- Chris Sobey
Tennis

This week’s ATP action at Stuttgart and 's-Hertogenbosch is now well underway and the top-seeds at both events will get their grass campaigns underway today and tomorrow. Stuttgart top-seed Federer plays this afternoon against fellow veteran and the oldest active player on the ATP Tour Tommy Haas aged 39. Federer leads the head-to-head 13-3 and 5-1 on grass however, he has not played since winning the Miami Masters in March and with Haas having the advantage of a competitive game under his belt this could be a closer match than the odds suggest.
Fourth seed Pouille gets his campaign underway this afternoon against home hope Struff and the head-to-head stands at 1-1. Struff has the advantage of a competitive game under his belt so he should be competitive at least and I would not be surprised if he caused the upset. Fifth seed Johnson (advised 20/1) plays for the second day in a row against home hope and 2016 finalist Kohlschreiber and this is the first time they have played on the ATP Tour. Kohlschreiber is the favourite to progress to the quarter finals today and Johnson will have his work cut out to cause the upset, but he is ranked higher than Kohlschreiber and he proved last year he’s a decent performer on grass winning Nottingham.
Second seed Dimitrov (1.3) gets his campaign underway tomorrow against Janowicz, who has the advantage of a competitive game under his belt, and it’s worth opposing the Bulgarian as he struggled to beat Janowicz at Sofia early this year indoors just scraping by 4-6 6-3 7-5. At 's-Hertogenbosch second seed Zverev gets his campaign underway today against Mannarino, who has the advantage of a competitive game under his belt, after winning his first round match in straight sets. Fourth seed and 2016 finalist Muller gets his campaign underway against Seppi today, who has the advantage of a competitive match under his belt after beating qualifier Ito on Monday.
The head-to-head stands at 3-3; Muller won the last two on hard courts in 2016 and this year at the Miami Masters and he should prove too strong on his favourite surface today. Finally, eighth seed Britain’s Aljaz Bedene will get a good chance to progress to the quarter-finals today as he faces American youngster Escobedo who he beat here last year in straight sets.