Tsitsipas Draws Davidovich Fokina In Rotterdam; Murray To Face Bublik
Following his run to the Australian Open semi-finals, World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas returns to action next week in Rotterdam (see draw). The top seed at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament, the Greek will face Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the opening round.
It will be the pair’s second ATP Head2Head meeting, and their first on hard courts. In the 2021 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters quarter-finals, Tsitsipas won the opening set before his opponent retired.
In the draw’s bottom half—anchored by second seed Andrey Rublev—wild card and 2009 Rotterdam champion Andy Murray will take on Alexander Bublik in the opening round. (Bublik is through to Sunday’s final this week in Montpellier, where he’ll face Alexander Zverev.) Rublev will start against a qualifier, as will seeded Canadians Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov. Murray could face Auger-Aliassime in the second round.
Other notable first-round matchups include fourth seed Hubert Hurkacz against wild card and 2017 champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and sixth seed Cameron Norrie against France’s Ugo Humbert. David Goffin and Alex de Minaur, both unseeded, will also face off in the opening round, with the winner facing eighth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili or American Mackenzie McDonald.
In Buenos Aires (see draw), top seeds Casper Ruud, Diego Schwartzman, Lorenzo Sonego and Fabio Fognini all received byes into the second round. Wild card Juan Martin del Potro, who hinted at his potential retirement in a Saturday press conference, will face countryman and sixth seed Federico Delbonis at the Argentina Open.
Four Americans earned byes as the top seeds in Dallas (see draw), led by No. 1 American Taylor Fritz. Reilly Opelka, John Isner and Jenson Brooksby round out the Top 4. Maxime Cressy, now on the cusp of the Top 50 for the first time after his fourth-round Australian Open run, is seeded sixth at the Dallas Open and will start against a qualifier.
In a mini-section of big servers in the bottom half, Sam Querrey and Kevin Anderson will fight for the right to face Isner in the second round. Seeded eighth, #NextGenATP American Brandon Nakashima will open against Aussie John Millman.