The grass-court season may be low on quantity, but it’s high on quality. With so little time to waste, players pretty much have to take the court at least once in June prior to the beginning of Wimbledon. And the best opportunities, of course, come this week with a pair of 500-point tournaments on the ATP schedule. Halle and Queen’s Club boast absolutely loaded fields, with the former headlined by Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner, and Nick Kyrgios, while the latter features Carlos Alcaraz and Andy Murray.
Here is a breakdown to go along with some picks for the two events.
Terra Wortmann Open
Where: Halle, Germany
Surface: Grass
Prize money: 2,195,175 Euros
Points: 500
Top seed: Daniil Medvedev
Defending champion: Hubert Hurkacz
Draw analysis: How good is the Halle field? Well, Kyrgios, Alexander Zverev, Alexander Bublik, Jan-Lennard Struff, Lorenzo Sonego, and Denis Shapovalov are not even seeded. Dominic Thiem, Yibing Wu, Brandon Nakashima, Ricard Gasquet, Nicolas Jarry, and Tallon Griekspoor are also part of the unseeded contingent. There are simply no easy outs in Halle this week.
The top half of the draw is especially difficult, as Medvedev vs. Zverev and Rublev vs. Hubert Hurkacz are potential quarterfinal contests. Although the bottom half looks interesting on paper, all kinds of players are question marks—such as Kyrgios, Thiem, Shapovalov, and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Everyone in that group is either injured or slumping…or both. Auger-Aliassime and Thiem are going head-to-head in round one, while Kyrgios is getting his week underway against Sonego. Guys like Kyrgios, Struff, and Bublik can get hot and take the racket out of opponents’ hands on grass, but Sinner looks to be the cream of the crop on that side of the bracket.
Hot: Jan-Lennard Struff, Nicolas Jarry, Lorenzo Sonego, Tallon Griekspoor, Yannick Hanfmann
Cold: Felix Auger-Aliassime, Roberto Bautista Agut, Denis Shapovalov, Dominic Thiem, Nick Kyrgios, Mikael Ymer, Oscar Otte
Quarterfinal predictions: Daniil Medvedev over Brandon Nakashima, Andrey Rublev over Hubert Hurkacz, Jannik Sinner over Jan-Lennard Struff, and Alexander Zverev over Nicolas Jarry
Semifinals: Rublev over Medvedev and Sinner over Zverev
Final: Sinner over Rublev
[yop_poll id=”323″]
Cinch Championships
Where: London, England
Surface: Grass
Prize money: 2,195,175 Euros
Points: 500
Top seed: Carlos Alcaraz
Defending champion: Matteo Berrettini
Draw analysis: Alcaraz will be making his 2023 grass-court debut at Queen’s Club, playing for the first time since physical problems plagued him in a Roland Garros semifinal loss to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. The draw is subject to change a bit with qualifiers—many of whom could be very dangerous—yet to be placed, but as it stands right now the top half of the draw may not be too tough for the 20-year-old Spaniard. He could face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in round two, Emil Ruusuvuori in the quarterfinals, and either Cameron Norrie over Frances Tiafoe in the semis.
The bottom half of the bracket is a bit more stacked with Murray, Holger Rune, Taylor Fritz, Alex de Minaur, Ugo Humbert, Maxime Cressy, and Ben Shelton. All of those guys are capable of doing serious damage on grass—and really on any surface. De Minaur vs. Murray is an especially intriguing first-round encounter, while Rune will kick off his campaign against Cressy. Fritz, who opens against Bernabe Zapata Miralles, is on a collision with either De Minaur or Murray for the quarterfinals.
Hot: Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Francisco Cerundolo, Jordan Thompson, Bernabe Zapata Miralles
Cold: Matteo Berrettini, Sebastian Korda, Milos Raonic, Diego Schwartzman, Maxime Cressy
Quarterfinal predictions: Carlos Alcaraz over Grigor Dimitrov, Cameron Norrie over Dan Evans, Andy Murray over Adrian Mannarino, and Ugo Humbert over Ben Shelton
Semifinals: Alcaraz over Norrie and Murray over Humbert
Final: Murray over Alcaraz
[yop_poll id=”322″]
WHO YA GOT?
It is bold picking, Ricky 😀
Going by the winners and finalists from last week…
Andy Murray, Francis Tiafoe, Tallon Griekspoor, Jordan Thompson, Francis Tiafoe, Struffy, and Hubie look good.
Happy for Tallon G. winning his home tournament!
Murray has no shot – still hasn’t proved he can bear anyone of consequence
Murray? I don’t think so. Sinner over Med and Carlos over Fritz
“Final: Murray over Alcaraz ”
Tell me you are joking?!
‘Hot’ players on clay maybe, but lets see how they do on low bouncing grass…
Its been very dry in London, so the grass will be fast, should suit people like Fritz and Berretini, who has done well in the past, but seems to be playing pants at the mo.
watch the thunderstorms all week now, and Queens turn into heavy, soggy clay court tennis!
Halle draw rearranged due to FAA withdrawal
Thanks Ricky, but he’s not been replaced in my bracket. That has happened to me before, maybe because I’m in the UK.
Most of the time, Margot (if you are talking about TDC), I have to look elsewhere for qualifiers, meaning a last-minute WTA PDF draw download. Withdrawals and their replacements, I’m lucky if the news reaches me and I make a guess. ATP is better at updates, in general.
I’ve always put it down to my time zone, lagging so far behind.
A different problem, but part of the game is what happened to the Nottingham WTA bracket. It was the first bracket in all my years of picking brackets that I have seen no one in our group pick the Winner, Finalist, or Semifinalts right. But…
Congrats to Cami for winning Nottingham 😀 — TDC had to pull names out of a hat on that one!
Congrats to Margot for correctly picking the Stuttgart bracket winner, Francis Tiafoe!
ATP Hertogenbosch bracket was much like the WTA Nottingham one, but TDC gave me credit for picking Tallon G. to the SF.
Better draws are in the works this week, and good luck to everyone!
Halle update:
A.Zverev vs.Thiem
Altmaier vs. RBC
https://www.oddsportal.com/tennis/germany/atp-halle/
RBA not rbc
Thank you. Had Thiem losing anyway, and RBA winning. So difficult on grass to see whose got form or not, especially in 5. Got Ons, c’mon, in one WTA bracket.
Hi Margot,
Did you try to place the qualifiers for WTA Birmingham?
I woke early to see if qualies were placed, but I had no luck.
Most of the time, I’m not worried about where the qualies go.
Finally, at 8 am my time, they are in. Not in time to place Xiyu Wang or make out who was in the qualie pair 😀
Your ATP picks for London 👍
This is the first place to update where qualies go in ATP or WTA draws. It makes sense bc they are the fastest at updating live rankings, etc.
https://live-tennis.eu/en/wta-singles-draws
ATP London = nostalgia, not alas reality. Happy to be wrong.
Murray to win LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
It wasn’t even a contest vs De Manure.
Can anyone explain why Andy is still playing, in order to win challengers and tarnish reputation of once great player?!