A blockbuster final in Halle will pit Roger Federer against Alexander Zverev on Sunday afternoon. At Queen’s Club, meanwhile, the winner’s trophy is coming down to a showdown between Marin Cilic and Feliciano Lopez.
Halle: (1) Roger Federer vs. (4) Alexander Zverev
Federer will contest his 11th Gerry Weber Open final and will be seeking his ninth title at this event when he takes the court for Sunday’s enticing final against Zverev. The 35-year-old Swiss is 55-6 lifetime in Halle, where he first triumphed in 2003 but had not reached the championship round since 2015 before beating Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-6(5) on Saturday. Federer, who preceded that result by taking care of Yuichi Sugita, Mischa Zverev, and Florian Mayer in straight sets, is also 23-2 this season.
This marks the third career meeting between Federer and Zverev, with the head-to-head series tied up at one win apiece. Federer got the job done 6-3, 7-5 last spring in Rome before Zverev scored a 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-3 upset in the semifinals of this same Halle tournament. The 20-year-old German is up to No. 12 in the world thanks in part to capturing the biggest title of his career in Rome just a few weeks ago. Maintaining his fine form despite a relative disadvantageous surface change to grass, Zverev advanced to the final by defeating Paolo Lorenzi, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Roberto Bautista Agut, and Richard Gasquet. The fourth seed is playing well, but Federer is 100 percent, well-rested, and should be able to exact revenge for last year’s setback.
Pick: Federer in 2
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Queen’s Club: (4) Marin Cilic vs. Feliciano Lopez
Cilic and Lopez will be squaring off for the eighth time in their careers and for the second time this month when they meet again on Sunday in the final of the AEGON Championships. The head-to-head series stands at 5-2 in favor of Cilic, who just recently thrashed Lopez 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 in round three of the French Open. With that the seventh-ranked Croat extended his winning streak against the Spaniard to four straight matches dating back to 2013. This stretch includes two Queen’s Club victories (4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 in the 2013 second round and 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in last year’s opening round).
Cilic’s 2017 has been somewhat of a roller-coaster, with a whole host of bad losses but also a title on the red clay of Istanbul. So far at Queen’s Club, the 2012 champion has taken out John Isner, Stefan Kozlov, Donald Young, and ‘s-Hertogenbosch winner Gilles Muller, dropping only one set to Muller in the process. Lopez booked his spot in the final by beating No. 2 seed Stan Wawrinka, Jeremy Chardy, Tomas Berdych, and Grigor Dimitrov. The 35-year-old’s lone straight-set success came at Chardy’s expense in round two. Grass is a good surface for both veterans and Lopez’s prowess on the green stuff may not be quite enough to overcome what is sure to be some fatigue in addition to his disastrous recent history against Cilic.
Pick: Cilic in 3
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NNY Nor me either, on another forum i wont mention they have though lol 😉
Alison,
Now let me just guess what the forum could be! Hmmm….
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Really? Alison, I do need to go over there and congratulate Margot on winning both WTA brackets brilliantly this week. I have to do it, though.
When do you go on vacation – I thought you and MA were off celebrating 🙂
I don’t dare write what I thought of the Halle final lol…
Lopez dominating this TB up 5-1.
Set points for Feli.
Sascha is also in the doubles final with his brother and I’m sure they want to win it together but it’s vs Kubot and Mello, so…
I watched the Federer vs Sascha match but it was nauseating hearing Carillo and Gimmelstob praising the perfection and brilliance of Federer. I suppose if you hadn’t watch tennis all week you could give the one-sided praise. For me it was more like Fed shooting fish in a barrel. Sascha had nothing left — he already left what he had on the court in beating RBA and Gasquet. It’s hard to assess how good Federer is when he kicked around a piece of burnt toast as an opponent.
It doesn’t bode well for Sascha’s level in best of five coming up at Wimbledon though. He’s still a work in progress especially on grass.
end of Rant.
rc,
I liked reading your rant! Now I am kind of glad I missed it if I had to sit through another love fest from Mary Carrillo over Fed. It gets embarrassing at times with her. The bias is do blatant, the hero worship so over the top.
I agree with you about Sascha not having anything left after those two matches with RBA and Gasquet. I think fitness is one of the issues for him. He’s still so young and lanky and needs to get some more conditioning and muscle. I had a feeling that Fed would be ready this time after losing to him last year.
