Andy Murray vs Alexei Popyrin Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Queen's Club Championships

Prediction published on 17/06/2024, 08:39  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 17/06/2024 at 09:05 in Tennis Predictions

Wild card Andy Murray is playing at Queen's Club for the final time. He's due to retire this year and takes on qualifier Alexei Popyrin in the first round of the Cinch Championships. For the winner, there's a second round match against either seventh seed Holger Rune or unseeded Jordan Thompson. Either Wimbledon or the Paris Olympics are likely to be the final tournament for the Scotsman. He's won this title on five previous occasions, the last being in 2016. Murray is down at 129th in the rankings and 162nd in the Live ATP Race. He's slipped down the main rankings as he's losing the points earned when winning two Challenger Tour events on grass last year. He's lost his last four matches and that includes a grass court loss to Marcos Giron in Stuttgart last week. Only five matches have been won by him on the ATP Tour this year as he winds down his career.

Alexei Popyrin is ranked 48th in the latest list and up a couple of places in the live rankings. The Australian was the top seed in qualifying and won both of his matches in straight sets. That included beating fifth seed Mackenzie McDonald for the loss of seven games. Popyrin is 82nd in the ATP Live Race at the time of writing this article. Last week saw him reach the second round of the Libema Open, beating Rinky Hijikata but then losing to Tommy Paul. He'd lost five successive clay court matches before that but did beat Andrey Rublev in Monte Carlo. He lost twice in this tournament last year. After a second qualifying round defeat, he was reinstated as a lucky loser but then lost to Jordan Thompson in round one. This could be an emotional affair but we go for Popyrin to get the win.