World No. 15 Stefanos Tsitsipas will begin his campaign in Milan on Tuesday against the seventh seed Jaume Munar.
Tsitsipas, who achieved his career-high singles ranking at the 15th position after a stellar season, has been awarded the first seed for the tournament. With a win-loss record of 41-27, he will be starting the event as one of the favorites.
Among his highlights of the season, there is his winning run in the ATP Stockholm earlier this year. He won the tournament after defeating Ernests Gulbis in the final. A few weeks earlier, he also participated in the Rogers Cup – the event that propelled him to spotlight.
In Toronto, he defeated the likes of Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Kevin Anderson, and Dominic Thiem to reach the final. However, he succumbed to Rafael Nadal finally to become the runner-up. He had a similar run in the Barcelona Open as well, where he reached the final only to lose to Nadal.
The 20-year-old started the season as the World No. 91 and rose handsomely through the ranks to break into the top 20. As for his opponent, Munar is currently ranked as the World No. 76 and has spent his time mainly on the ATP Challenger circuit.
The young Spaniard has been successful on a couple of occasions there. As for his most remarkable feat on the ATP World Tour, it was his run in the ATP Kitzbuhel, where he reached the semifinal.
This will be the first time that Tsitsipas will be meeting Munar on the tour.
On the very same day, the fans will also get to see Taylor Fritz take on the upcoming Russian Andrey Rublev in the ATP Next Generation Finals. The two under-21 players have had a rather decent season. Despite the dearth of a singles title, the two stars have been consistent enough to lead the wave of next-generation players.
Fritz already leads 1-0 in the head-to-head tally against Rublev; courtesy of a second-round win in the Indian Wells earlier this year.
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