ATP Basel: Federer threatens early duel with Wawrinka, Zverev opened against Fritz
The draw for the ATP-500 event in Basel has brought some explosions. Alexander Zverev opens against Taylor Fritz , also duel in the first round David Goffin and Marin Cilic . Roger Federer could meet Stan Wawrinka early in the tournament.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Oct 20, 2019, 01:40 pm
Federer will open the hunt for the tenth triumph at his home tournament against a qualifier. Afterwards, the defending champion would have to deal with Radu Albot or Dusan Lajovic before compatriot Stan Wawrinka could wait in the quarter-finals.
"Stan the Man", who will be in the finals this week at the ATP 250 tournament in Antwerp, will face Pablo Cuevas in the first round. In a win, it would then go against Frances Tiafoe or Daniel Evans. With Stefanos Tsitsipas and Fabio Fognini, two other top players are also located in the upper half of the tableau.
Zverev vs. Fritz, Cilic vs. Goffin
By contrast, Alexander Zverev finished as the tournament's number two in the bottom half. The German, who showed good tennis again in the past few weeks, got a difficult first task with Taylor Fritz. In the second round Zverev could face Alex de Minaur, Benoit Paire is a potential quarterfinal opponent.
One of the "matches to watch" comes from the third quarter of the tableau: Marin Cilic and David Goffin will face each other in a first-round crash. In addition, there will be a clash between last year's finalist Marius Copil and fourth-placed Roberto Bautista Agut in this part of the draw.