Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will be playing for grass-court titles on Sunday. Federer is facing Borna Coric in Halle, while Djokovic has a Queen’s Club showdown with Marin Cilic on his hands.
Gerry Weber Open: (1) Roger Federer vs. Borna Coric
Federer and Coric will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers when they battle for the Halle title on Sunday. Both of their previous encounters have gone Federer’s way; 6-2, 6-1 three years ago in Dubai and 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 earlier this season in Indian Wells. The latter event was a struggle for Federer at various points and it ended with a loss in the final (to Juan Martin Del Potro). Now Coric must hope for a similar story in Halle, where the 36-year-old Swiss has been far from his best en route to the championship match. Federer has advanced by beating Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4, Benoit Paire 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7), Matthew Ebden 7-6(2), 7-5, and Denis Kudla 7-6(1), 7-5.
Coric booked his spot in the final with straight-set victories over Alexander Zverev, Nikoloz Basilashvili, and Andreas Seppi before getting a retirement from Roberto Bautista Agut on Saturday. This has come just about out of nowhere for the 34th-ranked Croat, who cooled off on clay following respective semifinal/quarterfinal showings in Indian Wells/Miami and had been a dreadful 2-9 lifetime on grass (qualifying matches included) prior to this week. Federer, on the other hand, is 63-3 for his Halle career (56-3 in his last 59 matches) and has won it nine times to go along with his eight Wimbledon titles and plenty of other grass-court accolades. This is an obvious mismatch, although based on their form this week Coric will probably be able to test Federer in two competitive sets.
Pick: Federer in 2 losing 8-10 games
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Fever-Tree Championships: (1) Marin Cilic vs. (WC) Novak Djokovic
Cilic and Djokovic will be squaring off for the 16th time in their careers when they meet again in the Queen’s Club final on Sunday. One of the most lopsided head-to-head matchups in tennis has Djokovic leading the series 14-1, including 2-0 on grass (6-1, 3-6, 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-2 at Wimbledon in 2014 and 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 at Wimbledon one season later). But there is at least some good news for Cilic, in that he once trailed Djokovic 14-0 before finally upsetting the Serb in the most recent encounter at the 2016 Paris Masters via a 6-4, 7-6(2) decision.
Moreover, this is currently not the same Djokovic–even though the former world No. 1’s comeback is clearly picking up steam. Down at No. 22 in the world due to an elbow injury that has plagued his 2017 and 2018 campaigns, Djokovic recovered from disastrous showings in Indian Wells and Miami to reach the Rome semifinals and the French Open quarters. So far this week has taken out John Millman, Grigor Dimitrov, Adrian Mannarino, and Jeremy Chardy all in straight sets. The competition level now ratchets up in the form of Cilic, who finished runner-up to Federer at Wimbledon last summer. Always a force on the green stuff, the sixth-ranked Croat has advanced at Queen’s Club with victories over Fernando Verdasco, Gilles Muller, Sam Querrey, and Nick Kyrgios, surrendering just one set to Muller along the way. Cilic has navigated a rough draw in impressive fashion and should be battle-tested enough to handle an opponent who had faced only two top-10 players since the 2017 French Open and owned no top-10 wins since Rome last spring until beating Dimitrov earlier this week.
Pick: Cilic in 3
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