The North American hard-court swing heats up in a big way with this week’s Mubadala Citi Open in Washington, D.C. It is an ATP 500 tournament–and it is without question one of the best 500s of the entire year.
Among those taking their talents to the nation’s capital are Taylor Fritz, Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Ben Shelton, Andrey Rublev, Frances Tiafoe, Alex de Minaur, Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli, and Gael Monfils.
Needless to say, there are no easy draws–and that starts at the top with Taylor Fritz. The fourth-ranked American could kick off his week with a rematch of his Wimbledon first-round showdown against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, whom he defeated in five sets on his eventual way to the semifinals. Fritz could meet Lorenzo Sonego in the third round, Rublev in the quarters, and Shelton or Tiafoe in the semis. Shelton and Tiafoe are on a collision course for what would be a blockbuster quarterfinal battle surely on Friday night, but seeds Flavio Cobolli and Gabriel Diallo could have something to say about that.
The bottom half of the bracket features Musetti, Rune, De Minaur, Medvedev, Monfils, Jiri Lehecka, and Alex Michelsen. Monfils is unseeded, so he could be a tough second-round test for Alexei Popyrin prior to possibly facing a struggling Medvedev in the last 16. Musetti, who has been less than 100 percent physically since Roland Garros, will likely open in D.C. against Wimbledon quarterfinalist Cameron Norrie.
Quarterfinal predictions: Andrey Rublev over Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe over Ben Shelton, Gael Monfils over Alex Michelsen, and Alex de Minaur over Brandon Nakashima
Semifinals: Rublev over Tiafoe and De Minaur over Monfils
Final: De Minaur over Rublev
who ya got?
Washington
R16: Arnaldi over Fritz, Tien over Davidovich Fokina, Diallo over Shelton, Tiafoe over Cobolli, Medvedev over Popyrin, Rune over Michelsen, de Minaur over Kecmanovic, Norrie over Nakashima
QF: Arnaldi over Tien, Tiafoe over Diallo, Rune over Medvedev, de Minaur over Norrie
SF: Arnaldi over Tiafoe, de Minaur over Rune
F: de Minaur over Arnaldi
Champion
de Minaur
where’s this Arnaldi pick coming from?
at least he got through R1…barely!
We have the same champ Ricky, let’s hope it’s a good thing.
I’m very surprised Fritz is here only taking 1 week off, since he emptied his tank and then some on the grass, probably not fully recovered yet, I didn’t think he’d play until Cincy, probably won’t do much at the US if he’s playing here, Canada and Cincy.
Musetti is most likely fully fit now if he’s playing here.
Fritz cannot take a week off
Did Fritz not have two weeks since Wimby?
As for Musetti, hard to say , injuries can linger, other thing is the heat and humidity in Washington. I’d say Tiafoe a good bet as usually highly motivated here and US hard courts generally.
Yes, I forgot to mention that it’s supposed to be very hot and humid all week, so who ever deals with the conditions the best will fare well.
Ricky and I correctly predicted the champion, yay to us.