The 2026 Terra Wortmann Open draw has thrown up some intriguing early matchups, including a big-serving showdown between third seed Ben Shelton and Nick Kyrgios.
The 23-year-old Shelton is making his debut at the grass-court ATP 500 in Halle, and his first test will be a maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Kyrgios. The 31-year-old Kyrgios reached the semi-finals on his only previous Halle appearance in 2022, the same year he advanced to the Wimbledon final. On Tuesday the Australian defeated Corentin Moutet in Stuttgart, where he was playing his first ATP Tour event since January, before he fell in three sets to Sho Shimabukuro.
Shelton and Kyrgios have landed in the same half of the draw as top seed and home favourite Alexander Zverev, who will compete for the first time since he became Germany’s first Grand Slam champion in men’s singles since 1996 at Roland Garros. Zverev, a Halle finalist in 2017 and 2018, will open his latest title bid at Heristo-Arena against Vit Kopriva.
Should Zverev win that match, he will face his fellow German Yannick Hanfmann or #NextGenATP star Joao Fonseca. Fonseca, who reached his maiden major quarter-final on the Roland Garros clay earned his first three tour-level wins on grass in 2025, including two at Wimbledon.
Defending champion and seventh seed Alexander Bublik is also in the same quarter of the draw as Zverev, while fifth seed Taylor Fritz is a potential quarter-final opponent for Shelton and Kyrgios. Fritz begins his first Halle campaign since 2019 against Zizou Bergs.
In the bottom half of the draw, second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime starts against Nuno Borges, with Roland Garros finalist Flavio Cobolli among his potential quarter-final opponents. Cobolli faces a tough early test in Germany, however, where he has been drawn against three-time ATP Tour titlist Frances Tiafoe.
The eye-catching Halle first-round draw also includes a meeting between two-time finalist Andrey Rublev and 2022 champion Hubert Hurkacz. That tussle will take place in the same quarter of the draw as fourth seed Daniil Medvedev, who begins against Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
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