The first round of the cinch Championships concludes at the Queens Club in London on Tuesday when the remaining players in the draw either begin or continue their Wimbledon preparations on what looks to be a decent day of tennis.
It is a day where all eyes will be on the Centre Court where a certain Andy Murray steps back onto the singles court while there is plenty of British interest and some real star names on show across the three courts in use.
Day 1 Recap
It was a good first day and one which reminded us of the strengths of grass court pedigree over clay court expertise. We saw the exit of a couple of Italian seeds in Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Sonego but the defending champion Feliciano Lopez made it safely through to the second round. There were wins elsewhere for Cameron Norrie and Aslan Karatsev on what was an excellent opening day of the competition.
It was a good start to the tournament for us from a betting point of view as well with Viktor Troicki using the grass court matches he has played already this season to his advantage to overcome Sonego in straight sets and deservedly so too. You could tell from pretty early on that Sonego hadn’t made the transition to grass from the clay courts and the Serbian took full advantage of that to give us a nice priced winner to begin the week with.
Centre Court
The number one seed Matteo Berrettini will get us underway on the main court on Tuesday afternoon. He takes on his fellow Italian player Stefano Travaglia before the attention turns to the Brits. The British number one Dan Evans is the first of the home players on show. He has a potentially awkward assignment against the Australian player Alexei Popyrin before Sir Andy Murray finally makes his comeback. He takes on Benoit Paire in a match that is full of unpredictability. When they are done the popular Denis Shapovalov will take centre stage to round off the play against the qualifier Aleksandar Vukic.
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Outside Courts
The action is singles all the way over on Court 1 on Tuesday and it begins with the fourth seed Alex de Minaur going up against the Serbian player Laslo Djere in a good looking contest. When they are done it will be the turn of former Briton Aljaz Bedene and Frances Tiafoe to go at it before the eighth seed Fabio Fognini steps onto court to take on the veteran Yen-Hsun Lu. The final match of the day on Court 1 sees the former champion Marin Cilic look to build on his win in Stuttgart last week when he takes on the qualifier Sebastian Ofner. There is also a singles match on Court 5 where Alexander Bublik meets Jeremy Chardy.
Betting
I’ll go with one bet on Tuesday which is a slightly speculative one but we’ve got some early winnings to play with so I think it is worth a chance. That is on Yen-Hsun Lu to beat Fabio Fognini at a decent price. We never truly know what we’re going to get from Fognini at the best of ties but it is interesting that he is here actually because he usually only plays in a couple of exhibitions in the lead up to Wimbledon. It is something of an Italian convention this draw this week mind you.
Neither of these men have played on the grass this season but Fognini played more on the clay so it might take him longer to adjust and the fact he isn’t on the Centre Court might not help his motivation any. Lu is a good grass court player. A few years ago he made the final of three Challenger events on the grass in as many weeks, winning two and losing to Dustin Brown in the other one. He has a game suited to grass in that he plays with slice, defends well and makes it awkward for the opponent and he might just frustrate Fognini enough to get the better of him regardless of whether the Italian fancies the job or not.
Tips
Back Y-H.Lu to beat F.Fognini for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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