SZCZECIN, September 10, 2017
World No. 30 Richard Gasquet, top seed of the 25th edition of the €127,000 Pekao Szczecin Open, will take on local wild card entry Marcin Gawron in his first match in the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship since 2004.
The 31-year-old Frenchman played in Szczecin for the first time being ranked World No. 124. He lost in the opening round to Tomas Tenconi from Italy 6-7, 7-6, 1-6. Two weeks later Gasquet reached his first final on the ATP World Tour in Metz. In 2007, he broke into the Top 10 by reaching his career-high ranking of World No. 7.
Gasquet played his last match at Challenger level in 2010 in Bordeaux, where he lifted the trophy beating his compatriot Michael Llodra in the final. Gasquet and Gawron will meet for the first time.
Second seed and World No. 74 Florian Mayer of Germany will open his Szczecin campaign against Gleb Sakharov from France. Defending champion and third seeded Italian Alessandro Giannessi will face a lucky loser in the first round, as Belgian Arthur de Greef withdrew from the tournament. Fourth favourite Carlos Berlocq from Argentina will take on US-American Bjorn Fratangelo.
The best-ranked player from Poland in the tournament will be Jerzy Janowicz. The World No. 110 is seeded sixth and opens against a qualifier. His opponent will be known on Monday afternoon.
