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It will be an outstanding grass-court matchup — one that would be no surprise to see in the Wimbledon quarterfinals later this summer depending on the draw — when Taylor Fritz and Alexander Bublik battle on Saturday for a place in the BOSS Open title match.
Fritz has been less than 100 percent physically this season, but the grass-court swing should be just what the doctor ordered. The ninth-ranked American has been incredible on this surface in recent years. Half of his 10 career ATP titles have come on the green stuff, including three in the past two seasons. Fritz has also reached at least the quarterfinals in three of his last four trips to Wimbledon, including the semifinals last summer. So far in Stuttgart he has defeated Martin Landaluce 6-7(4), 7-5, 7-6(3) and Mattia Bellucci 5-7, 7-5, 7-5.
Bublik has captured two grass-court titles in Germany (both in Halle, including last summer) and is angling for a third. The world No. 11 also earned a first-round bye as the No. 3 seed and then beat Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2 and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 7-6(5), 7-6(3).
Saturday marks the eighth showdown between Fritz and Bublik, with the Kazakh leading their head-to-head series 4-3. However, Fritz dominant their only previous grass-court contest 6-3, 6-2 at the 2022 Eastbourne tournament.
Fritz has pulled out two extremely tight matches so far in Stuttgart, which is especially impressive given that he has not seen much court time in recent months due to knee tendinitis. The second seed can be expected to keep improving as he gets more and more matches under his belt, so look for him to survive another close one. And count on the quality being high.
Pick: Fritz in 3