Top-four seeds Stefanos Tsitsipas and Tomas Martin Etcheverry will kick off their weeks in Gstaad during second-round action on Wednesday. Tsitsipas opens with Hamad Medjedovic, while Etcheverry faces Botic van de Zandschulp.
(1) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Hamad Medjedovic
Medjedovic figured to be one of the tour’s breakout starts in 2023 following his triumph at the NextGen ATP Finals last fall. Unfortunately for the 20-year-old Serb, injuries have prevented that from being the case. He was sidelined in between the Australian Open and Indian Wells and has been unable to get things going aside from a third-round performance in Rome as a qualifier. Medjedovic did well to defeat Marc-Andrea Huesler 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 6-3 in round one of he Swiss Open Gstaad, but that marked just his fifth main-tour victory of the season.
Up next for the world No. 122 on Wednesday is a first-ever meeting with Tsitsipas. The top-seeded Greek once again underwhelmed on grass (lost in the Halle second round to Jan-Lennard Struff and the Wimbledon second round to Emil Ruusuvuori), but a return to his preferred clay-court surface should be just what the doctor ordered. Tsitsipas already owns one title on dirt this year (Monte-Carlo Masters) and is the favorite to secure another one.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 2
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Botic van de Zandschulp vs. (4) Tomas Martin Etcheverry
Etcheverry and Van de Zandschulp will also be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers on Wednesday. It has been a tale of two different trajectories for these two players over the past 15 months or so. Etcheverry’s rise began last year with runner-up showings in Santiago and Houston, and since then his clay-court exploits also include a 2023 French Open quarterfinal run and a final appearance this spring in Lyon. Van de Zandschulp, on the other hand, has hit the skids since squandering a massive lead in the 2023 Munich final against Holger Rune.
In fact, it got so bad for Van de Zandschulp that he considered retiring from tennis following a recent Roland Garros beatdown at the hands of Fabio Fognini. The 87th-ranked Dutchman decided against it and made a trip to the Braunschweig Challenger championship match this past week, but he lost at that point 6-1, 6-3 to Roberto Carballes Baena. This a quick turnaround for Van de Zandschulp, whereas Etcheverry is well rested on the heels of a first-round bye. Rest factor aside, the 32nd-ranked Argentine is simply the much better player in this clay-court matchup.
Pick: Etcheverry in 2
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I always prefer Tsitsipas when he is playing on the terre battu in chic European enclaves.