It’s an all-American derby in the ATP final in Eastbourne. American No. 1 and third seed in Eastbourne Taylor Fritz is looking to win the event a second time, winning his first ATP title here in 2019. French-American Maxime Cressy is into his second final of the year, looking for his first main-tour title. Cressy is one of the more formidable serve-and-volleyers on the tour today and will certainly look to send a message ahead of his upcoming Wimbledon debut against Felix Auger-Aliassime.
ATP Eastbourne Final Prediction
The 24-year-old Fritz had a rough start to the grass season, running into in-form lower-ranked opponents. The American suffered opening-round losses to Tim Van Rijthoven in Den Bosch and Jack Draper at Queen’s Club. It has been a different story for Fritz in Eastbourne though, where he broke his three-match losing streak with a second-round win over Thiago Monteiro. Before reaching the final, the American also pulled off a pair of impressive wins over Alexander Bublik and Alex De Minaur.
Ever since Cressy broke through to the main tour at the beginning of the season in Australia, people have earmarked him as a dangerous player on grass. The American’s huge serve-and-volley game earned him his first final at Melbourne Summer Set 1, which he began in qualifying, as well as a fourth-round run at Wimbledon. The clay season was quiet as expected but it carried over to the start of the grass season as well as Cressy suffered tight first-round losses to Dominic Stricker and Hubert Hurkacz in Stuttgart and Halle respectively. Similarly to Fritz, Eastbourne has been where Cressy broke through, beginning with a big upset over Reilly Opelka, who won just four games. From there, Cressy became the British slayer of Eastbourne, taking out Dan Evans, Cameron Norrie, and Jack Draper.
This will be the first meeting between these two big servers. Cressy has shown in wins over Reilly Opelka here or John Isner at the Australian Open that he can win matches over big servers. Fritz will be a different challenge as he is a much better player from the baseline. This match will really be about the serving performance from Cressy as he will need to be close to flawless to win. Fritz should expect to win rallies going over six shots and if his serve is also delivering, he will be near impossible to beat.
Prediction: Fritz in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
