Tennis - ATP & WTA Calendar: Almaty, Stockholm, Antwerp, Ningbo... Discover this week's tournaments and our favourites!
by Cydias Aujard | by Cydias Aujard
There's no shortage of tennis predictions to be made this week, given the line-up on offer! With 3 ATP tournaments on the schedule, there's no reason to get bored. Here's our analysis of the week's major tournaments.
ATP 250 Almaty
Kazakhstan is the venue for the first ATP 250 hard court tournament in Almaty. In this tournament, American Frances Tiafoe is the number 1 seed and the only representative of the current top 20 in men's tennis.
Eliminated in the second round of the Shanghai Masters 1000 by Roman Safiullin and also in the first round of the Tokyo tournament by Brandon Nakashima, the American should be keen to seize one of his last chances of the season to win a tournament this year. Frances Tiafoe has performed very well in the other hard court tournaments and came very close to the title at Cincinnati, where he was runner-up to world number 1 Jannik Sinner.
He also made it 5 wins in a row at the US Open Grand Slam in September, beating 2 top 20 players Ben Shelton and Grigor Dimitrov to reach the semi-finals against Taylor Fritz. With no one ranked higher than him in this tournament, despite the presence of Karen Khachanov whom he could meet in the semi-finals or Alejandro Tabilo who could face Francisco Cerundolo in the semi-finals, he is the favourite to win this tournament for the first time and add the title he is missing on this surface.
Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, who is also in Almaty, is not the favourite for this tournament, as he has lost more matches than he has won on hard court this season and has not managed to win a single tournament this year. Eliminated in the first round in Shanghai by American Zachary Svajda, ranked 131st in the world and a qualifier, the Frenchman, seeded 8th, is in the same section of the draw as American Frances Tiafoe and is therefore unlikely to progress beyond the quarter-finals in this tournament.
Our ATP Almaty prediction: Frances Tiafoe wins the title 6.00
ATP 250 Stockholm
Last year's champion, France's Gaël Monfils, will not be present this year to defend his title against Pavel Kotov. Instead, number 1 seed Andrey Rublev will be the favourite to win this year's title.
Winner of a hard court title this season in Hong Kong at the start of the year, the Russian has since been a quarter-finalist in Washington and above all a finalist in Montreal as number 5 seed against Alexei Popyrin. There is no doubt that if he reaches the final in this tournament, Andrey Rublev should not miss out on another opportunity to add a title to his season and should be more motivated than ever not to lose this time in the final. Having lost to Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight of the US Open, the Russian has a real revenge on his hands against the Bulgarian, who is seeded third in this tournament and could be his opponent in the final.
The other two seeded players, Casper Ruud and Tommy Paul, are also in the running for this tournament, which the American knows well having already won the title in 2021, but his current performances, like those of the Norwegian who has lost 3 consecutive matches, should not be enough to compete with the other contenders.
Our ATP Stockholm prediction: Andrey Rublev wins the title 5.00
ATP 250 Antwerp
In this ATP 250 tournament, we travel this time to the Belgian city of Antwerp for the 9th edition of the European Open. Last year, it was Kazakh Alexander Bublik, the No. 3 seed at the time, who won the title in a 2-set final against France's Arthur Fils. This year, the No. 1 seed is Australian Alex De Minaur, but his current performances on hard courts do not make him the favourite for final victory. In fact, Alex De Minaur has only played one tournament on this surface since March, despite a fine performance in the quarter-finals of the US Open. Since then, he has had no further success, reaching the last eight in Indian Wells and Miami.
No. 2 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas hasn't fared much better recently, having been knocked out in the last eight in Shanghai or having failed to get past the first round in Tokyo, where he was stopped by qualifier Alex Michelsen, and having lost in the first round of the US Open to Thanasi Kokkinakis, ranked 79th in the world.
The favourite for the tournament, Tsitsipas has won just 4 of his last 10 matches.
So it's the number 3 seed, Felix Auger-Aliassime, who should be the focus of attention. The 2022 winner of the Antwerp tournament, seeded No. 2 against the American Sebastian Korda, has yet to win a title this season and should be looking to give it his all in this familiar tournament to clinch a title before the end of the season. Having beaten a top 10 player, Casper Ruud, in just 2 sets in Cincinnati, the Canadian could meet Alex De Minaur in the semi-finals and should be able to win their duel to reach the final and show that he is as good as he was in 2022.
Our ATP Antwerp prediction: Felix Auger-Aliassime wins the title 6.00
WTA 500 Ningbo
We now head to the Chinese city of Ningbo for the 2nd edition of this WTA 500 hard court tournament. Last year, it was Tunisia's Ons Jabeur who won the title for the first time in Ningbo against Russia's Diana Shnaider. Absent this year, it is certain that the title will go to another player and it should come down to Zheng Qinwen, the tournament's number 2 seed, and Barbora Krejcikova, the number 4 seed.
The Italian Jasmine Paolini, seeded number 1, and the American Emma Navarro, seeded number 3, have both withdrawn. They were among the big favourites, however, as they were both in the same part of the draw.
Zheng, who has a favourable draw, is our favourite. The Australian Open finalist and Olympic champion is at ease on the surface and is coming off a final in Wuhan, losing to Sabalenka in 3 sets. In this tournament, which is at a lower level, we expect to see her go all the way this time.
Our WTA Ningbo prediction: Zheng Qinwen wins the title!
All the images in this article are from the IMAGO website.
