ATP Hamburg 2017 (The German Tennis Championships) is part of the 500-series on tour. That should make it a target tournament for at least some top players, however since it is a clay-court event played after Wimbledon and before the US Open - it's a little bit of a odd tournament. A lot of players coming off of the grass-court season aren't looking to play on clay at this time of year, especially with the major hard-court events upcoming. Instead the top players are either resting or looking to get match ready on the cement.
No top talent in Hamburg draw
For that reason, it's not surprising to see Hamburg's Draw bereft of anyone in the top 20 on tour. Albert Ramos-Vinolas is the top seed and his ranking entering the tournament is just 24th. He is joined by Gilles Simon, Pablo Cuevas, Benoit Paire, Diego Schwartzman, Fernando Verdacso, David Ferrer, and Karen Khachanov as players that are seeded in the tournament.
The seeded player that may have received some draw luck is Khachanov, a young star for Russia. He recently made the fourth round of the 2017 French Open and that attests to some clay-court aptitude. In that Grand Slam tournament he beat both Tomas Berdych and John Isner en route to a fourth-round loss to Andy Murray.
Khachanov sharing a quarter with Ferrer is lucky
What Khachanov, who is seeded third in the Hamburg 2017 event, has to like about his draw is the fact that there isn't a dangerous non-seeded player in his early-round path. Furthermore, the seeded player that is nearest to the Russian in the draw is David Ferrer, the eighth seed in the tournament.
Ferrer is playing well at the moment, so well that he has made the Bastad final on Sunday. However, therein lays a bit of a problem for the 35-year old Spaniard.
Ferrer, at time of writing, is currently in Sweden preparing for what promises to be a tough final match in Bastad against Alexandr Dolgopolov. Win or lose, Ferrer will then need to travel to Germany and prepare for his draw in Hamburg.
The players in the Hamburg draw will all be better rested except for Andrey Rublev, another tournament finalist this weekend. There is no first-round bye for seeded players in Hamburg, meaning that Ferrer will have to play matches in Hamburg with very little rest following his efforts in Sweden. Tennis fans should not be surprised to see Ferrer lose early in Hamburg as a result or even withdraw ahead of the tournament.
For Khachanov, the implications should be clear. If he plays as well as he did at Roland Garros earlier this season, then he has to like his chances of getting deep into the Hamburg draw. Since the tournament is at the 500-level there are actually some valuable ranking points associated with the late rounds.
The Russian player has to start thinking about a spot in the top 25, a ranking that would not just bring him seeds in these smaller events, but also in a lot of the bigger events (such as Grand Slams).
