2023 Hamburg European Open: Top Contenders in Hamburg

A Couple of German Players Could Make Some Noise in the Hamburg European Open

The next Grand Slam might be on the hard courts at the US Open, but that is not stopping some top players from taking part in a clay-court tournament with Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev leading the men’s players entered in the 2023 Hamburg European Open.

Lorenzo Musetti, who should be one of the top three seeds, is the defending champion. The tournament could play out similar to the current event in Gstaad, Sweden as Musetti punched his ticket to the semifinals while Ruud and Rublev have also made deep runs through the draw.

The tournament has sometimes struggled to bring in Grand Slam contenders after it was downgraded to an ATP Tour 500 event in 2009. The final two men’s title matches before that switch featured all-time greats Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. When looking at ATP scores, Nadal did come back to win the event in 2015.

Rublev joins Musetti as the former champions in the field. Rublev topped Stefanos Tsitsipas in the 2020 championship match.

The tournament gets underway on Monday. With a 32-player field, there are no byes given out to the top seeds.

Ruud, Rublev Keeping Busy

Ruud, currently ranked fourth, and the seventh-ranked Rublev are still alive in the Nordea Open in Bastad, Sweden. They will be top contenders in the 2023 Hamburg European Open.

Ruud reached the 2022 US Open final so it is hard to criticize the way he puts his schedule together.

Ruud is coming off a disappointing second-round exit at Wimbledon after advancing to the French Open final. He is tied for fifth in the US Open outrights.

Rublev has reached the quarterfinals in four of the last five Grand Slam events he has competed in, and he is a three-time quarterfinalist at the US Open. He has reached the finals in four events in 2023, winning the title at Monte Carlo. Still, he comes in at +3300 in the US Open outrights. After winning the title in Estoril in April, Ruud is eyeing another title on clay.

Looking For A Repeat

The last men’s player to repeat in Hamburg was Nikoloz Basiashvili in 2018 and 2019. Before that, you need to go back to Federer accomplishing the feat in 2004 and 2005.

Musetti looks to join some select company by winning in Hamburg in back-to-back years as he goes after the title in the 2023 Hamburg European Open.

Musetti was one of three unseeded players to reach the Hamburg semifinals in 2022. He was the first unseeded competitor to win the title in Hamburg since Basilashvili won the first of his two titles in 2018 after going through the qualifying bracket. Musetti overcame the challenge of facing No. 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz in the 2022 Hamburg final.

Since reaching the semifinals in Monte Carlo in April, the results have not been impressive for Musetti, as he has won more than two consecutive matches just once.

Not counting a walkover versus Jannik Sinner, Musetti has lost six of his last eight matches against top-20-ranked players. Musetti is currently 15th in the ATP rankings.

Best of the Rest

Alexander Zverev, Francisco Cerundolo and Jan-Lennard Struff
would have given the tournament three other top-25-ranked players if not for Struff pulling out of the tournament.

Zverev followed up his run to the French Open semifinals by advancing to the semifinals at Halle in his next tournament.

However, he fell to Matteo Barrettini in the Round of 32 at Wimbledon.

Cerundolo was unable to turn in his run to the Eastbourne title in a long run at Wimbledon. He did make it to the semifinals in Hamburg last year, topping Rublev along the way.

Struff did not take part in Wimbledon. He did make it to the finals in Stuttgart before losing to American Frances Tiafoe in a third-set tiebreaker. He first played in Hamburg in 2009, when he lost in the first qualifying round. In the main draw, he is just 3-9.

With Zverev and Yannick Hanfmann in the field, perhaps this is the first time since 2017 that a player from Germany reached the final. Keep an eye on the ATP odds when it comes to German players in the field. Michael Stich was the homegrown player to win the men’s singles title in Hamburg as he defeated Andrei Chesnokov to win the 1993 championship.

Tomas Martin Echeverry, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Miomir Kecmanovic are also worth watching heading into the start of the Hamburg European Open. The 19-year-old Luca Van Assche could be another player to keep an eye on. He won the junior title on clay at the 2021 French Open and has won a couple of Challenger events earlier this year.

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