The 2024 Stockholm Open, running from October 14th to 20th, is one of two tournaments kicking off the European indoor hardcourt season, and a superb draw has been released.
Since its inception in 1969, the tournament in Sweden has had several high-profile winners. Nikola Pilic won the first iteration, overcoming Ilie Nastase in the final.
Roger Federer, Juan Martin Del Potro, Boris Becker, and John McEnroe are among the other players who have won the Stockholm Open. Federer achieved it in 2010, overcoming Florian Mayer in the final.
Gael Monfils is the defending champion in Stockholm. The veteran Frenchman defeated the big-hitting Pavel Kotov 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 in a dramatic final to seal the 12th title of his lengthy career.
Some may be surprised that Monfils, who most recently lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the Shanghai Masters, has decided not to return to the tournament that brought him glory last year, but there are several top players to compensate for his absence.
Andrey Rublev is the No. 1 seed at the 2024 Stockholm Open. As one of the top four seeds, he receives a bye in the opening round of the tournament. The Madrid Open champion will face Alexandre Muller or Leo Borg, Bjorn Borg's son.
Brandon Nakashima or three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka are possible opponents for Rublev in the quarterfinal. Nakashima has had good results this season, such as beating Holger Rune and Taylor Fritz.
Wawrinka's opening-round match against Nakashima will be his first since an extraordinary umpiring mistake in his Shanghai Masters defeat to Flavio Cobolli, who beat the Swiss in three sets.
Serving at 0-1 in the deciding set, the umpire Carlos Bernardes wrongly called the score as "0-30" when it should have been 15-15. Wawrinka did not notice and ended up being broken after that error.
Rublev could face Tommy Paul or Nicolas Jarry in the semifinal. Those two are looking to come out of a quarter that includes Cameron Norrie, who made a return after nearly three months out with an injury at a Challenger Tour event last week.
Casper Ruud is the No. 2 seed on the other side of the draw. He faces the prospect of a challenging round of 16 battle against Lorenzo Sonego if the Italian overcomes a qualifier in his first-round match.
If Ruud wins that match, he might play Tallon Griekspoor in the quarterfinal. The Dutchman lost a tight match to Alexander Zverev in Shanghai, who launched an angry rant about a double-bounce in that contest, but replays showed he was wrong.
Grigor Dimitrov, the No. 3 seed, also receives a bye. The Bulgarian will play Quentin Halys or Sumit Nagal before a possible quarterfinal showdown against the 2021 Wimbledon runner-up, Matteo Berrettini.
The Stockholm Open always has strong draws, and this year is no different. Ruud, Rublev, and Dimitrov are also trying to accumulate points to qualify for the year-end ATP Finals, adding another layer of intrigue to the tournament in Sweden.
| Player 1 | Player 2 |
|---|---|
| Andrey Rublev [1] | BYE |
| Leo Borg | Alexandre Muller |
| Alejandro Davidovich Fokina | Qualifier |
| Stan Wawrinka | Brandon Nakashima [6] |
| Tommy Paul [4] | BYE |
| Pedro Martinez | Qualifier |
| Cameron Norrie | Miomir Kecmanovic |
| Elias Ymer [WC] | Nicolas Jarry [5] |
| Luciano Darderi [8] | Matteo Berrettini |
| Aleksandar Kovacevic | Dominic Stricker |
| Quentin Halys | Sumit Nagal |
| BYE | Grigor Dimitrov [3] |
| Tallon Griekspoor [7] | Pavel Kotov |
| Corentin Moutet | Qualifier |
| Qualifier | Lorenzo Sonego |
| BYE | Casper Ruud [2] |