Canada’s top player Felix Auger-Aliassime (ATP 11) has had to cancel his participation at the 30. TERRA WORTMANN OPEN (June 17. to 25.) on Sunday morning. The 22 year-old has been suffering from a persistent injury in his left knee for weeks. “I’m very sorry that I can’t play in Halle, especially in the anniversary year of the tournament“, Auger-Aliassime said.
After Auger-Aliassime‘s withdrawel the face of the main draw has also changed at the TERRA WORTMANN OPEN: Olympic champion Alexander Zverev (ATP 23) moves up to the Canadian’s position of number eight in the seeding list on the tableau – which means that it will come to an exciting German-Austrian kick-off duel for Zverev against Dominic Thiem (ATP 89). Zverev was initially set up to play Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (ATP 22) in his first match.
Tennis fans in HalleWestphalia will experience a revival of the dramatic duel in the US Open finals of 2000 between the two friends Zverev and Thiem. Back then, in the due to covid empty Arthur Ashe-Stadion, Thiem caught up from 0:2 against Zverev and finally won his first Grand Slam title 8:6 in the tie break of the final fifth round.
In the head to head balance Thiem even leads 8:3 against Zverev, the last duel, however, was won by the 26 year-old man from Hamburg in the semi-finals of the ATP 1000 tournament in Madrid. The first match of the two lies back seven years, back then Thiem won in three sets at the ATP tournament in Munich.
The decision on who moves up to the main draw in place of Auger-Aliassime at the TERRA WORTMANN OPEN will be decided in the course of Sunday, after the qualifying matches.
