The Fever-Tree Championships draw ceremony was held on Saturday afternoon at Queen’s Club and it did not disappoint in terms of either singles or doubles.
With a loaded field at this 500-point tournament, the singles draw was never going to lack intrigue regardless of what exactly transpired at Saturday’s festivities. But they produced an especially mouth-watering draw that will certainly deliver plenty of drama early and often once play gets started on Monday.
Among the blockbuster first-round battles are Juan Martin Del Potro vs. Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Grigor Dimitrov, top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas against Great Britain’s No. 1 player Kyle Edmund, and Stan Wawrinka vs. Dan Evans.
“The Fever-Tree Championships has always been one of my favorite tournaments,” Dimitrov assured. “I have a special connection with everyone that works there and the crowd, and will always look back with happy memories on winning the event in 2014.”
Dimitrov could be facing an opponent fresh off winning an event, which Auger-Aliassime has a chance to do on Sunday in Stuttgart. The 18-year-old Canadian defeated Ernests Gulbis, Gilles Simon, and Dustin Brown before getting a walkover from countryman Milos Raonic in the semifinals.
Seeded eighth at Queen’s Club, Auger-Aliassime is on a collision course with Tsitsipas for the quarterfinals. If the seeds hold to form, other quarterfinal matches would be Del Potro vs. Raonic, Danill Medvedev vs. Marin Cilic, and Wawrinka vs. Kevin Anderson.
On the doubles side, Andy Murray is back from hip surgery taking the match court for the first time since the Australian Open. Shelving his plans to retire, Murray will begin his return in doubles with Feliciano Lopez against No. 1 seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
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WWW? I have no clue. Great field, even missing the Big Three.
On Monday I’ll go with DelPo over Shapo as he’s the steadier and far more experienced on grass and Dimi over FAA, as Dimi also has far more experience on grass, although I would not call him “steady”.
JDP in 2;….Dtrov in 2….and Dtrov wins it all.
FAA will be tired, Dimitrov played well on clay not his surface, no reason to think he wont continue this run of form .Dimi in three.
Yep, I picked D’trov over FAA in 3. And Delpo over Shapo.