ATP TENNIS: Five of the world top 10 prepare for showdown in Holland. The ABN Amro 500 is back and once again promises to produce world-class tennis as the best players in the world get ready to slog it out on the Rotterdam hard court.
Kicking off on Monday, the ABN Amro returns with the reigning champion and world number seven Felix Auger-Aliassime looking to retain his title.
We preview the tournament favourites below.
Felix Auger-Aliassime
Assessing Felix Auger-Aliassime’s chances of winning the Rotterdam Open for the second time in a row, it must be taken into consideration that the young player had one of the best 2022s of any players on the ATP Tour, winning four titles and making one more final that he lost.
Auger-Aliassime has now cemented his place in the world top 10, and with the said form he displayed last year, he is more than capable of maintaining the position for the majority of his career.
Making nine finals before he finally won a title at this tournament in 2022, he looked sure to break through eventually, and it seems he is beginning to fulfil his potential, and still with a significant career ahead of him.
He has a great chance of winning here and showed that he is in good form in 2023 with a good start at the Australian Open that unfortunately came to an end when he was knocked out in the fourth round by Jiri Lehecka. If he continues in that vein of form, it is likely we will see him get to the latter stages of the tournament, but he may want to step up his game if he is pushing for the title as there are many other top players in contention here in the Netherlands.
Jannik Sinner
Betdaq’s favourite to win the title, Jannik Sinner, has proven he is good enough to beat any player. Going two sets to love against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon showed he has the ability to put good players under pressure and great performances in all the Grand Slams in 2022 highlights his consistency over a season.
He beat Carlos Alcaraz in the same Wimbledon tournament before beating him again in Croatia and got to the quarter-final of the French Open only a few months later, topping off his great year with a fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open.
His ability is not doubted, whether or not he goes the whole way here will be determined by his preparation, ability to hang on in tough rallies and his freedom on the court. When he achieves this, he can play like Roger Federer, putting powerful backhands and forehands into any corner of the court, and when combined with his slick movement and devastating drop shot, he is a terror for anyone.
We are backing Sinner to go the whole way and win the seventh title of his career with a series of top performances that see the Italian hardly threatened. When he is, he will overcome the pressure with defence turned to attack with dominance.
Stefanos Tsitsipas
This man will be most of the tennis world’s favourite in Rotterdam, as a stellar performance in the Australian Open highlighted his development and determination to reach greater heights than he already has in his career.
Stefanos Tsitsipas has underachieved recently and, despite winning nine titles in his career so far, has failed to clinch the first Grand Slam title that will really seal his quality and stature as one of the top three players in
the world.
For any number of reasons, it hasn’t happened for Tsitsipas yet on the Grand Slam stage, but anyone can see he has the quality, it is just about getting everything to align at the right time. Most recently, he was beaten by the unbeatable Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open, something that no player in the world should feel ashamed of as the Serbian ace’s abilities are second to none.
Tsitsipas played an almost flawless tournament throughout, he was by no means poor in the final and was just unlucky that in his way was a Djokovic powering full steam ahead towards the men’s Grand Slam record.
If he can keep his head up here and trust he is one of if not the best player at the tournament, he will make it to the final and could end up lifting the 10th title of his career comfortably.
Holger Rune
Holger Rune set to be one of the best players of the next generation of tennis as, at the age of just 19, he has already won three titles, all of which came in his incredible performances over 2019. The talented Dane won the Paris, Stockholm and Munich Open and reached the fourth round of the Australian Open and the fifth round of the French Open.
Since the Australian Open in January, he has won all of his matches and will look to continue that good momentum when he arrives in Holland. He now occupies the ninth spot in the world top 10 and, without doubt has the technical ability to triumph in another tournament.
His success here will come down to whether or not he can keep his head for long enough and up against the best players in world tennis at the moment, not many would expect someone of his age to hold his own and go the whole distance. But he has done it before and doesn’t look like he is finished yet. One to keep an eye on here.
