The grass tournament in Halle has been a big stage for German players for many years. Next to numerous tournament winners, there have always been players from the host-country that have made an eye-catching appearance. This time, four players are trying.
Mischa Zverev is the first one of the four, he has already reached the Quarter-finals three times. In his opening match he meets the South-African Lloyd Harris. Louis Wessels will be on totally new ground. The 20-year-old, a huge 6 feet 7, reaches the qualifications via Wildcard. His first opponent is the Serb Miomir Kecmanovic. For Matthias Bachinger the first hurdle on the other side of the net is Lorenzo Sonego from Italy. And last but not least, the forth German is Mats Moraing. The 26-year-old, whose uncle Peter once performed the very first serve at the very first grass tournament in Halle 1993, will meet the talented Russian Andrey Rublev. The top-100-player is real competition for the German.
Furthermore, Andreas Seppi has to fight through the qualifiers. The Italian got to the finals of 2015 in Halle, where he was beaten by Roger Federer. His first-round match will be against the quite unknown Canadian Brayden Schnur. The cracker in the qualifiers will be the match Sergiy Stakhovsky against Ernests Gulbis, though. Stakhovsky once defeated the king of grass, Roger Federer, in Wimbledon, Gulbis was once the world’s no. 10. Top seeded in the qualifiers is the Portuguese Joao Sousa, by the way.
Denis Kudla (USA) is also in the draw. Last year, he reached the semifinals in Halle. This year, it will be a long road for him to go there again. His first opponent is Thomas Fabbiano from Italy
