STOCKHOLM, October 16, 2017
Four qualifiers have completed the main draw at the Intrum Stockholm Open on Monday, as top seed Marton Fucsovic beat Tim Smyczek from the United States 6-4, 6-0.
The World No. 103 from Hungary didn’t face a break point, converting four of his own to advance in only 54 minutes. Fucsovics will take on Hyeon Chung in the first round of the main draw.
Jerzy Janowicz fought past Jurgen Zopp 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 in one hour and 43 minutes and will now play Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France. Zopp will also enter the main draw as lucky loser. The 29-year-old from Estonia will replace Nicolas Almagro from Spain, who withdrew due to injury. Zopp will take on qualifier Lukas Lacko of Slovakia.
Simone Bolelli from Italy, who defeated Illya Marchenko of the Ukraine 6-3, 1-6, 7-6, will start his main draw campaign against Serbia’s Viktor Troicki.
ATP’s 10 Things To Watch In Stockholm
1) 250 Finales: The last of 40 ATP World Tour 250 events are taking place this week in Stockholm, Antwerp and Moscow. At the Intrum Stockholm Open, Top 4 seeds Grigor Dimitrov, Kevin Anderson, Jack Sock and Juan Martin del Potro will battle in the Emirates ATP Race to London.
2) Back for More: Dimitrov makes his fifth consecutive and seventh overall appearance in Stockholm, where he won his first ATP title in 2013 and fell to the eventual champion in 2014-16. The Bulgarian captured the biggest of his seven career titles at ATP Masters 1000 Cincinnati on August 20.
3) Comeback Kev: Since the start of 2016, Anderson has endured injuries to his ankle, elbow, groin, hip, knee and shoulder. He fell to No. 80 on January 16, 2017 and was No. 32 when he became the lowest-ranked US Open finalist in history. Anderson returned to the Top 15 on September 11.
4) Sock’s Off: Sock started the season 11-1 and was the first player on tour to earn 20 victories in 2017. But the 2015 and 2016 Stockholm finalist is 8-11 since peaking at No. 14 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on April 17. Sock returns to Stockholm on a career-long five-match losing streak.
5) Del Po’s Difficult Draws: Del Potro, the defending Stockholm champion, returns as the No. 4 seed and seeks his first final of 2017. The Argentine has endured difficult draws throughout the year, falling to a Top 10 player at 10 of his 15 events. Del Potro made major strides against the Top 10 at the US Open, upsetting No. 8 Dominic Thiem and No. 3 Roger Federer en route to semi-finals.
6) Career Year: Wild card and No. 5 seed Mischa Zverev is enjoying a career year. The elder Zverev brother reached the third round at Wimbledon, fourth round at the US Open and quarter-finals at the Australian Open, where he upset then-No. 1 Andy Murray. He cracked the Top 25 on July 24.
7) Closing in on Milan: With two weeks remaining in the Emirates ATP Race to Milan, 21-year-old Hyeon Chung leads Daniil Medvedev by three points for the last of seven spots at the Next Gen ATP Finals. Chung is in Stockholm and Medvedev is in Moscow seeking valuable points this week.
8) Long Time Coming: Former World No. 8 Marcos Baghdatis has not won an ATP title since the second week of the 2010 season at Sydney. Baghdatis has lost six finals since then, but Stockholm was the scene of one of his four titles. The Cypriot did not drop a set en route to the 2009 title.
9) Brotherly Love: Swedes Elias and Mikael Ymer received singles and doubles wild cards. They saved four match points en route to the 2016 Stockholm doubles title. Elias, 21, is 0-2 in singles at Stockholm. Mikael, 19, defeated Fernando Verdasco for his first ATP win at 2016 Stockholm.
10) Reunited: The Ymers are joined in the doubles draw by No. 2 seeds Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer and No. 4 seeds Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares. From July 2012 to November 2015, Peya played all but five tournaments with Soares, winning 12 titles as a team. Qureshi played all but two tournaments with Rojer in 2012-13, capturing the 2013 Stockholm title.
