[ad_1]
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and defending champion Dominic Thiem lead a strong field at the Erste Bank Open. In addition to Djokovic and Thiem, four top 10 players participate in the tournament: Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Diego Schwartzman.
Djokovic will appear for the first time since his 2007 victory in Vienna (defeating Wawrinka), while Thiem is playing in this indoor ATP 500 tournament for the tenth time. Last year Thiem defeated Schwartzman in the final and in 2010 he became Austria’s first champion since Jürgen Melzer.
Djokovic and Rublev are each aiming for the fifth ATP Tour title of the season. Rublev, 22, eighth in the FedEx ATP rankings, has won two ATP 500 titles: Hamburg European Open (defeated Tsitsipas) and St.
Petersburg Open (defeated Coric) – last month. The world number 1 will make a difficult debut against his compatriot and friend Filip Krajinovic. Dominic Thiem, number 2, will also have a difficult game in the first round, as he will face the Japanese Kei Nishikori, who is slowly finding his level.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, number 3, has been without activity since his Roland Garros semi-final match against Djokovic and will make his debut against German Jan-Lennard Struff. Gael Monfils, Denis Shapovalov, Karen Khachanov, Stan Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Kei Nishikori and 2018 champion Kevin Anderson are also among the players vying for the Vienna title.
Only 3 Austrian players were able to win the ATP Vienna title
This is everything you need to know about the Vienna tennis tournament: what is the schedule, where to watch, who won and much more.
With Thiem’s victory in 2019, three different Austrians won the Vienna title. Horst Skoff was the first Austrian to triumph here, beating Thomas Muster in the 1988 final. Jürgen Melzer joined Skoff in 2009 and 2010 with successive individual titles.
Former world No. 1 Thomas Muster never won the Vienna title, although he reached the final three times.
This is the @stebankopen singles main draw! #firstbanking pic.twitter.com/mf4kvdSdJ8 – Erste Bank Open (@ErsteBankOpen) October 24, 2020
[ad_2]
