ATP 500s in Vienna and Basel feature Top 10-heavy draws, and year-end implications

After one last around-the-globe flight, the men return to Europe for the final swing of the season, which will conclude next month at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy and the Davis Cup Final in Malaga, Spain. The women, meanwhile, move on to their two-tournament “post-season” this week. The first of those events, the WTA Elite Trophy, which consists of 12 players who didn’t qualify for the Finals, will take place in Zhuhai, China.

Schedule-wise, this week functions as a warm-up for bigger events to come. But with many top players in multiple locations, it has a varied heft of its own.

WTA Elite Trophy

• Zhuhai, China
• $2,409,000
• Hard court
• Draw is HERE

This 12-player round-robin competition returns for the first time since 2019. The women have been drawn into four groups of three players each. They look like this:

• Azalea: Barbora Krejcikova, Daria Kasatkina, Magda Linette
• Camellia: Madison Keys, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Caroline Garcia
• Orchid: Jelena Ostapenko, Qinwen Zheng, Donna Vekic
• Rose: Liudmila Samsonova, Veronika Kudermetova, Lin Zhu

As you can see, while this is a tournament for the second-tier, it’s an interesting second-tier, and one that has largely closed the season well. Krejcikova won a title in San Diego and made the final in Zhengzhou. Madison Keys nearly reached the US Open final. Qinwen Zheng had a good Open and won Zhengzhou and the Asian Games. Kudermetova won Tokyo. Samsonova made the finals of Masters 1000s in Montreal and Beijing. Ostapenko beat Iga Swiatek and reached the quarters at the US Open.

We’ll see who can keep that late-year momentum alive for one more week. Of particular interest, at least to me, are Zheng, Samsonova and Keys. The first two would seem to be next in line for a breakout run at a major, and the third, Keys, usually starts her seasons well in Australia. Can she give herself an extra boost of confidence and motivation heading into 2024?

Erste Bank Open (ATP)

• Vienna
• $2,900,000; ATP 500
• Indoor hard court
• Draw is HERE

Vienna isn’t a mandatory Masters event, but it isn’t far off. The winner is almost always a Top 10 player, and this year’s field is especially strong for a 500. It’s led by the No. 3 through 7 players in the Race to Turin—defending champion Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev.

While Medvedev and Sinner have already qualified for the ATP Finals, Rublev, Tsitsipas and Zverev still have some work to do. Two lower-ranked Americans in Vienna, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe, are long-shots for Turin, but they haven’t been eliminated.

First-round matches to watch:

• Sinner vs. Ben Shelton. The young American beat the Italian a couple of weeks ago, but he’ll have to play jet-lag tennis to do it again. As of Sunday, he was still in Tokyo, winning a title.
• Medvedev vs. Antwerp runner-up Arthur Fils
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Lorenzo Musetti
• Tsitsipas vs. Austrian native Dominic Thiem
• Tiafoe vs. Dan Evans
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Francisco Cerundolo

Swiss Indoors (ATP)

• Basel, Switzerland
• $2,700,000; ATP 500
• Indoor hard court
• Draw is HERE

Not far west of Vienna, another strong field gathers for another important indoor 500. While the Erste Bank Open has the higher-ranked players, the Swiss Indoors has the guys who are grasping for the final spots in Turin.

The top seed, Holger Rune, is currently in the eighth and final position, but after a subpar second half of the season, he’s left the door ajar. He starts the week 55 points ahead of the No. 3 seed in Basel, Taylor Fritz. The No. 2, 4 and 5 seeds, Casper Ruud, Hubert Hurkacz and Alex de Minaur, are within striking distance as well, but will need to come up the goods here and in Bercy next week.

First-round matches to watch:

• Rune vs. Miomir Kecmanovic. The Serb just beat the Dane last week in Stockholm.
• Hurkacz vs. Dusan Lajovic
• Ruud vs. Antwerp champ Alexander Bublik

First-round matches in the books:

• Andy Murray d. Yannick Hanfmann, 7-5, 6-4
• Jan-Lennard Struff d. Chris Eubanks, 7-6 (7), 6-4