ATP Vienna - DRAW: Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem lead packed field

The Austrian capital Vienna hosted the first ATP tournament in 1974, with the Americans as the dominant force after winning eight of the first ten titles. Ivan Lendl, Michael Stich, Goran Ivanisevic, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Tommy Haas, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro and Andy Murray are among the winners of this prestigious indoor event. Dominic Thiem joined the special list a year ago and will try to defend the title this week, battling against world no. 1 Novak Djokovic and a crowded field that includes seven players from the top-15! Novak Djokovic asked for a wild card, competing in Vienna for the first time since 2007 when he won the title. The Serb will try to add 500 points to his tally and secure the year-end no. 1 spot ahead of Rafael Nadal. Also, Novak is trying to cement his no. 1 status until March and pass Roger Federer's record of 310 weeks on the ATP throne.

Novak has won 37 out of 39 matches in 2020, competing for the first time since the Roland Garros final defeat and facing the fellow Serb Filip Krajinovic in the first round on Tuesday. If he beats Filip, Novak will face Borna Coric, who defeated Taylor Fritz in the first round. Hubert Hurkacz, Attila Balazs, Dusan Lajovic and Lorenzo Sonego will try to stop Novak before the semis, which probably seems like the mission impossible. The 3rd seed Stefanos Tsitsipas leads the second quarter together with Denis Shapovalov, with two players from the top-12 hoping for a battle of the one-handed backhands in the quarter-final. Karen Khachanov and Grigor Dimitrov will fight in the first round, with the winner of that one facing Tsitsipas or Struff in round two. After a couple of losses, Daniil Medvedev will try to regain composure and get back on the winning way, facing Jason Jung in the first match and Felix Auger-Aliassime or Vasek Pospisil in the second.

Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem are the top seeds in Vienna.

The defending champion and the 2nd seed Dominic Thiem enters the court for the first time since the quarter-final loss at Roland Garros to Diego Schwartzman, battling against Kei Nishikori in the first round. Jannik Sinner, Stan Wawrinka and Andrey Rublev are also in the bottom quarter, with a wide-open battle en route to the semis. Andrey has won 34 matches so far in 2020, winning the title in Hamburg, reaching the quarter-final at Roland Garros and lifting the fourth ATP crown of the season in St. Petersburg. Diego Schwartzman and Alex de Minaur decided to skip Vienna after competing in Cologne 2 and Antwerp finals yesterday, not risking anything and saving energy for the upcoming events.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/31JI7Mq