This week’s ATP Tour tennis action is well underway on the clay at Hamburg, Germany and Gstaad, Switzerland and hard courts over in Atlanta, USA. Over in Hamburg, there have been no major upsets so far, but there were a few seeds who bit the dust on Monday and Tuesday. Fifth seed Paire (advised @ 22/1) lost a three-set battle against unseeded compatriot Chardy, sixth seed Djere lost against unseeded compatriot Krajinovic in straight sets and eighth seed Garin lost at the first-round stage for the second week in a row against the unseeded Russian Rublev.
Top two seeds Thiem and Zverev both won tricky openers against Cuevas and Bastad winner Jarry in straight sets. Thiem is in action today against Fucsovics who he faces for the third time and the Austrian leads the head-to-head 2-0. Fourth seed and defending champion Basilashvili is also in action again today and he faces the unseeded Londero from Argentina, who will aim to repeat his 3-1 win at this year’s French Open. There are two other competitive matches at Hamburg today between Rublev and Rudd, who play each other for the first time, and compatriots Chardy and Gasquet who meet for the eighth time and Gasquet leads the head-to-head 5-2.
Over in the Alps at Gstaad, Switzerland there was only one seed, eighth seed Frenchman Moutet, who lost in the first round, but fifth seed Sousa, sixth seed Carbaelles Baena and seventh seed Andujar (advised @ 18/1) all won their first-round matches. The top four seeds Bautista Agut, Verdasco, Umag winner Lajovic and Italian Sonego all join the action from today. Second seed veteran Verdasco faces compatriot veteran Ramos-Vinolas for the ninth time and Verdasco will hope to extend the head-to-head record to 6-3 today, Sonego also faces a compatriot Fabbiano who leads the head-to-head 2-0 and the other seed in action today is sixth seed Carbaelles Baena who faces Italian journeyman Travaglia who leads the head-to-head 1-0.
Finally, over in Atlanta there were a few first round upsets like Tomic knocking out fifth seed and home hope Tiafoe, Britain’s Cam Norrie got back to winning ways knocking out seventh seed Thompson and American qualifier King knocked out former top-ten-star Dimitrov in straight sets. The top four seeds, defending champion Isner, compatriot Fritz, third seed De Minaur and fourth seed Herbert from France all join the action from today. Top seed Isner faces compatriot and fellow 6ft 10” giant Opelka and Isner will hope to repeat his 2016 Atlanta three sets win against Opelka again today.
Second seed Fritz faces compatriot and qualifier King for the first time, fourth seed Herbert faces the talented Aussie NextGen star Popyrin for the second time and the Frenchman leads the head-to-head 1-0 and there’s two matches many British tennis fans will be tuning in to this evening when Cam Norrie faces South Korean Koo for the first time and straight after this match Dan Evans faces sixth seed Albot for a place in the quarter finals.
