There should be plenty of entertaining action on semifinals day at the ATP Mallorca Championships. Two of the top four seeds remain in the hunt for the title in Spain, but only one will reach the final. As ever, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for both semifinal clashes, but who will book their place in Saturday’s final?
ATP Mallorca Championships Semifinal Predictions
Daniil Medvedev vs Pablo Carreno Busta
Head-to-head: Medvedev 2-1 Carreno Busta
Daniil Medvedev does not have a particularly impressive grass-court resume and has never been past the third round at Wimbledon. But he has performed creditably at some of the tour-level grass tournaments, reaching the semifinals in Eastbourne in 2017 and the same stage at Queen’s Club two years later. Either way, he has looked assured so far at the ATP Mallorca Open, beating Corentin Moutet and Casper Ruud in straight sets to reach the last four.
Pablo Carreno Busta’s record on grass has also been nothing to write home about over the course of his career. But the Spaniard, who has had a largely impressive season, has enjoyed a good week so far in Mallorca, beating Jiri Vesely – who has caused some upsets on this surface in the past – and Australia’s Jordan Thompson, both in comfortable fashion. However, he may find it hard to back that up against the Russian, with Medvedev having had the better of their rivalry so far.
Medvedev’s game is also better suited to grass than Carreno Busta’s. For a man who stands 6’6” tall, Medvedev does not have a particularly good serve, but he can use it to good effect on faster surfaces. His backhand is also a world-class shot, one that has worked well for him on the skiddy grass courts in Mallorca thanks to its relatively flat trajectory. Carreno Busta does not have the offensive weaponry to match and it is hard to see him outlasting Medvedev from the baseline.
Prediction: Medvedev in 2
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Sam Querrey vs Adrian Mannarino
Head-to-head: Querrey 3-3 Mannarino
As befitting two veterans of the tour, Adrian Mannarino and Sam Querrey have enjoyed a fairly storied rivalry, with this set to be their seventh meeting. Mannarino won the first three, starting in 2013 at the US Open, but it is the American who has won the three matches since, most recently in the first round in Vienna in 2019. He will also surely be playing with plenty of confidence after an impressive showing so far at the ATP Mallorca Championships.
In the first round, he rallied past Roberto Carballes Baena before Halle Open champion Ugo Humbert’s withdrawal handed him a place in the quarterfinals. There he got the better of third seed Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets to reach his second semifinal of the grass-court season. Mannarino, meanwhile, opened his campaign with a 7-6 6-3 win over Jan-Lennard Struff and he then advanced to the quarterfinals when Dominic Thiem was forced to withdraw with a wrist injury trailing 2-5 in the first set.
Mannarino then battled past Feliciano Lopez in three sets to make the last four. But his patient baseline game may well fall short against the power that Querrey brings to the court. The American has never been a particularly consistent performer, but when he is playing his best tennis he is a hard man to stop, particularly on fast courts, in large part due to his formidable serve and forehand. Expect him to extend his winning streak over Mannarino to four matches.
Prediction: Querrey in 3
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