Fritz, Struff and Tsitsipas headline BOSS OPEN Thursday

On Thursday, the BOSS OPEN at Stuttgart's Weissenhof will have lots of star power on display. The first match will start at 11 am with Chinese Yibing Wu and Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics. After that, the round of 16 matches of Taylor Fritz, Jan-Lennard Struff and Stefanos Tsitsipas are scheduled.

Taylor Fritz, who like Stefanos Tsitsipas had a bye in the first round, will meet Aslan Karatsev in the round of 16, who had prevailed in a marathon match lasting more than three hours against Frenchman Corentin Moutet in three sets in the first round. "I play well on grass, this surface suits my game. I have to serve well, of course. Because everyone who serves well has chances here. Sometimes it comes down to very few points," Fritz knows.

Not before 3 pm Jan-Lennard Struff will try to build on his strong performance in Tuesday's 6-1, 6-4 win over China's Zhizhen Zhang against Tommy Paul. US number five seed Paul started the BOSS OPEN with an equally commanding 6-3, 6-4 win over Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi. The Warsteiner is aiming for his first win at his home tournament at the Weissenhof in his fifth encounter with Paul.

The final highlight on Thursday will be the match between top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece and the experienced Frenchman Richard Gasquet at 5 pm. Their head-to-head is tied at 1-1, with Gasquet winning the only match on grass so far in 2018 in Hertogenbosch (NED) twice in a tiebreak.