The ATP European Open is the only originally scheduled tournament still standing this week and a competitive field have travelled to Antwerp for this year’s event on the indoor Greenset hard courts.
David Goffin is the top seed in his homeland and the Belgian, an 11/2 chance, looks to have the right mix of talent and experience to go deep in the tournament.
The second, third and fourth seeds are US Open semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta, who has been performing well on slow and fast courts since the return, powerful Russian Karen Khachanov and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who is finding it tougher these days to achieve a lofty ranking. But while all are decent performers in their own right, at present there’s nobody in the field with better claims of landing the title than Goffin.
Big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic and promising young guns Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur, seeded fifth, seventh and eighth respectively, could all be troublesome. On their day they can cause problems for a player such as Goffin, who relies on exquisite touch as much as anything.
However, the hugely talented Australian De Minaur may still just lack the necessary experience to deny Goffin on an indoor court, while Raonic often finds one to beat him and may be a better outdoor performer, and slow-burner Fritz, 22/1 to go all the way, still has much to learn.
Opelka Eyeing First Round Fritz Upset
De Minaur and Richard Gasquet, who meet in a first-round clash in Antwerp, were due to contest the final of the Ultimate Showdown 3 exhibition event late on Sunday evening.
Other interesting last-32 rumbles in Belgium are Fritz versus his fellow American Reilly Opelka. The seeded player could be fully tested given Opelka upset top seed Daniil Medvedev in St Petersburg last week to earn a quarter-final berth in Russia.
Opelka looks set to start the match as the 10/13 favourite, with the seeded Fritz a 21/20 outsider.
Elsewhere, sixth seed Dusan Lajovic’s clash with Statesider Frances Tiafoe could also be closer than the rankings suggest. Tiafoe, a fine player who is always keen to learn, has been hard at it on clay, a terrain he enjoys playing on in recent weeks and should be fighting fit after some fine endeavour on the slow courts.
Tiafoe could go well this week at a decent price and the draw could open up nicely for the 22/1 chance if he overcomes Lajovic. The Maryland native would also have claims against possible last-16 opponent Dan Evans and could set up a quarter-final clash with Khachanov.
Unseeded Nishikori Poses Threat
Of the unseeded players in action in Antwerp, punters could keep an eye on former top-ten regular Kei Nishikori and promising French youngster Ugo Humbert, both of whom have shone in indoor competition in the past.
Nishikori opens against seasoned Spaniard Pablo Andujar, while Humbert takes on local wild-card Kimmer Coppejans.
Nishikori is 2/13 to take care of Andujar with the minimum of fuss and the Japanese ace could then pose plenty of problems for Dimitrov in round two and possibly Raonic in the last eight.
*All odds correct at the time of writing.
