Queen’s Club R2 previews and predictions: Dimitrov vs. Djokovic, Edmund vs. Kyrgios

With the Queen’s Club field so stacked and plenty of star players unseeded, blockbuster second-round matchups are the norm. They include Grigor Dimitrov vs. Novak Djokovic and Kyle Edmund vs. Nick Kyrgios on Thursday.

(WC) Novak Djokovic vs. (2) Grigor Dimitrov

Dimitrov and Djokovic will be facing each other for the eighth time in their careers when they battle for a quarterfinal spot at the Fever-Tree Championships on Thursday. The head-to-head series stands at 6-1 in favor of Djokovic, who survived their only previous grass-court encounter 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(7) in a 2014 Wimbledon thriller. Dimitrov prevailed on the red clay of Madrid in 2013, but he has since lost four in a row at Djokovic’s expense–most recently via a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 result two years ago on the indoor hard courts of Paris.

Their relative drought of meetings, of course, can be chalked up to Djokovic’s recent absence. The former world No. 1 is finally back after missing the second half of last season and his up-and-down comeback may be picking up steam. He reached the Rome semifinals and the French Open quarters and he kicked off his Queen’s Club campaign by crushing John Millman 6-2, 6-1 on Tuesday. Dimitrov has struggled this season after winning the Nitto ATP FInals in 2017, saddled with a modest 19-11 record and no titles. The fifth-ranked Bulgarian went 2-4 in his last six clay-court matches before beginning the grass swing with a 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 defeat of Damir Dzumhur. With Djokovic clearly going in the right direction, the 31-year-old should be able to maintain his success in this matchup.

Pick: Djokovic in 3

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Nick Kyrgios vs. (7) Kyle Edmund

This almost developed into an all-British showdown between Edmund and Andy Murray, but Kyrgios had other ideas. In Murray’s comback match on the heels of a year-long layoff due to hip problems, the world No. 21 recovered from a slow start and from some apparent physical problems of his own to beat the Scot 2-6, 7-6(4), 7-5. it was a much-needed win for Kyrgios, who missed the entire European clay-court swing but returned on the green stuff in Stuttgart and made a semifinal run before succumbing to eventual champion Roger Federer in a third-set tiebreaker.

Kyrgios and Edmund will now be squaring off for the first time in their careers at the ATP level. Their only previous contest came at a grass-court Futures event four years ago in Birmingham, where the Australian prevailed 6-3, 6-3. Both players have obviously made huge strides since then, and Edmund is firmly on the rise at the moment. The 23-year-old is up to 17th in the rankings thanks in part to a semifinal showing at this season’s Australian Open, a runner-up performance in Marrakech, and quarterfinal finishes in Estoril and Madrid. Edmund treated the home crowd to a 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over Ryan Harrison on Tuesday and his fine form should continue against an opponent who may be less than 100 percent.

Pick: Edmund in 3

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