Top seed Daniil Medvedev will kick off his Rotterdam campaign against Montpellier runner-up Vasek Pospisil on Wednesday. Second-round action begins with a showdown between Felix Auger-Aliassime and Grigor Dimitrov.
(1) Daniil Medvedev vs. (SE) Vasek Pospisil
Medvedev will hope to kick his season into high gear at this week’s ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. The world No. 5 has been solid but perhaps not quite at his spectacular 2019 level. He compiled a 4-1 record at the ATP Cup (lost only to Novak Djokovic) and reached the Australian Open fourth round before falling to Stan Wawrinka in five sets.
Up first for Medvedev on Wednesday is a second career contest against Pospisil, who lost their only previous meeting 7-6(7), 7-5 at the Shanghai Masters this past fall. Pospisil is coming off a runner-up performance in Montpellier, where he upset Denis Shapovalov and David Goffin before succumbing to Gael Monfils. The 104th-ranked Canadian ran out of gas in the final and appeared to deal with a minor hip issue, so he is a question mark heading into Rotterdam. Even with Pospisil at 100 percent, Medvedev would be a considerable favorite on a court that should suit him nicely in this matchup.
Pick: Medvedev in 2 with no tiebreakers
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Grigor Dimitrov vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
Auger-Aliassime and Dimitrov will also be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers. Their only previous encounter came last summer on the grass of Queen’s Club, where Auger-Aliassime got the job done 6-4, 6-4. At that time, however, the Canadian was one of the hottest players on tour. But he struggled throughout the final few months of 2019 and is off to a mediocre 5-6 start this year. Auger-Aliassime survived a bit of a roller-coaster ride during first-round action on Tuesday, beating Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Dimitrov has mostly been going in the other direction. The 22nd-ranked Bulgarian was in disastrous form last summer until making a semifinal run at the U.S. Open from completely out of nowhere. He improved to 4-3 in 2020 with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over Denis Shapovalov on Monday in Rotterdam. Dimitrov was more impressive in his opening match and is the more consistent player at the moment.
Pick: Dimitrov in 3
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WYG?
Med in 2; Dtrov in 2.
What a draw for Dimi, after beating Shapo he has to beat FAA! I think he will be too good for FAA; Dimi in two, at worst three sets.
I know it doesn’t count after the fact, but I saw the Bautista-Agut flop coming, as well as Johnson vs Seppi, and even managed to avoid the Popisil Medvedev match because odds were shit and not worth it. I also capitalized on Evans at 2 to 1 odds. This year has been fantastic for me, because after 4 years watching the sport, I now know to follow my own intuition. If the website agree with me then so be it, if they disagree then I don’t even think to reconsider, just go with my gut and it’s paying off.