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- 2024 Brisbane event includes Nadal, Murray, Dimitrov, and Osaka
- Rafael Nadal Announces Brisbane Return
- Alicia Molik Named Adelaide International Tournament Director
- Defending Champion Tiafoe Returning for U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship
- Including doubles, Sinner defeats Djokovic three times in 11 days
- Sinner the hero as Italy captures first Davis Cup title since 1976
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- Davis Cup Finals Draws and Schedule for Sunday, November 26, 2023
- Stars Set for LA Tennis Bash on December 9th to Benefit First Break Academy
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- Serbia and Italy advance to Davis Cup semis, setting up another Djokovic vs. Sinner showdown
Ricky’s picks for the ATP 500 in Rotterdam: Rune revels is favorable draw
- Updated: February 13, 2023
The February swing heats up in a big way this week with perhaps the best 500-point tournament of the entire season. Jannik Sinner was ranked No. 17 in the world at the time of seeding (he is now 14th in Monday’s rankings) and he is not even seeded in Rotterdam. Eight of the ATP’s top 16 players are in the field, including Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, and Daniil Medvedev.
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
Where: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Surface: Indoor hard
Points: 500
Prize money: 2,074,505 Euros
Top seed: Stefanos Tsitsipas
Defending champion: Felix Auger-Aliassime
The entire draw is loaded, but the bottom half is especially ridiculous. It is home to Rublev, Medvedev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Hubert Hurkacz, Roberto Bautsita Agut, Grigor Dimitrov, Alex de Minaur, Borna Coric, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Botic van de Zandschulp, and Montpellier runner-up Maxime Cressy. There are no easy matches—not even in the first round. Case in point: some of the openers are Rublev vs. De Minaur, Medvedev vs. Davidovich Fokina, Hurkacz vs. Bautista Agut, and Auger-Aliassime vs. Lorenzo Sonego.
Out of all 32 players, the only one who can say he has a legitimately “good” draw is Holger Rune. A struggling Alexander Zverev is Rune’s nearest seed and the unseeded group in that quarter of the bracket is unspectacular. The 19-year-old Dane should roll into the semifinals, at which point he could meet Tsitsipas or Sinner. A Tsitsipas-Sinner second-round showdown is likely, and it would come just four days after the Italian triumphed in Montpellier.
Quarterfinal picks: Stefanos Tsitsipas over Pablo Carreno Busta, Holger Rune over Soonwoo Kwon, Daniil Medvedev over Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Daniil Medvedev over Grigor Dimitrov
Semifinals: Rune over Tsitsipas and Medvedev over Rublev
Final: Rune over Medvedev
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.
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