Germany’s Alexander Zverev will feature in the 2019 edition of the ATP Rotterdam Open according to latest reports.
Having ended the previous season ranked fourth, Zverev will hope he can take off from where he left off at the end of the 2018 season when he won the ATP World Tour Finals and the Rotterdam Open will be the first competition he will play at after the Australian Open.
At the World Tour Finals, he had beaten Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals and final, to clinch his biggest ever title but Zverev is yet to win a major. In fact, he hasn’t reached the latter stages of any of the Grand Slams yet but there are talks of 2019 being the year that the German finally goes the distance.
Rotterdam Tournament Director Richard Krajicek praised Zverev, pointing to how at such a young age, he’s already climbed to the top 10 of the rankings for more than 12 months already.
He added:
“He is now taking the next step with his new coach Ivan Lendl, who previously had great success with Andy Murray.”
“I believe it is a matter of time for him to become the world’s number one. Alexander is a typical example of a top talent that we gave a chance to develop with a wildcard.”
Krajicek pointed out the likes of Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov were also awarded wild-cards in the previous editions of the tournament and did what they did in their career.
Other than Zverev, the Rotterdam Open will see the likes of Marin Cilic, Kei Nishikori, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Grigor Dimitrov, Nick Kyrgios and Hyeon Chung participate in the tournament.
And while Stan Wawrinka has fallen off the rankings charts because of fitness issues, the 2015 winner will also be awarded a wild-card to participate in the tournament. Krajicek said the tournament has always been happy to bring back former winners.
He said of Wawrinka:
“When he indicated that he would like to return to Rotterdam, we welcomed this opportunity. He has probably the most beautiful backhand on the ATP Tour and showed how well he can do in Rotterdam.”
The Rotterdam Open will begin on February 11.
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