THE RACQUET There are lots of GIFS & images in The Racquet. You may need to give it a bit of time to load depending on your Wifi/4g. I promise it's worth it 😅 SPOILER FREE ZONE 🙅‍♂️ If you don't want to see todays scores yet, and instead want to catch up with the highlights first, stop here. Here are links to todays match highlights. Some may get removed.



Federer vs Kudla



Kyrgios vs Cilic



Djokovic vs Chardy QUEENS & HALLE - SEMI-FINAL RESULTS 🎾 QUEENS: Featured Matches:

Cilic d Kyrgios 7-6(3), 7-6(4)



This match was determined by 1-2 points, in each tiebreak, out of a total of 142. Unsurprisingly both were secure on serve (neither faced a break point) for the 1st set, but for for the first time this week Kyrgios' level took a dip in a tiebreak. Cilic was just too solid and put more returns and first serves in play to go up a mini break that he never relinquished. The 2nd set saw Kyrgios brilliantly save 2 break points at 3-3, which pushed the match into another breaker. In almost a carbon-copy of the 1st set, Cilic went up a mini break with some impressive returning and then just never looked back, pinging serves that Nick had no chance with. This match was just a case of Cilic being the more mature/focused player when it mattered. Nick faced far more pressure situations on his own serve than he had in his earlier matches this week, which evidently gave him less freedom and free points to play with in the breakers.



Djokovic d Chardy 7-6(5), 6-4



As of 4-4 in the 2nd set Chardy was on a streak of 40(😳) service games won in a row. That Novak broke him to go up 5*-4 was a good indication of how well Chardy has been serving and 1-2 punching, as well as how great Novak is currently returning. Djokovic absolutely feasted on Chardy's 2nd serve, winning 57% of points on it. Novak's own serve was impeccable today, facing 0 break points and avg'ing 83% 1st serve points won for the match. He also somehow won 90% of his 2nd serve points in the 2nd set, probably thanks to him realising that Chardy forgot to learn how to backhand earlier in his career.



HALLE:



Featured Matches:

Federer d Kudla 7-6(1), 7-5



The story of Rogers week is him winning matches despite not playing his best. Played a shaky first set, breaking early and then getting broken straight back. But in the tiebreaker Fed turned it on, looking more like the player we saw in Stuttgart, only losing one point with some much improved serving and returning (88% 1st serve points won). It's clear that Halle's conditions don't suit Feds game anywhere near as much as Stuttgart or Wimbledon, the grass is a bit slower and uneven, and any baseline exchanges tend to be a bit of a struggle as a result. Just as in his last few matches, Federer struggled in the 2nd set. Kudla was the better player overall, creating 5 BP to Federer's 1 and probably should have converted one of his BP's at 4-3. Fed saved them all and Kudla played his only poor service game of the set at 5-5 to get broken. Federer's 1st few matches at Wimbledon will likely be far more instructive of form than this week.



Also:

Coric d Bautista Agut 2-3 - Retired Looked like a hip/groin injury. Bad luck for RBA. Hope he's ok for Wimbledon. INTERVIEW/PRESS TL;DR 🗣 Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka were drawn as 1st Rd opponents in Eastbourne next week. Winner plays...Kyle Edmund. Absolutely brutal draw for a 250.



- Murray leads their H2H 10-8.



Stan on what he saw of Murray at Queens:



“For the first match (vs Kyrgios) I think he was for sure moving, playing well, knowing that he's been away for a year."

Source



Projected Eastbourne 1/4 Finals:

(Top)

Schwartzman/Harrison

vs

G. Muller



(Bottom)

Shapovalov

vs

Edmund

Full draw Federer post-Kudla match:



- "Can't be getting broken like this (1st set.)"

- "Played a great tiebreaker."

- "Expecting to play tiebreakers at the moment."

- "Kudla better from the baseline for parts of the match."

- "Playing a lot of matches right now, missing practice a little bit."

- "Have time to rest and practice next week."

Source

Novak's plan for playing Cilic:



- "Two racquets. One in the left hand, one in the right. Hopefully it's going to surprise him."

Source



"It's been a while that I haven't played for the title so it's definitely a very special moment for me, especially considering what I've been through in the past year or so."

(On court interview)



Novak on how long he wants to play:



- "I’m 31 on the paper, but I’m 19 in the real sense." - "50, 60, 70 years old (joking). I don’t know. And I don’t want to put any limit or any number to it. I will play as long as I feel like playing and as long as I have, you know, support from up there and from down here, you know. So hopefully I can have many more years, because I truly enjoy playing this sport."

Source SHOTS OF THE DAY 😮 Roger making mincemeat out of a decent body serve. Novak with some ridiculous court coverage and then the touch to finish this cross court in a full slide. At this point I'm convinced Nick is just hitting Tweeners to mess with his opponents. Given what Cilic did with that easy put-away, it's working.

