Its quarter finals day on the ATP Tour at Beijing and Tokyo and by the time you read this article the action should be well underway. At Beijing top-seed Del Potro faces the talented young Serb Krajinovic, Del Potro won their only meeting this year at Miami in straight sets and I expect he will progress to the semi-finals if he produces a similar performance. Fourth seed Fognini is in great form at present after reaching the final at Chengdu last week and today he faces Hungarian number one Fucsovics for the first time and a place in Saturday’s semi-finals.
British number one and fifth seed Kyle Edmunds battled hard to reach the quarter finals after a disappointing summer so far, beating Gojowczyk and the talented young Italian Berrettini in three sets. He faces another tough test today against the in-form qualifier Serb Lajovic but he beat Lajovic in their two previous meetings back in 2016 and if he can raise his game to that level again he should make it through to the semis. The biggest shock of the second round at Beijing occurred yesterday when veteran Jaziri knocked out second seed Sascha Zverev in three sets.
At Tokyo second seed Anderson is the highest ranked player remaining and he faces a tricky one today against veteran and eighth seed Gasquet, who leads the head-to-head 6-4 and their head-to-head on hard courts is 4-3 to Gasquet. Third seed and home hope Nishikori who has been in great form faces NextGen star Tsitsipas for the first time and it’s a tough one to call as both players have been in great form. Sixth seed Raonic faces a tough test against the in-form qualifier Medvedev for the first time and Raonic will need to raise his game if he’s going to win as his form this year has been disappointing overall by his standards. Finally, NextGen star Shapovalov, who knocked out seventh seed Chung and veteran Wawrinka, faces German Struff, who took out top-seed Cilic. This will be there first meeting and if Shapovalov maintains this week’s level of form he should progress to the semi-finals.
Selections:
Gasquet Win vs. Anderson (13/10)
