ATP Tournament in Halle, quarter-finals, Friday, 17.06.2022
Four semi-finalists are wanted! At the ATP Tournament in Halle, the hot final phase of the tournament is underway. We can’t complain about the lack of stars in the round of the best eight.
On Friday evening, two players who are only separated by three places in the world rankings will play in the last quarter-final.
In my Hurkacz Auger-Aliassime tip I will now explain why I would not consider a single bet as the first option. And, why I can imagine a very long, intense match at the end!
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Hubert Hurkacz in a direct duel here in Halle? Quite a few fans will probably remember last year for this pairing, because 2021 already saw this match in the 1st round.
6-3, 7-5, the Canadian prevailed then as well as in 2019 at 7-5, 6-4. So the 21-year-old leads 2-0 in the direct duel, this afternoon he now wants to follow up with the third victory. Has he played himself into a stable form in Halle?
His 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 against Marcos Giron at the start was still a bit shaky, after winning a tiebreak against Mackenzie McDonald, a 6-1 in the second set finally hinted at his full potential.
81% won points on the first serve, the only break chance of the American thwarted – there was a very clear improvement compared to the performance against Giron.
Alexander Zverev, Rafael Nadel, Novak Djokovic: In recent weeks, Auger-Aliassime has actually only failed against the absolute world elite. You can’t always speak of consistent form in his case, which is exactly what he proved a few days ago in Hertogenbosch.
He managed to beat Tallon Griekspoor (7-6, 7-6) and Karen Khachanov (7-6, 6-4) by a narrow margin, but against the eventual champion Tim van Rijthoven he was surprisingly defeated 3-6, 6-1, 6-7.
Tiebreaks seem to suit the world number nine very well at the moment, will we see one against Hurkacz? In any case, it is a fact that the German betting companies have sided with him with an average of 1,55 to 2,35.
Hubert Hurkacz has collected two results in the tournament so far that are almost identical to those of his younger opponent. He started in Halle with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over Maxime Cressy.
His 7-6, 6-3 against defending champion Ugo Humbert was a bit more confident. The Pole only allowed two breaks in total, both times winning more than 80% of the points on the first serve is strong.
Both he and Felix Auger-Aliassime are known as players who serve excellently. Just a few days ago in Stuttgart, Hurkacz had to cope with a first-round exit against Marton Fucsovics, but he won the doubles title together with Mate Pavic.
The 25-year-old lacks the last consistency this year, but when he is eliminated, it is almost always by a very narrow margin. The only person to beat him in two sets without a tiebreak since the Australian Open was a certain Novak Djokovic.
My Hurkacz Auger-Aliassime tip
Both Felix Auger-Aliassime and Hubert Hurkacz have what it takes to be semi-finalists in Halle. After my analysis, I rate both players as equally strong and in similar condition.
Whoever wins here will simply have had the better day. I can’t imagine that we will see a quick decision, because both players go over three sets too often and present their skills in tiebreaks. My tip is therefore:
We’ll see more than 22.5 games!
