The top four seeds have all advanced to the Montpellier semifinals, making for a blockbuster order of play on Saturday. Holger Rune is going up against Borna Coric, while Alexander Bublik faces Felix Auger-Aliassime.
(1) Holger Rune vs. (4) Borna Coric
Both Rune and Coric are rounding into form as they head into their first-ever head-to-head showdown in the Open Sud de France semifinals on Saturday. After losing early at the Australian Open (second round to Arthur Cazaux), Rune took a late wild card into Montpellier and is making the most of it. The top-seeded Dane has advanced with straight-set victories over Gonzalo Llamas Ruiz and Michael Mmoh.
Coric missed the last few months of 2023 due to injury and lost right away at Melbourne Park to Frances Tiafoe, but his indoor swing is off to a strong start. The 37th-ranked Croat finished runner-up at a Challenger event last week in Belgium and so far in Montpellier has dismissed Pedro Martinez and Flavio Cobolli in straight sets. Despite routine scorelines this week, Coric has played a lot of matches in a short amount of time. Rune may have the physical edge on Saturday and he is simply the all-around superior player at the moment, so look for him to earn a place in the title match.
Pick: Rune in 3
(3) Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. (2) Alexander Bublik
The good versions of both Bublik and Auger-Aliassime appear to have shown up this week in Montpellier; the result is a semifinal showdown between the respective No. 2 and No. 3 seeds on Saturday. They will be facing each other for the fourth time in their careers, with Auger-Aliassime leading the head-to-head series 2-1 after most recently winning their lone indoor encounter 6-2, 6-3 in the 2022 Basel quarterfinals.
Auger-Aliassime went on to win the title in Basel and he went back-to-back at that tournament this past fall, but Montpellier appears to be Bublik’s stomping ground. The 27th-ranked Kazakh lifted the trophy two years ago and is back in the semis following defeats of Denis Shapovalov and Alexander Shevchenko. Auger-Aliassime has advanced with much-needed victories over Frenchmen Arthur Cazaux (in a third-set tiebreaker) and Harold Mayot. Still, it’s going to require a lot more than that for the 30th-ranked Canadian to prove that he is anywhere close to being back at his best level. Bublik looks motivated this week and should be able to continue his quest for another Montpellier title.
Pick: Bublik in 3
WWW?
I like Alexander Bublik his personality and tennis skill but his been shaky in this tournament he lost the 1st set in both matches he played if he loses the 1st set to Felix Auger Aliassime that’s game over.
Felix is too good on indoors hard court so why heart says Alexander and he won this tournament in 2022, I think Felix will win and also win the tournament.
Rune or Coric can’t defeat Felix now especially on indoors.
Anyways that’s what I think it could go completely different 😂.
Bublik has too much fun why playing and that’s good but most times he doesn’t take the match seriously just N. Kyrgios.
welp
Rune in 2; Bublik in 2.
Yikes! At the moment I am top of whole Bracket Challenge!
Modestly blows trumpet very quietly…;)
Just for Montpelier tournament obviously….puts trumpet away hastily…..
Hahaha, Margot, you are too modest. Indeed, you belong on top. Happy to see you there! I am always a bit rusty when I get going in February. The WTA Thailand bracket looked too intimidating.
Congrats Margot!
I’ll tackle WTA brackets, and ATP do Marseille and Dalles, but pass on Cordoba.