Pablo Carreno Busta is the top seed at the Any Tech 365 Andalucia Open in Marbella. The Spanish player won his only clay tournament in Estoril in 2017 and reached the US Open semifinal last year. He will be seeking the fifth title of his career after Winston Salem and Moscow in 2016, Estoril in 2017 and Chengdu in 2019 and the first on Spanish soil. This year he won two matches at the ATP Cup in Melbourne and reached the third round at the Australian Open.
Second seed Fabio Fognini will warm up for his title defence at next week’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters at this week’s Marbella tournament. The Italian top 20 player will open against either Jaume Munar or a qualifier. On Spanish soil Fognini beat Rafael Nadal in the third round in Barcelona in 2015. This year the Italian veteran beat Alex De Minaur in the third round at the Australian Open before losing to Rafael Nadal in the Round of 16.
Third seed Casper Ruud reached the semifinals at the Rome Masters 1000 tournament and has won 65% of his tour level matches on clay. Ruud became the highest-ranked player and the first ATP Tour champion from Norway by claiming the 2020 Buenos Aires title, surpassing his father and coach Christian, who peaked at his career-high at number 39 after reaching 1995 Bastad final. Ruud will take either Italy’s Gianluca Mager or Mikhail Kukushkin. Mager, who reached the final at the Rio Open in Rio de Janeiro last year, won an ATP Challenger in the same Marbella venue on Sunday.
Spanish Next Gen star Carlos Alcaraz is set to continue his impressive season after a promising start of the year, in which he beat former top 10 David Goffin at the Great Ocean Road Open in Melbourne before reaching the second round at the Austalian Open. Alcaraz, who won three ATP Challenger tournaments in Trieste, Barcelona and Alicante, achieved his career-high number 127 in 2021 after ending 2020 as the youngest player in Top 600 at the age of 17. He became the youngest ATP 500 match winner in series history since 2009 and the youngest player to earn a top-50 player since Richard Gasquet in Marseille 2003.
Another 17-year-old player in the draw is Holger Rune, who came through the qualifying round to reach the quarter finals in Santiago de Chile. The Danish player will play against Soonwoo Kwon in the opening round.
