ATP Atlanta: USA, Australia and a few "exotics"
The main field at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Atlanta consists mostly of local athletes and men from "down under".
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Jul 25, 2022, 02:11 pm
Rarely when looking at an international ATP tournament tableau do the participating nations' colors look as uniform as they did at this year's ATP World Tour 250 event in Atlanta. Admittedly - after all, two German professionals, Peter Gojowczyk and Dominik Koepfer, played their way into the rather elitist field via the preliminary round in the main competition - the proverbial herb of Munich and the Black Forest is no longer making it fat.
13 athletes from the USA, seven Australians, two Frenchmen, two Germans and one athlete each from South Korea, Japan and India will start in the capital of the state of Georgia. That doesn't mean the field in the southeastern United States is bad. On the contrary - the cut of the event, which has to compete with two other tournaments in the same category, Kitzbühel and Umag, is 83 and the eight top seeds all come from the top 50 of the current men's world rankings.
First hard court tournament of the US Open Series
The top four Reilly Opelka, John Isner, Alex de Minaur and Frances Tiafoe are each happy about a bye in the first round, co-favorite Nick Kyrgios meets a qualifier at the start. Service specialist Isner wants to defend the title. The current world number 22. has already won the hard court event at Atlantic Stadium six times. Last year he won in two sets against his up-and-coming compatriot Brandon Nakashima.
Nakashima is eighth seeded in this year's edition, opening against Australia's Jordan Thompson, who advanced to the quarterfinals in 2021. The ATP tournament in Atlanta is the first hard-court tournament in the US Open Series, which is intended to prepare for the last Grand Slam tournament of the year in New York. The other events included in the series this year are Washington, DC, Montreal, Cincinnati and Winston-Salem.