Thiem, Wawrinka could meet in second round at strong Astana Open

Ravi Ubha

Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem — the two Grand Slam singles winners in the field at this week’s Astana Open — could square off in the second round at the ATP 250.

Monday evening’s draw saw Wawrinka and Thiem placed in the bottom half in Kazakhstan.

If that meeting does materialize, it would mark a first duel since 2017 in Indian Wells when both were top-10 players.

The duo have been impacted by injuries since then, although Wawrinka’s current ranking of 40th is the 38-year-old Swiss’ highest since August 2021.

And Thiem’s ranking of 80th marks an improvement of 100 spots compared to 12 months ago for the 30-year-old.

To reach the second round, eighth-seed Wawrinka must defeat American Marcos Giron in a maiden head-to-head on the indoor hard courts and Thiem will have to overcome Peru’s Juan Pablo

Varillas.

Varillas — enjoying his best season at the top flight — and Thiem have split their two matches, both coming on clay.

Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor is this year’s top seed and like the two other highest seeds, Sebastian Baez and Alexander Bublik, have byes into the round of 16.

The trio are all title winners in 2023, while the remaining seeds of Jiri Lehecka — the Czech received the final bye as the fourth seed — Sebastian Korda, Adrian Mannarino, Laslo Djere and Wawrinka have all made finals or in Mannarino’s case, bagged a title this campaign.

Mannarino has thrived in Astana, making the final in 2020 and the quarterfinals in singles last year. The left-hander appeared in the doubles final in 2022, too, the first tour-level doubles finale of a professional career that has spanned nearly 20 years.

Mannarino begins against Arthur Rinderknech, two of four Frenchman in the bottom quarter alongside Corentin Moutet and Gregoire Barrere.

At 45th in the rankings, Alexei Popyrin narrowly missed out on a seeding. The Australian is another flourishing in 2023, beating Wawrinka on clay in Umag in July for his second career title and advancing to the last eight at the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati in

August on hard courts.

He starts against Korda in a first tour-level meeting that figures to feature plenty of big serves.  

Could the tournament’s fourth edition at ATP level produce a home winner after Australia’s John Millman, South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon and Novak Djokovic — who topped Stefanos Tsitsipas last year — triumphed previously? 

Speaking of big serves, Bublik is the highest ranked men’s player from Kazakhstan. He struck 79 aces in five matches in winning the Halle 500 on grass in June and backed it up by making a first ever second week at a major at Wimbledon.

The 26-year-old has also ventured deep in Astana previously, landing in the semifinals in 2020.

Bublik starred in the Davis Cup in Bulgaria on clay earlier in September but enters his home tournament having lost five consecutive matches outside the team competition. Giron downed Bublik in Chengdu last week.

The elder statesman of tennis in Kazakhstan, Mikhail Kukushkin, received one of the three wildcards along with Alexander Shevchenko and the fast rising Hamad Medjedovic. 

Kukushkin, 35, has lost to eventual finalists Tsitsipas and James Duckworth the previous two editions.