ATP Tour: What to watch out for in the week to come in Hamburg, Atlanta and Umag

James Richardson 23 Jul 2023 6:44 PM

Casper Ruud plays in 2023 French Open final

Casper Ruud hits ball at 2023 French Open final

The ATP Tour splits into a trinity of tournaments this week with events in Hamburg, Atlanta and Umag.

Casper Ruud, Taylor Fritz and Stan Wawrinka headline the respective events as the biggest stars in the fields.

Ruud and Fritz will carry top seeding while Wawrinka returns to the ranks of seeded players as the No 6 in Umag where young Czech star Jiri Lehecka tops the draw.

Ruud is out to bounce back from a championship match loss to Andrey Rublev in Bastad with the Russian also in the field for the ATP 500 Hamburg Open.

The Norwegian reached the semi-finals in Hamburg in 2020 and will be making his fourth appearance at the event.

Hamburg Open defending champion Lorenzo Musetti is also in the field and carries the No 3 seeding.

The Italian, who defeated Carlos Alcaraz in a thrilling three-set final one year ago, is back in Hamburg as the defending champion but has already dropped the rankings points from last term as the event is a week later this year. Musetti, whose finest performance this year was making it to the semifinals of the ATP 500 in Barcelona, arrives in Hamburg after making it to the last four of the ATP 250 in Bastad.

After winning the biggest championship of his career in Monte-Carlo in April and snatching the Nordea Open from Ruud, former champion Rublev is vying for his third title of the year in Hamburg. The 25-year-old, who will first face Bernabe Zapata Miralles, won the ATP 500 competition in 2020 and advanced to the championship match in 2019.

In Hamburg, the ambitions of the hosts will be led by top-ranked Germans Alexander Zverev, Yannick Hanfmann, and Daniel Altmaier. Zverev, who is from Hamburg, reached the ATP 500 event’s semifinals in 2014 and in 2019, while Hanfmann is entering after having his finest season on the ATP Tour to date. The 31-year-old advanced to Santiago’s semifinals and the quarter-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament on clay in Rome. In his sixth outing, Altmaier will try to make it past the opening round in Hamburg for the first time.

Meanwhile in Atlanta, Fritz will try to regain his best form as the US Open season gathers momentum.

The American has progressed to the last eight in just one of his last five tournaments.

Fritz ought to relish a return to hard courts.

Defending champion Alex de Minaur is in Atlanta as well chasing his third title in the city.

Atlanta-native Christopher Eubanks is another big draw, as he returns to a city he called home for some time off the back of a stellar run at Wimbledon.

Another player to watch in Atlanta will be Ben Shelton.

In Umag in 2006, Wawrinka won his first championship at the tour level; he is returning to the event for the first time since 2007. The second round appearance at Roland Garros was the 38-year-old’s greatest clay court performance this year, something he might want to put right in Croatia this week.

Similarly to Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem will be out to roll back the years at an event which sees young gun Lehecka as the top seed.