HAMBURG, July 16, 2022
The men’s and women’s main draws for the Hamburg European Open combined event were revealed on Saturday featuring a lot of interesting matches. The ATP Tour 500 tournament is headlined by World No. 6 Carlos Alcaraz. The Spanish teen sensation will make his debut at the Rothenbaum Tennis Stadium against German wild card entry Nicola Kuhn in the first round. Second seed Andrey Rublev of Russia leads the bottom half of the draw and takes on Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan.
Borna Coric, Jan-Lennard Struff and Daniel Altmaier attended the draw ceremony presented by Großmann & Berger, which took place on a rooftop next to the “Deutschland Haus” at Hamburg’s Gänsemarkt. In his first appearance in the Free and Hanseatic City since 2015, Coric will play Serbia’s Laslo Djere in the opening round. “I am very happy to be here after a long time,” the 25-year-old Croatian said. “We met in Rome in a tough match. I know him very well and it is going to be a fun match.”
Altmaier leads the German contingent and faces in-form Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina. “I am happy to be back in Hamburg. It is such a great city and the tournament is fantastic,” Altmaier, a 23-year-old Kempen native, said. “It will be interesting to face Francisco, as we share the same fitness coach for the next three weeks. I am looking forward to the match.”
Struff will play No. 7 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia and third seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina will start his title bid against Emil Ruusuvuori from Finland. Defending champion Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, the tournament’s fourth favourite, opposes a qualifier.
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Kontaveit starts against Bara
On the women’s side, top seed Anett Kontaveit opens her Hamburg European Open campaign against Irina Bara of Romania. The World No. 2 from Estonia is bidding for her first WTA clay-court title. Second-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia will face Czech Katerina Siniakova in the first round. No. 3 seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic also participated in the draw ceremony – at least for a while.
“My team and I have the tradition that I don’t look at the draw and they always tell me the outcome afterwards,” explained Krejcikova, who left the terrace while the women’s draw was taking place. “I heard that I have a qualifier. For sure I want to win the tournament. That’s why I am here. But it’s going to be difficult as the tournament is packed with many good players. I am looking forward to next week.”
Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus rounds out the top four seeds in the WTA Tour 250 event. The World No. 36 will play German wild card entry Nastasja Schunk in the first round.
