With the ATP 250 in Munich underway it’s time for a preview of the tournament, with the news arriving today that #2 seed Gael Monfils has withdrawn from the tournament. This makes the bottom half of the drawn a lot more open than before. His place in the draw has been taken by Gerald Melzer, who came through qualifying to earn his spot in the main draw. Melzer now has a bye into round 2 where he will face either Joao Souza or Pablo Andujar.
With Fabio Fognini showing indifferent form in recent tournaments he should have no difficulty with his first round opponent of Bastian Trinker, a Lucky Loser who probably felt his tournament was over until he received the call today. Fabio could struggle in round 2 with either Dominic Thiem or Vasek Popisil, depending on which version of Fabio comes to play that day.
With Andy Murray playing here for the first time, and being the top seed he also gets a bye into round 2. The greatest threat left in his half of the draw would be Philipp Kohlschrieber. The 5th seed took Murray to 5 sets in the 2014 French Open before Murray finally pulled through 12-10 in a match that went over two days. If Murray gets off to the perfect start and plays well on what is his least-favourite surface, he should have very little difficulty reaching the final here. Murray has yet to win a title on clay; it is the only surface he has not yet won a trophy on, despite having 31 titles (including two Grand Slams and an Olympic Gold Medal) to his name. Who he will meet in the final, with Monfils out, is wide open. David Goffin has not had that good a year to date, but he could well be the one to make the final to play against Murray.
In addition to Munich, there are also ATP 250 tournaments playing in Estoril and and Istanbul. In Turkey, in what is the inaugural 250 tournament here, Roger Federer is the top seed, and he shouldn’t have any problems in reaching the final here. Grigor Dimitrov is the 2nd seed and in the bottom half of the draw, where he also should not have any problem reaching the final to set up an exciting final.
In Estoril the top seed is Feliciano Lopez and other than Tommy Robredo who could pose a threat, Lopez should not have any trouble reaching the final. The bottom half sees South African Kevin Anderson as the 2nd seed and he certainly should not have any problems setting up a final against Lopez, as there doesn’t appear to be a serious threat in his half, although there could always be a surprise along the way.
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