Top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas will take to the grass for the first time this season against Richard Gasquet on Thursday in Stuttgart. American Taylor Fritz will also be in action against Russia’s Aslan Karatsev.
(1) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Richard Gasquet
Stefanos Tsitsipas was the 2021 French Open runner-up. Since then the Greek has come up a bit short in Paris. He was sent packing in the quarterfinals in this edition at the hands of Carlos Alcaraz. Tsitsipas took a wildcard into Stuttgart, which will give him the opportunity to make the most of the abbreviated grass-court season.
Richard Gasquet got his only match win over Tsitispas on the grass courts of s’Hertogenbosch back in 2018. The French veteran’s game is at its best on the lawn, but he hasn’t been at his top level for years and even his favored grass courts are not likely to be enough against a player of Tsitsipas’ caliber.
Expect this one to go to the No. 1 seed in fairly routine fashion.
Cheryl pick: Tsitsipas in 2
Ricky pick: Tsitsipas in 2
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Aslan Karatsev vs. (2) Taylor Fritz
This will be the first meeting between top American player Taylor Fritz and Aslan Karatsev. Fritz is ranked No. 8 in the world, down a bit from his top ranking of No. 5 in February of this year. He comes into Stuttgart off a disappointing–but not entirely surprising–third-round loss at the French Open to Francisco Cerundolo. He will be looking to make some noise at his first grass-court event of the season.
Aslan Karatsev is the world No. 48. The Russian had a resurgence during this year’s clay season. Karatsev came up through qualies in Madrid and made it all the way to the semifinals before going out to Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff. He was pushed to the brink by Corentin Moutet in his first-round match this week, as the two men were on court for more than three hours–although Karatsev had a rest day on Wednesday.
Despite a dip during the clay court season, Fritz is in good form in 2023. The American has a game that translates fairly well to grass, although he is still better on hard courts. Karatsev has at least some chance to take a set, but Fritz should advance.
Cheryl pick: Fritz in 2
Ricky pick: Fritz in 2
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WWW?
Tpas in 2; Fritz in 2.