There is no rest for the weary—well, there is if you’re Kevin Anderson and John Isner. Those two marathon men are obviously taking a much-deserved break, but the ATP Tour is getting right back in action with not one, not two, but three tournaments immediately following Wimbledon.
Isner has withdrawn from the final grass-court tournament of the season in Newport, leaving Adrian Mannarino and Mischa Zverev as the top two seeds. Meanwhile, clay-court competition returns in Bastad and Umag. Among the players getting back on the dirt are Diego Schwartzman, Pablo Carreno Busta, Fabio Fognini, Richard Gasquet, Damir Dzumhur, and Marco Cecchinato.
Hall of Fame Open
Where: Newport, Rhode Island
Surface: Grass
Prize money: $557,050
Points: 250
Top seed: Adrian Mannarino
2017 champion: John Isner (not playing)
Draw analysis: A few contenders will be gone right away, because some intriguing first-rounders are on the Newport schedule. They include Gilles Muller vs. Marcos Baghdatis, Alex de Minaur vs. Ivo Karlovic, and Ryan Harrison vs. Nicolas Mahut. An especially loaded top half of the bracket has Mannarino—basically a grass-court specialist—in line to meet either Muller or Baghdatis in the quarterfinals. Karlovic and de Minaur are potential semifinal foes for Mannarino.
Harrison and Mahut are starting at tough draws, and not just because of their opening affair. They have two accomplished grass-courters in their section in Sergiy Stakhovsky and Matthew Ebden. Elsewhere in the bottom half lurk Zverev (who recently captured his first career ATP title in Eastbourne), Denis Kudla, Ruben Bemelmans, and Vasek Pospisil. Bemelmans, who had two match points against Isner in the Wimbledon second round, has to face Kudla in the first round.
First-round upset alert: Marcos Baghdatis over (6) Gilles Muller. Muller has announced his upcoming retirement at the end of the season, so it would be fitting for him to go out with a final grass-court title. The Luxembourgian, however, is slowing down at 35 years old with a 9-16 record this season—including just 2-4 on his favorite surface. Baghdatis is also struggling at 33 years old, but he leads the head-to-head series 3-1 and he played well at Wimbledon with a retirement win over Dominic Thiem (the Cypriot led by two sets) and a five-set loss to Karen Khachanov.
Hot: Adrian Mannarino, Mischa Zverev, Matthew Ebden, Alex de Minaur
Cold: Gilles Muller, Nicolas Mahut, Ivo Karlovic, Vasek Pospisil, Donald Young, Marcos Baghdatis, Marcel Granollers, James Duckworth, Jordan Thompson
Semifinal predictions: Adrian Mannarino over Alex de Minaur and Matthew Ebden over Denis Kudla
Final: Mannarino over Ebden
[polldaddy poll=10056346]
Swedish Open
Where: Bastad, Sweden
Surface: Clay
Prize money: 501,345 Euros
Points: 250
Top seed: Diego Schwartzman
Defending champion: David Ferrer
Draw analysis: Schwartzman and Fernando Verdasco faced each other twice in the span of a few days earlier this season, with the Argentine prevailing in both the Rio de Janeiro final and the Acapulco first round. They cannot go head-to-head until the Bastad final, but that is without question a real possibility. Schwartzman is the No. 1 seed and arguably the title favorite based on the surface and the strong season he is enjoying. He could be challenged in the top half of the bracket by Gasquet and/or Leonardo Mayer, but for the most part Schwartzman’s path to the final looks like a favorable one.
Verdasco opens with Lorenzo Sonego, who is starting to make a name for himself this season. The road should not get much tougher thereafter, because nobody in the bottom half is in particularly fine form at the moment. Carreno Busta has won only two matches since leaving Rome, although a return to clay may be just what the doctor ordered.
First-round upset alert: Matteo Berrettini over (6) Leonardo Mayer. Berrettini is in the midst of a breakout season, with his first six ATP-level match wins and a ranking comfortably inside the top 100. Mayer is still going strong at No. 36 in the world. Both men are also strong on clay, so this could be the best match of the entire first round in Bastad.
Hot: Radu Albot, Matteo Berrettini, Jaume Munar
Cold: David Ferrer
Semifinal predictions: Diego Schwartzman over Richard Gasquet and Fernando Verdasco over Federico Delbonis
Final: Schwartzman over Verdasco
[polldaddy poll=10056359]
Croatia Open
Where: Umag, Croatia
Surface: Clay
Prize money: 501,345 Euros
Points: 250
Top seed: Damir Dzumhur
Defending champion: Andrey Rublev
Draw analysis: Umag always features the kind of field that makes the title completely up for grabs. Last year was no exception, as Andrey Rublev won the tournament after falling in qualifying and getting a lucky-loser spot in the main draw. Rublev now finds himself with a first-round bye as the No. 4 seed, but he is not among the favorites because he has not played since Monte-Carlo due to a back injury. The 20-year-old Russian is in the same quarter of the bracket as Robin Haase and Nicolas Jarry, while Alberto Ramos-Vinolas in the same half. Watch out for the winner of a first-rounder between Joao Sousa and Aljaz Bedene, who will be on a collision course for the quarterfinals with Ramos-Vinolas.
A trio of players enjoying breakout years on tour can be found in the bottom half of the draw. Cecchinato recently made a run to the French Open semifinals, Maximilian Marterer has earned all 15 of his career ATP-level match victories this season, and Marton Fucsovics has impressed on both hard courts and clay during the 2018 campaign. Dzumhur, Benoit Paire, and Pablo Cuevas could also be factors.
First-round upset alert: Marton Fucsovics over (8) Benoit Paire. Paire leads the head-to-head series 2-0, but their meeting in Pune to begin this season ended 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(6). Fucsovics has only improved since then, with a fourth-round performance at the Australian Open and his first career title on the red clay of Geneva. Paire is a mediocre 5-6 on the slow stuff this year.
Hot: Damir Dzumhur, Marco Cecchinato, Maximilian Marterer, Nicolas Jarry
Cold: Andrey Rublev, Pablo Cuevas
Semifinal predictions: Robin Haase over Dusan Lajovic and Damir Dzumhur over Maximilian Marterer
Final: Haase over Dzumhur
[polldaddy poll=10056352]
Leave a Reply