ATP tournament in Stuttgart, quarter-finals, Friday, 14.06.2024
The fans in Stuttgart are dreaming of a German winner, but isn’t the competition at the Boss Open a little too strong? In any case, two of the top favorites for the title took each other out of the running in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Both have already played close matches at Killesberg, which took a lot of energy. Will that have an effect on the result? In my Tiafoe Draper tip, I’ll tell you why I’m going for your tiebreaker here
The title favorite wants to get back to the top! Frances Tiafoe showed his best side in 2023 and won the tournament. The US American is not in the best shape at the moment and knows he has to improve a lot.
At the French Open, he was defeated by Denis Shapovalov in the second round, having previously beaten a certain Mattia Bellucci, who is certainly not known to everyone, after a very tough battle.
The last time Tiafoe won two matches in a row was at the beginning of April, which shows just how good his form is. In total, it’s hard to believe that he only managed this twice in 2024!
The 26-year-old has slipped to 28th place in the world rankings, and it wasn’t all that long ago that he was scratching at the top 10. He almost didn’t manage to get off to a successful start in Stuttgart either.
He didn’t have the crowd on his side against Yannick Hanfmann, in the end he wasn’t the better player, just the luckier one. 7-6, 7-5, the result couldn’t have been much closer.
The key to victory: he was able to fend off all eleven break chances he gave Hanfmann, so a single break was enough for him. His last five matches, all of which were interesting, all involved a tie-break.
Speaking of close results and tiebreaks: when Tiafoe won the final in Stuttgart a year ago, he also had to push himself to his limits. 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 against Jan-Lennard Struff, here too it was neck and neck until the end
Tiafoe no longer enjoys the full confidence of the bookmakers either, with odds of 2.50 to 1.50. And this despite the fact that his opponent is twelve places behind him in the world rankings (28th to 40th).
Tiafoe and Draper have only met once before, in Paris in 2022, when the American won outright. Jack Draper has already made two appearances in Stuttgart, but was this exactly how he had envisioned them?
He beat Sebastian Ofner 7-6, 7-6 in the first round and won 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 against Marcos Giron a little later. Two close victories, so he is in no way inferior to Tiafoe
He only conceded one break, winning over 85% of his points on his first serves. After all, he is performing better in Stuttgart, where he has never competed before, than he did in Paris.
He lost to Jesper de Jong in five sets right at the start. He survived two consecutive matches for the first time since the BMW Open in Munich. Who was the last man standing back then? Taylor Fritz, a US-American of all people.
At 1.93 meters, Draper is a very strong server who serves left-handed. He scored 17 aces in his two matches on the Neckar, so Tiafoe will probably know what to expect
My Tiafoe Draper tip
Can Frances Tiafoe get back to his old successful days? The American has been out of form for some time now and only just made it through to the Stuttgart opener.
Jack Draper has struck me in a similar way; he too has probably lost some of his strength. In this respect, in a match that is shaping up to be close, I can only bet on the following:
The first set will be decided in a tie-break!