Classic open-stance, Novak backhand pass 🔥 TOMORROW'S OOP ⏰ 🔥 = match to watch



Queens (1pm Start):



Centre

Cilic vs Djokovic (H2H 14-1) 🔥



Preview: The H2H doesn't make for great reading for Cilic but he won their last meeting, on indoor hard court in Paris, as Novak was starting his tailspin at the end of 2016.



Both come into this match serving particularly well (both at 83%+ 1st serve points won in past 2 matches) but Cilic edges the serve battle overall with more aces and less points given away on serve throughout the week. Novak narrowly has the upper hand on return points won (48% & 33% in past two matches vs 40% & 23% for Cilic) but he's facing arguably the strongest server in the draw tomorrow, in the form of Marin. This match will come down to two things: 1. Can Novak give Marin trouble on serve? 2. If not can he serve well enough to put the pressure on Cilic in the nearly inevitable tiebreaker(s).



Prediction: Cilic in 3.









Halle (1pm Start):



Stadion

Federer vs Coric (H2H 2-0) 🔥



Preview: Coric may still have nightmares about that match vs Fed in Indian Wells earlier this year. Despite losing from a set and a break up, that match will have given him belief vs Roger.



Coming into Halle, Coric was 2-9 lifetime on grass and had admitted pre-tournament that he found the surface difficult to adjust to. Federer on the other hand had just won Stuttgart in dominant fashion, and looked set to crush the Halle field with ease. What happened since then is surprising: Coric went on a beat A. Zverev, Basilashvili, Seppi and RBA (ret'd) in straights while Roger has struggled (relative to Stuttgart), dropping a set to Paire and donating service games to Ebden/Kudla. This match will likely be decided by which version of Fed's serve shows up. Coric has returned well this week, avg'ing 44% of return points won, but if Roger manages to slightly improve his 1st serve in % on previous matches, it becomes hard to see how Coric is going to do much damage. If that is the case and Borna takes care of his own serve, you'd have to give a significant tiebreaker edge to Federer (65% record vs Coric's 54%).



Prediction: Federer in 3 EXTRAS... Jack Sock lost in the first round of qualifying in Eastbourne to 316th-ranked Daniel Brands. His horrible year continues:



- #139 in the live ATP race

- 5-13 record so far in 2018

- Has not won back-to-back matches this year...😳

Coric's record on grass pre-Halle was 2 wins and 9 losses. Great week for him, regardless of his result tomorrow.

Did some digging for Kyrgios' serve and return stats:



- Nick is 6th all time (open era) for service games won % at 87.6%.

But...

- 553rd all time (open era) for return games won % at 17.5%

Source



This doesn't matter so much on grass, especially if he plays tiebreakers as well he does (wins 60.2 % of all tiebreakers he plays). But it will be something he needs serious work on if he wants to have consistent success over the course of a full year.

The U.S. Open will change its Seeding structure for pregnancy leaves.

Source

Djokovic, after reaching the Queens final, is guaranteed a top 12 seed at Wimbledon (will be 10th if he wins tomorrow). Means he won't meet Fed, Rafa, Zverev or Cilic pre-QFs.



This is also Novak's first final in just under a year (Eastbourne 2017).

Current Seeds for Wimbledon (will stay like this unless players withdraw):



- 1-2 Federer/Nadal

- 3-4 Cilic/Zverev

- 5-8 Del Potro/Dimitrov/Thiem/Anderson

- 9-12 Isner/Goffin/Querrey/Djokovic (10th w/ Queen's title)

- 13-16 Berdych/Raonic/RBA/Diego

Source

Federer has made his 12th Halle final and 20th straight, grass win. If he wins tomorrow he will have title No.99, setting him up nicely for the century at Wimbledon. 💯

Great slow-mo today of the incredible recovery skills Novak has, even on grass. Moving back to the centre of the court so quickly after hitting the ball. Novak's ⚽️ skills

Source LOL 😂 Code violation, ball abuse warning Mr Federer.

#pissyfed

🤦‍♂️ Uhh... anyone else reminded of this??

Source Jack Sock checking his ATP race position. So Novak clearly touched the net here with his foot, long before the ball was dead. And yet... was convinced the point was his...

Novak and net touches. #iconicduos GAME, SET & MATCH 👋 Thanks for reading! You early subscribers (Beta testers) get access to 'The Racquet' Discord. Tap/click the Discord button below so you can give some feedback (or just spam Dolgopolov emojis 🤷‍♂️) You can also follow me on Twitter here: If you know anyone who would like 'The Racquet' here is the link to send them so they can sign up: https://theracquet.carrd.co See you tomorrow for FINALS day at Queens and Halle !