Rinky Hijikata vs Matteo Arnaldi Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Queen's Club Championships

Prediction published on 18/06/2024, 09:33  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 18/06/2024 at 14:37 in Tennis Predictions

We'll have an unseeded player in the last eight of the Cinch Championships. Qualifier Rinky Hijikata takes on unseeded Matteo Arnaldi in round two of this ATP 500 grass court tournament. In the last eight, the seeded opponent that can be faced is the third seed Grigor Dimitrov. Hijikata is 98th in the latest published ranking list but up to 84th thanks to reaching the second round at Queen's Club. His career-high is 70th achieved two years ago. The Australian was seeded seventh in qualifying and won both of his matches in straight sets. That includes defeating Arthur Rinderknech who was the third seed in qualifying. The first round saw him take on Frances Tiafoe and it was one set all and 1-0 in the third when his opponent retired.  He's playing his second grass court tournament of the year after losing in round one of the Libema Open, a tournament he reached the semi-finals in last year,

Matteo Arnaldi caused a seeding upset in the first round. He knocked out the eighth seed Ugo Humbert. The first set was lost but Arnaldi only dropped one game in the second. He then went on to win the final set via a tie-break. That's taken him to 33rd in the live rankings so he still has a good chance of squeezing into the Wimbledon seedings. This is his first grass court tournament of the year. Grass isn't a surface he has a great deal of experience at. This is only his sixth match but three have been won. We believe he can make that four and progress into his first grass court quarter final.