In a week of upsets and first-time success, only four men remain at the ATP Queen’s Club Championships. We breakdown the two semifinals and analyse who will feature in the championship match on Sunday.
ATP Queen’s Club Championships Semifinal Predictions
Daniil Medvedev vs Gilles Simon
Head-To-Head: 1-0 Simon
Daniil Medvedev overcame a slow start to the grass court season to reach the last four at Fever-Tree Championships following a terrific straight sets victory over Marin Cilic’s conqueror, Diego Schwartzman. In doing that, he became the first Russian since Dmitry Tursunov in 2007 to reach this stage at London’s Queen’s Club. The 23-year-old dominated the Argentine from the outset, losing only seven points on his first serve. He also struck seven aces to close out victory in 77 minutes.
Medvedev will now seek to make his fourth final of 2019 in what is turning out to be his most commanding and collected year on tour. A title win in Sofia during the middle of February was sandwiched between two runner-up finishes at the Brisbane International and Barcelona Open, respectively. He improved to 28-12 for the season and he will now face a man who just doesn’t know when he is beaten.
Gilles Simon’s decent start to the year was overshadowed by a poor run of results during the European clay swing. Prior to this week, the Frenchman was yet to win back-to-back matches since reaching the semifinal at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Morocco. However, he has looked impressively composed, calm and relentless in rounding off all his three matches in three sets this week. The 34-year-old edged compatriot Nicolas Mahut in an engrossing battle which lasted over three hours on Court 1, to book his spot into the last four. Simon last advanced to this stage in 2015 when he lost to Kevin Anderson. But after avenging that loss against the South African a couple of days ago, he is becoming increasingly confident on his chances.
This is unsurprisingly just the second meeting between these two players. Simon was victorious in their only meeting which took place in Lyon a couple of years ago. The Frenchman used to be one of the best counterpunchers to combat the muscular hitting of players of Medvedev’s caliber. Despite having a mixed season and at times appearing short on confidence, he has looked tough to beat this week. Medvedev though is a different player to the one Simon faced in 2017. His career has blossomed in such a short period of time. The Russian has a very formidable game with a very offensive backhand which will put the 34-year-old on the back foot for most of this match.
Prediction: Medvedev in 2
Felix Auger-Aliassime vs Feliciano Lopez
Head-To-Head: First meeting
Felix Auger-Aliassime continued his meteoric rise as tennis’ NextGen superstar with a comfortable straight sets victory over the top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals. The young Canadian is now 2-0 at tour-level against the Greek and became the youngest semifinalist at Queen’s since Lleyton Hewitt who was also 18 in 1999.
Auger-Aliassime has been massively underrated due to his inexperience on grass and the accumulation of so many matches on tour this year. That has still not deterred the 18-year-old from producing superb displays week in week out. He is still chasing his maiden tour-level title after losing his third final last week at the Mercedes Cup against an inspired Matteo Berrettini. Auger-Aliassime had not played a professional grass-court tournament prior to the Stuttgart Open last week, but he still managed to make the final there. Having started the year outside the Top 100, the youngster is now on the cusp of breaking into the world’s Top 20 following an excellent sequence of results. But can he sustain those results for the next two matches starting against a Spanish veteran?
Feliciano Lopez will stand between Auger-Aliassime and his second grass final in as many weeks. The Spaniard who has played this event for the best part of almost 15 years is partnering the returning former World No.1 Andy Murray for doubles this week. Lopez won the title at Queen’s in 2017 by saving matchpoint in the final to dampen the disappointment of losing the championship in 2014 when he spun his own matchpoint. In the buildup to his quarterfinal win over Milos Raonic, the 37-year-old had been subject of an alleged match-fixing probe at Wimbledon, accusations he strongly denies.
Much of this encounter will be centered on who has the better serving day and the young Canadian is no slouch in that department. Lopez is unquestionably the better grass court player having won three of his six ATP tour titles on the surface. But Auger-Aliassime is playing like a man possessed for the past two weeks and he has greater firepower to guide him to the final and potentially win his first title.
Prediction: Auger-Aliassime in 2
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Who do you think will win the semifinals of the ATP Queen’s Club Championships? Let us know in the comments.
