Second-round competition in Halle wraps up with a marquee matchup between top seed Jannik Sinner and Alexander Bublik. Flavio Cobolli and Denis Shapovalov are also aiming for a place in the quarterfinals.
(1) Jannik Sinner vs. Alexander Bublik
Sinner and Bublik will be doing battle for the second time at the Terra Wortmann Open and for the second time in three weeks when they clash in round two on Thursday afternoon. Sinner advanced to the 2023 Halle semis via retirement while leading 7-5, 2-0 and he extended his overall lead in this head-to-head series to 4-1 with a recent 6-1, 7-5, 6-0 victory in the quarterfinals of the French Open.
It’s safe to say that Roland Garros was notable for both guys. Bublik’s run on his least favorite surface was downright shocking, while Sinner reached the final and had three championship points before falling to Carlos Alcaraz. The top-ranked Italian showed no signs of a virtual hangover while defeating Yannick Hanfmann 7-5, 6-3 on Tuesday. Bublik, who beat Alexandre Muller 6-4, 6-4 in the opening round, is much more dangerous on grass than he is on clay–so the 45th-ranked Kazakh should be more competitive than he was in Paris. Still, this will likely be another straight-set win for Sinner.
Pick: Sinner in 2
Denis Shapovalov vs. Flavio Cobolli
Outside of the top 10, Cobolli is the hottest player on tour right now. The 24th-ranked Italian captured two titles during the clay-court swing (Bucharest, Hamburg) and fared relatively well in Paris (lost to Alexander Zverev in the third round). Cobolli faced a tough draw to begin his grass season but fought past Joao Fonseca 5-7, 7-6(3), 7-6(8) in an absolute thriller on Tuesday afternoon.
Up next for the 23-year-old is a first-ever meeting with Shapovalov, who also advanced in a third-set tiebreaker–beating Ugo Humbert 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4). The 26-year-old Canadian is a former Wimbledon semifinalist (2021), but since that result he is just 9-11 on grass over the past four seasons. This version of Shapovalov is simply inconsistent to the max, and any lapses on serve can be crippling on this surface. Cobolli is the more solid and confident player right now.
Pick: Cobolli in 3
Sinner’s form is poor too.
But you are a bit rash there, Sinner is a much better player than to worry about this type of loss, which you can forget about in the Slams.
Ah that’s easy for you to say, but in tennis confidence and form is huge, tennis casuals always think the top players can just turn it on like nothing, but that’s not how it really works, of course he’s worried about these losses, he’s literally still thinking about the French open final and it’s obv. affecting his game.
Its happened time and time again with the top players in the Slams and Ive been watching them over 40 years hardly a casual.
Maybe the RG loss will affect Sinner at Wimbledon ,but to expect a Rosol/Nadal or Stakhovsky /Federer result is a tad rash, just saying.
Not saying he’ll go out early, just he probably won’t get the title.
Yeah maybe not if he plays Alcaraz again. But it’s a few weeks away, things can change .
Off topic Kvitova is retiring 😥
A few others withdrawing, kyrgios, korda, nishikori
Nishikori is too…busy…for tennis these days