The 2017 Kremlin Cup tennis tournament will represent one of many events in which players outside the ATP top eight will try to work toward the finish of the 2017 tennis season. No one in the field in Moscow will play in the ATP World Tour Finals, so this becomes – for many – the last or next-to-last event of the season before the finale in Bercy (Paris), the last of the nine Masters 1000 events of the year. We’re not expecting a group of A-listers at this event by any means. It could be a very lackluster event, by all accounts, as many of the bigger names have signed up for the other two events going on this week. That leaves us with some obscure favorites, like Pablo Carreno Busta and Paolo Lorenzi. This is really a wide open tournament where a number of different players could easily wind up winning. The top four seeds receive byes and will need to win only four matches to take the tournament.
The competition in the 28-player main draw begins on Monday, October 16.
Event Details
Event: Kremlin Cup
Category: ATP 250 Series
Date: October 16-22, 2017
Location: Olympic Stadium – Moscow, Russia
The 2017 Kremlin Cup title is something to aspire to – on its own terms, but more than many other 250-point events on the calendar. With a prize money allotment of just over $745,000, this is an above-average amount of money for an ATP 250 tournament. It’s a slightly bigger prize than the Stockholm and Antwerp tournaments.
Points
Champion – 250
Runner-up – 150
Semifinal – 90
Quarterfinal – 45
Former Champions and Results
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2016 – Pablo Carreno Busta def. Fabio Fognini – 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
2015 – Marin Cilic def. Roberto Bautista Agut – 6-4, 6-4
2014 – Marin Cilic def. Roberto Bautista Agut – 6-4, 6-4
2013 – Richard Gasquet def. Mikhail Kukushkin – 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
2012 – Andreas Seppi def. Thomaz Bellucci – 3-6, 7-6, 6-3
Player Info:
Pablo Carreno Busta made his first Grand Slam semifinal at the U.S. Open. Understandably, he has lacked energy since then, crashing out of Beijing early to Steve Darcis. He will try to regain his footing here and make a strong push to the end of the season, hoping he can match if not exceed his achievements in 2018. On the season, Busta is 34-19, which is pretty good. However, he hasn’t played on grass and mostly thrived on clay. He was just 14-10 on the hard courts this season while going 20-9 on the red surface.
Adrian Mannarino has become a much better tennis player this year. He reached the fourth round of Wimbledon and has won multiple matches at a number of Masters 1000 events. He has beaten Sam Querrey and Milos Raonic and has been difficult for other players to beat. He has bolstered his ranking and has rarely been as confident in his game. He will try to sustain what he has established to this point in 2017.
Paolo Lorenzi is an Italian claycourter who has found a way to win on hardcourts. He beat Gilles Muller at the U.S. Open to reach the fourth round, an exceptional result. He is learning new tricks at this advanced stage of his career. He will look back very fondly on his 2017 season when it ends.
Damir Dzhumhur won the St. Petersburg (Russia) title by beating Fabio Fognini in the final. Dzumhur is playing the best tennis of his life and hopes that he can maintain form through the finish line in 2017.
Andrey Rublev just came back from a set and a break down to beat Tomas Berdych in Beijing. Rublev defeated Grigor Dimitrov at the U.S. Open and eventually made the quarterfinals before losing to Rafael Nadal. This is one of the young “next generation” stars for the ATP. He is justifying the hype and will try to please the home-nation fans in Moscow.
Olympic Stadium
The arena was built for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. It’s a massive facility which seats as many as 25,000 for concerts and generally houses somewhere from 10,000 to 16,000 people for sporting events of various kinds. It has hosted EuroLeague basketball championship games as well as various international competitions in solo-athlete sports such as fencing. It is a multi-use facility, able to house different events under its roof.
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