Jarry, Zverev To Meet Again In Hamburg
Jarry, Zverev To Meet Again In Hamburg
Thiem to meet Cuevas in first round
Alexander Zverev will face a familiar opponent in his opening match at next week’s Hamburg European Open.
The World No. 5 will meet Nicolas Jarry of Chile, for the third time on clay this season, with a place in the second round on the line. In their previous two FedEx ATP Head2Head encounters, Zverev and Jarry went all the way to final-set tie-breaks with the winning player saving match points on each occasion.
At the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in April, Jarry saved one match point to defeat a Top 3 player in the ATP Rankings for the first time. One month later, in the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open final, Zverev withstood two championship points before claiming his 11th ATP Tour trophy.
The Hamburg-born star, who owns a 4-4 record at the ATP 500 tournament, is aiming to earn his first victory at his hometown event since reaching the semi-finals in 2014 at No. 285 in the ATP Rankings. If he overcomes Jarry, who will meet Juan Ignacio Londero in the Swedish Open final on Sunday, Zverev will face Argentina Open champion Marco Cecchinato or Swedish Open semi-finalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas for a spot in the quarter-finals. Zverev shares the top quarter of the draw with sixth seed Laslo Djere.
Defending champion and fourth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili, who could meet Zverev in the semi-finals, begins his title defence against a qualifier. The fourth seed is joined in the third quarter of the draw by fifth seed Benoit Paire, Båstad finalist Londero and Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag semi-finalist Salvatore Caruso, who meets Dusan Lajovic for a place in the championship match.
Top seed Dominic Thiem will open his campaign against Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay. Thiem owns a 4-2 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the World No. 46, including wins in Buenos Aires and Roland Garros this year. Two-time ATP Tour titlist Cristian Garin also features in the top quarter of the draw. The Chilean will meet Andrey Rublev in the first round.
The second quarter of the draw is headlined by Fabio Fognini of Italy. The third seed, who lifted his maiden ATP Masters 1000 trophy at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in April, owns a 14-6 record at the clay-court event, highlighted by his title run in 2013 (d. Delbonis). Fognini could meet two-time winner Leonardo Mayer in the second round. Mayer faces German wild card Rudolf Molleker in the first round. Seventh seed Jan-Lennard Struff joins Fognini as a fellow seed in this section.