2023 Erste Bank Open: Medvedev, Rublev, and Zverev Lead Vienna
Paul, Tiafoe and Shelton Capable of Ending American Title Drought at Former Vienna Open
ATP 500 Event in Vienna Features Five of the Top 10 Ranked Singles Players
After the initial entry list had five top-10 players a year ago, the 2023 Erste Bank Open tournament has brought in another five top-10 stars for the upcoming tournament.
Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are among the former champions for an event that began in 1974 when the late Vitas Gerulaitis won the inaugural singles title. U.S.-born players won eight of the first 10 singles titles.
Defending champion Daniil Medvedev is joined by Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev, the 2021 and 2020 men’s singles champions. The ATP 500 Event begins on Monday with the singles champion being crowned on Oct. 29 at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna.
The obvious focus right now is the race for the ATP Finals in Turin. Medvedev and Sinner have already secured spots in the eight-player field along with Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz and that leaves four spots yet to be claimed.
Along with the fellow ATP 500 event in Basel, Switzerland, this is the final tune-up before the final 1000 event in 2023 in Paris.
The next Grand Slam event is the Australian Open in January. Among those entered in this tournament, Medvedev has the best tennis odds to win in Melbourne. He is priced at +450 in the Australian Open outrights and that trails only Djokovic and Alcaraz. Tsitsipas (+1200), Sinner (+1400), Zverev (+2000) and Ben Shelton (+2500) are other contenders to keep an eye on.
Here are some storylines to consider for the upcoming Erste Bank Open.
A Look At the Top Contenders
With three of the top five seeds all former champions, this could be one challenging singles draw at the 2023 Erste Bank Open.
Medvedev is the player to beat based on his run at the US Open when he took out defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals before falling to Novak Djokovic in the finals and the fact that he also won this event in 2022.
When looking at the ATP scores, nine of his 60 match wins in 2023 have come against top-10 players.
Jannik Sinner, ranked fourth in the ATP rankings, No. 5 Rublev, No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 9 Zverev make this field feel more like a ATP 1000 event than a 500 tournament.
Sinner recently topped Medvedev in the Beijing singles final after closing out a straight-set win over Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals. He also won titles in Toronto and Montpellier.
Rublev is coming off a run to the Shanghai finals when he posted a pair of top-20 wins. He won the title in Båstad, Sweden with a win over Casper Ruud and that followed up a quarterfinal appearance at Wimbledon. His 2023 highlight might be his title run at the ATP 1000 event in Monte Carlo when he topped Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune in three sets in the semifinals and finals.
Since losing to American Christopher Eubanks in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon, Tsitsipas has lost to three players outside the top 100 in the ATP rankings.
What About the U.S. Hopes?
No American-born player has won the Vienna Open since Pete Sampras in 1998 as Americans have won just three of the last 36 tournaments.
Tommy Paul and 2021 singles finalist Frances Tiafoe are set to be seeded in the singles draw. Ben Shelton and Mackenzie McDonald have also entered the 2023 Erste Bank Open tournament.
Paul won his first two matches in Tokyo and that included a 6-4, 6-2 victory versus McDonald in one of the recent ATP scores. However, his run ended with a straight-set loss to Shelton.
Tiafoe was upset by Aslan Karatsev in his first match in Tokyo while Shelton finds himself joining qualifier Marcus Giron as the last American left in the Tokyo singles draw. No seeded players are remaining in the top half of the draw in Tokyo so there is an opportunity for Shelton if he avoids the upset in the semifinals.
A Look Back
In the 2022 tournament, top-seeded Medvedev was the only one of the top four seeds to advance past the second round.
No. 2 seed Tsitsipas fell in the second round to Borna Coric, Rublev lost to Grigor Dimitrov while Fritz was eliminated by Denis Shapovalov.
Medvedev overcame the loss of the opening set in the singles finals to Shapovalov before winning the final two sets 6-3, 6-2.
It was the first time that the top seed won in Vienna since Dominic Thiem accomplished that feat in 2019.
Thiem is among the players to receive wild cards into the tournament with veteran Gael Monfils among the other unseeded players who might be able to make some noise in this event.
Thiem and Sebastian Ofner, the two players from Austria in the top 100 in the ATP rankings, have both received wild cards into the upcoming tournament.
For tennis betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.
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