Absent the world’s top four, the ATP Rome Masters 2024 appears to be Alexander Zverev’s to lose. The German still needs to win three matches, however, the next of which will be against Taylor Fritz, who is having a surprisingly strong clay court season. Read on for our Zverev vs Fritz prediction and betting tips ahead of this quarter-final clash on Wednesday.
Zverev has been breezing through the Rome draw so far, dispatching all three of his opponents in straight sets to date. With the third seed having won here in 2017 and made the final in 2018, he’s in the box seat to take out the title. However, Zverev is still largely untested this tournament. Each of his opponents so far–Aleksandr Vukic, Luca Darderi and Nuno Borges–were outside of the world’s top 50.
Fritz will present an entirely different challenge for Zverev. The American is in red-hot form on the clay, which is unusual, given his usual proclivity for hard courts. We’re picking him to do a Daniil Medvedev in 2023 and be an unlikely dark horse for the title this week. The world No 13 is playing on house money having never made it past the round of 32 in Rome, and comes into this match off the back of an impressive win over Grigor Dimitrov.
Can ‘Claylor’ continue winning on the dirt, or will Zverev make the most of the upsets in Rome this last 10 days and take one step closer to another Masters 1000 title?
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How the Bookies View It: Close, But Zverev the Favourite
Bookmaker bet365 has the odds reasonably close on this quarter-final match. Zverev leads the betting at 4/7, while Fritz is not far behind at 11/8. Zverev continuing his straight set run in Rome is forecast as the most likely outcome, with a 2-0 victory to the German paying 6/4.
Recent Head-to-Head: Tit for Tat
Zverev and Fritz have met seven times previously on the ATP Tour, and it’s as close as can get. They’ve split the meetings 4-3, with Zverev holding the upper hand. However, Fritz won their most recent encounter at the start of last year in straight sets. This will be their first meeting on clay.
Anything Else Catch the Eye?
Fritz comes into this match off the back of a huge effort against Dimitrov. The pair played one of the tiebreaks of the season–24 points in total–which Dimitrov won. However, Fritz responded brilliantly, winning the deciding set 6-1.
On the one hand, Fritz will take huge confidence from winning a tight match like this against a top 10 player. But on the other hand, it’ll be interesting to see how he turns around for this match, having just spent almost three hours on court.
Zverev’s clay season has been underwhelming by his standards so far. The German came to Rome with a 4-3 record on the European clay swing, having lost his second match at both Monte-Carlo and Munich, before making the round of 16 in Madrid. In fact, the last convincing win Zverev had anywhere was early March, when he defeated Alex de Minaur in Indian Wells.
Zverev vs Fritz Betting Tips & Predictions
We’re going out on a limb here and backing Fritz for the upset over 2017 champion Zverev. The American is looking sharp this week, while Zverev hasn’t done anything of note for some time, despite his easy ride so far in Rome. Expect a long one again, with Fritz coming out on top.
- Fritz to win 2-1 @ 15/4
- Three sets total @ 11/10
Zverev and Fritz play last on Center Court, not before 8:30pm local time. While you’re waiting, head over to our outright winner and dark horse predictions for the ATP Rome Masters 2024.
In December 2020 we sadly 
