STARNBERG, October 21, 2019
Dominic Thiem enjoyed a breakthrough less than three months ago by winning his first title on home soil in Kitzbühel. He will look to continue his success in Austria at the Erste Bank Open, an ATP 500 tournament. Thiem, a winner of four tour-level titles this season, faces a challenging first-round test against 2011 champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
All smiles in Vienna 😃 @ThiemDomi | @tsonga7
📸: Philipp Carl Riedl | @ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/V83PVPQM6S
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 19, 2019
Matteo Berrettini, a recent semi-finalist in Shanghai, will attempt to strengthen his position in the top eight of the ATP Race to London with a strong showing in Vienna. Gael Monfils, Diego Schwartzman and Karen Khachanov, who trail Berrettini by less than 1,000 points in the standings, will look to gain valuable Race points in order to boost their Nitto ATP Finals hopes.
The field also includes Stockholm champion Denis Shapovalov, fellow Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier Felix Auger-Aliassime and former World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov.
Federer returns to Basel
Two-time defending champion and top seed Roger Federer returns to his hometown tournament in pursuit of a 10th Swiss Indoors Basel title. The 38-year-old, who was a ball boy in Basel as a child, has won 20 straight matches at this ATP 500 tournament and reached the final in his past 12 appearances.
Federer will be joined in Basel by fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka, World No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas and a number of Nitto ATP Finals contenders, including Alexander Zverev, Roberto Bautista Agut and Fabio Fognini. Tsitsipas claimed the sixth spot in the elite eight-man field at The O2 during the Rolex Shanghai Masters, leaving just two spots up for grabs with two weeks left in the regular season.
