{"id":76978,"date":"2024-12-28T21:48:14","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T02:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=76978"},"modified":"2024-12-29T14:07:37","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T19:07:37","slug":"top-20-players-andrey-rublev-and-arthur-fils-highlight-atp-hong-kong-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/12\/28\/top-20-players-andrey-rublev-and-arthur-fils-highlight-atp-hong-kong-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 20 players Andrey Rublev and Arthur Fils Highlight ATP Hong Kong Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With a direct entry ranking cutoff of #67, and the top four seeds all ranked in the top 20, the ATP Hong Kong Open 250 is a small but credible tournament to begin the 2025 ATP season alongside the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/12\/28\/djokovic-kyrgios-headline-atp-brisbane\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Brisbane International<\/a> 250. Here is your look at the draw as ATP tennis returns to Hong Kong for the second consecutive season.<\/p>\n<p>In the top half of the draw, Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov would be seeded to make it an all Russian clash in the semifinals if they can win their sections of the draw. The defending Champion Rublev was poor at the World Tour Finals, not winning a match, and his 43 tour level wins in 2024 was his lowest total since 2020. He did win two finals last year and reach an additional Masters final though, and remains one of the most intimidating players to face in men&#8217;s tennis.<\/p>\n<p>Fabian Marozsan broke through to ATP level in 2024, going 23-28 at tour level, his first round opponent Roman Safiullin was 16-24 at that same level, though Rublev will be favored against either player in the second round. Wild card Coleman Wong won 38 matches in 2024 and is targeting the top 100, the 20 year old was a top junior and is more than just a local favorite son. Wong will have a very difficult match when 19 year old Juncheng Shang is on the other side of the net in round. Shang won his first ATP title in 2024 (at home in China), and broke into the top 50, he is a player to watch in 2025. Pedro Martinez was 18-22 at tour level in 2024 but far better on the Challenger Tour, he faces a qualifier and then the Shang\/Wong winner in round 2. Shang vs Rublev would be an excellent quarterfinal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2176130162\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2176130162?et=4GVdFsghRG9J9zPYTDMu-w&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=bXHNN0TPpFYMZ3W4gF1wKsXxB-71Ez5_58JR_46YJls=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Khachanov likely faces Denis Shapovalov in round 2 in what would be a difficult match, Shapovalov is improving rapidly, he won 26 tour level matches as he returned from injury last year and lifted an ATP title in Belgrade, Khachanov won 37 tour level matches and two ATP titles in 2024. Kei Nishikori stands between them, the former elite player hasn&#8217;t been a factor on the ATP tour since 2021 due to injuries, but the 34 year old did win a Challenger Title to finish out last season and is playing into some form.<\/p>\n<p>Brandon Nakashima rode a 26-8 Challenger Tour record (28-23 at tour level) to a career high ranking in 2024, he&#8217;ll open as the favorite against Lorenzo Sonego, who prefers clay, in the opening round. Learner Tien reached the final of the ATP Nextgen finals recently and is in-form at age 19, having won his first ATP Challenger Titles in 2024. Tien takes on Cameron Norrie in round 1, Norrie had his worst year in the last four seasons most recently but is still no slouch and Tien will have his work cut out for him. This is a pretty open section of the draw, with the Khachanov\/Shapovalov winner likely favored to reach the semis.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2185827733\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2185827733?et=rZXrmPQfQU9XwA4z98mQpg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=hsUkTn3GtY1sbCBzu92eGeePufhTt58P4kYmToAKovU=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Top 20 player Arthur Fils was 42-27 on tour last year, the 20 year old is one of the best young talents in the game today,\u00a0 and he already holds 3 ATP titles. wild card Zizou Bergs was 17-17 at tour level in 2024 and is also a rising talent hovering near a career high ranking. He faces a qualifier, and then Fils in round 2 if he is successful. Fils vs Bergs would be a thriller.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2190709596\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.32997% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2190709596?et=E4NVl5uqTs5KqExJxg4P7g&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=7_Nx0iSnyBR5R7jnal3FPDG9M7YfxE4oaqPxcjt2O2o=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"394\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>22 year old Luciano Darderi prefers clay, but broke through last season into the top 50 with 25 tour level wins. Miomir Kecmanovic his first round opponent has three consecutive seasons of 20+ tour level wins but is a rather mediocre player at the moment. Alexandre Muller is at a career high ranking of #67 and faces a qualifier in round 1.<\/p>\n<p>The final section features Lorenzo Musetti as the #2 seed, coming off a career best 36 tour level wins in 2024 and three ATP finals. There&#8217;s three Spaniards in this section, Roberto Carballes Baena had a career best 25 tour level wins in 2024 and faces a qualifier, Jaume Munar struggled at tour level last year and faces Alejandro Davidovich Fokina who still won 19 tour level matches last year but was well off of expectations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2174205210\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2174205210?et=VLle8jZzRN9WdkAHOhlF5Q&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=0iuXq1NBb2otuuh3wONpcRwPTSSNO_fa9l6gWR5h9bE=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Bu Yunchaokete is at a career high ranking of #65 after winning two ATP Challenger Tour titles last year, Nuno Borges won an ATP Tour and an ATP Challenger Title en route to a career high ranking last year and will be favored over Yunchaokete. The bottom half of the draw looks very competitive and very open in Hong Kong as a number of players who ended 2024 in good form are taking part in this draw.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-<em>USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a direct entry ranking cutoff of #67, and the top four seeds all ranked in the top 20, the ATP Hong Kong Open 250 is a small but credible tournament to begin the 2025 ATP season alongside the Brisbane International 250. Here is your look at the draw as ATP tennis returns to Hong [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":64335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[18371,41792,42681,259,2259,10956,41793,776,18097,42682,17300,844,146,18113,10332,12932],"class_list":["post-76978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","tag-arthur-fils","tag-atp-hong-kong","tag-atp-hong-kong-open","tag-atp-tour","tag-atp-world-tour","tag-brandon-nakashima","tag-coleman-wong","tag-denis-shapovalov","tag-fabian-marozsan","tag-hong-kong-open","tag-juncheng-shang","tag-karen-khachanov","tag-kei-nishikori","tag-learner-tien","tag-lorenzo-musetti","tag-zizou-bergs"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77036,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76978\/revisions\/77036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}