ATP Halle 2021 Preview and Picks

Favorites, top seeds, and dark horses to watch

Untitled Image

History

The Noventi Open or also known in the past as Gerry Weber Open is one of the eight grass court tournaments which will be played this year. The event is staged since 1993 and was re-categorized from 250 to 500 one from 2015.

Tournament was not played last year due to the ongoing Covid pandemic, but in 2019 Roger Federer won his record 10-th title of the event beating David Goffin in the final.

Both of those players are here again, and another final is not out of the question.    

Favorites and Top Seeds

We have 5 top 10 players, and the 8 seeds are packed within the top 15 in the rankings with the last direct acceptance being no.73 Corentin Moutet.

Top of the draw is where the fun is in terms of quality players in small space.

Daniil Medvedev leads the charge as the top seed and with solid hold on the no.2 rank after Nadal’s loss in the semis in the French Open. His Grass game is a bit questionable, as his best result on that surface is a SF in Queens’ Club in 2019. He is trying his luck in Halle for the first time, switching from the UK where he had chosen to play in the previous couple of years.

The Russian’s part of the draw is filled with quality players, starting with Felix Augeer Aliassime, who is having great run in Stuttgart reaching the final and not to mention 10-time Champion Roger Federer who is making his return to the grass while taking precautionary measures withdrawing before his 4th Round match against Berrettini in French Open so he could rest his knee.

After two surgeries and a year of rehabilitation with main focus being the Grass court season and the Olympic games, this came as no surprise.

Medvedev Is on collision course with Federer in the QF with the winner of that getting most probably Alexander Zverev in the Semis.

Zverev had put together great clay court season capping it with a run to the Semis at the French Open and now comes to a place he is very familiar with.

The German threw the bomb in 2016 defeating Federer here in Halle, only to lose the final to Florian Mayer and a year later lost again in the final with the Swiss taking revenge win on him. Last 2 editions hasn’t gone that well though losing to Coric in R1 and lastly to David Goffin in the QF. Alex has great serve and groundstrokes and despite his wobbly results in recent years he is due to a breakout on the green.

Untitled Image

Tsitsipas is the 2nd seed and the highest ranked player in the bottom of the draw.  The Greek is probably in the form of his life with 40-8 record on the year, titles in Monte Carlo and Lyon and a first-time finalist in a Grand Slam tournament – the French Open. He hasn’t played much on Grass though, only 21 matches to be exact having a 12-9 record. He accepted a wild card to this event and wonder how much fatigue would be a factor after such extended runs on clay and coming here without rest.

Gilles Simon has been an absolute train wreck this year with 2-10 record, but he has been able to go into good streaks on the green due to his slices, movement and style of play and could be a tricky encounter in the 2nd round for Stefanos.

Considering Goffin as one of the favorites in the bottom part due to his foot speed, ability to redirect the ball and his overall game plan playing on grass. He is a shell of himself in recent months though so hopefully a change of scenery could help him get back to the player we all know he can be.

Picks

If I had to pick a final it would be Zverev v Goffin, because as I previously said fully expect the German to have a breakout year on Grass starting with another deep run here and then better than 4th round in Wimbledon and despite some form concern surrounding Goffin I consider the Belgian as the most valuable option from the bottom part where I think Stefanos needs to be opposed from R1,R2 with his deep clay court runs and not enough time to switch his game from red to green.  

   

Untitled Image