With Wimbledon looming, Eastbourne action races into the quarterfinals on Thursday. Americans Sam Querrey and Taylor Fritz are both taking the court, set for respective showdowns against Fernando Verdasco and Hubert Hurkacz.
(5) Fernando Verdasco vs. Sam Querrey
Verdasco and Querrey will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers and for the first time in more than four years when they battle for a semifinal spot at the Nature Valley International on Thursday. Querrey leads the head-to-head series 4-1, having won four in a row at Verdasco’s expense since losing their first-ever encounter at the 2009 New Haven event. The American’s first three victories came on clay before he prevailed 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 on the red clay of Houston in 2015.
Querrey had won multiple matches at only two 2019 tournaments (New York and Houston) prior to this week, but grass unsurprisingly looks like just what the doctor ordered. The world No. 79, who reached the Wimbledon semis in 2017, has advanced with straight-set defeats of Mikhail Kukushkin and Dusan Lajovic. Verdasco, on the other hand, has done it the hard way. The 36th-ranked Spaniard scraped past John Millman 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-1 and Juan Ignacio Londero 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-6(2). Querrey has always been a superior grass-court player and nothing appears to be any different in Eastbourne.
Pick: Querrey in 2
[polldaddy poll=10351229]
Taylor Fritz vs. Hubert Hurkacz
Hurkacz is one year older than Fritz at 22 but has not been on the scene for anywhere near as long. The 6’5” Pole started to make a name for himself in 2018 and he is enjoying a true breakout on tour this season. Hurkacz upset Kei Nishikori in back-to-back events in Dubai and Miami, making a run to the quarterfinals of both tournaments. The world No. 52 also reached third rounds of Masters 1000 tournaments in Miami and Madrid. He now finds himself in another quarterfinal thanks to Eastbourne wins over Marco Cecchinato and Steve Johnson.
Fritz, who will be facing Hurkacz for the first time, rolled over qualifier Paul Jubb and then ousted top-seeded Guido Pella 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 on Wednesday. The 42nd-ranked American fared well on clay but had been a mere 1-2 in three grass-court matches prior to this week. Hurkacz can showcase a slightly more powerful game that should work better on grass; plus, he has been the better player so far in Eastbourne.
Pick: Hurkacz in 2
[polldaddy poll=10351231]
WWW?
Rafa is seeded 3 at Wimby and he is nit happy! I knew that would happen, but Wimby really needs to review that formula. Rafa was in semis last year and has so many raking points ahead of Roger, how is he still 3?!
More like the French Open needs to review not having a seeding formula in place… Appreciate Rafa is currently World No 2 but surely can promote to No 1 seed for Roland Garros where he’s now won 12 times (and counting). Similar for Roger… won Wimby 8 times, so wouldn’t find it great injustice promoting him 1 seeding spot (+ formula is objective).
1) There is no practical difference between the #1 and #2 seeds.
2) Not gonna happen. There’s a lot of clay court tournaments. The problem with grass is that there’s so few tournaments where grass “specialists” can gain ranking points. But I don’t think Wimbledon’s seeding formula is working as intended. Most grass specialists do well on other surfaces too. The few who don’t, like Dustin Brown, Nicolas Mahut and Feli Lopez don’t have high enough ranking for the boosts they get to do them much good. It’s idiotic to think that Federer or any high level player needs “help” at Wimbledon. Kevin Anderson is the one who received the biggest boost – to #4. He hasn’t looked good at all this year. Anyone want to be that he’ll “justify” his seed by making it to the semis or even the quarters?
Fair number of commentators & writers believe its time to scrap Wimbly’s “special” grass seedings. Won’t happen this year, of course.
Well this will just make things very interesting bcos there might be more upsets than we would like! We might be surprised to c who goes out in the early rounds!
Anyway, im just hoping Rafa wins to prove a point!
Wimby with roofgate last year, now seedingsgate, sigh!!!
Vco in 3; Fritz in 2.
Will be interesting if Thiem (being kicked out of his no.4 position by Wimbledon) ends up in Anderson’s quarter and he instead of Anderson getting to the SF! May not happen of course but Anderson making the SF looks quite unlikely this time.
Yeah agreed Roger has a higher pedigree on grass and deserves the bump up but in 2013 Rafa was seeded 3 behind Novak and Roger having won almost everything on clay in 2013 and 2012. It resulted in a Novak Rafa clash in the semi.
Hurkacz is such a pigeon footed loser lol. Always finding a way to lose.