The final warm up event for Wimbledon for those who are already in the UK sees the players head to Eastbourne for the ATP 250 event also known as the Rothesay International, a tournament which begins on Monday but ends on Saturday.
Alex de Minaur headed to SW19 in the perfect style last year when he took this title down. The Australian is heading down to Devonshire Park once again to attempt to make a successful defence of his crown. A much better field opposes him here though.
Recent Winners
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
2009 – Dmitry Tursunov
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
A lot of the players who lost early doors at Queens last week have made their way to Eastbourne with the British number one Cameron Norrie one of those. He is the highest ranked player in the field and the top seed as a result. He heads the top half of the draw. The other seeded player who gets a bye in the first round is Diego Schwartzman. Two other seeds are in this half of the draw. They are the big serving Reilly Opelka and the exciting Danish youngster Holger Rune.
This is a strong half of the draw because among the unseeded players are the Nottingham champion Dan Evans, Adrian Mannarino who also has a win on grass in his career, Queens quarter finalist Ryan Peniston, former Wimbledon boys champion Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, promising British player Jack Draper, American star Jenson Brooksby, Brandon Nakashima and Jay Clarke. This could be a very lively half of the draw.
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Bottom Half
Jannik Sinner is yet to play a grass court match this season but he will put that right this week and he will be the number two seed for the tournament. He will be one of the two seeds in the bottom half of the draw to get a first round bye. The other player is the former champion Taylor Fritz, who was beaten in the first round at Queens last week. The other two seeds in this section of the draw are the defending champion Alex de Minaur and the American player Frances Tiafoe.
This isn’t as strong a half as far as the unseeded players are concerned in the draw but the beaten finalist of a year ago is here in Lorenzo Sonego, while Ugo Humbert has a decent record on this surface which he’ll be looking to build on. Tommy Paul made the last eight at Queens last week and goes again here, with Alexander Bublik, Sebastian Korda and Cristian Garin some of the other names of note this week.
Betting
Dan Evans has won a grass title at Surbiton and two at Nottingham in the last few years and the next step for the British number two will be to win a main ATP title on it and I think this could be the week he does so. The bigger names in the field might just be here for a bit of match practice but you sense that even though he won Nottingham a couple of weeks ago he is here to win the title after a first round loss at Queens. He has played more than enough on grass to go to Wimbledon in good shape.
He doesn’t have the easiest draw in the world but motivation is going to count for a lot this week and the longer the week goes on we might find one or two aren’t really that bothered about going deep. Evans is in the half of the draw that Norrie is in but his run at Queens last year aside, he hasn’t done a lot on grass in his career and the other seeds have done even less. If Evans can beat Mannarino in his opening match then this draw could open right up for him to go all the way.
Tips
Back D.Evans to win Rothesay International (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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