IN what will be the final event of the ATP Tour year – barring the invite-only ATP Finals – a young Canadian duo and Australia’s top two ranked men’s players are among the seeds at the Sofia Open. Held in Bulgaria, there is enough top-end talent and some tough competitors at the event to make it an entertaining contest. There is no Next-Gen Finals series this year, which has allowed a host of Next-Gen eligible players to enter the tournament.

Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alex de Minaur are the top three seeds and would have been eligible for the Next-Gen finals series, whilst reigning Next-Gen champion Jannik Sinner is also in the draw. The top four seeds – including Jan-Lennard Struff – have byes in the first round, with three of the other four seeds either playing a qualifier or wildcard. Fifth seed Frenchman Adrian Mannarino takes on a qualifier in the first round, with sixth seed John Millman facing Bulgarian wildcard Adrian Andreev, and eighth seed Croatian Marin Cilic locking horns with Czech wildcard Jonas Forejtek. Seventh seed Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili is the outlier, having to take on unseeded but automatic entrant, Italian Stefano Travaglia.

Picking a winner here is difficult. Shapovalov should be the standout competitor as the only player ranked inside the top 20. But the Canadian world number 12 is coming off back-to-back shockers, losing to Frenchman Gilles Simon in Cologne, then Austrian wildcard Jurij Rodionov in Vienna. The latter 6-4 7-5 loss was his most disappointing since being humbled by compatriot Vasek Pospisil back in Montpellier at the start of the year.

Shapovalov will know plenty about playing the other top two contenders, having lost to de Minaur twice in the past 12 months – in the Davis Cup and then again in the ATP Cup. But after that latter defeat, Shapovalov beat Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev in straight sets. But therein lies the issue. He is better against the power hitters than the grinders, which is why he would perform strongly against Auger-Aliassime but struggle against the likes of de Minaur and Struff – who also beat him earlier this year in Cincinnati. If you look at some of his wins in the past couple of months – Grigor Dimitrov and Stan Wawrinka –  compared to some of his losses – Pablo Carreno-Busta and Roberto Carballes Baena – it further affirms these claims.

The third seed de Minaur could argue to be favourite as he excels on hard courts. His form is good, having reached the quarter finals at the US Open, as well the Round of 16 at the Paris Masters. He ran into eventual US Open winner Dominic Thiem and third seed Daniil Medvedev in those tournaments respectively. His dominant performance over the in-form Lorenzo Sonego two starts back was mighty impressive and he could well get the job done here.

Auger-Aliassime has not quite backed up his breakout 2019, but he has been solid nonetheless. Possessing a 23-18 record, the Canadian young gun will be hoping to reverse a run of three straight losses since reaching the semi-finals at Cologne. Prior to his first round losses to Pospisil in Vienna and Cilic in Paris, Auger-Aliassime reached the final of the Cologne Indoors, then the semis of the Cologne Championships, stringing together five wins in six matches. Like de Minaur, it should suit him here, but he has a likely match with Cilic in the quarter finals which he will need to turn around the result from their last clash.

Those three are clearly the standouts in the tournament, but Sinner has to be considered as a genuine chance at this event. Since the Rome Masters, Sinner has looked a different player to the one that was inconsistent to start the year. The Italian teenager won the Next-Gen Finals then a Challenger event 12 months ago, before free-falling into a 6-10 record for 2020 prior to Rome. Even his six wins came against pretty ordinary opponents aside from David Goffin, with the 50th ranked Radu Albot the next highest scalp back in Rotterdam. Since Rome, Sinner has won 10-4 and turned his form around, with 22nd ranked Dimitrov the lowest loss, with the others being ATP Finals entrants, Rafael Nadal, Andrey Rublev and Zverev.

Among the other contenders are Astana Open championMillman and finalist Mannarino who both feature here. Mannarino could play Shapovalov in the quarter finals, whilst Millman has an easier draw with Struff in his quarter and likely to reach the semis if he plays to his potential. Sinner has a first-up tough encounter against Marton Fucsovics who is a hot-and-cold player but his best is good enough, while Egor Gerasimov and Pospisil can never be discounted from events of this quality.

Picture: Simon Bruty/USTA