ATP Halle: Wildcard - Tsitsipas also competes with Federer, Zverev and Co.
Greece's tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas receives the so-called "A + Wild Card". The 22-year-old is looking forward to his comeback at the ATP Tour 500 tournament: "In this strong field it will be a really exciting title fight."
by PM
last edit: Jun 11, 2021, 06:56 pm
The 28th NOVENTI OPEN will receive further top-class and prominent reinforcements: The current French Open semi-finalist and fifth in the world rankings, Stefanos Tsitsipas, will take part in Germany's most important ATP competition with an "A + Wild Card" and thus for the second time after 2018 for the coveted one Winner's Cup to go into the race. "That is a real hammer, right before the first rallies," says tournament director Ralf Weber. “For the first time in the history of the tournament, there are now five top ten players. These will be absolute tennis festivals. ”The 22-year-old Greek receives this wild card, which can be assigned to a selected group of players in the ATP 500 tournaments“ at the last minute ”, according to Weber. "We had been in close contact for a long time, as Stefanos wanted to return to Halle after a three-year absence."
Sooner or later, Tsitsipas, one of the charismatic superstars of the ATP-NextGen, could meet well-known Parisian opponents again. The 2019 ATP world champion had won in the quarter-finals of the French Grand Slam against Medvedev and thus qualified for the eighth personal duel with the 24-year-old Zverev. “I'm looking forward to the start in Halle. In this strong field it will be a really exciting fight for the title, ”says Tsitsipas. Born in Athens, he made his debut at the ATP 500 grass event in 2018 and reached the round of 16 here. After his first round win over the Frenchman Lucas Pouille, he was defeated by the American Denis Kudla.
Tsitsipas with a new career high
Thanks to an equally strong season after the French Open, Tsitsipas will advance to a new career high and displace Austrian Dominic Thiem from fourth place in the ATP world rankings. The 22-year-old won the Masters tournament in Monte Carlo in 2021 and most recently the competition in Lyon. At the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, Tsitsipas reached the semi-finals and then failed to Medvedev, having previously defeated Rafael Nadal in a spectacular five-set thriller in the round of eight. Other top results of the young Greek were the finals in Acapulco (against Zverev) and in Barcelona (against Nadal). Before the French Open, Tsitsipas was even number one in the annual ranking, ahead of Novak Djokovic.
In addition to Tsitsipas, who is still fighting for a place in the Roland Garros final against Alexander Zverev on Friday afternoon, Daniil Medvedev (Russia / ATP 2 / winner of the ATP Tour Final 2020), Germany's top player "Sascha" Zverev (ATP 6), record champion Roger Federer (Switzerland / ATP 8) and Andrey Rublev (Russia / ATP 7) registered.
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