Maybe I won’t watch the replay if I hdvrcto listen to Carillo drool all over Fed for the umpteenrh time.
Nny,
No, I don’t recommend Halle final, unless your Fed Love is such that you are blind and can’t recognize what a huge step forward it was for 20 year old Sascha to beat both RBA and Gasquet on grass this week. Federer has a very weak opponent.
But a win is a win. It should be good for Fed’s confidence to have put on a show like that and won his 9th Halle.
Yeah…winning a GS is still a couple years away from Sascha. He needs to get stronger, definitely.
Khachanov is so powerful and fit already at 20 that he could do back to back five set matches. Not enough skill on grass though. Could see him go deep at US Open or AO.
rc,
No I am not all about the Fed love! That’s for sure! So I guess I will skip it. Sascha will get there.
Khachanov impressed me quite a bit. That’s the first time I have seen a complete match with him. He is very strong and powerful. It’s raw and not refined at this point. But if he can continue to work on his skills, then he could make some noise.
Nny,
Those Spanish coaches have had him for at least a year in Barcelona making him work…it has to help. And now they have his buddy Rublev. Thank god someone’s helping the next gen’s.
rc,
Good to know that bit of info! He’s got such potential and needs the right people around him to help him realize it!
Or if you want to watch a magnificent display of tennis by Roger, especially some amazing drop shots! It is unfortunate that Zverev didn’t play well, but Roger had a lot to do with that.
I thought the commentator on the match I watched was Virginia Wade, definitely not Mary Carillo. She was pretty effusive with her praise for Fed as well, though I didn’t think it was OTT.
RC, I agree to some extent about Fed ‘kicked around a piece of burnt toast’. I think if Zverev could play like Khachanov did in the SF, the final would be more competitive.
I rate Zverev higher than Khachanov on grass (Khachanov didn’t even play much on grass prior to Halle!), so its disappointing the way Zverev played in the final, though Fed did play much better in the final.
Yes Lucky, it’s too bad they couldn’t have “subbed” in Rublev or Khachanov in place of Sascha. Yes Zverev is better on grass than Khachanov. But I like Pouille on grass right now. He won Stuttgart. He’s pretty dang strong but he’s a couple years older than the others.
RC, Pouille is rather inconsistent, when you expect something big from him, he disappoints. He can win the 250s and then loses early at the slams.
Again, Lucky, I think if it were Rafa playing you would recognize how much of Zverev’s performance was his opponent making things very difficult for him. If Zverev had played well on clay against Rafa earlier this season the result would have been competitive as well…but he didn’t.
In both cases, it’s a mixture of the underdog playing poorly (by his own standards) and his opponent not letting him play his game.
Er… I never said A Zverev played well vs Rafa at MC; just like what I said about Zverev here, and that’s the problem with Zverev.
Zverev is 20 years old. He’s won a masters title, made some important finals. He’s entitled to be inconsistent. My point was simply that we should be consistent in recognizing the extent to which his poor play is partly explained by great play by Federer and Nadal.
Joe, if Zverev came out all guns blazing like in that Rome final, you think Fedal would have their way as easily as what they had done? Zverev would make it more competitive even though he won’t beat them.
I’ll bet that the next time Fedal play against Zverev, it will not be that straight forward.
Again, I think we agree. The only thing we disagree on, it seems, is that you don’t recognize that Federer raised his level significantly in the final against Zverev, compared to how he played earlier at Halle.
RC, the Zverev brothers lost the doubles final.
Yep. Lost the dubs too. Next year the Zverev Bros. take Halle!
Pouille can go deep in Wimbledon. Now, go ahead a laugh at me 😀
Where’s Hawk?
Feli wins the second set! It’s going the distance!
It occurrs to me that Feli is not in his prime anymore. What is he, 34,now? Where is this tennis coming from? I know he’s got the game for grass with his serve, but he hasn’t done much lately. The draw did open up but he helped it happen.
He has certainly done well to take it the distance. The crowd deserves a good quality final after the top seeds were knocked out.
He’s 35…turns 36 in late summer early fall. He has a bionic left arm, wrist, hand.
rc,
Thanks for the info! So he’s older than I thought. He’s Fed’s age then.
Maybe he does have bionic parts! He seems to have turned the clock back here.
