This Friday at the ATP 500 event Hamburg will feature the semifinal matches, with two very intriguing matchups. With Roland Garros coming up, all four players will be looking to gain some much needed confidence and momentum ahead of the tournament, as well as a very prestigious title in one of the tour’s most traditional events.
ATP Hamburg Semifinal Predictions
Aleksandar Kovacevic vs Ignacio Buse
Head-to-head: first meeting
On paper, this is by far the less interesting semifinal of the two, not only because the winner of De Minaur vs Paul will be the clear favorite in the final, but also because, at least on paper, it seems like a clear mismatch in favor of Buse. Kovacevic isn’t known for his ability to play on clay, with this pretty much being his first significant run on the surface. He has undoubtedly had a fantastic run to get to this stage, winning five consecutive matches from qualifying, four of which in the deciding set; he even beat world #5 Felix Auger-Aliassime and has already had arguably the best week of his career so far.
That said, Buse is the far more accomplished player on clay and he is having a great week as well, with convincing wins over the likes of Jakub Mensik, defending champion Flavio Cobolli and Ugo Humbert to get to this stage. If he can keep that level, he could even dream of a first ATP career title here.
Prediction: Buse in 2
Alex de Minaur vs Tommy Paul
Head-to-head: De Minaur 5-1 Paul
De Minaur had been struggling for a while after winning the title in Rotterdam in February, but he is bouncing back nicely this week, stringing together impressive wins against very difficult opponents in Francisco Cerundolo and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to get to this stage. Meanwhile, Tommy Paul is once again proving to be the best American player on clay and will certainly be very hard to beat here. It should be an extremely close match, but de Minaur really seems to be on a roll this week and he has generally had a clear edge in this matchup.
Prediction: De Minaur in 3
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
