to-Back Titles; Zverev Looks for Form
Top women back in action in Stuttgart while the Rouen Open also kick-starts this week.
This week the action intensifies on clay court, with the men contesting in Barcelona and Munich, and the women playing in Stuttgart and Rouen.
Below we analyze the four tournaments and discuss our favorites who we think could go on to win the tournament.
Get all the WTA & ATP tennis match previews & predictions here.
Alcaraz Looks for Third Title in Barcelona
Two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz returns to the Barcelona Open after having missed it last season. The 2022 and 2023 champion is the top seed and will be eager to pick up from where he left the last time he participated in the ATP 500 tournament.
Alcaraz is also bringing good form into the tournament, having won the Monte Carlo Open title on Sunday.
The 21-year-old world no. 3, who also won the Rotterdam Open earlier this year, will meet a qualifier or a lucky loser in the first round. He is most likely to meet Frances Tiafoe in the second round.
Monte Carlo semifinalist and fifth seed Alex de Minaur is expected to be Alcaraz’s quarterfinal opponent, while third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who finished runner-up in three of the last four years, is expected to meet Alcaraz in the semifinals.
Tsitsipas has made the finals in Barcelona four times, including the last two years, but has never won the tournament. He had also gone into the Monte-Carlo Open with a solid record, having won in the Principality in three of the last four years, but he was stunned in the quarterfinals by Lorenzo Musetti.
The Greek player will kick off his campaign against Reily Opelka in the first round. He could face Matteo Arnaldi in the second round, with 7th seed Arthur Fils being a potential quarterfinal opponent. The Frenchman was a quarterfinalist last year and is coming off back-to-back last eight finishes in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo.
In the bottom half, there will be expectations from defending champion and second seed Casper Ruud to go deep in the tournament. We expect him to reach at least the semifinals, if not the final.
We did expect the Norwegian to do well in Monte Carlo as well, but he fell to Alexei Popyrin in the round of 16. In Barcelona, Ruud will begin against a qualifier or lucky loser and could meet Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in a potential second round.
Sixth seed Holger Rune could be a possible quarterfinal opponent, while Monte Carlo finalist and eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti is likely to be a semifinal opponent.
Barring the seeds, there is one player who should be on everyone’s radar and he is Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The 25-year-old world no. 42 is having a fantastic 2025. He was a runner-up in Delray Beach and Acapulco and made it to the semifinals in Monte Carlo.
A quarterfinalist in Barcelona two years ago, Davidovich Fokina will meet Stan Wawrinka in the first round. He will possibly meet fourth seed Andrey Rublev in the second round and if he goes through, he could face Musetti in the quarterfinals.
Although Davidovich Fokina has neither beaten Rublev in five attempts nor defeated Musetti in their only meeting in 2022, his current form and home conditions make him one of our surprise picks for the quarterfinals, if not the semifinals.
Quarterfinals
Alcaraz v De Minaur
Tsitsipas v Fils
Musetti v Rublev / Davidovich Fokina
Ruud v Rune
Semifinals
Alcaraz v Tsitsipas
Ruud v Musetti/Davidovich Fokina
Can Zverev Find Form in Munich?
Alexander Zverev is the top seed at the Munich Open, but the German’s recent form is anything but encouraging.
Zverev started off the season well, reaching the final of the Australian Open, but ever since his runner-up finish at the first major, he has struggled to win matches on a consistent basis.
The German went down in the quarterfinals in Buenos Aires and Rio and has failed to reach the last eight stage of the last four tournaments, which includes an opening round defeat to Matteo Berrettini in Monte Carlo last week.
He is 6-6 since the Australian Open and will be desperately looking to return to form ahead of the French Open, where he was a finalist last year.
Zverev has suffered quite a few unexpected defeats to surprise packages in the recent past. He will be hoping to buck that trend on his home turf. He faces Alexandre Muller in the first round and that will be a mighty test for the world no. 2 as Muller has shown decent form this year and was also a finalist in Rio on clay.
If Zverev passes his first-round test, he could face Daniel Altmaier in the second round and recently crowned Miami Open champion Jakub Mensik in a potential quarterfinal.
Fourth seed Ugo Humbert or French veteran Gael Monfils could await in the semifinals.
