Chris Eubanks and Iga Swiatek come home, to Atlanta and Warsaw, during a six-tournament week

Warm & Fuzzy: Andrey Rublev

The second half of the tennis season is a slow build. The sport never comes to a halt, exactly, but there’s a little time to let the dust settle after Roland Garros and Wimbledon, before the stars return to the court and we begin to think about the final major of the year, the US Open. We’re in that dust-settling moment right now.

But it won’t last much longer. This week the tours begin their shift from Europe, where the year’s last clay-court events are playing out, to the U.S., where the first hard-court tournaments are starting up. And while many of the game’s top names are still absent, the WTA’s No. 1, Iga Swiatek, will make her return in her native Warsaw.

• Warsaw, Poland
• $259,303; WTA 250
• Hard court
• Draw is HERE

Swiatek comes back to her hometown, and to a surface she's won big on. It seems like the perfect way to put her quarterfinal Wimbledon defeat behind her, right? That’s not how it worked out last year. After losing early in London, she traveled to Warsaw and lost in the quarters to Caroline Garcia.

This year there doesn’t appear to be anyone as dangerous as Garcia in Swiatek’s half of the draw. But it would be interesting to see her meet the second-highest seed in her quarter, 18-year-old Linda Noskova. The Czech is currently ranked 59th, but is sure to rise higher soon.

The tournament also offers a potential rematch of the Roland Garros final. Karolina Muchova is the No. 2 seed, and will try to bounce back from a disappointing first-round loss at Wimbledon against Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Tuesday.

• Hamburg, Germany
• $2,100,000; ATP 500
• Red clay
• Draw is HERE

The week’s only 500-level event is in Hamburg. Seed-wise, it’s a virtual carbon copy of the tournament in Bastad from a week ago: Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, Lorenzo Musetti, Alexander Zverev and Francisco Cerundolo once again lead the way.

In Bastad, Rublev ran the table, beating Zverev, Cerundolo and Ruud back-to-back-to-back for the title. That continued the momentum that he had built during his second-week run at Wimbledon. Another title on clay might not tell us that much about how he’ll fare in the U.S., but it could lift his ranking and seedings for the hard-court season. Right now, Rublev is No. 7, but he’s just a couple hundred points behind the fourth-ranked Ruud.

• Atlanta, GA
• $822,175; ATP 250
• Hard court
• Draw is HERE

Speaking of players trying to put Wimbledon behind them, nobody wants to do that more than Taylor Fritz. The U.S. No. 1 squandered a two-set lead to Mikael Ymer in London, and now finds himself at No. 9 in the world, in some danger of falling out of the Top 10 spot he earned last season.

But Fritz is still the U.S. men’s No. 1, and he’s the No. 1 seed in Atlanta, where he’ll be back on his favored hard courts. In his first match, he could get a crack at the man who beat him in Dallas earlier this year, Wu Yibing. The seeds behind Fritz are Alex de Minaur, Dan Evans, Yoshihito Nishioka and two Americans who have had breakout Slam performances in 2023, Chris Eubanks and Ben Shelton.

New face: Alex Michelsen. The 6'4", 18-year-old Californian made the final in Newport last week. He’ll take on Maxime Cressy in his opener in Atlanta.

First-round match to watch: Gael Monfils vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis

• Umag, Croatia
• $750,000; ATP 250
• Red clay
• Draw is HERE

33rd-ranked Jiri Lehecka is the top seed in Umag. The Czech burst onto most people’s radar when he made the quarters at the Australian Open in January. Since then, he’s been up and down, but he’s coming off a relative up at Wimbledon, where he made the round of 16. He could open this week against Dominic Thiem.

Also here: No. 2 seed Lorenzo Sonego, No. 6 seed Stan Wawrinka

• Hamburg, Germany
• $250,000; WTA 250
• Red clay
• Draw is HERE

The women are in Hamburg this week as well, for a smaller 250 event. 22nd-ranked Donna Vekic is the top seed, followed by Mayar Sherif, Bernarda Pera and Jasmine Paolini.

• Lausanne, Switzerland
• $259,000; WTA 250
• Red clay
• Draw is HERE

The top of this draw doesn’t offer a lot of star power: The first four seeds are Irina-Camelia Begu, Elisabeta Cocciaretto, Ana Bogdan and Lucia Bronzetti. Just past them, though, is a young player that everyone is keeping one eye on right now: 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva. She’s off to a good start, having cruised past Dayana Yastremeska 6-0, 6-2 in her opener on Monday.