Problem is that if he goes through to the play-off stages he might have to play Rudlev - who won the said Championship in 2020. The problem is that Rudlev - after beating Tsitsipas in the semi - is in the final in Amsterdam tomorrow and it is not clear how he will get to Qatar for his first game - likely to be on Tuesday.
Rublev also now has won 19 TPA 500 matches in a row and it will be 20 of he wins tomorrow. That makes him hard to oppose in Qatar,
Problem is that if he goes through to the play-off stages he might have to play Rudlev - who won the said Championship in 2020. The problem is that Rudlev - after beating Tsitsipas in the semi - is in the final in Amsterdam tomorrow and it is not clear how he will get to Qatar for his first game - likely to be on Tuesday.
Rublev also now has won 19 TPA 500 matches in a row and it will be 20 of he wins tomorrow. That makes him hard to oppose in Qatar,
Rublev has won the ABN AMRO Final and is now equal with Federer in winning 20 PTA 500 matches in a row, The next PTA 500 series is the Qatar Open starting tomorrow, He is going to Qatar tomorrow and his first match is on Wednesday in a tournament he won last year, He may meet Federer in that series.
The seeds for the Qatar Championship are as follows:-
1 Thiem
2 Federer
3 Rudlev
4 Shapovalov
5 Bautista-Agut
6 Goffin
7 Wawrinka
8 Coric
The above means that Thiem, Rublev, Bautista-Agut and Wawrinka is in the top half of the draw - while Federer, Shapovalov, Goffin and Coric are in the bottom half of the draw, That means that Federer does not really have strong opposition to get through to the final - the ronly really difficult match could be against Shapovalov. +
Neither Federer nor Ruplev or Thiem will play today - their first matches are only tomorrow, since the top 4 rated players have byes in round 1.
Thiem will play Karatsev - who was a semi-finalist in the Australia Open and Ruplev will play Gasquet tomorrow,. Federer will play Daniel Evans (England) ..
The fourth rated player - Denis Shapavalov (Canada) will play Vasel Pospisil (Canada).
The only SA player in the Tournament - Lloyd Harris - will play Stan Wawrinka today.
The matches scheduled for tomorrow are as follows :
Top half of the draw
Dominic Thiem vs Aslan Karatsev
Roberto Bautista-Agut vs Alexander Bublik
Marcos Fucsovics vs Lloud Harris
Andrey Rudlev vs Richard Gasquet
Bottom Half of the Draw
Roger Federer vs Daniiel Evans
Nickoloz Basilashvili vs Malek Jaziri
Denis Shapovalov vs Vasek Pospisil
Taylor Fritz vs David Goffin
The real surprise result was Harris beating Wawrinka. I am convinced that the latter as at the end of a good more than a decade long career.
So what is going to happen today in the matches to be played:\-
Thiem vs Karatsev
Despite the fact that Karatsev did very well in the Aussie Open and even won a game frim Djokovic serve I do not think he can beat Thiem . The latter had an injury problem in the WC and also the PTA World Cup series and if he is over that problem he should easily beat Karatsev.
Bautista-Agut vs Bublik
Bublik played very well in the Amsterdam Open and that makes me unsure about his chnces to win here - a 50-50 game. I think that Bublik might just be surprised winner,.
Fucsovics vs Harris
Reaching the final and putting up a good performance making life quite difficult for Rublev indicates that Fucsovics is a better and more comopetitive player than his rankings indicate, The fact is that Harris beat Wrawrinka - does not count for much - so my money is on Fucsovics beating Harris,
Rublev vs Gasquet
Rublev goes through to the quarterfinal because of a walkover.
Federer vs Evans
If Federer cannot beat Evans he should retire from playing professional tennis - Federer to win the match easily
Basilashvili bs Jaziri
Has not seen enough if those two players to make a call - but Basilashvili is the possible favorite to win this one
Shapovalov vs Pospisil
Two really nice guys from Canada playing each other - but Shapo should win this one.
