
It’s quarter finals day on the ATP Tour at Queens and Halle and yesterday at Queens they managed to complete all the rain delayed matches which meant top seed Tsitsipas, eighth seed Auger Aliasimme and the unseeded Kyrgios had to play two matches. Tsitsipas completed his interrupted match from Wednesday against British number one Edmunds winning 6-3 7-5 and later in the day just scraped past the unseeded French veteran Chardy 4-6 7-6 7-6. Auger Aliasimme also impressed winning two matches in one day, first against former top ten star and 2014 Queens winner Dimitrov 6-4 6-4 and then the last match of the day against Aussie Kyrgios in an epic three set battle 6-7 7-6 7-5.
There were also a few upsets yesterday at Queens and defending champion and fifth seed Cilics’ disappointing season continued crashing out in straight sets against the unseeded Schwartzman from Argentina. Second seed Anderson lost against the unseeded veteran Simon from France and seventh seed Wawrinka lost the battle of the veterans against French grass serve and volley specialist Mahut from a set up 3-6 7-5 7-6.
Today’s quarter finals matches at Queens might not involve any of the games greats like Federer, Nadal or Djokovic but there’s a good mix of proven veterans like 2017 winner and Wild Card Lopez who faces sixth seed Raonic (advised 11/1) for the eighth time and Lopez leads the head-to-head 4-3 and this will be there first encounter on grass. There’s also an all French affair between veterans Simon and qualifier Mahut and this will be there ninth encounter and Simon leads the head-to-head 6-2 but this is their first match on grass which could hand the advantage to Mahut who has been a prolific winner on grass throughout his long career and his four ATP Tour titles were all on grass.
The other two Queens quarter finals involve four younger stars of the ATP Tour. Top seed Tsitsipas from Greece aged 20 faces eighth seed teenager Auger Aliasimme from Canada for the second time and the Canadian won their only encounter back in March at Indian Wells in straight sets. The other match is between fourth seed Medvedev and the unseeded Schwartzman who are meeting for the second time and Medvedev won the first encounter in Tokyo back in 2018.
Over in Germany at Halle top seed and nine-time Halle champion Federer is still on track to win an unprecedented tenth title but he came close to losing yesterday just scraping past fellow veteran and Wild Card Tsonga in an epic three set battle 7-6 4-6 7-5. Federer should have an easier match today against seventh seed Bautista Agut as he’s never lost to the Spaniard winning eight in a row including their only match on grass at Wimbledon back in 2015 in straight sets.
Second seed and 2017 finalist Alexander Zverev is the favourite against the unseeded Belgian Goffin (advised 28/1) today and the German number one leads the head-to-head 2-1 and this is their first meeting on grass, which should favour the German as its on home soil and on his day he has one of the best serves on tour. Third seed Khachanov’s tournament could come to an end today against the unseeded in form Italian Berrettini as the Italian leads the head-to-head 2-0 with both wins coming this year at Sofia on indoor hard courts in three sets and more significant his straight sets win at Stuttgart on grass last week.
Finally, defending champion and fourth seed Coric (advised 22/1) faces a potentially tough battle today against French doubles specialist Herbert as the head-to-head stands at 2-2. Herbert won their only encounter on grass at Wimbledon in the qualifiers 7-6 6-1 back in 2014 but Coric won the last two more recent encounters both on clay in straight sets at the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 Series this year and at the Madrid Masters 1000 Series back in 2017.