Vienna Open draw: Did Jannik Sinner avoid Daniil Medvedev? Alexander Zverev handed cushy early path
Jannik Sinner returns to ATP Tour action following his massive Six Kings Slam payday and he has managed to avoid some big guns during the early rounds of the Vienna Open.
For the second consecutive year, Sinner was crowned Six Kings Slam champion after beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the exhibition event in Riyadh, and for the second year in a row he earned $6m (a $1.5m participation fee and a first prize of $4.5m) for his efforts.
But the four-time Grand Slam winner will play for a fraction of that at the ATP 500 tournament in Austria as the winner will earn €511,835 ($596,649) while the runner-up will receive a cheque of €275,390 ($321,023).
Sinner, of course, will be the first to say that he doesn’t play for money and one of his major goal at the tournament will be ranking points as he looks to keep his outside hopes of beating Alcaraz to the year-end No 1 title alive.
Alcaraz has a 2,540-point lead in the Race To Turin so Sinner will need to win his three remaining events (Vienna, Paris and ATP Finals) if he is to stand a chance.
First up is the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna and the top seed faces Daniel Altmaier in his opener. If he gets through that he will take on either Tomas Machac or Flavio Cobolli.
Eighth seed Alexander Bublik is the first seed he is projected to face Sinner, who leads their head-to-head 5-2 – in the quarter-final. The Italian won their most recent match 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 at the US Open although Bublik beat him in three sets in Halle in June.
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Alex de Minaur is the second-highest seed in the top half of the draw and the third seed will face wildcard Jurij Rodionov first up with a last-eight clash against seventh seed Andrey Rublev on the cards.
If the seeds hold, then Sinner will take on De Minaur in the last four.
Second seed Alexander Zverev is projected to meet Lorenzo Musetti in the other semi-final, but the latter has received a tough draw as he faces Stefanos Tsitispas in the first round.
The fourth-seeded Musetti will likely have to get past fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev – who has regained form by reaching the Almaty Open final – in the quarter-final.
Zverev will face a qualifier in both the first round and the second round with his opponents still to be determined. He is projected to meet seventh seed Karen Khachanov in the last eight before a potential meeting with Musetti.
