There is one week left until Wimbledon opens its doors to the stars of the tennis world but before we get to SW19 there is a week of tennis in Eastbourne to enjoy as the Rothesay International offers a final chance for prep before the third major of the season.
Taylor Fritz used the week to his advantage last year when he coasted to the title and he is back looking to hold onto his crown as well as fine tune everything ahead of a crack at the grass court Grand Slam next week.
Recent Winners
2022 – Taylor Fritz
2021 – Alex de Minaur
2019 – Taylor Fritz
2018 – Mischa Zverev
2017 – Novak Djokovic
2014 – Feliciano Lopez
2013 – Feliciano Lopez
2012 – Andy Roddick
2011 – Andreas Seppi
2010 – Michael Llodra
The Format
It is just a 28 player draw this week as we have a day less to get the tournament completed. The top four seeds receive a bye through to the last 16 with the other 24 players in the field playing a first round match to attempt to join them. The tournament is a straight knockout with the players all inserted into the bracket right from the off. The event is a best of three set competition with a normal tiebreak in the final set. The champion will be crowned on Saturday this week not Sunday as is usually the case.
Top Half
Taylor Fritz is the defending champion this week and he is also the highest ranked player in the field so he is the number one seed and placed in the top half. He receives a bye through to the last 16 of the tournament and the other player fortunate enough to receive that is Francisco Cerundolo who is the fourth seed. We have a ninth seed this week in Botip van de Zandschulp with the other seed in the top half being Lorenzo Sonego. Others to note in this half of the draw include the British trio of Liam Broady, Jan Choinski and Ryan Peniston while the 2022 runner up Maxime Cressy is also in this half of the draw, as his American counterpart Mackenzie McDonald.
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Bottom Half
Tommy Paul had an interesting experience at Queens last week where his agent forgot to enter him but having come through qualifying he then lost in the opening round of the main draw. He is the number two seed this week so he will bypass the first round here with the fifth seed Nicolas Jarry being the other man to get that honour after the third seed Alex de Minaur pulled out on the eve of the event. The other seeds in this half of the draw are Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who is looking to back up a good run at the French Open, and Miomir Kecmanovic. The wildcard Geroge Loffhagen is the only Brit in the bottom half of the draw while others to note include Brandon Nakashima, Emil Ruusuvuori and J.J. Wolf.
Betting
This is a wide open draw throughout but it is particularly open in the bottom half of it and that is where I am targeting for a bet this week. Tommy Paul is the top seed in the bottom half but he hasn’t really done it on grass and I feel he has to be taken on. This half of the draw got weaker with the withdrawal of the Queens finalist Alex de Minaur and I think the unseeded Brandon Nakashima could be the one to take advantage.
It is fair to say that this hasn’t been the best season for Nakashima so far but when you go back to last year he was a deciding set away from being a Wimbledon quarter finalist having previously gone well here last year and in Holland where it took good grass court players to beat him in Adrian Mannarino and Cameron Norrie whose leftie serve is so awkward on this surface. There is nothing like that in this half of the draw so with a kinder run I think the American could be a bit of value at 16/1 this week.
Tips
Back B.Nakashima to win Rothesay International (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
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