Them again!

After their final in Stuttgart last week, they already find themselves in Halle in a high-level quarterfinal.

Reunions in a grass-court tournament that’s still very fast and suited to tight matches; on paper not much is going to change compared to the last match. In terms of momentum I give a slight edge to Fritz, who’s made a better impression on me this week, he’s been building up steam since coming back from injury and I feel he’s looking really, really good this week.

On Shelton’s side, things have been going well after his title, but he gave himself a scare today against Quinn; he lacked ruthlessness in the second set and scared himself, he was even a break down in the third! A bit less clutch this time but still at a good level, he’s confident and will be hard to beat again. Their match last week was tight of course, but Fritz played better overall in my opinion; that was already my takeaway at the start of the year in Dallas, but once again it was Shelton who came out on top. It looks like he manages to win despite playing worse than his opponent in their matches?

A match that should come down to details, and Shelton seems to be the better one at that little game, but I still lean towards Fritz in terms of pure tennis.