After a week-long break for almost everyone except for lower-tier Davis Cup matches (no bigger action because of the 2019 reform), the ATP World Tour comes back with ATP 250 tournaments in Marrakech and Houston.
The Grand Prix Hassan II is famous for Moroccan wild card upsets. Last year, Lamine Ouahab–the man, the myth, the legend–managed to throw out Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round. The very same guy got to the quarterfinals back in 2015 (the tournament was played in Casablanca back then), defeating Guillermo-Garcia Lopez, the defending champion and a world no.24 at the time. Ouahab is out of shape but has some really uncanny shot-making abilities. In 2017, two of his compatriots, Amine Ahouda and Reda El Amrani also managed to win a match on their home soil. However, this year the organizers decided to omit their home players from main draw wild cards, and the ones awarded are Alexander Zverev, Fabio Fognini, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (obviously the first two have a ranking that would allow them to make it to the entry list, they just decided to play in Marrakech after sign-up).
Can Alexander Zverev Break His Slump?
The first quarter of the draw features Alexander Zverev, who after a very poor Sunshine Double decided to play in Morocco for the first time. He opens against Denis Istomin, whose clay court performances have usually been dreadful in the past and will probably face one of Benoit Paire or Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the quarterfinals. Both the Frenchmen are expected to give the world No.3 a tough test.
The second quarter features Kyle Edmund, who was the runner-up here last year (lost to Pablo Andujar). The Brit caught some big form in March and with his big forehand very well suited to clay, he should be expected to do well here. The one who will try to stop him are Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whom he can meet in the second round or probably Filip Krajinovic, who lost to just Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the Sunshine Double. However, the Serbian might suffer from lack of rest as he’s still in the Sophia-Antiopolis Challenger, playing the final Sunday against Dustin Brown.
Gilles Simon‘s quarter should be down to a match between the aforementioned Frenchman and Fernando Verdasco, although clay-court specialists like Albert Ramos Vinolas or Jozef Kovalik might try to derail that blockbuster quarterfinal. Both Simon and Verdasco haven’t really played their best in a while, but they tend to do well on the red stuff.
The fourth quarter seems much more interesting, starting off with a great matchup between Pablo Andujar and Federico Delbonis in the first round. The Spaniard won this event last year (also 2011, 2012) and has just captured a Challenger title in Marbella (today he’s playing a final in Alicante) and Delbonis was a champion here three years ago. The winner is projected to face 2017 runner-up Philipp Kohlschreiber (who wasted five match points in the final against Borna Coric). On the other half, the big question is whether Fabio Fognini can get himself together and he’ll have to do it quickly as he faces a very tough opening opponent, Jiri Vesely.
As for Lamine Ouahab, the Moroccan got a qualifying draw wild card and he’ll face Adrian Menendez-Maceiras around 3PM GMT Sunday. If he wins, he’ll just need one more win to advance (his opponent would be Correntin Moutet or Eliott Benchetrit).
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