The 2019 ATP Tour tennis season is now well underway at the three tournaments being played this week over in Brisbane, Australia, Doha, UAE and Pune, India. Starting at Brisbane top seed Nadal chose to withdraw pre-tournament after suffering a thigh strain. Second seed and favourite Nishikori is still on course to make the final after reaching the semi-finals yesterday morning and he is the hot favourite to make the final as he has a 6-2 head-to-head record against his next opponent, Chardy from France, who is unseeded this week.

Third seed and British number one Edmunds will be disappointed after losing his first competitive match of the new season against little know qualifier Uchiyama from Japan and Andy Murray also made an early exit losing in the second round against the talented fourth seed Medvedev. Medvedev was due to play his semi-final match in the early hours of this morning against fifth seed Raonic, who he defeated last September in straight sets at Tokyo in impressive fashion.

The other quarter final due to be played in the early hours of this morning was between seventh seed and NextGen Aussie De Minaur and veteran Tsonga from France, this is the first time they have met and it will no doubt be a tough night for Tsonga having to face a home crowd as well as one of the top youngsters on the ATP Tour at present.

Over in India at Pune the tournament has reached the semi-final stage and top seed Anderson will face reigning champion and third seed Simon in a repeat of last year’s final. The other semi-final is between veteran Karlovic, who is unseeded and currently the oldest active player on tour aged 39, and he faces fellow veteran Darcis from Belgium who is also unseeded this week after he knocked out my one outright selection Jaziri on Thursday.

Finally, the action at Doha in the UAE is down to the semi-final stage and there were plenty of high profile upsets throughout the week, like second seed Thiem, third seed Khachanov and sixth seed Goffin who all crashed out in the first round. Top seed Djokovic is still standing but he’s had to do it the hard way so far this week coming from a set down in the first and second rounds. He will face seventh seed Bautista Agut in the semi-finals and Djokovic should progress to the final as he leads the head-to-head 7-1. The other semi-final is between fourth seed Cecchinato and Wild Card veteran Berdych. This is their first encounter and it should be a competitive and close match if both players continue their form so far this week.

Selections:

None