Kyrgios Withdraws, Isner Large, in Charge at Atlanta; ATP Preview

BB&T Atlanta Open
ATLANTA, Ga., USA; surface: hard
ADHEREL
Seeds: Jack Sock, John Isner, Gilles Muller, Ryan Harrison, Kyle Edmund, Donald Young, Chung Hyeon, Jared Donaldson

Floaters: Dudi Sela, Marcos Baghdatis, Ernesto Escobedo, (Q) Tim Smyczek, Bjorn Fratangelo, Vasek Pospisil

Notes: No Top 10 seeds, but an American onslaught for home fans with Sock and Isner leading the seeds, along with U.S. seeds Harrison, Young and Donaldson…Atlanta starts the US Open Series, the seven-week summer circuit leading to the US Open…

The Top 4 seeds receive opening-round byes…

Opening-round matches of interest include (1) Sock vs. the upset specialist and 2014 finalist Sela in a first-time meeting, (5) Edmund vs. the veteran and 2015 finalist Baghdatis, (8) Donaldson vs. Escobedo in an all-American encounter, (6) Young vs. (Q) Smyczek in another all-American, and (2) Isner vs. the Fratangelo-Pospisil winner…

Wildcards were awarded to Americans Christopher Eubanks, Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka, and receiving special exempts were the American Fratangelo and German Peter Gojowczyk…Qualifying to the main draw were France’s Quentin Halys and Americans Stefan Kozlov, Tommy Paul and Smyczek…

Withdrawing from the event were Kevin Anderson, Dan Evans, defending champion Nick Kyrgios, Adrian Mannarino, Bernard Tomic and Mischa Zverev…

Last year Kyrgios beat Isner in the two-tiebreak final, ending Isner’s three-year winning streak in Atlanta and a six-year American win streak…

Isner (2015-13) is the lone former champ in the field, and has appeared in the Atlanta final in six of its seven years since its debut in 2010.