World No 1 Jannik Sinner has been handed a pretty straightforward path for his title defence at the Halle Open with several players struggling for form in his bracket.
The ATP 500 event will be Sinner’s first tournament since his devastating French Open final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz and he will start his campaign in Germany against a yet-to-be-decided qualifier.
He will then face either Alexandre Muller or Alexander Bublik – the man he demolished 6-1, 7-5, 6-0 in the Roland Garros quarter-final – in the second round before a potential meeting with seventh seed Tomas Machac or Hubert Hurkacz.
Machac exited the French Open in the first round after retiring with a back injury while he also retired from his opener at the Geneva Open before the clay-court Grand Slam.
Hurkacz lost in the first round in Paris and then won his opener at the Libema Open this week, but then also pulled out ahead of his second-round clash due to injury.
Sinner is projected to meet fourth seed Andrey Rublev in the semi-final and the Russian is another who lost in straight sets against the Italian in Paris.
Three-time Grand Slam winner Sinner won the title last year when he beat Hurkacz in straight sets.
Rublev also starts against a qualifier, but he will likely have to get past Tomas Etcheverry in the second round and possibly sixth seed Karen Khachanov in the last eight.
World No 3 Alexander Zverev is seeded second and leads the bottom half of the draw with his first match against American Marcos Giron before a possible clash against Jan-Lennard Struff or Lorenzo Sonego.
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The German is projected to meet sixth seed Ugo Humbert in the quarter-final, but the Frenchman faces Denis Shapovalov in the first round and one of Joao Fonseca and Flavio Cobolli in the second round.
Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas are also in the bottom half and the pair have struggled for form this year as the latter has slipped to No 11 in the ATP Rankings while Tsitispas is outside of the top 20.
Third seed Medvedev starts against Daniel Altmaier while Tsitsipas faces Luciano Darderi before a possible encounter against Francisco Cerundolo.
Projected Quarter-Finals
Sinner v Machac
Rublev v Khachanov
Cerundolo v Medvedev
Humbert v Zverev
The Halle Open is the final warm-up event for most top players before Wimbledon and Sinner has already assured of not only being the top seed at the grass-court Grand Slam, but he will remain at No 1 in the ATP Rankings after the tournament while Zverev will be seeded third.
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