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World No. 14 Casper Ruud leads the field at the 2021 Generali Open in Kitzbuhel. Ruud is followed by Roberto Bautista Agut, Filip Krajinovic and Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who complete the top four seeds. Each of these four players has received a bye in the opening round.
Main-draw action at the Generali Open is scheduled to begin on 26 July, with the qualifying rounds currently underway. The tournament belongs to the ATP 250 category and is played on clay, while boasting a prize pool of €419,470.
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The 2021 Generali Open also features the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Federico Delbonis, Laslo Djere, Aljaz Bedene and Richard Gasquet. On that note, here's a look at how the draw is expected to unfold, beginning with the top half.
Top half: Can anyone stop Casper Ruud?
Seeded players: [1] Casper Ruud, [3] Filip Krajinovic, [5] Federico Delbonis and [7] Aljaz Bedene
Expected semifinal: Casper Ruud vs Filip Krajinovic
Dark horse: Arthur Rinderknech
Analysis: Casper Ruud is the star of the top half, and given his recent form, it will take a monumental effort to stop him. Ruud recently claimed his second claycourt title of the year in Bastad and, at the time of writing, is into the finals of the Swiss Open (Gstaad).
The Norwegian has won six matches over the last two weeks, for the loss of just one set. In Kitzbuhel he has received a bye in the first round, with the prospect of facing Jaume Munar or a qualifier in the second.
Ruud played Munar once in 2018 (Swedish Open) and beat the Spaniard in three sets. Munar is currently on a five-match losing streak, and is unlikely to get the better of the red-hot Ruud.
At the other end of Ruud's quarter, veteran claycourter Pablo Cuevas faces Mikael Ymer in the first round. This is a match that could go either way; Cuevas has vast experience on the surface, but Ymer's recent form would hold him in good stead too.
The winner of the Ymer-Cuevas fixture will take on either Aljaz Bedene or wildcard entrant Alexander Erler in the second round. Erler has never played a main-draw match on the ATP tour, but he shouldn't be counted out given he is coached by Dominic Thiem's father Wolfgang.
Going by the seedings, Aljaz Bedene is Casper Ruud's likely quarterfinal opponent. However, Ymer stands a good chance of making it there too.
In the second quarter, Filip Krajinovic has received a bye in the opening round. The Serb will take on Thiago Seyboth Wild or a qualifier in the second round.
Krajinovic recently finished as the runner-up in Hamburg, so he would be fancying his chances of going deep in Kitzbuhel.
Federico Delbonis, meanwhile, has been presented with an extremely tricky first-round match against Arthur Rinderknech. Delbonis finished as a semifinalist in Hamburg, but fell in the second round at Gstaad.
Rinderknech, on the other hand, won four matches (including qualifying) in Bastad, where he reached the quarterfinals. The Frenchman then upset second seed Roberto Bautista Agut in Gstaad before narrowly falling short against Laslo Djere in the last eight.
Predicted semifinal result: Casper Ruud def. Filip Krajinovic
Bottom half: Laslo Djere, Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Roberto Bautista Agut lead strong claycourt group
Seeded players: [2] Roberto Bautista Agut, [4] Albert Ramos-Vinolas, [6] Laslo Djere and [8] Richard Gasquet
Expected semifinal: Roberto Bautista Agut vs Albert Ramos-Vinolas
Dark horse: Carlos Alcaraz
Analysis: Second seed Roberto Bautista Agut leads the bottom half and has received an opening-round bye. In the second round, he could face either Lucas Pouille or Pedro Martinez.
Bautista Agut has received a lot of flak recently for choosing to play ATP events instead of representing Spain at the Tokyo Olympics. His second-round defeat in Gstaad further fuelled the criticism, so he will hope to turn things around in Kitzbuhel.
Pouille is yet to register a win on tour since beating Joao Sousa in the Mallorca Championships. That said, he did take a set off rising star Carlos Alcaraz in Umag earlier this week.
Meanwhile, Alcaraz himself has been drawn to face Jiri Vesely in the first round in Kitzbuhel. The Spaniard is into the Umag semifinals at the time of writing, having beaten Filip Krajinovic and Andrej Martin in addition to Pouille over there.
Alcaraz is the favorite to beat Vesely, and if he does managed to do that he will face either Richard Gasquet or a qualifier in the second round. Interestingly, Gasquet is also into the last four at Umag, and the Frenchman could potentially find himself locking horns with Alcaraz in the summit clash there.
2019 Kitzbuhel runner-up Albert-Ramos Vinolas has received a bye in the first round courtesy of his seeding. In the second round, the Spaniard will face either Gianluca Mager or Dennis Novak.
Mager and Novak have never faced each other on the ATP tour, but have crossed paths twice on the Challenger circuit. They split those two matches, although both of them were contested on hardcourt.
Radu Albot and Marco Cecchinato have been drawn to face each other in the first round. Cecchinato would be the favorite for that fixture, and he could face either Laslo Djere or Daniel Altmaier in the second round.
Djere has been in a good run of form lately, having finished as a semifinalist in Hamburg as well as Gstaad. The Serb has a tricky path to the semifinals in Kitzbuhel though, as Altmaier and Cecchinato are both proven dirtballers.
Predicted semifinal result: Carlos Alcaraz def. Laslo Djere
Predicted champion
Casper Ruud
