Two very different tournaments will take place this week as Wimbledon looms on the immediate horizon. The AEGON International in Eastbourne, which has been around since 1995, features Novak Djokovic as the top seed and is so deep–relative to most pre-major 250 events–that Richard Gasquet is all the way down to the No. 7 seed. As for the Antalya Open, it is in its first year of existence and the field is weak to the extent that Paolo Lorenzi is the second seed.
On the bright side for Antalya tournament directors, Dominic Thiem once again resisted the urge to take a break from tennis and is hoping to get his grass-court game in shape before he visits the All-England Club. The two-time French Open semifinalist is coming off a second-round loss in Halle to Robin Haase.
Thiem is joined in the field of 28 by Lorenzi, Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer, Viktor Troicki, and Martin Klizan, among others.
In Eastbourne, meanwhile, Djokovic and Gasquet will have to contend with the likes of Gael Monfils, John Isner, Steve Johnson, Sam Querrey, and Mischa Zverev. A tough top section of the bracket will pit Djokovic against the winner of a first-round showdown between Jiri Vesely and qualifier Vasek Pospisil, while Kyle Edmund is a potential quarterfinal opponent for the top-seeded Serb. Monfils and Isner have the opening byes in the other half, but they could be challenged by strong grass-court performers such as Zverev and Kevin Anderson.
AEGON International
Semifinal predictions: Steve Johnson over Novak Djokovic and Mischa Zverev over Kevin Anderson
Final: Zverev over Johnson
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Antalya Open
Semifinals: Viktor Troicki over David Ferrer and Adrian Mannarino over Andreas Seppi
Final: Mannarino over Troicki
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Joker over Isner
Novak over Gasquet in Eastbourne
Why isn’t Karen Khachanov available in the POLL!!! 😀 He’s my Anatolya pick.
Just doing my bracket at last minute.indecisipn as usual.
OK, I’ll go for Gasquet over Johnson.
Triicki iš just embarasment
Eastbourne –
QF:
Djokovic over Young
Mahut over Johnson
Gasquet over Isner
Zverev over Monfils
SF:
Djokovic over Mahut
Gasquet over Zverev
Final:
Djokovic over Gasquet
Antalya –
QF:
Thiem over Basilashvili
Sugita over Estrella Burgos
Verdasco over Mannarino
Seppi over Sousa
SF:
Thiem over Sugita
Verdasco over Seppi
Final:
Thiem over Verdasco
Boring with the winners but picking quite a few upsets throughout.
If Djokovic wins this, it’ll be scary how similar his 2017 would be to Rafa’s 2015.
Both would enter Wimbledon with two titles, both 250 level – Rafa in 2015 won Buenos Aires and Stuttgart, Djokovic in 2017 winning Doha and Eastbourne (if he wins, of course).
Plus their clay court seasons were literally identical.
Quarter final straight set loss at the French Open – Rafa to Djokovic, Djokovic to Thiem.
Best clay result, a Masters final – Nadal in Madrid, Djokovic in Rome.
Worst clay result, a Masters quarter – Nadal in Rome, Djokovic in Monte Carlo.
And both lost to each other in the semis of the other clay Masters – Nadal to Djokovic in Monte Carlo, Djokovic to Nadal in Madrid.
And yes, I am a geek 🙂
Clutch statistics
How’d Basilashvili get pummeled and Troicki lose to Berlocq on grass?
I’m kicking myself for not picking Baggy .With his experience on grass.
Troicki not done well lately.But should never lost to the dirtballer on grass.
I like the Big dag w/the big serve….and Thiem in Antalya.
Thiem is a joke. Probably most overrated tennis player
I have a feeling that this could be Djokovic’s come back tournament but he still needs more to win Wimbledon … http://www.138mph.com/novak-djokovic-struggling-to-get-some-matches-in-before-wimbledon/
Djokovic had problems with Donald young today aka tennis pot head. So how is djoker going to deal with better players?
didn’t look like too much of a problem to me
Betting against Djokovic for great odds tomorrow. This dude looks nothing like when he did before a year ago. Not only that I don’t think he is trying 100 percent. He did have problems today or else Novak wouldn’t have to take young to a tie breaker 7(11)/6(9). Young is a mid level player. If Djokovic was playing anyone better, he would of lost. I can see Nadal putting on the whoop ass on Djokovic on grass in joker’s current form. I hope I get to see a Fed vs Djokovic. Fed is going to abuse him, win another title, the announce his retirement after one more season/sail off into the sunset.
Every one in these small satalite tournaments look like crap. They are not trying 100 percent so it’s very hard to predict a real winner. Yes theim is a fking joke losing yesterday as a -1100. I suspect him, Bernard tomic, and Nick kyrgios are laughing about this because they told their friends to bet against thiem for a big pay day.
The Eastbourne final is looking more like a hardcourt match, it’s slow and with so many baseline rallies, not much excitement.
Congrats to Djoko for winning the Eastbourne title! Perhaps he’s steadily finding his form again?
Commies to Gael, he’s almost always the bridesmaid in such title matches, poor soul!