Roger Federer will take on familiar foe Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for a spot in the Halle quarterfinals on Thursday. Each of the top two seeds is in action, in fact, as No. 2 Alexander Zverev continues his campaign against Steve Johnson.
(1) Roger Federer vs. (WC) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
This will be the 18th career meeting between veterans Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Federer holds a commanding lead in the head-to-head, with 11 wins to Tsonga’s six, but the Frenchman has won their last two encounters–the most recent of of which came in 2016. Unfortunately for Tsonga, his ranking has slipped to No. 77 in the world largely due to his ongoing battle with knee injury and a long and sometimes slow process of recovery.
Federer has had an impressive resurgence. The Swiss is without a Grand Slam title since he won the Australian Open last January, but he’s still had a good season so far. He won the Masters 1000 event in Miami and made the semis at the French Open in his first appearance at the event since 2015. He comes into the Halle tournament as one of the favorites for the title, as he continues to be a force on grass even into the twilight of his career.
Cheryl pick: Federer in 3
Ricky pick: Federer in 2
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(2) Alexander Zverev vs. Steve Johnson
Alexander Zverev will take on American Steve Johnson for just the second time. Their only other meeting came on the hard courts of Miami. Johnson won that encounter in two tiebreak sets. This is a different Zverev than the one Johnson played back then; he was a teenager ranked in the fifties and playing on Johnson’s home turf. This time around, they’re in Germany and Zverev is the fifth-ranked player in the world.
Johnson produced a good win over Zverev’s countryman Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round, taking out the veteran 6-3, 6-3. Zverev also won in straight sets, but his opponent gave him a run for it in the second set. Halle’s second was down 2-5 before dispatching Haase 7-5. Sascha suffered a surprise opening match exit in Stuttgart last week, but he seems to have righted the ship for Halle–as long as he is close to 100 percent physically.
Cheryl pick: Zverev in 2
Ricky pick: Zverev in 2
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Zverev is injured.
probably
A lot of players when having knee injury taking long to recover, maybe any kind of injury, like Delpo’s wrist, Andy’s hip. They suffer and unable to comeback to their past after the injuries.
Only one player like Rafa knows how to manage knee injury repeatedly, recovers fast and come back to become world number 1.
A very unique phenomenon.
Rafa’s certainly one of a kind – it’s amazing he’s been able to manage his physical problems and remain at the top of tennis, but thankfully he hasn’t faced major surgeries such as Delpo’s collection of woes (both wrists, total of 4 surgeries, plus knee surgery and now a 2nd knee surgery) or Andy’s bad back/hip. Hip surgery is usually the end of a top tennis career. Bob Bryan has come back in doubles, although at least one commentator felt that his movement is compromised, plus he’s 40 years old! Andy’s working on it – we’ll see.
Delpo HAS come back to his best several times, but unfortunately he keeps getting seriously injured again. Andy’s feeling very good after rehab from his last hip surgery. Wish him the best.