Quarterfinal action will be taking place at Queen’s Club and also in Halle on Friday. Cameron Norrie and Sebastian Korda find themselves in London, while Daniil Medvedev and Roberto Bautista Agut collide in Germany.
Cinch Championships: Sebastian Korda vs. (5) Cameron Norrie
Norrie and Korda will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers when they clash in the Queen’s Club quarterfinals on Friday. Korda leads the head-to-head series 2-1 thanks to victories at the 2021 Delray Beach event and the 2022 Australian Open. However, Norrie avenged his Delray Beach loss by prevailing at the same tournament one year later–via a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(4) decision.
This promises to be another competitive, high-quality contest between two outstanding grass-court players. Norrie was a Wimbledon semifinalist last summer and so far at Queen’s Club has defeated Miomir Kecmanovic and Jordan Thompson. Korda, who is making his way back from a wrist injury, punched his ticket to the last eight by beating Dan Evans and Stuttgart champion Frances Tiafoe. With the 22-year-old American perhaps not quite all the way back to his absolute best and Norrie benefiting from home-court advantage, a slight edge may go to the 13th-ranked Brit.
Pick: Norrie in 3
Terra Wortmann Open: (1) Daniil Medvedev vs. (8) Roberto Bautista Agut
Medvedev’s grass-court summer began with an immediate loss in ‘s-Hertogenbosch to Adrian Mannarino, but the third-ranked Russian is getting in some productive match practice in Halle prior to Wimbledon. He opened with a straight-set rout of Marcos Giron and then battled past Laslo Djere 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3 on Wednesday.
Up next for Medvedev in the quarterfinals on Friday is a seventh meeting with Bautista Agut, who leads the head-to-head series 4-2. They actually faced each other twice on grass last year, with Medvedev cruising 6-4, 6-2 in the same round of this same Halle event before Bautista Agut rolled 6-3, 6-2 in Halle. Their most recent encounter came this past fall on the indoor hard courts of Astana, where Medvedev dominated 6-1, 6-1. The 35-year-old Spaniard is never an easy out on any surface, but Medvedev had the upper hand last season in Halle and that will likely be the case again.
Pick: Medvedev in 2
WWW?
RBA vs. Medvedev — this is my favorite match of 2023.
Battle of the chess players. RBA came out having Meddy’s number And
Medvedev knows it and has been enjoying his opponents’ play most of the time. Medvedev is about to lose, but his face has no stress. RBA is simply the better player today, great tennis guys! 😀
It has been months since I watched Korda play. I picked Cam Norrie to win in my bracket. I might have overlooked Korda, as he has stepped up his game.
Well done Seb! Not at his best but better than Norrie who wasn’t very good…
I like Seb!!
I wish Norrie would stop yelling come on! all the time..
Hello amy, good tennis today even if I had Medvedev winning. It’s not a big deal. Did you see Medvedev? He had a crazy smile on his face the entire match when he was losing. 😀
No I didn’t see him Elizabeth. I don’t know why he would be grinning so much..
But Cam has the London crowd support. Cam won’t go away easily; he needs to win this 2nd set. No one in our TDC Brakect group picked Korda. Almost everyone in our group went for Cam Norrie to be in the final four.
Korda has a very smooth, powerful first serve. Korda wins, and not one of us picked him. Korda faces Charlie or Dimitrov in the SF.
Over in Halle, Griekspoor and Rublev are in the decider. I only have a live score for that match. Oh no, Rublev was serving for the match and the SF spot, but he lost his serve. He had a match point! Griekspoor is still in this. Rublev was up a break when he blew his first chance. It’s 5-4 now, and Rublev has another chance. There must be something wrong with his first serve, and his second serve is pants.
Rublev made it! Griekspoor must have been playing confidently from winning his home tournament last week. I like Tallon Griekspoor.
Congrats Rublev!!
More good news: Krejcikova won her SF spot vs. Zhu L.
No, none of us picked Korda but he’s been off injured for months and I always thought he was a bit of a flake.
Greg R has picked him to beat Alcaraz, but they were, as usual bigging up Norrie and, in consequence, bigging up Korda even more!
Amy: Bouncy Castle busy spoiling Queens 🙁 and can’t stand Lloyd either.
On Prime they’ve got Henners, whom I prefer and Greg who is a bit of a Nelly-Know-It-All but a million times better than Bouncy. Not difficult TBF……..
Yes Margot Castle is unbelievably awful. But he he’s not as bad as Inverdale! The Beeb coverage is so terrible and out of date…
Prime is miles better…at least Henners and Greg know their stuff and are good on technical drtails…