Fritz vas Goffin
In the Australian open Fritz took Djokovic ti a five setter and I think if he repeats that form he should beat the in-form Goffin
If the predictions are correct the quarterfinals should be between the following:-
Thiem vs Bautista-Agut
Rublev vs Fucsovics
Federer vs Basilashvili
Shapovalov vs Fritz
This is not the Federer whim we so admire as a tennis player. He struggled badly against badly against Evans - the 29 ranked player in tennis beating him 7(10) - 6(8), 3-6, 7-5.
He is lucky that his next player he has to play is the weakest player in the field - not in the top 50 - but after that he has to play either Shapovalov (the number 12 ranked player) or Frotz who took Djokovic to a 5-setter in the Australian Open.
Thiem also got a bad fright from Karatsev - whose claim to fame was him reaching the semi's in the Aussie open as a qualifier where he was not disgraced in his loss against Djokovic - who won the first set , but Thiem win the other two sets with relative ease.
So the quarterfinals will be between the following players:-
Thiem vs Bautista-Agut
Neither Thiem nor Bautista-Agut is in good form and it is difficult to assess ho will be the winner ultimately. However, bearing in mind that the players Thiem played against and wn in the EOYT in November - Nadal and Djokovic - I believe that he should be the favourite to win;
Rublev vs Fucsovics
Rublev is the inform player in the series, This year Rublev played in 14 matches this year and won in 13 of those. Hos only loss was against Medvedev om the Australian Open in which match he suffered badly from dehydration.
Interesting enough - as Rublev playing Fucsovics in the quarters would be the second time the two meet within a week - the two were finalists in Amsterdam on Sunday, In that game Fucsovics put up a brave display in the first set - but Rublev still won the trophy in 2 sets.
Federer vs Basilashvili
If Federer does not win this match 6-1, 6-1 I will be surprised.
Shapovalov vs Fritz
Looking at recent results a prediction of a winner is impossible. or near to it. Only looking at the PTA rankings Shapo should be the winner, but he is not wining
My forecast is consequently as follows:-
Thiem to beat Bautista-Agut
Rublev - walkover
Fr itz to beat Shapovalov
Federer to beat Basilashvili
What happened in Qatar this week must really be unique in the history of tennis. Let me be explicit - Rublev will be going into the semi-final without playing a single match in the series.
So how did it happen?
* In the case of most tournaments - but not the Majors and the EOYC - the top rated 8 or in this case 4 players do not play in round 1 of tournaments. In the case of the Qatar tournament Rublev (rated 3) was given a bye in Round 1.
* The first match Rublev was supposed to play was against Gasquet , but never took place since Gasquet could not play and he ended up with a walkover.
* The quarterfinal round match was supposed to be against Fucsovics - the player Rublev beat in the final in Rotterdam on Sunday - and who beat Harris in the game yesterday, but now cannot play in the semi. Another walkover,
Weird, but true.
Both Federer and Thiem committing Hara Kiri as a cause of losing, The only remaining rated player is Rublev (3).
So here we are at semi stage with the matchups being as follows:-
Rublev vs Bautista-Agut
Fritz vs Basilashvili
I cannot believe it - a player who struggled and was lucky to be in the quarterfinal beat Federer 3-6, 6-1,7-5. This guy rated as the no 44 player who seldom makes it into the play offs in any TPA series - beats Federer with relative ease. I think it is time for Federer to call it a day and quit professional tennis before he damages his reputation any further. He was below par in both games he played in and now this - unbelievable.
So who do I think will be in the final:-
Rublev vs Fritz
The reasons for the above is as follows:-
* Rublev is in deadly form and although I could not find any evidence of direct games between him and Bautista-Agut - both played Thiem in recent games, In his last two meetings between Thiem and Rublev the latter beat him with ease om two sets apiece. Bautista-Agut beat Thiem yesterday - but in a game where both players struggled for supremacy Bautista-Agut whon in three sets with the scire 7-6,3-6 and 7-5 - ie narrowly, Rublev is in deadly form and had no difficult matches to contend with in this series as described elsewhere - the latter will have an advantage over his opponent,
* Fritz was the player who forced Djokovic into a five set match in the Aussie Open amd hos form is mucj better than tghat of Basilashvilli in this series as well.
Not playing in any games before the semi must have had a serious detrimental effect on the performance of Rublev today. He was not what he usually is - a fighter.