It only took 10-and-a-half months, but the tours have made the final turn and started down the 2017 homestretch. This week the ATP and WTA make one last trip to Europe for the brief, season-ending indoor season. Very brief, on the women’s side: The tournaments in Moscow and Luxembourg are the last before the WTA Finals begin in Singapore this weekend. While the field for that event is set, the race to qualify for the men’s year-ending extravaganza in London next month is still very much on.
Who will make the cut for the O2? Who will end 2017 with a flourish and build some confidence heading into 2018? The five tournaments this week should start to give us an idea.
VTP Kremlin Cup (ATP)
*Moscow
$823,600; 250 ranking points
Indoor hard court
Draw is here*
At 26, Pablo Carreño Busta has had a quiet career year. He’s cracked the Top 10 for the first time, reached his first Grand Slam semifinal, at the US Open, and won a tournament, all while staying a few inches below the mainstream media radar. But how does the mild-mannered Spaniard do when he’s the favorite? We’ll get a clue in Moscow, where he’s the top seed. He should be motivated: As of now, Carreño Busta is eighth in the race for the eight-man World Tour Finals in London, less than 100 points ahead of No. 9 Sam Querrey.
Also here: Two players on the rise of late, Andrey Rublev and Damir Dzumhur.
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VTB Kremlin Cup (WTA)
*Moscow
$790,208; Premier
Indoor hard court
Draw is here*
The women’s edition of the Kremlin Cup can get lost in the pre-Singapore shadows, and none of the Top 8 have made the trip this time. But as a Premier event, it has what you might call a sneaky-good draw, one that could serve as a second-tier year-end championship. It’s filled with players who made memorable runs at various times this season—Kristina Mladnevovic, Coco Vandeweghe, Elena Vesnina, Anastasija Sevastova, Magdalena Rybarikova, Daria Kasatkina, Julia Goerges, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova—but who couldn’t sustain that level long enough to get to Singapore.
That list also includes wild card Maria Sharapova, who won a title this past week in Tianjin, and who will make a rare appearance on home soil. She starts against Rybarikova.
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European Open (ATP)
*Antwerp, Belgium
$720,000; 250 ranking points
Indoor hard court
Draw is here*
The European Open is only in its second year, and it comes during a tough week, when the best players are just returning from Asia. But it has put together a respectable field.
Local favorite David Goffin is the top seed. Like Carreño Busta in Moscow, the Belgian is on the London bubble. Right now he’s seventh in the eight-man race, 225 points ahead of Querrey at No. 9.
Wild cards trying to make late runs to London: Nick Kyrgios and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
First-round matches to watch: Denis Shapovalov vs. Ernesto Escobedo; Frances Tiafoe vs. Florian Mayer
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Intrum Stockholm Open (ATP)
*Stockholm
$720,000; 250 ranking points
Indoor hard court
Draw is here*
It may be tempting, when you remember how it began, to say that Grigor Dimitrov’s 2017 season has been a disappointment. In Australia, he came up just short of reaching his first major final; but while he wouldn’t climb those heights again, he has been solid enough since to put himself at No. 6 in the race to London, a full 700 points ahead of Goffin at No. 7—that’s a definite improvement for someone who has never qualified for the World Tour Finals before.
Dimitrov is also the top seed in Stockholm, but it’s the No. 2 seed, Kevin Anderson, who has the most to gain. Anderson, the US Open finalist, is currently 10th in the race to London, 325 points behind Goffin at No. 8.
Also here: No. 3 seed Jack Sock and No. 4 Juan Martin del Potro. With his semifinal run in Shanghai, the Argentine is up four spots, to No. 19 in the rankings, and seven spots, to No. 18, in the race to London.
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BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open (WTA)
*Luxembourg
$226,750; International
Indoor hard court
Draw is here*
The news in Luxembourg is that Angelique Kerber, last year’s world No. 1, has taken a wild card after failing to qualify for the WTA Finals. A year ago, she faced Monica Puig for the gold medal at the Rio Olympics; now she’ll face her in the first round in Luxembourg. Win or lose, Kerber will likely be happy to put 2017 behind her and start fresh in the new year. She’s too good not to be in Singapore.
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