Barcelona Open Banc Sabadel
Cameron Norrie over Pavel Kotov
The Britain is always playing and he rarely loses very early, as over the past two years, he changed a lot of his strokes. He is very strong, and he can thud his forehand and his backhand. Norrie had a fine year, upsetting a number of good people, yet right now, he has been up and down, very good, or so-so.
However, when he is playing solid, then he should be able to out-think Kotov, who is fairly young, and the 24-year-old did just reach into the semis in Morocco, upsetting Benjamin Bonzi. Clearly, he is rising a little bit, but he is out of the top 100, so he still has to really improve his shots. Norrie will beat him in two, somewhat easy, sets.
Denis Shapovalov over Jozef Kovalik
Is it time for the Canadian to stand up? Shapovalov can look terrific, with his leaping backhand, and smashing his forehand. His first serve is solid, but not fantastic, while at the net, he still needs to improve. Without a doubt, last year, he knocked out a number of very good players, but in 2023, he has done very little. This week, he will try to wake up.
The Slovakian Jozef Kovalik is 30-years-old, and in the singles, he has yet to take down the excellent players. That is why he is ranked No. 155, which mean that he is struggling to stay in the ATP. Maybe he can one day, but not now, as Shapovalov will beat him in two sets.
Banja Luka
Novak Djokovic over Luca Van Assche
Maybe it looks like that Djokovic will crush him, but Van Assche is only 18-year-old, so in the next five years, he can improve himself a tremendous amount. The Frenchman has won two small events this year, and while they did not beat any players outside of the top 100, but still, just to win it all, he certainly is rising, fast. On clay, he can mix it around and vault on the ball. While he must be so psyched to play against the 21 Grand Slam winner Djokovic, but he will likely be nervous, so the No.1 Serbian Novak will win it in two decent sets.
Stuttgart
Iga Swiatek over Qinwen Zheng
The No. 1 Swiatek has not had a great year, but she has been hurt, physically, so this week, assuming that she is healthy, she will be ready to re-set her life. Both her forehand and her backhand are so hard, and almost immediately, she will attempt to nail a winner, fast. At times, she can go too early, and she can also become upset when she cannot hit it in the right way, but if she can breathe, then eventually, she can turn it around.
Zheng is only 20-years-old and already, she is ranked in the top 25. That is not easy for anyone, so while she has not had a great 2023 season, at least last year, she upset a number of good players, such as Paula Badosa and Veronika Kudermetova. The problem though, it that while she is superfast when she is running, but at the 2022 Roland Garros, Swiatek beat Zheng in three sets. Currently, it is all about the clay, ever though in Germany, it is indoors, so it will be faster. Regardless, Swiatek will beat Zheng in three sets, just like they did in Paris.