ANTALYA, June 23, 2018
The last stops on the road to Wimbledon are on the lawns of Antalya and Eastbourne. At the Turkish Airlines Open Antalya, inaugural finalists Yuichi Sugita and Adrian Mannarino return alongside wild cards and former Top 10 players Fernando Verdasco and Gael Monfils.
Mannarino had never been the No. 1 seed of an ATP World Tour event entering the grass-court season. In Antalya, he’s the top seed for the second time in three weeks after heading the field at ’s-Hertogenbosch, where he lost in the opening round to Jeremy Chardy. Mannarino will open his title bid after a first-round bye against the winner of the encounter between Evgeny Donskoy of Russia and Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania.
No. 2 seed Damir Dzumhur ended 2017 on a 24-7 run, highlighted by his firstbtwo ATP World Tour titles at St. Petersburg and Moscow. But the 26-year-old Bosnian is 13-17 in 2018, including seven opening-match losses. Dzumhur is making his tournament debut in Antalya, facing either Turkish wild card entry Cem Ilkel or Marius Copil of Romania.
Wild cards for Verdasco and Monfils
Verdasco will make his 61st straight Grand Slam appearance at Wimbledon but has never captured a grass-court title. The Spanish veteran fell in the quarterfinals in Antalya last year. Third seed Verdasco will start his campaign against the winner of the clash between Jiri Vesely from the Czech Republic or Australian Jordan Thompson.
Monfils had a flying start to the 2018 season, capturing his seventh career title at Doha and defeating World No. 3 Marin Cilic at Rio de Janeiro. But the Frenchman is just 3-5 since suffering a back injury against countryman Pierre-Hugues Herbert on 14 March at Indian Wells. The No. 4 seed will play his first match in south-west Turkey against either a qualifier or Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.
Turkish Airlines #AntalyaOpen öncesi Fransız yıldız Gael Monfils’ten mesaj var… #Monfils #atpworldtour
French star Gael Monfils has a message before Turkish Airlines Antalya Open @Gael_Monfils @ATPWorldTour pic.twitter.com/ffDGyxCkkF
— Antalya Open (@antalyaopen) 22. Juni 2018
