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If the world number three from Lichtenwörth dominates the first round, there could be a duel with the Swiss Stan Wawrinka. The three-time Grand Slam winner, with whom Thiem last trained in Traiskirchen, initially competes with Chilean Cristian Garin. Thiem’s first possible seeded opponent would be Russian Andrej Rublew (5) in the quarter-finals, while Daniil Medvedev, who was seeded at No. 4, would also be a “scheduled” Russian opponent in the semi-finals. In the “Thiem-Raster-Viertel” there are also two other young rising stars who meet in the first round: Italian Jannik Sinner and Norwegian Casper Ruud.
Superstar Novak Djokovic, playing for the city hall for the first time since his Vienna title in 2007, will start in his third competition against fellow Serb Filip Krajinovic. On the way to the dream final of world numbers 1 and 3 between 17-time Major League winner Djokovic and Austrian Grand Slam champion Thiem, the Serbian would still have to go to Diego Schwartzman (ARG-6) and then to the “normal” course. Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, seeded number 3, out of the way.
“It was clear that each match would be very strong. I feel the balance. It is not a match where you say that now there are two tournament favorites against each other,” declared tournament boss Herwig Straka and said of his protégé’s draw. : “Dominic’s room is strong. With Nishikori, possibly Wawrinka in the second round, Rublew, Sinner, that’s already a room where he has to fight hard.”
The other Austrians on the field thanks to the wild cards are outsiders in their matches: Dennis Novak plays for the first time against the winner of Vienna 2018, the South African Kevin Anderson. Jurij Rodionov will also face Canadian No. 8 Denis Shapovalov for the first time. By the way, the two are almost the same age, Shapovalov is about a month older, they are both 21 years old.
“Rodionov – Shapovalov is definitely an interesting match in terms of the game system and Novak – Anderson – you don’t know with Anderson, he was injured for a long time. For Dennis, if he has a chance to keep the ball in play, it’s definitely too possible.” , was Straka’s evaluation for these Austrian games.
After Matteo Berrettini (ITA / ATP-10.), Milos Raonic (CAN / ATP-19.) And David Goffin (BEL-14) canceled, Taylor Fritz (USA), Hubert Hurkacz (POL) and Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) in the main competition. This means that there are officially six players in the top ten in the competition, Nishikori (currently 36th) enters the tournament with a “protected ranking” of 10.
