This week’s Tennis action across three tournament and continents has reached the business end and where now at finals stage at each tournament. At the AT5 500 Dubai it’s an APT Tour marketers dream as arguably the greatest player of all time, second seed and legend Feder will attempt to win an unpresented eighth title against one of the new up and coming NextGen stars of the game Aussie Open semi-finalist and fifth seed Tsitsipas, who will find I difficult to recover physically in time after r playing to epic back-to-back gruelling and epic games, especially the one against Monfils (advised 16/10 yesterday that ended 4-6 7-6 7-6
Federer has become accustomed at making light work of great opponents at the business end of tournaments and this it was the extremely talented Coric who was the victim going for an early early shower after being swept side. 6-2 6-1. Whoever wins the title tonight will continue the statistical trend of a seeded player no higher than three winning the last ten titles and a payer seeded no higher than seven reaching seven of the last ten finals.
At Acapulco there was bucket loads of excitement, drama, shocks and upsets all week and it was the week of the NextGen stars to dominate on this occasion as second seed Sascha Zverev bounced back to from after a mini-slump and the tournament organisers will be exhilarated about the final that’s transpired as arguably the hottest young star in the men’s game at present is going to face arguably the most talented but also most wasted talent of the current generation of NextGen stars Nick Kyrgios who unseeded this week.
In terms of reaching the final Zverev’s had on paper the easier path beating a qualifier, 37 year-old veteran and then received a buy against De Minaur (advised 20/1) before making light work of dispatching British number two Norrie in straight sets. The final should be a class as this will be there seventh meeting on the ATP Tour, th3 head-to-head stands at 3-3 all on hard courts and Zverev won the last two in 2018 at the Miami Masters and Davis Cup.
Rio has thrown up plenty of decent quality tennis but most of all plenty of shocks, surprises and upsets which is confirmed as there’s only one seed left at the semi-final stage, third seed Pella from Argentina after his compatriot and fourth seed veteran Mayer was knocked by little know Garin from Chile. Pellas pays the inform Serb Djere for a place in tomorrow’s final tonight and after following and advising Pella on numerous occasions he’ll will no doubt let the pressure get to him again and ultimately fall at the final hurdle again.
Djere will be no push over either as he was a bit of a late bloomer, the head-to-head stands at one win each that were both on clay over the last two seasons and with the added pressure of neither player winning a main ATP Tour title it’s bound to be a nervy, high pressure game probably not for the purest.
The other semi is contested by two of the rising NextGen clay stars of the future and Rudd from Norwegian, who has chosen the tough route of developing his career on the red dirt, and of Chilean Garin’s calling was always going to be the red dirt of his native continent. Rudd is a player I’ve had my eye on for a couple of seasons now and he is making steady progress up the ranking mainly all from clay court success and it won’t be long before he’ cracking the top-10. He’s made an impressive run to this stage not drop against Spanish NextGen star Munar and then more impressively beating veteran Mayer 4-6 6-4 6-4 from a set down. This will be there first ever competitive meeting and I think Rudd should take this one as I think he’s the better payer and will handle the pressure better on this occasion.
Don’t forget there’s no ATP Tour tennis stating Monday due to the traditional four day break before the first Masters 1000 Series gets underway at Indian Wells, USA. Thursday.
Selections:
Tournament:
Rudd Win @ 5/1
