Ricky’s Preview and Picks for this Week’s ATP Tennis 500-Point Events in Dubai and Acapulco

By Ricky Dimon

The Indian Wells Masters world usually be
in full pressure this week of the 12 months, however the different in 2021 is just not too
dangerous. A pair of 500-point tournaments have been postponed from February to
March, and they’ll take heart stage now. Though the Dubai discipline is lacking
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, amongst these participating are Dominic Thiem and
Andrey Rublev. In Acapulco, title contenders embody Stefanos Tsitsipas,
Alexander Zverev, and Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Dubai Obligation Free Tennis Championships
The place: Dubai, U.A.E.
Floor: Laborious
Factors: 500
Prize cash: $1,897,805

High seed: Dominic Thiem
2020 champion: Novak Djokovic (not enjoying)

Draw evaluation: Federer’s withdrawal means Rublev is the No. 2 seed in Dubai and on a collision course with Thiem for the title match. After all, each gamers have a protracted technique to go earlier than they will begin fascinated about that potential matchup. Neither one has a very tough draw, however two different Doha semifinalists are in his eighth of the bracket. Taylor Fritz and Doha champion Nikoloz Basilashvili will meet once more, this time within the Dubai second spherical following respective byes. The winner might run into Rublev within the final 16. There’s loads of depth within the different quarter of the underside half though Stan Wawrinka pulled out. Semifinal contenders in that part are Roberto Bautista Agut, Dan Evans, Jannik Sinner, Aslan Karatsev, and Alexander Bublik.

Thiem will kick off his marketing campaign towards one in every of two qualifiers
(Lloyd Harris or Christopher O’Connell) earlier than probably assembly Filip
Krajinovic. David Goffin, Borna Coric, and Kei Nishikori are potential
quarterfinal foes for the top-seeded Austrian. Elsewhere within the prime half, seeds
Karen Khachanov and Alex de Minaur have powerful respective opening matches on
their fingers with Alexei Popyrin and Jeremy Chardy.

Quarterfinal predictions: David
Goffin over Dominic Thiem, Alex de Minaur over Hubert Hurkacz, Roberto Bautista
Agut over Dan Evans, and Andrey Rublev over Marton Fucsovics

Semifinals:
Goffin over de Minaur and Rublev over Bautista Agut

Ultimate:
Rublev over Goffin. 

🎾🎾🎾🎾🎾🎾🎾🎾

Abierto Mexicano Telcel

The place: Acapulco, Mexico
Floor: Laborious
Factors: 500
Prize cash: $1,053,560

High seed: Stefanos Tsitsipas
2020 champion: Rafael Nadal (not enjoying)

Draw evaluation: To
say that Tsitsipas has an attention-grabbing draw would a gross understatement. It
begins off extremely favorable within the type of Benoit Paire after which will get a lot,
a lot more durable in an enormous, massive hurry. John Isner, for whom situations in Acapulco
are nearly excellent, is a attainable second-round opponent for Tsitsipas. The
top-seeded Greek is 2-2 lifetime towards Isner and he has the identical file on
the principle tour (far worse general) towards Auger-Aliassime, which might be a quarterfinal
matchup in Acapulco. Diego Schwartzman and Grigor Dimitrov are additionally within the prime
half of the bracket.

The opposite aspect is nowhere close to as deep, which is nice information for
Zverev and Milos Raonic. Zverev does, nonetheless, have an attention-grabbing
first-rounder towards 17-year-old Carlos Alcaraz—who’s already making a push
for the highest 100. Assuming the German can maintain enterprise and Raonic can
get previous Tommy Paul in spherical one, these two massive hitters ought to be properly on their
technique to the semis.

Quarterfinal predictions: John
Isner over Felix Auger-Aliassime, Diego Schwartzman over Grigor Dimitrov, Milos
Raonic over Fabio Fognini, and Alexander Zverev over Casper Ruud

Semifinals:
Schwartzman over Isner and Raonic over Zverev

Ultimate:
Raonic over Schwartzman

Ricky
contributes to 10sballs.com and in addition maintains his personal tennis web site, The
Grandstand. You may comply with
him on twitter at @Dimonator.