Tennis

Its quarter finals day on the ATP Tour at Queens and Halle and at Halle new World number one and reigning nine time Halle champion Roger Federer is still on track to defend his title and he faces Aussie veteran Ebden today for the first time. Federer is on an eighteen match winning run on grass and should win this comfortably, but he can’t afford to underestimate Ebden as grass is his best surface and he’s won eight of his last ten matches on the surface.

Fourth seed Bautista Agut is the only other seed left in the draw and he faces one of my outright selections Khachanov (advised 28/1) today. The head-to-head stands at 1-1 and this is there first meeting on grass. Both players have reached this stage in great form winning their first two matches in straight sets and Khachanov’s 6-2 6-2 win against Nishikori was particularly impressive. If Khachanov can reproduce that level of performance again he has every chance of knocking out a second seeded player today.

The other two matches all involve unseeded players; Sugita from Japan faces qualifier Kudla from the USA and for the first time. NextGen star Coric faces veteran Seppi and Seppi won their only meeting at Wimbledon back in 2015 in five sets. There’s very little to separate Sugita and Kudla, they’ve both won eight of their last ten matches on grass, Sugita is the only one to win an ATP title on grass at Antalya last year and he was impressive beating third seed Thiem in the second round but Kudla was also impressive beating NextGen star Tsitsipas in straight sets in the second round.

The match between veteran Seppi and NextGen star Coric is also a tough one to call as both players are in decent form. Seppi edges it on grass form having won six of his last ten matches on the surface, compared to only four wins from ten for the less experienced Coric. However, Coric has impressed this week beating second seed Sascha Zverev and Basilashvili, who is a decent player ranked in the top-100, in straight sets.

At Queens there are only two seeds left standing, top-seed and 2017 finalist Cilic and fifth seed Querrey. The two face each other for a place in Saturday’s semi-finals and Cilic should progress as he’s never lost against Querrey before. Cilic won all five of their matches, four were on grass, three at Wimbledon and once at Queens, and all five matches would have landed the Match Win and Over Games lines double.

Reigning Champion veteran Lopez is through to the quarter finals courtesy of a walk-over from Raonic who is sadly injured again, and I personally hope its not serious as he’s been very unlucky so far in his career having one different injury after another. Lopez faces the in-form Kyrgios who navigated two tough three setters so far this week against British opposition, Murray and Edmunds. The head-to-head stands at 2-2 and Kyrgios won the last two, both on grass at Stuttgart in three sets last week and Wimbledon in four sets back in 2016, which is why he’s the clear favourite to win today.

s-Hertogenbosch finalist Chardy is in great form on grass at present and he has won eleven of his last twelve matches on the surface, which all came this year at Surbiton, s-Hertogenbosch and his two matches this week. He faces the talented NextGen star Tiafoe from America and he has impressed so far this week winning two tough matches against talented opponents Donaldson from the USA and veteran Leonardo Mayer who knocked out third seed Anderson. The head-to-head stands at 1-0 to Tiafoe who won a marathon three set encounter on clay on the Challenger Tour last year in France.

Djokovic who received a Wild Card this week has cruised through to the quarter finals beating Millman and fifth seed Dimitrov in straight sets. He faces Mannarino today, he leads the head-to-head 2-0 and both wins came at Wimbledon back in 2017 and 2016 in straight sets. I expect Djokovic to continue his good form so far this week again today, he should beat Mannarino comfortably and set up a potential quality encounter against the explosive Tiafoe on Saturday.

Selections:

Queens

Cilic to Win & Over 23.5 Games vs. Querrey (7/4 Skybet)

Kyrgios to Win & Over 23.5 Games vs. Lopez (2/1 Skybet)

Double above two (7.25/1)