We are up to the final in Estoril. Who will take home the trophy on Sunday? Stefanos Tsitsipas and Pablo Cuevas will battle it out. Here is our ATP Estoril Finals Prediction.
ATP Estoril Finals Prediction
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Pablo Cuevas
H2H: Tsitsipas leads 1-0
Stefanos Tsitsipas had to dig deep to advance past wildcard David Goffin in the semifinals on Saturday. After dropping the opening set, the #1 seed picked up his level of play. Tsitsipas and Goffin were neck and neck in the third set before Tsitsipas broke Goffin at 4-4 and then served it out for a 3-6 6-4 6-4 win.
Pablo Cuevas once again took the scenic route in his semifinal win over Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina who had his breakthrough tournament on the ATP tour. Like Tsitsipas, Cuevas dropped the first set before winning the next two to advance to Sunday’s final.
If Cuevas were to defeat Tsitsipas on Sunday, he should give a special shoutout to Filip Krajinovic in his winner’s speech. Cuevas fell in the final round of qualifying to Salvadore Caruso and ended up getting in the main draw as a lucky loser after Krajinovic withdrew. Ironically enough, Cuevas ended up facing Caruso again in the first round and won 6-2 6-2
Tsitsipas got the better of Cuevas in their only previous meeting. The two faced each other at the Antwerp Open in 2017 where Tsitsipas won 6-1 6-4. Even though Tsitsipas was breaking onto the scene at that time the fact that he was able to defeat Cuevas that handily doesn’t bode well for the Uruguayan, Cuevas should be able to keep it closer on the red clay though.
Tsitsipas will be looking to win his second title of the season after winning the Marseille Open in February. Cuevas is looking to win his first tour-level since March 2017.
If Sunday’s title match is anything like the rest of the tournament has been you can expect this one to go three sets. Fans in Portugal have certainly got their money’s worth with three out of the four quarterfinals matches going the distance on Friday and both semifinals going to a third set on Saturday.
With that being said, I think Sunday’s title match will be one-sided. Pablo Cuevas has played a lot of tennis as of late, and it has to catch up to him eventually. Even though he’s getting through and winning matches, I don’t think he can beat Stefanos Tsitsipas the way he’s playing at the moment. I don’t think this one goes three sets either, look for Tsitsipas to get his second title of the year winning this one in straight sets.
Preicttion: Tsitsipas in 2
