Queens Open: Fabio Fognini vs. Marin Cilic 6/16/21 Tennis Prediction

Eighth seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy will face unseeded Croatian Marin Cilic in the Round of 16 of the 2021 Queens Open. The match is scheduled to be played on Wednesday June 16th, 2021 at 11:30am EST.

Fabio Fognini is the eighth seed here at the 2021 Queens Open and despite having a long and very successful career on the ATP Tour, the Italian has played less than 40 matches in total on grass. That number is shockingly low for a player of his caliber and that stat plus the fact that he has been in terrible form lately do not bode well for his chances in this match here against Marin Cilic. When he is in form, Fognini is one of the most talented and dangerous players in the world, but we have not seen that talent on display in quite some time. He was stretched to the limit in the First Round here against Yen-Hsun Lu, who is ranked outside the top 600 in the world. The Italian will have to be much better here against the Croatian Cilic, who is in fine form at the moment.

Marin Cilic is currently ranked #37 and is currently in fantastic form at the moment, winning his first ATP Title in three years last week at the Stuttgart Open. The big serving Croat is always a tough customer on this surface with that huge weapon, as well as his big groundstrokes. He seemed a big fatigued in his opening round win over Sebastian Ofner, edging through a match that was surprisingly close given his form. He has played a lot of matches in a short period of time and it remains to be seen how much he has left in the tank here, but he still enters this match against the inconsistent Fabio Fognini as the strong favorite to reach the Quarter-Finals here at the 2021 Queens Open.

This will be an interesting match between the two ATP Tour veterans, but it is one that I expect Marin Cilic to win. While he is clearly not at 100% after his exploits in Stuttgart, he is the much better grass court player and is in much better form than his opponent Fabio Fognini at the moment. His fatigue may make it closer than it should be, but I still expect him to dominate this match and advance to the Quarter-Finals here at Queens as he prepares for a deep run at Wimbledon.