ATP Delray Beach: Nick Kyrgios leads the field
At the ATP Tour 250 tournament in Delray Beach, Nick Kyrgios makes his first appearance outside Australia in 2020. The Canberra man is number one in the Florida event.
by Robin Huiber
last edit: Feb 16, 2020, 07:55 pm
It is rare for an ATP Tour 250 tournament to use a 32-point grid. It has become more and more established that the four top seeders will get a walk-through in round one - and thus theoretically can only get into the round of 16 on Thursday. In Delray Beach, however, the tournament winner will need five match successes for the 250 points available.
So also Nick Kyrgios, who starts as number one. Kyrgios started the year with rarely shown seriousness, first at the ATP Cup, then also at the Australian Open. There came the end against Rafael Nadal - after four hard sentences. In Delray Beach, Kyrgios has an interesting task ahead of him, starting against Tommy Paul, who at least threw Grigor Dimitrov out of the competition in Melbourne.
Kyrgios in doubles against the Bryans
Also in second place is a man who was able to convince the first major of the year: Milos Raonic defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas there - and that without allowing a single breakball. The end came, as so often, against Novak Djokovic. Raonic opens in Delray Beach against Andreas Seppi, who will come to Florida somewhat tired in any case: the Italian played in New York until the final Sunday.
As there, Jack Sock also received a wildcard from the organizer in Delray Beach - and will start with the defending champion: in 2019 Radu Albot left Florida as the tournament winner. In the final, Albot prevailed against Daniel Evans a year ago, but the Brit is missing in the current edition.
In doubles, Bob and Mike Bryan continued their farewell tour - and met Nick Kyrgios in round one. He and his buddy called Jordan Thompson.