Murray, Monfils, Schwartzman, Paul - the Challenger Tour is going crazy!
There's a real star crowd at some of the Challenger tournaments this week. Right at the front: Aix-en-Provence, where Tommy Paul , Gael Monfils and Andy Murray have named. The latter even meet in round one.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
May 01, 2023, 05:29 pm
After his exit from the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid, Jurij Rodionov said that he was already looking forward to the challenger in Aix-en-Provence. That may still be the case. However, it is not entirely clear whether Rodionov knew who he could be dealing with there this week: Tommy Paul, the current number 17 in the world, is in first place. Rodionov could meet the American in the quarterfinals.
A little further down in the tableau there is an encounter that a few years ago would have been behind a quarter-finals at a Grand Slam tournament: Andy Murray meets Gael Monfils in round one. Both players - like Tommy Paul - received a wild card for the 28 grid in Aix. Also at the start: Alexander Bublik or Brandon Nakashima.
Ofner and Koepfer in action in Prague
Also in Sardinia one can look forward to a very decent field of participants. Yoshihito Nishioka goes into the tournament as the favorite, followed by Ben Shelton. Also to be found in the tableau: Diego Schwartzman. However, the fact that the Argentine is only seeded in fifth place shows that the last few months have not gone as Schwartzman had hoped. By the way, the popcorn match here could be Thanasi Kokkinakis vs. Nikoloz Basilashvili in round one.
Things are not quite as prominent in Prague, where Filip Krajinovic leads the seeding list. Here, with Sebastian Ofner (as number eight) and Dominik Koepfer, an Austrian and a German are also at the start. Dominic Stricker, the young Swiss left-hander, is already in round two.
Here the single tableau in Aix-en-Provence