This Saturday at the ATP 250 event in Stuttgart will feature a very strong grass court lineup, with defending champion Taylor Fritz, two-time Halle champion Alexander Bublik, last year’s Queen’s Club finalist Jiri Lehecka, whilst top seed Ben Shelton will complete the line-up. It should be a great day of grass court tennis in Stuttgart, with two very tight semifinal matches and every player remaining having a realistic chance of taking the trophy home. As always, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match on the slate, but who will advance?
ATP Stuttgart Semifinal Predictions
Alexander Bublik vs Taylor Fritz
Head-to-head: Bublik 4-3 Fritz
Both players have won multiple titles on this surface in their careers, including some great success on the surface last year, with Fritz being the defending champion here and Stuttgart and Bublik having won Halle. Both players really enjoy playing on the green stuff and will certainly be expecting to have deep runs at Wimbledon and, of course, to lift this trophy on Sunday.
Fritz is generally the better player of the two but he has been struggling so far this week, coming very close to losing both of his matches so far this week against opponents he was clearly favorited to beat; Bublik himself hasn’t been in great form lately, but his serve has been looking more solid thus far this week. That said, it should be a very close, heavily serve-dominated match, decided by the tightest of margins and quite possibly tiebreakers.
Prediction: Fritz in 3
Ben Shelton vs Jiri Lehecka
Head-to-head: Shelton 2-0 Lehecka
Ben Shelton has had the better of this match-up so far, beating the Czech in both of their previous matches without losing a set. That said, Jiri Lehecka is probably at his best on grass, a surface this pair have not yet met on. Lehecka will also have the benefit of a full day of rest after beating sixth seed Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals, a luxury that inclement weather in Germany has not afforded Shelton.
Indeed, the American was made to work hard in his quarterfinal contest with Sho Shimabukuro before prevailing 4-6 6-3 6-4 and also had to come through a tough three-set contest with his countryman Marcos Giron in his ATP Stuttgart opener. He should still have enough in the tank that fatigue is not a major concern, but even a slight dip could leave the door ajar and Lehecka is a good enough player to take advantage.
Prediction: Lehechka in 3
Main Photo Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images
