Ricky’s Tennis Picks For Day 2 At Queen’s Club: Del Potro vs. Shapovalov And Dimitrov vs. Auger-Aliassime

By Ricky Dimon

 

First-round action at the Fever-Tree Championships will continue on Tuesday, when Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime are taking the court. They have difficult openers on their hands in the form of Juan Martin Del Potro and Grigor Dimitrov, respectively.

 

Ricky previews those two matches and makes his predictions.

 

(3) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. Denis Shapovalov

Del Potro and Shapovalov will be facing each other for the third time in their careers when they square off at Queen’s Club on Tuesday. The head-to-head series is tied up at one win apiece, with Shapovalov prevailing 6-3, 7-6(4) at the 2017 Canada Masters before Del Potro won 6-2, 6-4 last season in Auckland.

Shapovalov is especially in need of some success prior to Wimbledon, as he has been in a significant slump since reaching the Miami semifinals. The world No. 25 is 2-7 overall in his last seven tournaments, with three first-round losses during this stretch coming at the hands of Jan-Lennard Struff. Del Potro has won multiple matches at three of his four events in 2019, including a recent fourth-round performance at the French Open. Although the 12th-ranked Argentine has never reached an ATP final on grass, he has enjoyed plenty of success at Wimbledon and he will most likely wield too much firepower for a struggling foe.

Pick: Del Potro in 2

 

Grigor Dimitrov vs. (8) Felix Auger-Aliassime

After making a run to the Lyon final this spring, Auger-Aliassime ended up missing the French Open due to a leg injury. The 18-year-old will not want to overdo it prior to Wimbledon, but his workload remains heavy–albeit for the good reason of frequent winning. Auger-Aliassime got right back at it to advance all the way to last week’s Stuttgart title match in his first-ever pro event on grass. The world No. 21 impressed in defeats of Ernests Gulbis, Gilles Simon, and Dustin Brown, but he fell to 0-3 lifetime in finals by losing to Matteo Berrettini.

Auger-Aliassime will be making a quick turnaround following Sunday’s setback to meet Dimitrov for the first time on Tuesday evening. The 28-year-old Bulgarian has plunged to 45th in the rankings, a shadow of the player that won the Nitto ATP Finals in 2017. He at least showed some encouraging signs at RG, surviving five-setters against Janko Tipsarevic and Marin Cilic before succumbing to Stan Wawrinka 7-6(5), 7-6(4), 7-6(8). Dimitrov has plenty of experience on grass and he may be able to take advantage of an opponent who one has to think must be fatigued.

Pick: Dimitrov in 3

 

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.