Two of the top four seeds in Newport–John Isner and Ugo Humbert–have advanced to the semifinals and will face each other on Saturday afternoon. Alexander Bublik and Marcel Granollers are also aiming for a spot in the title match.
(1) John Isner vs. (4) Ugo Humbert
Humbert’s breakout 2019 campaign has continued with his second career ATP semifinal appearance and he will bid for a place in his first final when he battles Isner at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Saturday. The 21-year-old Frenchman, who reached the Marseille semis in February, is coming off a fourth-round performance at Wimbledon (lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic). So far in Newport he has taken out Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ilya Ivashka.
Isner returned at the All-England Club following a three-month absence due to a stress fracture, winning his opener against Casper Ruud before falling to Mikhail Kukushkin in five sets. The 6’10” American, a three-time champion in Newport, is through to the last four thanks to three-set defeats of Kamil Majchrzak and Matthew Ebden. This is a huge opportunity for Humbert, as he is in the best form of his life and Isner is not yet back to his best.
Pick: Humbert in 3
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Marcel Granollers vs. (7) Alexander Bublik
Bublik and Granollers will also be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers on Saturday. One spot off his best-ever ranking at No. 83 in the world, Bublik had won only nine career ATP-level matches prior to this week. He has picked up three more the hard way, surviving Newport three-setters against Alex Bolt, Viktor Troicki, and Tennys Sandgren.
Eleven years older than his opponent at 33, Granollers finds himself back inside the top 100 (98th) following a second-round showing at Wimbledon as a qualifier (lost to Humbert). The Spaniard punched his ticket to the Newport semis by beating Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Jordan Thompson, and Mischa Zverev all in straight sets. Granollers has been more dominant and will have more left in the tank than Bublik, who won’t have an edge either physically or mentally in this one.
Pick: Granollers in 3
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Isner in 2; Bublik in 3.