Stuttgart was only a warm-up for the German woman!

Eva Lys had almost vanished from the tour at the start of the season. A knee injury at the United Cup, an autoimmune disease that slowed down her recovery, two months out and a ranking that plummeted. When she came back in Stuttgart last week, she did exactly what players with something to prove do: she pulled off a spectacular comeback against Badosa from a set and two breaks down, sliding on the clay with a fluidity that reassured everyone about her physical condition. The loss that followed against Svitolina says nothing about her form; Svitolina is simply on another level right now.

Shuai Zhang is 37 and having a season that looks like crossing a desert. Six straight losses in singles, a WTA clay record of zero wins in three matches this season. The set she took from Noskova in Stuttgart shouldn’t be misleading: it was the Czech’s first clay match of 2026 and Noskova then went on to dominate the tournament. Zhang took advantage of an opponent who hadn’t yet found her footing on the surface, then found herself in trouble as soon as the level went up and collapsed in the third. She can hold serve in spurts; 66.1% BP Saved on clay shows she is not easy to break, but she almost never breaks back on this surface, and 16.9% Return Games Won shows she won’t win the sets she’d need to trouble Lys over two sets.