2017 ATP Hamburg Preview and Predictions
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
Hamburg is on the calendar again this year, it’s a 500 level stop, meaning making a deep run can meet quite the rankings boost.
German Tennis Championships
ATP World Tour 500
Hamburg, Germany
July 24-30, 2017
Surface: Clay
Prize Money: €1,499,940
Top 4 seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)
1: Albert Ramos (24)
2: Pablo Cuevas (26)
3: Karen Khachanov (32)
4: Gilles Simon (39)
Top Half:
Spain’s Albert Ramos should get past Leonardo Mayer, a lucky loser, and either J.L. Struff or Evgeny Donskoy, Fernando Verdasco is the favorite in the top section though. He reached the semis in Bastad and presuming he can get past a tough opening round match with Jiri Vesely, he should ease past Horacio Zeballos or wild card Daniel Altmaier.
David Ferrer just won his first title in two years, he should continue his form on clay and defeat Nikoloz Basilashvili, Federico Delbonis, presuming Delbonis defeats Carlos Berlocq, should pose trouble in round 2, but I’ll tip Ferrer. and he should also beat Karen Khachanov, who is having a great season. The Russian opens with Rudolf Molleker, making his ATP debut, then should face Aljaz Bedene, presuming Bedene defeats Rogerio Dutra Silva.
Bottom Half:
Pablo Cuevas will face Andrey Kuznetsov to start off, and I’ll back the in-form Kuznetsov to get the upset. Marco Cecchinato should be next up for Kuznetsov, Florian Mayer is also a possibility. Diego Schwartzman is the favorite for the quarters above, he opens with Andreas Haider-Maurer, a qualifier, either Cedrik-Marcel Stebe or Damir Dzumhur will follow. I’ll back Kuznetsov to reach the semis.
Everyone but Umag champion Andrey Rublev has struggled in the third quarter of the draw, Gilles Simon and Philipp Kohlschreiber have plenty of elite experience, but are not playing well, Max Marterer is a wild card, Tommy Haas and Dmitry Tursunov are aging veterans in poor form, Benoit Paire lost in the opening match of his last tournament, and Nicolas Kicker has yet to make real inroads on the ATP tour. I’ll back Kohlschreiber over Paire at home in the quarters, as Rublev should be gassed.
Dark Horse: Andrey Kuznetsov
Kuznetsov should score the early upset against Cuevas, and go as far as the final from that point.
Predictions:
Semis
Verdasco d. Ferrer
Kuznetsov d. Kohlschreiber
I can’t predict Ferrer to go back to back in consecutive weeks given his age, Kuznetsov is playing well enough to make the final, but Verdasco should be a slight favorite in Hamburg.
Final
Verdasco d. Kuznetsov
Tennis Atlantic 