The 2016 Kremlin Cup tennis tournament will not have its two-time defending champion, Marin Cilic. The pullout opens a door of opportunity for someone in the field. 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 17.
Event Details
Event: Kremlin Cup
Category: ATP 250 Series
Date: October 17-23, 2016
Location: Olympic Stadium – Moscow, Russia
The 2016 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 $717,000, this is an above-average amount of money for an ATP 250 tournament.
The points structure in a 250-point tournament offers 250 points towards the winner’s ranking. A runner-up finish is worth 150 points. A semifinal result is 90 points, and a quarterfinal appearance offers 45 points.
Former Champions and Results
Year Champion Runner-up Score
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
2011 – Janko Tipasarevic def. Viktor Troicki – 6-4, 6-2
Player Info:
The last two times Roberto Bautista Agut made the finals in Moscow, he lost to Marin Cilic in straight sets and with an identical scoreline. With Cilic, his potential nemesis deciding to rest and skip this event, Bautista-Agut has an added boost and a great chance of claiming his third title of the season. The Spaniard started 2016 on a high note, winning titles in Auckland and Sofia and equaling his career best showing in Australia, where he reached the last 16. Bautista-Agut pushed Novak Djokovic at the French Open, where again he maximized his potential to reach the fourth round, his career-best performance. The three-name Spaniard had a decent run at the St. Petersburg Open, where he made the semifinals, but at the recently concluded China Open, he was upset by Kyle Edmund, the British No. 2, in the early rounds. Overall, he has enjoyed a solid year, winning 43 matches and losing just 19. We are at the far end of the ATP season and Bautista-Agut will want to finish the year in the same vein as he began.
In many ways, it’s been a breakthrough season for Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who announced himself by progressing to the quarterfinals of the French Open. On his giant killing run, he beat Jack Sock in five tough sets in the third round and thumped Milos Raonic in straight sets in the round of 16 clash. The unheralded Spaniard also became a first time ATP title winner, upsetting David Ferrer in the semis and soundly beating Fernando Verdasco in the Bastad finals. Ramos-Vinolas also made the finals in Chengdu, where he lost to next-generation star Karen Khachanov in a long and grueling three-set battle. Since, he has suffered two early defeats in Beijing and Shanghai. The field in Moscow won’t scare him to death and he could make another deep run.
Bernard Tomic started the year with a lot of promise but frequent injuries haven’t allowed him to play his best tennis on a consistent basis. He is still title-less in 2016 and for a man who is gunning for a top-20 spot, it’s discouraging. While Tomic has seen his fellow Australian Nick Kyrgios rise, his own ranking has plummeted. He is ranked 23rd in the world and will desperately need to win the title to come back. At the moment though, it looks like a long shot.
Martin Klizan had a disastrous Grand Slam swing, where he couldn’t progress past the first round in four attempts. How frustrating is that for a man who has two ATP 500 titles to his name this season. The Slovakian is 14-12 on the year and has struggled largely due to injuries and indifferent form. In his last three outings on the ATP World Tour, he hasn’t tasted a single victory but is hanging on to his top-35 ranking courtesy of the two third-tier tournaments he won in Rotterdam and Hamburg. Klizan would like to remind himself that he won his first title of the year in fast indoor conditions. Moscow won’t be any different and if he can bring that devastating forehand to Russia, he’ll go home with yet another title.
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, including the Kremlin Cup.
