ATP San Diego: A field of participants to dream about
For an ATP World Tour 250 event, the hard court event in San Diego, which takes place next week, is excellently staffed.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
Sep 25, 2021, 01:32 pm
San Diego, California, will host an ATP World Tour 250 tournament next week, which will be played on a hard court. And the seeding list, or the entire single draw, is more than impressive. In addition to the top ten players Andrey Rubel and Casper Ruud, five athletes from the top 20 are also in action in the southern United States. The exceptional participation is certainly owed to the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells, which starts the following week.
One or the other top player wants to get some match practice before the mega-event in the Californian desert, which is repeatedly dubbed the “fifth Grand Slam tournament of the year”. If you compare the individual tableau with some events in the 500 category, you first notice how strong the field in San Diego really is. For example, the tournaments in Acapulco, the Queen's Club in London, Washington and Hamburg were noticeably poorer this season. The ranks of participants in Dubai could be described as roughly equal.
Koepfer and Mies are also involved
And as is the case with a top field of participants, tennis fans can already expect some exciting encounters in round one: For example, veteran Fabio Fognini and the American youngster Brandon Nakashima as well as Cristian Garin and Nikoloz Basilashvili or Marton Fucsovics and Grigor Dimitrov. The opening game between the two wildcard players Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori is also of great interest. In the quarter-finals there could already be a top duel between the Poles Hubert Hurkacz and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The only downer in San Diego is the low participation of players from the DACH region. Only Dominik Koepfer tries his luck in the singles qualification and also starts in doubles alongside Nicholas Monroe from the USA. In the preliminary round, the Black Forest player starts with Darian King from Barbados. The German Andreas Mies is also in action alongside Austin Krajicek (also USA).