Six players from Germany and Austria will be competing this week at ATP World Tour 250 tournaments in Montpellier, Quito and Sofia.
The Davis Cup weekend has brought some great sport, but from this Monday the regular men’s touring season starts again. With some German-speaking aspirants on strong results.
In Quito, for example, Austria’s number two, Gerald Melzer, who will be in St. Gerald Melzer’s home on Friday, will be in Quito. Pölten had provided the 1-0 lead for Red-White-Red, as well as Yannick Hanfmann. In Ecuador, the game is played on red ashes, Melzer has good memories of the same in South America, and in autumn the left-hander won two Challenger en suite. At the start, Melzer Marco Cecchinato from Italy is waiting for Melzer, Hempman meets local hero Roberto Quiroz, who has made it into the main draw with a wildcard. Pablo Carreno-Busta is the tournament favourite, followed by Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Both Spaniards played a decisive role in the Davis Cup’s success against Great Britain, and will presumably also be in the squad of the quarter-finals against Germany at the beginning of April.
In Sofia Stan Wawrinka from last year’s winner Grigor Dimitrov has taken over the role of number one, Philipp Kohlschreiber is the number four in the seed list. Born in Augsburg, he enjoys a walk-through in round one, then either meets Sergiy Stakhovsky or a qualifier. Maximilian Marterer, who has reached the third round of the Australian Open, will be starting with Malek Jaziri from Tunisia.
In Montpellier, as in Sofia, the title winner is missing: Alexander Zverev will not serve in France, but Brother Mischa, he will play against Benoit Paire on Monday evening. Dustin Brown also has to deal with a Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut. At position one is David Goffin, followed by Lucas Pouille, who late accepted a wildcard from the organizers.
Here is the single panel in Quito
Here the single panel in Sofia
Here the single panel in Montpellier