ATP Tips: Brits Norrie and Draper look strong in Stockholm and Antwerp

• Big week for Brits on ATP Tour
• Norrie out to impress again
• Draper aims to continue rise
• Berretini hard to beat in Naples

We have a fairly delayed start to the week, with qualifiers for this week's events only being concluded this afternoon, and Naples having a Tuesday start for the main draw - so with there only being a handful of matches in Stockholm and Antwerp, we haven't missed much so far, and benefit from knowing the identity of the qualifiers.

Strong servers thrive in Stockholm

In Stockholm, I anticipate conditions to be medium-paced for indoors (so still slightly quicker than average for hard courts), and generally strong servers have had the better of the last decade in the event with Tomas Berdych winning twice, and Juan Martin del Potro winning twice. In fact, of the winners of the tournament in the last decade only 2021 winner Tommy Paul, who returns to defend his title, isn't notably serve-oriented.

This is almost certainly going to be the dynamic in the clash between top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and the American big-server, Maxime Cressy, who was victorious in one of the early matches today. That win over Ilya Ivashka saw a tiebreak, and I wouldn't be shocked to see more in the match-up with Tsitsipas who looks an uneasy market favourite at around the 3.929/10 mark - he certainly won't enjoy a high variance match in his opener, which looks likely against Cressy.

Seeds look justified with Frances Tiafoe and Cam Norrie impressing in recent months, while the final seed Denis Shapovalov has reached the final twice in a row, winning in 2021. There are also some dangerous unseeded floaters in the draw, including the aforementioned Paul, plus Emil Ruusuvori, Alex De Minaur and Grigor Dimitrov (pictured below) the latter duo in particular do their best work in fairly quick conditions.

De Minaur and Shapovalov should really be fighting out quarter three, which would give the winner the right to face Norrie (if the event goes to seedings) in the semi-finals. Overall, the tournament looks pretty competitive and there are 10 or so contenders for the title - and I don't like Tsitsipas' price as market leader too much.

Draper out to continue rise in Antwerp

Moving on to proceedings in Antwerp, top seed Hubert Hurkacz faces a really tricky opener against the Brit Jack Draper, who thrashed fellow young prospect Jenson Brooksby on Monday. Draper is on a rapid upward curve, and is marching towards the seeding positions for January's Australian Open, a feat he should achieve if he can carry on picking up wins.

The winner of that match really should get through Q1 of the draw, while Karen Khachanov and Sebastian Korda will fancy their chances in Q2 which looks very weak indeed. Interestingly, Korda has a really decent record in quicker conditions both indoors and on grass, so could easily feature in the latter stages if he's not suffering from fatigue having made the final in Giron last week.

Felix should make final

Despite seeding positions, Hurkacz isn't the pre-tournament favourite, with that honour going to last week's Florence winner Felix Auger-Aliassime, who again is in a similar position to Korda in terms of reaching the final last week. However, Auger-Aliassime dropped just one set in four matches, and as top seed in Italy last week, only needed to play four matches

If Auger-Aliassime is in any way fit, he should make the final. Only Dan Evans is likely to come up with any real test in the bottom half of rate draw, which features two wild cards, two qualifiers and a lucky loser - sadly though, odds of around 4.57/2 on the Canadian don't overly enthuse at the time of writing.

Berrettini hard to beat in Naples

Finally, the event in Naples returned to tour last season after four years with a win for Tallon Griekspoor. The tournament has also moved from clay, so any historical venue data should be taken with a rather large pinch of salt.

Pablo Carreno-Busta is the top seed and should breeze past most in his bracket, although fifth seed Miomir Kecmanovic could well have plenty to say about that.

In his home event, Lorenzo Musetti (who must wish the tournament was played on clay these days) has a gift draw but has much to prove away from his preferred clay - but the way the draw is, I'd be very surprised if the main contenders in Q1 didn't beat Q2 winners to make the semi-final.

Roberto Bautista-Agut (above) headlines Q3, but has arguably the toughest bracket to get through, while home player and second seed - not to mention tournament favourite - Matteo Berrettini really should get the job done in Q4, although last week's shock loss to Roberto Carballes Baena in Florence hardly inspires confidence.

Overall though, there's not much to quibble with in the current market pricing, so we can use this week's action to help us in our preparation for the Paris Masters, the final remaining Masters event of the 2022 season - taking place in several weeks.