The cinch Championships tips: Grigor Dimitrov has plenty of weapons for the grass at The Queen’s Club
- Derek Bilton
- 17 June 2024
All eyes are on The Queen’s Club in West Kensington this week for The cinch Championships, an ATP 500 event dripping in history and nostalgia.
Established in 1889, legends such as John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras and Rafael Nadal have all won here down the years.
Carlos Alcaraz is the defending champion and his potential is just frightening. The Spaniard blazed to the title here in 2023 – his first on grass - before conquering Wimbledon just a couple of weeks later.
Alcaraz will be tough to beat in this field. The right arm that has given him problems for a chunk of this season now looks OK and he could be heading into Wimbledon with a nice winning streak after his mesmerising recent run to the French Open title.
The 21-year-old is an absolute phenom who is shaking up the tennis world, and evidently not short of a few quid either after reportedly signed a new Nike extension that will last for the next decade.
He showed real cojones in that Paris final after going 2-1 down in sets against Alexander Zverev, and is the man the bookies want to keep onside again here, with plenty of firms going no bigger than 11/10 on him winning.
Alcaraz kicks off against Francisco Cerúndolo, an Argentine youngster last seen giving Novak Djokovic hell at Roland Garros. Cerúndolo looks to have a big future himself, but he has no real form to speak of on grass so shouldn’t pose the reigning Wimbledon champion too many problems.
There’s no Nadal of course, who has elected to skip the relatively short grass season in order to focus on the Olympics, which will be on clay back at his beloved Roland Garros later this summer.
King of Queen's Club Andy Murray is back out there though for one more title tilt, having won here in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
His five wins here are unmatched, but the end looks nigh for the Brit who’s rarely been able to put back-to-back wins together anywhere on the Tour this season.
Murray is 33/1 with Planet Sport Bet to win the tournament, but it would take a huge leap of faith to row in with him even at those kind of odds given the recent form lines.
New British No 1 Jack Draper starts against Mariano Navone, and that’s a match he really should be winning.
Draper made the first grass-court final of his career at the Stuttgart Open – which he eventually won - and so should be confident. Draper is 14/1 to go back-to-back and win Queen’s and will have a few backers at that price.
Cameron Norrie has a tricky clash against Milos Raonic, who showed he can still play a bit on grass after an OK display in Holland last week where he made a quarter-final.
Norrie had not had a great year to be fair, but has the game to go deep this week.
2014 champion Grigor Dimitrov looks interesting. Although very much a gnarled veteran these days, Dimitrov is one of the few players who wields a one-handed backhand on the Tour. And what a backhand.
It’s a shot that just reeks of elegance but he’s also a ferocious server when in the mood and can hit through opponents when he is on.
All things being equal he may need to get past Alcaraz in the semis, but on a surface this quick in a best-of-three set shootout he would certainly not need without hope.
He had not won anything on the Tour since 2017 before winning in Brisbane earlier this year. That will have given him plenty of confidence and he has plenty of weapons on grass.
He’s fit and focused and looks a bit of value at 11/1 for anyone who feels Alcaraz is too short in the betting.
