The ATP Astana takes place this week with Rainer Schuettler the top seed to take the $50,000 price fund.
Schuettler is a former world number five and Aussie Open finalist and it's a surprise to many to still see him competing on the tour at the age of 35.
He's been competing a few times on the main tour this year, winning a round at Wimbledon but he's been unable to maintain his place in the top 100.
Consistency is a problem for the German these days but he's made the final of a couple of hard court challengers this year and given this field is fairly weak, he could be a strong contender in Astana.
One of his closest challengers could be French eighth seed Fabrice Martin. The serve-volleyers won the Recanti title last month as a qualifier and beat Schuettler a week later in Spain. They are seeded to meet in the quarters.
Second seed is former Russian Davis Cup player Teymuraz Gabashvili but he's had little to write home about this season and reportedly injured himself competing at the University Games in China last week and it's unclear how fit he will be.
As for the other seeds, Konstantin Kravchuk has been competing in the Far East for several weeks, reaching a semi-final in Uzbekistan a few days ago and his draw is fairly open
There's few home players for the locals to cheer this time unlike at the first Astana Challenger in July, just a handful of wildcards who have no real chance of winning a round.
Unfortunately Andrey Golubev and Mikhail Kukushkin are both in the States preparing for the US Open.
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