Andy Schooler’s regular Monday tennis column this week looks at the best first-round bets at Queen’s Club 2026 and in Halle.
Queen’s Club 2026: Andy Schooler’s Top Tennis Tips
Starting in Halle, this looks a very awkward opening grasscourt match of the season for eighth seed Rublev. Admittedly, he is a former finalist here but then Hurkacz is an ex-champion and one who has already taken to the lawns this year His first outing came last week in Den Bosch when he held serve throughout his defeat to Marton Fucsovics. Such a loss was disappointing but it was also very narrow and certainly nothing to panic about.
Top Tennis Tips: Andrey Rublev v Hubert Hurkacz (Tue)
If Hurkacz serves like that again here, he should have a solid platform for victory with the Pole leading 4-2 on the head-to-head. Rublev has struggled to break in that series, doing so less than 10% of the time and none of those matches took place on grass. In short, I like the 2022 winner (and 2024 runner-up) as the underdog here.
Queen’s Club 2026: Rinky Hijikata v Alejandro Tabilo (Tue)
Moving over to London – specifically The Queen’s Club in the west of the capital – and Hijikata looks the more natural player on this surface. He’s prepared to come forward, a tactic which can still work well on the grass, whereas Tabilo will look to play this match largely from the baseline. That’s not the only reason I like the Australian, though.
Another positive is the fact this will be his eighth grasscourt match of the season, having already played at the Challenger event at Edgbaston, last week in Stuttgart and the qualifying competition here, beating Dino Prizmic and Marcos Giron to reach the main draw. In the past, Hijikata has reached the last eight here and the semis in Den Bosch to show his ability of grass.
Admittedly, Tabilo has actually won an ATP title on grass, although conditions in Mallorca are considerably different to the low-bouncing courts of Queen’s Club. In contrast to his opponent, the Chilean hasn’t played a grasscourt match in virtually two years so think he could be ripe for the picking here. The bookies basically have this as a 50-50 match; I’d have Hijikata as the jolly. Ergo…
Queen’s Club 2026: Jakub Mensik v Adrian Mannarino (Tue)
For a chunky price this week, it may well be worth chancing Mannarino in this contest. I’ve written on these pages before about how he likes a pretty quick court and he gets that (in the main) during the grass season. After losing eight out of eight during a miserable clay campaign, the Frenchman returned to winning ways as soon as he hit the grass last week, beating the likes of Gabriel Diallo and Arthur Rinderknech en route to the semi-finals in Den Bosch.
While Mannarino doesn’t hit the ball particularly hard, he is prepared to come forward and volley – still a tactic that can work on a slick court, which is what we should have to a certain extent at Queen’s. His strong slice will keep the ball low, too, making things tricky for his 6ft 5in opponent. Of course, there is a danger that Mensik’s extra power could win the day but the fact is the Czech is still very much getting to grips with this surface.
The 20-year-old has won only six of 14 on grass so far with his big serve not getting the cut-through you’d expect. Indeed, he’s given up a total of 41 break points in his last four grasscourt matches. This will be his first outing on the surface this season, too, so I wouldn’t not be surprised if he was a big-name early casualty.
Queen’s Club 2026 Tips: June 15th 2026
Hurkacz to beat Rublev @ 1.9 with kwiff
Hijikata to beat Tabilo @ 1.8 with kwiff
Mannarino to beat Mensik @ 2.45 with kwiff
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