It is quarter final day in the cinch Championships on Friday with all four matches being played out on what should be a wonderful day of tennis on the Centre Court at Queens Club as we get down to the last four of the ATP 500 event.
We’ve lost two seeds but we still have six of them on show and one of the two unseeded players to make it through to this stage is a former champion here so the quality taking to the court is high and the action should be tasty as a result.
Alex de Minaur vs Adrian Mannarino
The opening quarter final sees two counter punchers going at it when the Australian ace Alex de Minaur takes on an Adrian Mannarino who is one of the two unseeded players to reach the quarter final and will be looking to build on a very good win over Taylor Fritz on Thursday.
De Minaur has played really well in this tournament so far. He has met a couple of seasoned campaigners in Andy Murray and Diego Schwartzman and dispatched them both for the loss of just eight games. Mannarino has had to battle a little more having needed three sets to get the better of Liam Broady in the opening round before winning two tight sets against Fritz on Thursday. I think the run of Mannarino comes to an end here but he has won a set in the last two meetings against de Minaur and the Frenchman is awkward to face so this isn’t really a match I want to get too involved in.
Lorenzo Musetti vs Holger Rune
The second quarter final on Friday sees two of the young guns of the ATP Tour going at it when the Italian player Lorenzo Musetti goes up against the Danish ace Holger Rune in what could be a really good watch if both are anywhere near their best.
Musetti is looking to carry on the good Italian tradition in this tournament after Matteo Berrettini won the last two stagings of it and he has looked decent enough in patches. He is probably going to need to be towards his best for the majority of this match though because Rune looked much better in his second round win than he did his opening one which suggests that he is feeling more comfortable on the surface, which is a danger to the others. In theory, with a serve which is more lively than it is given credit for, some big weapons from the back of the court and excellent movement should make Rune a very good grass court player so Musetti could have his work cut out here. If he serves well then we might see some tiebreaks here but my hunch is that Rune could break out here but there isn’t enough of a sample size for me to put that into a betting theory.
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Sebastian Korda vs Cameron Norrie
The penultimate quarter final is the only one which features a British player as the number one player from these isles takes to the court when Cameron Norrie meets the American ace Sebastian Korda in what could be a cracking match.
Korda has taken care of Dan Evans and Frances Tiafoe with the minimum of fuss so far in the tournament and then boldly declared himself as one of the favourites for Wimbledon after beating the latter. That tells us that the American doesn’t lack for confidence and why would he after the way he has played this week? He is serving brilliantly and hitting the ball really cleanly. It will be interesting to see how he deals with the test which Norrie provides in this match but I think it is fair to say that Norrie hasn’t been at his best this week. He dropped the first set to Jordan Thompson before coming back to win in the last round and he didn’t put Miomir Kecmanovic away with the authority you would expect in the opener. There has been strapping around the knee of the Briton all week so he is clearly carrying some sort of niggle and while Norrie will battle hard here I think he might meet his match in this one. Korda leads the head-to-head 2-1 with straight sets wins in Delray Beach in 2021 and Australian Open in 2022 before Norrie got his nose in front at Delray Beach last year when he won a deciding set tiebreak. I think these quick conditions suit Korda more though and I like him as a narrow outsider.
Carlos Alcaraz vs Grigor Dimitrov
The pick of the quarter finals is the last one to take to the court as the number one seed Carlos Alcaraz goes up against the former champion at Queens in Grigor Dimitrov in what should be a really good contest.
Alcaraz is the star attraction this week but Dimitrov is clearly extremely very happy on the grass and there was a lot to like about the Bulgarian in his win over Francisco Cerundolo on Thursday so I would expect him to put it down to Alcaraz, who while producing the showreel moments this week has left himself a little vulnerable at times and you would expect better opponents to take advantage of that. The best facet of the Spaniard though is that he can combine the highlights with finding ways to win and it is hard to take on someone doing that. My hunch is that Dimitrov is a big price here but you don’t get any reward on that if he doesn’t win and I’m not convinced he will.
Tips
Back S.Korda to beat C.Norrie for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
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