Rotterdam draw: Carlos Alcaraz debut opponent revealed as Daniil Medvedev faces Grand Slam winner

Carlos Alcaraz has been handed an intriguing first-round match against the man who stunned him at the 2024 US Open while Daniil Medvedev will face a fellow former Grand Slam winner in his opener at the Rotterdam Open.
With defending champion Jannik Sinner withdrawing from the tournament following his Australian Open title run, Alcaraz was elevated to top seed at the ATP 500 event.
The Spaniard will feature in the Netherlands tournament for the first time and he also doesn’t have any points to defend this week from his 2024 South American swing.
Alcaraz, though, will face a tricky opponent in Botic van de Zandschulp in what will be their third career meeting.
The four-time Grand Slam winner leads the H2H 2-1 having won at the 2021 Australian Open and in Basel in 2022, but the Dutchman won their most recent match.
Van de Zandschulp shocked Alcaraz in straight sets in the second round of the US Open last year.
Alcaraz is also yet to crack the code on indoor surfaces as he has a 25-12 record at indoor events and is yet to reach a final.
After exiting the indoor ATP Finals in Turin after the round-robin phase in 2024, the world N o3 said: “I’ll be a really good player on indoor courts, I’m sure about it.
“But I think it’s about time, about getting experience, getting matches in my back, hitting on indoor courts. I don’t feel that I’m a bad player indoors, but probably I’m going to say [right now] a lot of players are better than me on indoor courts.”
The winner of the Alcaraz-Van de Zandschlup match will face either Felix Auger-Aliassime or a qualifier in the second round while fifth seed Holger Rune is projected quarter-finalist with fourth seed Andrey Rublev a likely semi-final opponent.
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Auger-Aliassime has made a good start to 2025 as he won the Adelaide International and also reached the semi-final in Montpellier with Rublev also in the last four of the Open Occitaine.
Second seed Daniil Medvedev is 1-1 so far in 2025 after losing in the second of the season-opening Grand Slam and he has been handed a potential banana skin match against Stan Wawrinka, who has been handed a wildcard.
Medvedev – who won the Rotterdam title in 2023 – required five sets to beat Kasidit Samrej in the first round in Melbourne and then lost in five sets against American teenager Learner Tien in his next match.
The 2021 US Open winner is projected to meet fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas – a first-round loser in Australia – in the quarter-final and either third seed Alex de Minaur or seventh seed Arthur Fils in the semi-final.
De Minaur finished runner-up to Sinner last year and he will open up against veteran David Goffin this year.