Everything is ready for the historic tournament in Hamburg, which since 2009 no longer hosts a Masters 1000 but an ATP 500 event. The great absentee from the Am Rothenbaum clay courts will be Jannik Sinner. The Italian preferred to take a few more days off after suffering a sprained ankle during the match against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.
“After speaking with my team, we have decided that it is better to recover a little more from the minor ankle sprain,” Sinner wrote on his Instagram account announcing the withdrawal. The absolute star of the German ATP 500 tournament bears the name and surname of Carlos Alcaraz.
The Spaniard will lead the standings and will face Nicola Kuhn in the first round. If he wins, Alcaraz will meet either Sebastian Baez or Filip Krajinovic on the other side of the net. Karen Khachanov was even in his own quarter-final but will have to overcome competition from Jan-Lennard Struff and Fabio Fognini.
The Italian will face Aljaz Bedene. The main candidates to reach the semifinals at the top of the draw will be Pablo Carreño Busta and Holger Rune; while Alex Molcan and Laslo Djere could be the most dangerous outsiders.
Andrey Rublev, the second-ranked player in Hamburg, will instead face Alexander Bublik in a match that promises to be full of emotion. In the lower part of the draw, Lorenzo Musetti will also take the field. The young Italian talent will try to overcome Dusan Lajovic and treat himself to a super challenge with Diego Schwartzman.
Rafael Nadal won his first 20 matches this year to make a career-best start to an ATP tour season.
Nadal won his first 20 matches this year
“In team sports you have a coach who is the club,” said Rafael Nadal. “Hire a coach and the player is paid too.
But the coach is the boss. In our sport, I am the one who pays the coach, the physical trainer, the physical therapist. In the end, you are the boss.” He said that players need humility and added that the support staff need to have the freedom to express themselves.
“If you don’t make all those people around you feel they have the freedom to say things, whether they are good or bad, without putting your job at risk, you are not allowing yourself to be helped. If you do not have the humility to listen to the things that you do not like so much, it is difficult for you to continue on the right path,” Nadal said.
