Go get that 🍗 & 🍚 Holger and get ready for Basel! ⚡️ @holgerrune2003 😎 🎥: @TennisTV
The Stockholm Open also known as BNP Paribas Nordic Open for sponsorship reasons is set for another outing between October 16-22 with Holger Rune as defending champion.
Our preview looks ahead to the tournament, with the main players in action as well as the leading talking points as ATP 250 action heads to Sweden.
This time last year began a marvellous run for Holger Rune with the rising Dane winning in Stockholm before going on to win the Paris Masters defeating Novak Djokovic en route.
A star was then born to challenge the might of Djokovic and also his age group rival in Carlos Alcaraz who he grew up in the sport with.
But since Wimbledon, it has all fallen apart for the Dane who has been ill for most of the recent months so in reality, his non success hasn't been hugely his own doing.
But one aspect that perhaps has been his doing is not taking a break from the sport. He played Hopman Cup despite being a shell of himself and has continued to play tournaments with the merry go round of the tour proving hard to jump off.
Winning against a torridly off form Felix Auger-Aliassime was his first win since Wimbledon and he then lost early in Shanghai. He told fans to get some amazing energy going for his first game on Wednesday, he might just need that.
Who else though is set for Stockholm? A lot of players who have had smatterings of success this year is the answer.
From Christopher Eubanks who had his outstanding run at Wimbledon like Rune who has not built on that massively albeit from a place of being a low ranked player to one now with acclaim and fan fare so a different ballpark.
To Adrian Mannarino who shows with his evergreen 2023 that he is perhaps at his best yet. He has won two titles so far this season in Newport and Astana and perhaps is the favourite for this next week outside of top seed Rune.
Gael Monfils also missed the birthday of his daughter Skai to return to the tour and will hope that doing so will prove to be the correct decision as he chases some late season form.
A lot of players looking to a lot like most of the tournaments over the next week, but who can provide that uplift and who will still be searching?
Go get that 🍗 & 🍚 Holger and get ready for Basel! ⚡️ @holgerrune2003 😎 🎥: @TennisTV