Nny,
I feel a bit embarrassed to know so much unnecessary details, especially about not even the most famous tennis Players! 😀
rc,
No, it’s s good thing! That’s how I learn and stay informed! Benny is a virtual encyclopedia when it comes to many of the lower ranked players. He really knows so much about them and it helps me when he gives his thoughts.
Cilic’s ROS really needs improvement! He’s poor in reading where his opponent is serving to. He’s still mentally not that strong, got rattled by Muller’s great serving yesterday; it looks like he’s feeling the same today against Feli’s great serving.
I was going to say that Cilic seemed to lose some mental focus and concentration in that TB. That’s a weakness that I see in him at times. Feli played well in the TB, but Cilic seemed to go walkabout.
Let’s see if he can get it together in the third set.
RC Yeah i agree nothing against Federer but the commies go on and on about him like hes some god to be worshipped, the fawning Virginia Wade, Sue Barker, Annabelle Croft, and this week watching Queens a tournament hes not even playing, they cant seem to resist bringing up his name ad nauseum, end of my rant lol ….
RC A piece of burnt toast for an opponent, im nearly peeing myself laughing at that one HA HA 🙂
hahahha that’s how I saw him kicking a piece of burnt toast through the posts and shouting GOALLLLLL!
A piece of burnt toast! Now there is a colorful metaphor!
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RC Im like NNY i love your rants, you have this knack of telling it like it is in an elequont way, although im relieved im never on the recieving end 🙂 ….
Wow, this would be an impressive title for Feli if he wins. I would certainly be happy for him because he has had such a dismal record in finals, so ending his career with a Queens Club title would be awesome for him.
Is Feli going to retire?
This third set has been quite the battle. If Feli is near the end of his career, then this is the way to go out! He’s certainly giving it his all.
Should have included bionic left shoulder too. Poor Feli if he is to lose! I don’t see him in the Eastbourne draw. Terrible to be a finalist again. He has to WIN here! Muller isn’t in Eastbourne either. It’s a pretty tame draw in Eastbourne. And Antolya, the new 250 this week — Thiem the #1 seed. When I confirmed the courts were grass, I was stunned. The draw screamed Clay!
Cilic is a fighter tho at times like this….
It’s going to be decided in a third set TB!
Way to end a final!
Nativenewyorker,
I don’t who your favorite player is in ATP, is it R. Nadal?
The TB getting very exciting now! Cilic please take this MP!
Oh no, 6-6 now. Unbelievable tennis by both!
This is unreal!
Feli did it!
Well congrats to Feli. Too bad for Cilic!
Beautiful! Well done Feli………..
Still, rather him than Cilic in Rafa’s half of the Wimby draw though………..
Very happy for Feli. Vamos!
Feel bad for Marin.
Cilic isn’t in the Eastbourne or (Antolya lol) one.
There’s always Boodles this week.
RC, Cilic is good enough on grass now, no need any exho matches. He should rest now and gets ready for Wimbledon.
Gracious speech by Cilic! Yeah, he’s right it’s a high quality match ( unlike that Halle final!).
YAY Well done Feli, i for one do not feel for Cilic ….
And I’m one who dislike Feli! Never like Feli, not ever! Any Spaniard who prefers Fed over Rafa will never get my respect!
I assume you meant to say “Feli over Rafa”? 🙂
Kevin read again, I said any Spaniard who prefers Fed over Rafa, isn’t Feli a Spaniard? I thought I made myself clear??
I’m a pretty big Cilic fan so I’m pretty sad but nice to see Lopez take a title again with that nice grass court game of his. Great final.
Benny, Feli said he longed for this title, he’s being playing here for fifteen years and waiting so long for this title!
Cilic will have his chances next time. Cilic has a big game but he needs to find a way to return the lefty big serves! I think he’ll have problem facing Rafa, a lefty. Perhaps he has better chances vs a righty Fed? After all he’s not afraid of Fed, after beating him at the USO.
I think Cilic has more problem vs Djoko and then Rafa. He has beaten Murray a few times.
Mind you if i was a betting woman, id still bet on Cilic to go furthur at SW19 than i would Feli ….
Yeah, I agree. Cilic will go further than Feli at Wimbledon. Will be nice to see Fed vs Feli at Wimbledon this year, Feli has never beaten Fed, too much respect for him, even when he came so close one year, at Madrid if I’m not wrong.
Same here. Feli could make QF though. But Cilic could go as far as the final imo and who knows what happens or if he gets there.