CHENGDU OPEN STORYLINES Sichuan International Tennis Center | Chengdu, China | 24-30 September 2018 Draw: S-28, D-16 | Prize Money: $1,070,040 | Surface: Outdoor Hard ATP World Tour Info Tournament Info ATP PR & Marketing ATPWorldTour.com ChengduOpenTennis.com Brendan Gilson: [email protected] Twitter: @ATPWorldTour @ChengduOpen Press Officer: [email protected] Facebook: @ATPWorldTour @ChengduOpenTennis TV & Radio: TennisTV.com 10 THINGS TO WATCH IN CHENGDU 1) Next Stop, China: Four ATP World Tour events over the next three weeks will take place in China, beginning with the Chengdu Open and Shenzhen Open. A new champion will be crowned in Chengdu, where the field features seven players who’ve won ATP World Tour titles this season. 2) South African Ace: No. 1 seed Kevin Anderson has spent each week ranked in the Top 10 since winning his fourth career title at New York on 18 February. Anderson is the highest-ranked South African since the ATP Rankings were established in 1973. He reached a career-high No. 5 on 16 July following comeback wins over Roger Federer and John Isner en route to the Wimbledon final. 3) Career Year: Top Italian Fabio Fognini returned to a career-high No. 13 in the ATP Rankings on 10 September. Fognini seeks his fourth ATP World Tour 250 title of 2018 following Sao Paulo, Bastad and Los Cabos. His three titles this season are the most won by an Italian since 1977. 4) Georgia Pride: It was a record-setting summer for Nikoloz Basilashvili, who won the Hamburg title in July to become the first champion and top-ranked player from Georgia in ATP history. He peaked at No. 31 on 10 September after becoming the first Georgian in the US Open fourth round. 5) One of a Kind: Former World No. 6 Gael Monfils started the season with his seventh ATP World Tour title at Doha. Just 19-15 in tour-level matches since then, Monfils arrives in Chengdu after playing an ATP Challenger Tour event for the first time in five years and second time in a decade. Monfils reached the semi-finals last week at Kaohsiung, TPE as a wild card and the No. 1 seed. 6) Champs in Chengdu: Also playing in Chengdu are Estoril champion Joao Sousa, Eastbourne champion Mischa Zverev and Gstaad champion Matteo Berrettini. It was a dream week for Berrettini in the Swiss Alps, where he did not drop a set en route to his first quarter-final, semi-final, final and title. Berrettini also won the Gstaad doubles title with countryman Daniele Bracciali. 7) Asian Sensation: Still seeking the first tour-level final of his career is Hyeon Chung of South Korea. Chung has reached the quarter-finals or semi-finals at nine events this season, highlighted by a victory over six-time champion Novak Djokovic en route to the Australian Open semi-finals. 8) One Year Later: Wu Yibing of China made his ATP World Tour debut at the 2017 Chengdu Open after sweeping the US Open boys’ singles and Shanghai, CHN Challenger titles. Still only 18 years old, Wu returns to Chengdu after breaking into the Top 300 of the ATP Rankings on 10 September. 9) Same Story: World No. 1 junior Tseng Chun Hsin will make his ATP World Tour debut this week. The 17-year-old from Chinese Taipei went 21-2 at the junior Grand Slams with titles at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Tseng was the Australian Open runner-up and a US Open semi-finalist. 10) Croatia United: Ivan Dodig and Mate Pavic had not played together all season before falling in a fifth-set tiebreaker during the Davis Cup semi-finals on 15 September. Despite that loss, Croatia advanced to November’s final against France. Dodig and Pavic will team up again in Chengdu. Information accurate as of Friday, 21 September at 12 pm ET. For the latest stats, facts and figures about the ATP World Tour, follow @ATPMediaInfo on Twitter. .