Roger Federer took out one German hopeful in the Halle second round and he will be looking to do the same during quarterfinal action on Friday. Federer is facing Florida Mayer, while Alexander Zverev and Roberto Bautista Agut are also on the schedule.
(1) Roger Federer vs. Floridan Mayer
After this quarterfinal showdown at the Gerry Weber Open on Friday, exactly half (four of eight) of the lifetime meetings between Federer and Mayer will have come in Halle. This also marks their sixth collision in Germany, as the two veterans have also squared off in Hamburg (2013) and Stuttgart (2016). Federer is sweeping the head-to-head series 7-0, including 4-0 on grass and 15-1 in total sets. Mayer managed to be competitive on the slick stuff of Stuttgart last season, when he fell to Federer in a pair of tiebreakers 7-6(2), 7-6(1).
The defending Halle champion, Mayer saw his points from that title fly off the board on Monday and with that he plummeted 83 spots to No. 134 in the rankings. The 33-year-old was a horrendous 2-11 for his 2017 campaign prior to this week, but he punched a ticket to the quarterfinals with victories over Benoit Paire and recent Stuttgart winner Lucas Pouille. Federer is recovering nicely from a surprising Stuttgart setback at the hands of Tommy Haas, as the 35-year-old Swiss has so far cruised past Yuichi Sugita and Mischa Zverev. He is 21-2 this season and 56-6 lifetime in Halle. All signs point in another routine win for Federer at Mayer’s expense.
Pick: Federer in 2 with no tiebreakers
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(7) Roberto Bautista Agut vs. (4) Alexander Zverev
Zverev and Bautista Agut will be facing each other for the fourth time in their careers and for the second time this year. Having previously been 0-2 in the head-to-head series, Zverev recently scored a 7-5, 7-5 victory on the clay courts of Munich. The 20-year-old German went on to lift the trophy at that tournament for the third ATP title of his career. He later triumphed in Rome before suffering a first-round exit at the French Open to Fernando Verdasco. Perhaps not quite as comfortable on the lawn, Zverev has done well to advance this week with straight-set routs of Paolo Lorenzi and Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Like the world No. 12, Bautista Agut is an all-court player who may be most comfortable on hard–followed by clay and then grass. The 19th-ranked Spaniard has been in fine form throughout 2017 on all surfaces, and so far in Halle he has taken out Carlos Berlocq and Dustin Brown in three sets (the latter in a final-set tiebreaker). Things have not been easy for Bautista Agut, and they will only get tougher on German soil with Zverev on the other side of the net.
Pick: Zverev in 2
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