Danil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov, Jannik Sinner, Denis Shapovalov, Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka will be in the spotlight at the St. Petersburg Open, which has been upgraded to an ATP 500 tournament in the revised 2020 ATP calendar.
Medvedev will open his campaign in the first round against Frenchman Richard Gasquet. Since the resumption of the ATP Tour Medvedev has reached his second consecutive semifinal at the US Open, but he lost his opening matches in Hamburg and Roland Garros.
If the Russian player gets through to the second round, he could face either 2019 Next Gen champion Jannik Sinner or US Reilly Opelka. Sinner recently reached the quarter final at Roland Garros. Sinner has become the first player to advance to the quarter finals on his tournament debut since Rafael Nadal in 2005. Sinner lost his quarter final against 12-time Roland Garros champion Nadal, but he played at the same level with the “King of Clay” in the first two sets.
Medvedev won last year’s edition of the St. Petersburg tournament beating Borna Coric 6-3 6-1 in the final.
Andrey Rublev, who won the Kremlin Cup in Moscow in 2019, will face Canada’s Vasek Pospisil. Rublev won three ATP tournaments this year in Doha, Adelaide and Hamburg. The 22-year-old Moscow native became the first player since 2004 with back-to-back titles in the first and second weeks of the year (Doha and Adelaide last January) since Dominik Hrbaty.
Karen Khachanov, who lost to Alex De Minaur in the third round at Roland Garros and to Novak Djokovic in the fourth round at Roland Garros, will play against James Duckworth. Denis Shapovalov will take on US Sam Querrey. Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, who lost against French qualifier Hugo Gaston, will meet Dan Evans from Great Britain in the first round.
