Hubert Hurkacz vs James Duckworth Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Halle Open

Prediction published on 19/06/2024, 06:00  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 19/06/2024 at 06:30 in Tennis Predictions

No seeded players stand between Hubert Hurkacz and the Halle Open semi-finals. The fifth seed takes on qualifier James Duckworth in round two of this grass court tournament. After the exit of Andrey Rublev in round one, the winner of this match will have a quarter-final against either Marcos Giron, Matteo Berrettini or Alex Michelsen, all unseeded. Hurkacz is the world number nine but up a place in the live rankings. That's seen him equal his best ever ranking and he can go ahead of seventh placed Holger Rune if reaching the last four. In the Live ATP Race, the Pole is in 12th place with one clay court tournament won so far in 2024. Hurkacz is playing his first grass court tournament of the year, His last event was at Roland Garros where he lost in the last 16. On grass, the 27-year-old reached the Wimbledon semi-finals three years ago. His only grass court title was won in this tournament two years ago.but he lost in the last 16 in 2023. He's played Duckworth once and beat him in three sets in 2021 but that was played on a hard court. Round one saw him beat Flavio Cobolli in straight sets.

James Duckworth is 88th in the latest rankings but up to 76th in the live list. He had to qualify to get into the main draw of this tournament. His first match was against eighth seed Aslan Karatsev and he had to go to a final set to get the win, losing the middle one. It was more straightforward in his final qualifier as he beat the top seed Corentin Moutet in straight sets. That set up a first round match against wild card Joao Fonseca and he won that without dropping a set. The Australian reached the third round at Wimbledon in 2021 but has never made it to a grass court final. This is his third tournament on grass this year and last week he made it to the last eight in Stuttgart and beat struggling seed Ben Shelton. We tip Hurkacz to win this in straight sets.