Just a day after taking a late entry into the 2023 Sofia Open, Alexander Zverev has withdrawn from the event as he qualified for Turin.
These final couple of weeks are utter chaos on the ATP Tour because you're never really sure who will play where. All the players are making their own predictions and calculations as to what will happen next, and that's what Alexander Zverev did as well.
After losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas, the German knew that he wasn't officially qualified for the 2023 ATP Finals even though he was 90 % in. Due to that, he opted to take a wild card entry into the Sofia Open in case he needed it, which was smart.
He didn't know what would happen with the rest of the contending players, but luckily for the German, things went super well. Holger Rune lost, Hubert Hurkacz lost, and Alex de Minaur lost, meaning he was officially in Turin.
There was no need to travel to Sofia anymore as the event would serve no purpose to him. He can now fully focus on getting ready for the ATP Finals, which begin in about a week, so that's why he pulled out of the event.
He's not the only player that did that, of course. We've seen players like Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz pull out of events as well because, at this point in the calendar, rest is all you're really looking forward to.
If you didn't make it to Turin and if you're not going to play at the Davis Cup Finals, then there are very few reasons to play Metz or Sofia.
It's been a longstanding practice as these events generally feature weaker fields giving some players a chance to win their maiden trophy. Jannik Sinner won his first in Sofia as a teenager a couple of years ago. He'd win another one later on.
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