Atp Gstaad 2017 (J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad) is just a 250-level tournament on the ATP Tour. However, the low-tiered event has still managed to attract a stronger contingent of ATP players relative to the concurrently running ATP Hamburg event. That is a little bit counter intuitive given that Hamburg is a bigger tournament for prize money and ranking points. David Goffin, Belgium's top player, enters Gstaad as the top-seeded player in the tournament.
Goffin has struggled recently
Goffin suffered a foot injury in the third round of the 2017 French Open not long ago.
While the injury didn't take him out for a lengthy period of time, it occurred at the worst time of the season. Not only did Goffin miss out on a chance to go deep into the Roland Garros draw, but the injury would also cost him a chance to play at Wimbledon. For a player that was looking as though he was ready to stay in the top 10 for an extended period of time, missing out on most of the French Open and all of Wimbledon will hurt him for much of the next year.
Last week Goffin was back in action on tour, but his result was disappointing. He was a part of the Umag draw in Croatia, but lost in the quarterfinals to Ivan Dodig. Falling in the quarters of an event like Umag is not a good result for someone in the top 20.
Could be that Goffin is a little off form, maybe from missing some time or maybe for not being back to 100% after his foot problem from Roland Garros.
Preview of ATP Gstaad 2017
One feature with the Gstaad draw that a high-ranked player would like is the fact that the top four seeds in the tournament will each receive byes through the first round.
The event is a small-field tournament to begin with, meaning that a first-round bye puts the top four players directly into the round of sixteen. Those players are Goffin, Roberta Bautista Agut, Feliciano Lopez, and Fabio Fognini. If Goffin plays well then it's hard to picture him not making at least the semifinals. He does share a draw to the final with both Feliciano Lopez and Joao Sousa.
However, there isn't much in the early rounds that should trouble Goffin in the days ahead in Umag.
Bautista Agut also shares a draw to the final with Italian-player Fabio Fognini. The one-time French Open quarterfinalist may emerge as a key player in Umag. His draw looks soft in the early rounds, unless Ernests Gulbis, who made the 2015 French Open semifinals, improves his form. Also on the bottom half of the draw, one finds Dusan Lajovic, a player with some clay-court aptitude.
However, Bautista Agut looks like he has the draw luck. His path to the final looks softer than the one that Goffin has on top of the draw. Look for the Spaniard to make the final in Umag while the top half of the tournament looks like a showdown between Lopez and Goffin. If The Belgian is troubled at all by his foot, then Lopez will certainly put him to the test.