Atp Bastad 2017 is a clay court event played in Sweden, a 250-series tournament on the ATP Tour. The top seed at this year's event is out with injury. Pablo Carreno Busta, one of Spain's top players, is enjoying a strong season to date on the ATP Tour. However, on Wednesday the top seed in Bastad faced Russian player Andrei Kuznetsov and had to pull out. The reason on the official scoresheet is listed as an "Abdominal Strain." At the time of the withdrawal Kuznetsov was ahead comfortably, up 3-0 in the deciding third set.
Kuznetsov moves into quarters
The Carreno Busta/Kuznetsov match was played in the round of sixteen. That means that the Russian now has a spot in the tournament's quarterfinals. Despite knocking off the top seed, Kuznetsov does not have an easy path to the final. Next he will face Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, a player that gave Novak Djokovic some problems on the clay court surface at Roland Garros. After that, there is a talented quartet of clay-courters that Kuznetsov might face in the semifinals.
Carreno Busta has had some injury problems of late that have affected his ability to compete on the ATP Tour and in Grand Slams. He withdrew from Wimbledon in June after playing well at Roland Garros earlier in the season.
He wasn't the only high-seeded player to be eliminated from the Bastad draw on Wednesday. Third-seeded Pablo Cuevas, known to have some clay court ability, also went out in the 2nd round. Cuevas lost to little-known player Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland on the bottom half of the draw.
Ramos-Vinolas dangerous in draw
Also on the bottom half of the draw, three other talented clay-courters remain alive in the tournament.
They are David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, and Albert Ramos-Vinolas, a trio of players that are all Spanish nationals. Ferrer, a one-time Roland Garros runner-up, may not be playing his best tennis right now. Furthermore, the same could be said about Verdasco. However, Ramos-Vinolas did do very well during the clay court season.
He promises to be a big factor in the event for the remainder of this week as his prepares for his second-round match against Thiago Monteiro.
ATP Bastad is a mixture of grass and clay events that are currently running on the ATP Tour. All of the active events are low-tiered on tour, but bigger hard court tournaments will soon follow. Many of those will be played in North America as part of the lead up to the 2017 US Open from New York later this summer.
