As always the last warm up event for Wimbledon in the UK takes the ATP Tour to Eastbourne for the Rothesay International which gets underway in Sussex on Monday with 28 players hoping to boost their confidence ahead of the third major of the year.
Francisco Cerundolo went to Wimbledon on a high a year ago after he won this tournament prior to getting there and the Argentine is heading back to Devonshire Park to attempt to keep hold of his crown.
Recent Winners
2023 – Francisco Cerundolo
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
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 goes in search of a third title down at Eastbourne this week and he will be the top seed in his quest to achieve it. He was overtaken as the American number one over the weekend when Tommy Paul won at Queens so Fritz could have a point to prove. The other seed making it straight into the second round is Alexander Bublik while Tomas Martin Etcheverry and the defending champion Francisco Cerundolo are the two seeds who will begin in the opening round in this half. Other players of note in the top half are the British number two Cameron Norrie, who desperately needs some form heading to Wimbledon, fellow Brit in Liam Broady and Marcos Giron.
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Bottom Half
The cinch Championships winner Tommy Paul is the second seed in the draw this week at the time of writing, although it would be something of a shock if he doesn’t pull out having surely got all the match time he needed at Queens. If he plays he will go straight into the second round with the other seed enjoying that benefit being Sebastian Baez. The other two seeds in the draw are Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Mariano Navone. Kei Nishikori is an obvious big name who is also in this half of the draw with Lorenzo Sonego, Zhizhen Zhang, Miomir Kecmanovic and the Queens quarter finalist Billy Harris all having the potential for big weeks.
Betting
After going 3-7 on the clay, Marcos Giron will be pleased to get back onto a faster surface on the grass and he has already picked up some appealing results on the lawns to suggest that he could have a decent week. The American has played Stuttgart and Halle so far on this grass this term and he has collected wins over Andy Murray, Andrey Rublev and Matteo Berrettini and there aren’t many in this draw with a grass court pedigree like two of those in this draw. Giron lost to Draper in Stuttgart with the Brit going on to win that tournament and to Hurkacz in Halle and he made the final so two form guns have beaten him. At 20/1 I think he is the value in the top half in the hope that maybe Cameron Norrie deals with Taylor Fritz.
I’ve got to take someone in the bottom half as well because I would be staggered if Tommy Paul plays the tournament. If he doesn’t and assuming he pulls out after the start, the winner of the match between Billy Harris and Jacob Fearnley will either face a lucky loser in the second round or get a bye into a quarter final where Mariano Navone is seeded to be the opponent but he is a pure clay courter. That match between the Brits looks like a 50:50 call but there is talk out in the States that Fearnley has a good career ahead of him after he was one of the better players on the college scene this year. He proved that to be the case when he won the Challenger event in Nottingham a couple of weeks ago. If that is the case he should have more upside to Harris so I’ll back him to come through that, hope that Paul withdraws and see if the youngster can go all the way to the final in a half of the draw that seriously lacks depth, particularly in his quarter.
Tips
Back M.Giron to win Rothesay International (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
Back J.Fearnley to win Rothesay International (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
