Defending champion Tomas Berdych will take a wildcard into the If Stockholm Open after he forgot to register himself into the event on time. He used the wildcard as it was the only opportunity to get him into the field to give him a chance to defend his title. The Czech number is one of three players to receive a wildcard, joining teen sensation Elias Ymer and soon to be retired Jarkko Nieminen.
Ymer and Nieminen finish out the wildcards
Due to his ranking, Ymer was not able to earn direct entry into the tournament. The Swede is currently ranked 119 in the world and is the highest ranked Swede. The teen is trying to work his way into the top 100 and in the near future, get into the top 10 trying become Sweden’s highest ranked male since Robin Soderling, who reached a career-high ranking of four and is the tournament director in Stockholm.
Nieminen is set to retire at on November 9th where he’ll face Roger Federer in Helsinki. With no ATP tournament being held in Finland, Stockholm is the closest event that the former world number 13 could call “home”. Just like Ymer, his ranking is far too low to get a direct entry into the tournament but with retirement looming, one last go at a tournament where he was a three-time runner-up is the proper sendoff for him.
Crucial 250 points on the line
As the season comes closer and closer to finishing, the battle for London will vastly heaten up. Stockholm marks the opening week of the European indoor swing with the Shanghai Masters being played the week before which marks the end of the Asian swing. As it stands, Berdych is 700 points away from clinching a spot at the O2 once again.
Richard Gasquet, who had to pull out of Kuala Lumpur this past week, is falling off the pace as the man who currently sits in eighth, David Ferrer, just won the event in the Malaysian capital to strongly put himself in fantastic position to clinch that final spot as he leads the Frenchman by 945 points. Gasquet is currently scheduled to play in Stockholm.