Casper Ruud will be looking to bounce back from a difficult start to his 2023 season at the Estoril Open. Ruud has a seasonal record of 5 wins to 6 defeats and won just one match in each of the two Sunshine Double tournaments beating Diego Schwartzman in Indian Wells and Ilya Ivashka in Miami.
Ruud, who reached the finals at the French Open and US Open and at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, will open his Estoril campaign against either Italy’s Giulio Zeppieri or 2018 Estoril champion Giulio Zeppieri in the first round. Ruud, who won eight of his nine career titles on clay.
Second seed Hubert Hurkacz won one of his six career titles at the Miami Open in 2021 beating Jannik Sinner, but he has never clinched a title on clay. The Polish player, who reached a Masters 1000 quarter final in Madrid in 2022, is aiming to win his second title this year following his triumph in Marseille on indoor hard court.
Sebastian Baez started this year’s campaign with a 7-5 7-5 win over Radu Albot. The Argentine player beat Marin Cilic, Richard Gasquet and Frances Tiafoe en route to clinching the first title of his career at last year’s edition of the Estoril tournament. Baez is the only player in the draw to have won a tour-level clay court title this year after lifting a trophy in Cordoba on home soil.
US Next Gen star Ben Shelton will make his first appearance in a clay tournament as a professional player. Shelton will face Constant Lestienne in the first round. He could be on the collision course for a potential second round clash against Dominic Thiem.
Houston
Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul will be aiming to win their first title on clay in Houston, the only clay court ATP Tour tournament. Tiafoe reached the quarter final in Houston in 2022 before losing to John Isner, who went on to advance to the final, where he finished runner-up to Reilly Opelka in the tallest ATP Tour final in the Open Era. Tiafoe lost to Danil Medvedev in the semifinals in Indian Wells and reached the quarter finals in Dallas and Acapulco.
Paul reached the semifinals at the 2023 Australian Open and finished runner-up to Alex De Minaur in the Acapulco final last March.
Isner won the Houston title in 2013 and holds a 18-11 record in Houston.
Jack Sock won the Houston title in 2015 beating Sam Querrey and reached the final of this tournament in 2016.
Steve won two consecutive titles in Houston in 2017 and 2018.
Six of the top eight seeds are US players. The other top US players in the line-up are 2022 Next Gen Finals champion Brandon Nakashima, JJ Wolf and Marcos Giron.
Chile’s Christian Garis will chase his second Houston title following his triumph in 2019. The South American player reached the fourth round at Indian Wells and the third round in Miami as a qualifier this season. He won all of his five titles on clay in Munich and Houston in 2019, Cordoba and Rio de Janeiro in 2020 and Santiago in 2021.
Marrakesh
Top seed Lorenzo Musetti is looking to bounce back from a difficult period. The Italian player has won just one match in six tournaments. The two-time ATP titlist, who reached the quarter finals in Marrakesh last year, will open his campaign against either Hugo Gaston or Jan-Lennard Struff. Musetti won two titles in Hamburg and neaples and reached the quarter finals at the Masters 1000 tournament in Paris Bercy.
Dan Evans will make his second appearance in Marrakesh. The British player is not a clay specialist, but he reached the semifinals at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.
Tallon Griekspoor from the Netherlands won his first title in Pune last January and reached the semifinals in Rotterdam before losing to Jannik Sinner.
Another Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp, who reached the quarter final at the US Open in 2021, beat Ruud in Miami to score his first top 5 win of his career. Van de Zandschulp lost to Andrey Rublev in the quarter finals in Dubai.
French veteran Richard Gasquet will chase his second title this season after his triumph in Auckland last January. Gasquet reached the quarter finals in Marrakesh on all of his previous three apperances in Marrakesh.
Jarry will make his debut in the Moroccan tournament after winning his first title this season in Cordoba.
