Ricky’s preview and picks for the Cinch Championships at Queen’s Club

As usual, the Queen’s Club field is stacked. The 2024 installment includes Carlos Alcaraz, Alex de Minaur, and Grigor Dimitrov just to name a few.

Here are my picks as the road to Wimbledon heats up in earnest.

Cinch Championships

Where: London, England  
Surface: Grass  
Prize money: 2,255,655 Euros  
Points: 500  

Top seed: Carlos Alcaraz  
Defending champion: Carlos Alcaraz 

Alcaraz is coming off his first French Open title, so head heads into Queen’s Club with plenty of momentum. He also has a title defend after triumphing on the lawns of London in 2023. A repeat won’t be easy. Also in the field this week are De Minaur, Dimitrov, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton, and Holger Rune.

Up first for Alcaraz is Francisco Cerundolo, who extended Novak Djokovic to five sets in the Roland Garros fourth round. Jack Draper, who won the Stuttgart title on Sunday, is a potential quarterfinal opponent for the second-ranked Spaniard. Dimitrov, Paul, and Ugo Humbert are also in the top half of the bracket.

On the other side of the draw is Andy Murray, who is presumably playing in this historic event for the last time. Murray will kick off his campaign against Alexei Popyrin before possibly facing Rune in the second round. De Minaur, the ‘s-Hertogenbosch champ, could run into Shelton in the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinal picks: Tommy Paul over Carlos Alcaraz, Grigor Dimitrov over Ugo Humbert, Taylor Fritz over Holger Rune, and Alex de Minaur over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 

Semifinals: Dimitrov over Paul and De Minaur over Fritz 

Final: De Minaur over Dimitrov 

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