We are down to the semi-final stage of the Western & Southern Open with both of the last four matches in the ATP Cincinnati event being played out on the Center Court on Saturday as we determine which two men will play out for the latest Masters 1000 title on Sunday.
It doesn’t happen too often these days but the top four seeds have all made it through to the semi-finals which means that we should be guaranteed a couple of cracking encounters and a decent final to follow on Sunday, with plenty on the line.
Day Session
Daniil Medvedev vs Andrey Rublev
The opening semi-final sees two men who were teammates in the ATP Cup at the beginning of the year but rivals now facing off against each other when the number one seed Daniil Medvedev goes up against his Russian counterpart Andrey Rublev for the first place in Sunday’s final.
Medvedev is two wins away from successive Masters 1000 titles, which would be a good achievement even allowing for the big three all being absent this week and last, and he’ll be very confident of coming through this semi-final. I say that because these two men have met four times in their career and Medvedev hasn’t just won the lot but he has won all 10 sets they have played. They have all been in the last two years too so they feel pretty relevant. The big concern I have with Rublev is whether he truly believes he can beat Medvedev. There were signs he does at the US Open last year but even then there was always a sense that Medvedev had him at arm’s length. Rublev is going to need to do something different to win here but I’m not sure he has that in him. It might be that his best chance is to hope that the amount of tennis Medvedev has played catches up with him. That could happen but its a longshot. The odds reflect the chances of a Medvedev win though so I’ll leave this one alone.
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Night Session
Alexander Zverev vs Stefanos Tsitsipas
The night session semi-final looks like being an absolute pearler as the Olympic champion Alexander Zverev looks to add a Cincinnati final to the list on his CV when he meets the number two seed Stefanos Tsitsipas who is eyeing up a first Western & Southern final of his own.
These two are pretty familiar foes. They have met eight times in all, each of which has been in the last three years, and Tsitipas has a 6-2 lead over the German. Six of those meetings have been on a hard court of some kind and the Greek is 4-2 up in that department as well so history is firmly on his side. He is the outsider for this match though, which I am guessing is based on their form this week because even though Zverev won the Olympics, Tsitsipas is higher ranked and the two look fairly evenly matched even if Zverev has an edge on the first serve. Zverev is yet to drop a set this week but his three opponents – Lloyd Harris, Guido Pella and Casper Ruud – have been competent rather than of the highest level. Tsitsipas has gone three sets in his last two matches but Lorenzo Sonego and Felix Auger-Aliassime offered up much stronger challengers to the Greek. I still can’t get away from the Zverev second serve which Tsitsipas should be all over here. I think that deficiency plus the strength of the all-court game of the Greek makes him an ounce of value in a 50:50 semi-final.
Tips
Back S.Tsitsipas to beat A.Zverev for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
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