2023 Halle Open Preview as Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Rublev and Zverev tackle pre-Wimbledon staple

A tournament that for years was synonymous with a certain Swiss ace who has his own day at the tournament, Roger Federer will not be at Halle Open of course this year.

But many of the top names on the ATP Tour will still descend on Germany for the ATP 500 with TennisUpToDate as usual providing a preview of the action which will take place between June 19-25.

For many it will be their first tournament after Roland Garros, that includes Alexander Zverev who will be the home hero in action this week.

He decided against playing last week in Stuttgart due to impending tournaments and with a run of events up until Wimbledon meaning that he wanted to give his body the best rest after reaching the semi-finals at Roland Garros.

A best of the fourth round at Wimbledon, it has never been his number one surface and he will face a familiar face to begin the tournament in Dominic Thiem.

Thiem leads Zverev 8-3 in the pair's ATP Head to Head series and he will hope to improve that record. It is a first appearance on grass in two years for Thiem.

He decided instead to keep playing clay court challengers instead of going straight onto the grass. Many don't have the facilities to practice on grass evidenced by Casper Ruud for instance playing on a hard court.

Daniil Medvedev also will aim to bounce back. He reached the final last year in Germany losing to Hubert Hurkacz in one of the best displays of the grass season.

But he lost early last week in 's-Hertogenbosch after an early exit to end his superb clay court season.

Work to do for the top seed. His compatriot Andrey Rublev too will face Wu Yibing who took out Nick Kyrgios last week in Stuttgart.

Nick Kyrgios asked for patience and time with many saying that he still looked injured after knee surgery in losing to the Chinese star last week.

But he will not get that time for the moment, he has withdrawn from the tournament with injury.

A lot of talking points heading into the week which also includes Jannik Sinner facing Richard Gasquet and Stefanos Tsitsipas facing off against Gregoire Barrere.

The Greek aiming to let his racquet do the talking after recent headlines surround his relationship more with Paula Badosa.