The ATP grass season opens this week in 's-Hertogenbosch, at the same venue as the WTA Libema Open. The men's draw is strong for a 250: three top-eight players in Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alex de Minaur and Daniil Medvedev, and all eight seeds inside the top 40. The top half carries the two highest-ranked names, Auger-Aliassime and Medvedev, while De Minaur, the 2024 champion here, anchors the bottom half alongside defending champion Gabriel Diallo.
Auger Aliassime and Medvedev wait for breath of fresh air on grass
Top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime is 23-11 in 2026 and has a long history on grass. He reached the semifinals in both Stuttgart and Mallorca last year, made the last four here in 's-Hertogenbosch in 2022, and put together his best grass season in 2021 with a Wimbledon quarterfinal, a Halle semifinal and a Stuttgart final. His grass numbers sit at 6-4 over the last 52 weeks and 28-17 across his main-tour career. He has a first-round bye and opens against Hubert Hurkacz or Marton Fucsovics.
The most charged first round of the week sits in this quarter, where wild card Otto Virtanen meets Kamil Majchrzak only days after the two played out the match of the Birmingham Challenger, a 7-6(6) 6-7(5) 7-6(7) Virtanen win across three tiebreaks in which Majchrzak held a match point in the deciding breaker before Virtanen closed it 9-7. Virtanen reached that final as the defending Birmingham champion, and his 9-1 grass record over the past year reflects the run, though all but one of those wins came at Challenger level and he is 0-3 on the main tour this season. 's-Hertogenbosch carries a sharper memory for him: a Grade 2 tear of his left knee ligament, suffered when he slipped here last year, cost him two months out. His game travels on grass through his serve, with 40 aces across his two matches in Birmingham on Sunday. Majchrzak arrives with his own grass story, a Wimbledon fourth round last year that stood apart from a main-tour record of just two singles wins before it, at Newport in 2019 and here in 's-Hertogenbosch in 2022, with those Wimbledon points to defend in a month. Eighth seed Zizou Bergs also sits in this quarter.
Third seed Daniil Medvedev brings the strongest grass history in the field: 51 main-tour wins on the surface, the 2021 Mallorca title and three finals since, here in 's-Hertogenbosch in 2022, in Halle in 2022 and again in Halle in 2025. The caution is what followed that last final, a four-set first-round loss to Benjamin Bonzi at Wimbledon. His 2026 started superbly with titles in Brisbane and Dubai and the Indian Wells final, then fell away badly on clay, including a 0-6 0-6 loss to Matteo Berrettini in Monte Carlo and a first-round Roland Garros exit to Adam Walton, with a Rome semifinal the one bright spot. He is 24-9 on the year and 5-3 on grass over the last 52 weeks. He has a bye and opens against wild card Thijs Boogaard or Yibing Wu. The same quarter holds seventh seed Denis Shapovalov and Marin Cilic, the most decorated grass player in the draw with 81 career main-tour wins, who meet in the first round.
The heatmap displays the uncommon names leading the charge in terms of performance on grass in recent 52 weeks. Virtanen's unfinished run from 2025 and great start of new season with comeback to final in Birmingham sprinkled with lots of aces fired, make the the Finn a dangerous player to consider. Marin Cilic had also have a great run in 2025. The former world number 3 won the Nottingham Challenger and mate into round of 16 of Wimbledon, narrowly getting defeated by Flavio Cobolli.
De Minaur and reigning champ Diallo headline the bottom half
Second seed Alex de Minaur won this title in 2024 without dropping a set, a year after a quarterfinal run here in 2023, and his wider grass credentials are solid: the 2021 Eastbourne title and a best Wimbledon result of the fourth round, reached in 2022 and 2025. His form is the question. After a strong hard-court start that included the Rotterdam 500 title, his clay swing brought just one win, and he has lost six of his last seven matches. He arrives 19-11 on the year with a 34-19 career grass record, and has a bye, opening against Jaume Munar or qualifier Martin Damm.
The defending champion sits in the other bottom-half quarter. Gabriel Diallo won here in 2025 for the only title of his career, and grass remains his best surface, with a 9-3 record over the last 52 weeks against a 5-12 season across all surfaces. This clash seems to be a cracker. Mannarino has a great record of 14-6, playing a lot on grass in 2025 and not without a successes. The French veteran scraped through quali draw at Wimbledon to end up the run on 3rd round, losing to Andrey Rublev. Then, the former world number 17 advanced into final of ATP 125 Challenger in Newport. His clay season was abysmal with all 8 matches lost, but if Mannarino comes back to his gears from 2025 grass campaign, his match-up with reigning champion from Canada can be a cracker of first round. Mannarino has also won 71 main draw matches on grass throughout whole career, which proves his last season was not a fluke. The winner a likely first test for fourth seed Arthur Rinderknech, who is 6-4 on grass over the last 52 weeks and 13-16 for his main-tour career on grass.
Fifth seed Ugo Humbert opens against qualifier Elias Ymer in De Minaur's quarter, with a 29-23 career grass record. Home hope and sixth seed Tallon Griekspoor draws fellow Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in an all-Dutch first round; Griekspoor is 8-12 on the main tour this year but 4-1 on grass over the last 52 weeks and 20-12 on the surface across his career.
