Top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov will meet in a first-round blockbuster at the Erste Bank Open, it was revealed at the ATP 500’s draw ceremony on Saturday.
Tsitsipas fell to the Bulgarian in three sets in the second round in Vienna last year on his main draw debut at the event. The pair are level at 1-1 in their ATP Head2Head series, with the Greek winning their other meeting at Roland Garros in 2020.
The World No. 3 could face Argentine Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals, who faces a stiff test in his opening match against Fabio Fognini. Schwartzman has fond memories in Vienna, having reached the final in 2019.
View Vienna Draw
With the FedEx ATP Race To Turin heating up, ninth-placed (2,955 points) Hubert Hurkacz will look to continue his bid to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, starting against former World No. 1 Andy Murray.
Hurkacz leads the Scot 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series, recently defeating the wild card in Cincinnati and Metz. The winner could face #NextGenATP Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in the second round, with the Umag champion beginning against last year’s semi-finalist Daniel Evans.
FOLLOW THIS WEEK’S ACTION
Norway’s Casper Ruud is seventh in the FedEx ATP Race To Turin (3,015) and will face South African Lloyd Harris in the first round. Ruud, who is the fourth seed in Vienna, leads Harris 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series, overcoming the World No. 32 in Indian Wells earlier this month.
The 22-year-old is seeded to face fellow Turin contender Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals. The Italian, who is 11th (2,745), opens against Toronto finalist Reilly Opelka in what will be their first meeting.
Second seed Alexander Zverev will begin his tournament against Filip Krajinovic and third-seeded Italian Matteo Berrettini will play a qualifier. Indian Wells champion Cameron Norrie starts against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, while sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime faces Ricardas Berankis.