The bottom half looks equally strong in Munich with second seed Ben Shelton leading the charge. Also in the mix are third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who has been in solid form this year; Jan-Lennard Struff, the defending champion, who has struggled for most parts of 2025; Bucharest Open champion Flavio Cobolli; and fifth seed Francisco Cerundolo, who has always been a threat on clay.
We think Zverev might find form at home and he could be one of the semifinalists in the tournament.
Munich Open Predictions
Quarterfinals:
Zverev v Mensik
Humbert v Monfils
Auger-Aliassime v Cerundolo
Shelton v Lehecka / Darderi
Semifinals
Zverev v Monfils
Shelton v Cerundolo/Auger-Aliassime
Get all the WTA & ATP tennis match previews & predictions here.
Big Stars Begin Clay Foray in Stuttgart
World no. 2 Iga Swiatek has been the most successful clay court player in the 2020s and the Pole will be relieved that the tour is now moving to her favorite surface.
It has been an atypical start to 2025 for Swiatek, who has featured in three semifinals and two quarterfinals (in addition to the United Cup final) but has yet to reach a final in an individual event this year.
Clay may help her end that run. Swiatek is also no stranger to the Stuttgart surface as she claimed the title here twice in 2022 and 2023. She couldn’t complete a hat-trick last year, falling to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the semifinals.
Swiatek is the second seed at the Stuttgart Open this year and has a first-round bye. She will most likely begin her campaign against Donna Vekic in the second round and could face seventh seed Emma Navarro in the quarterfinals.
Her potential semifinal opponent would be either third seed and Charleston champion Jessica Pegula or sixth seed Mirra Andreeva — both dangerous, solid on clay, and in terrific form in 2025.
A Pegula v Andreeva showdown is one of the most anticipated quarterfinals, and if it materializes, it could be one of the matches of the tournament.
In the top half, Aryna Sabalenka, a three-time runner-up from 2021 to 2023, comes in as the top seed with hopes of finally winning this WTA 500 tournament for the first time in her career.
Off to a 24-4 start in 2025, Sabalenka is coming into the tournament as the Miami Open champion. She was also a finalist in Indian Wells but was stunned by Andreeva in a three-set thriller.
Additionally, Sabalenka also won the Brisbane Open final this year and missed out on completing an Australian Open hat-trick as she went down to Madison Keys in the final.
The Belarusian, world no. 1, is likely to meet Clara Tauson in the second round and could face Elise Mertens in a potential quarterfinal.
Fourth seed Coco Gauff, who has been a bit inconsistent lately, is expected to set-up a semifinal showdown against Sabalenka in Stuttgart.
Gauff will possibly meet Danielle Collins in the second round and fifth seed and last year’s French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini in a potential quarterfinal. That could be a tricky one, too.
On form, Paolini is coming off a semifinal showing in Miami, while Gauff has not reached a quarterfinal in the last four tournaments. In fact, ever since leading the U.S. to the United Cup title, Gauff has reached just the Australian Open quarterfinals. So, Paolini may have a slight edge if the two meet in the last eight stage.
Stuttgart Open Predictions
Quarterfinals:
Sabalenka v Mertens/Qualifier
Gauff v Paolini
Pegula v Andreeva
Swiatek v Navarro
Semifinals:
Sabalenka v Paolini
Swiatek v Pegula / Andreeva
Svitolina Eyes First Title Since 2023
Elina Svitolina is the top seed in Rouen and the Ukrainian has been in decent form this year, which included a run to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. She has not won a title since picking up her 17th career title in Strasbourg in 2023. But in Rouen she has a great chance of claiming the WTA 250 title.
However, Svitolina’s toughest challenge may come in the semifinals, where she is on a collision course to meet McCartney Kessler of the U.S. Yet to prove herself on clay, Kessler has already featured in two finals in 2025, winning in Hobart and finishing runner-up in Austin. That form may inspire her to deliver on clay this season.
Second seed Linda Noskova and third seed Olga Danilovic are seeded to set-up a semifinal in the bottom half. But since Noskova usually struggles on clay, we could see the unseeded Jaqueline Cristian becoming a surprise semifinalist in the tournament.
Rouen Open Predictions
Semifinals:
Svitolina v Kessler
Danilovic v Cristian
Final:
Svitolina v Danilovic
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