Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas celebrates after defeating Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili at the Australian Open on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas celebrates after defeating Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili at the Australian Open on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)Associated Press

Tennis: A dozen picks for matches in NY, Rotterdam & Buenos Aires

The men are playing on three continents and Neal Abrams is watching all of it

New York Open
First Round picks

Ryan Harrison over Peter Polansky
Ryan Harrison, the 26-year-old American, has put together a relatively solid, if not spectacular, tennis career on the Tour. He has the tools to be ranked much higher than his current No. 93, and with a little more time, more training, and some luck in his draws, we should see him around for a while. This may be one of those “lucky draws” for him as he takes on the 120th ranked Canadian, Peter Polansky. With a solid group of tough Canadians on the scene, both men and women, Polansky is just outside that group, and doesn’t have a high enough ranking to get into the main draws at the Grand Slams. Spending time qualifying for all his spots takes its toll, and Harrison should overcome the Toronto native, as he did in the 2013 Nice qualifying event, 7-6, 7-5.

Tennys Sandgren over Paolo Lorenzi
The outspoken, right-wing Sandgren, from Tennessee, also got a break from the “draw Gods” by being matched up against the aging 37-year-old Italian, Lorenzi. Lorenzi has been a pro since 2003 and in those 16 years has only won 103 matches: an average of a little over six per year, or one every two months. This match won’t help those stats. Sandgren is playing good tennis and should feel very comfortable on the indoor hard courts in New York, no matter how much he disagrees politically with the city’s mayor.

Sam Querrey over Lloyd Harris
Time flies. Sam Querrey is already 31, and the Las Vegas resident, who turned pro when he was 18, still has a great serve, a top-notch forehand, and not much else. The thing is, though, in today’s professional ranks, those two shots are enough to give you a fighting chance in most matches, and for Querrey has won him over $11 Million in career prize money. Those weapons alone should be enough to top the 21-year-old Harris, who hasn’t won a main draw match yet this year and boasts only 19 main draw matches in his four years on the Tour. We’ll see a lot of big serves from these guys (they’re both over 6’4”), but Querrey has too much experience and just enough weapons to top the South African.

DOUBLES

Robert Lindstedt and Tim Puetz over Lleyton Hewitt and Alexei Popyrin
I try my hardest to pick matches based on who I think will win rather than who I’d like to win. Maybe this one I let my bias get the best of me as I’d like to see almost anyone beat Australian Lleyton Hewitt, he of the big mouth and the self-serving Australian Davis Cup Captaincy. After leaving two of Australia’s best players off their Davis Cup Team because of bad blood between him and them (Nick Kyrigios and Bernie Tomic), and stating that he would insert himself into their lineup as a doubles player when needed, I’ve lost all respect for the little twerp who claims to be retired but who still disturbs all players by yelling “come on” whenever he wants to disrupt his opponents. Here in New York I’m predicting, and pulling for, the fourth seeded team of Sweden’s 41-year-old Robert Lindstedt and Germany’s Tim Puetz to take out the individually more talented Hewitt and Popyrin on form alone.

Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan over Tennys Sandgren and Jackson Withrow
The Bryans are back playing together and are predictably the top seeds here. They’ve been a team forever, and they know each other’s moves better than any other team out there. It helps when you’re twins. And their record is superlative, having together won every Grand Slam doubles tournament at least once, and having been ranked the No. 1 team in the world eight different years. Mike, who got divorced last year, but who won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open with substitute partner Jack Sock, and Bob, who is coming off hip surgery that kept him off the Tour all last year, will show their formidable team work once again here in New York. Sandgren is a good doubles player, although he is making a name for himself in singles lately. Withrow, however, is strictly a doubles player. Watch for the Bryans to assert their strengths early and often in this first round matchup.

ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
Rotterdam, Netherlands

Milos Raonic over Philipp Kohlschreiber
Is the grind of the Tour finally getting to the 35-year-old Kohlschreiber? I don’t know, but it sure looked like it last week in Montpellier, France when he got his ass kicked in the first round by Moldavia’s Rado Albot in straight sets. But even if the usually dependable German comes in playing his game, he doesn’t match up well with Raonic. Now that Raonic has some experience under his belt (the last time they played was in 2013 when the Canadian won on hard courts and Kohlschreiber won on clay) and his serve is one of the biggest weapons on the Tour, I think that Raonic is just the better player. I’d bet on Raonic moving on here, where most of the first round matches seem so even it’s hard to predict a winner.

Stefanos Tsitsipas over Damir Dzumhur
How many times do I have to lead my match predictions with something like, “Stefanos Tsitsipas is the real thing and may be our next major star”? Maybe just this one time, because if you are reading this, you already know that the man who took out Roger Federer and got to the semis at the Australian Open is something special. And although Tsitsipas, at age 20, is still getting used to the daily and weekly grind that the Tour can be, I can’t see him losing too many matches to players ranked below him. Although Dzumhur holds a career 2-1 advantage over the Greek God, I look to Tsitsipas to unleash his complete game and take out the 52nd ranked Dzumhur.

Denis Shapovalov over Franko Skugor
When the Chicago Bears’ running back Brian Piccolo passed away from cancer some 50 years ago, his teammate, Gayle Sayers, said in his eulogy, “I love Brian Piccolo.” Well, I love Denis Shapovalov. The 19-year-old 6-foot lefty is a real joy to watch play. He’s almost like a mirror image of Tsitsipas, gliding around the court as if his play was choreographed, his long blonde hair flowing behind him as if he were an ice dancer, hitting spectacular shot after spectacular shot. Skugor, on the other hand, won two matches this past weekend in the Qualies to get to match up against the young Canadian, who won two matches in the Davis Cup about ten days ago. Skugor’s wins came against Ilya Ivashka and Ryan Nijboer, neither of whom is a household name. But Nijboer beat the very tough German Jan-Leonard Struf in the same qualifying draw, so the 359th ranked Skugor must be playing well himself. Although Shapovalov is not quite polished enough yet to never lose to someone ranked below him, this won’t be one of those matches. I look for the exciting Canadian to take out Skugor here.

Stan Wawrinka over Benoit Paire
Neither of these two guys are playing their best at this time, and for both of them this draw represents opportunity. Unfortunately, only one will walk away with the much needed win. Last week in Montpellier Paire took out Evgeny Donsky in straight sets before getting absolutely crushed by the resurgent Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-0 in the second round. In the match against Berdych it really didn’t even look to me like Paire was competing, one of the worst things you can say about a pro on the Tour. Wawrinka, for his part, lost in three to Marius Copil in the first round of the Sofia Open in Bulgaria. But at least he competed. Couple that with his 8-3 lifetime record against Paire, and I’d predict the man from Switzerland, who lives in Monaco, to top the Frenchman, who lives in Switzerland.

Jo-Willie Tsonga over Thomas Fabbiano
These guys have both been on the Tour since at least 2005 and have never played. It could be that Fabbiano has spent much of that time laboring to get into main draws and Tsonga been playing against the very best in the game, week in and week out. Today, however, Fabbiano, the 29-year-old Italian is ranked No. 84 in the world, and Tsonga, who looks shockingly like the late, great Muhammad Ali, is ranked just No. 210. But Tsonga is coming off his surprising, yet convincing title in Montpellier (his 17th career championship) where he took out Ugo Humbert, Giles Simon, Jeremy Chardy, Radu Albot, and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in succession. The 5’8” Fabbiano, for that matter, won two rounds in Melbourne before falling to Grigor Dmitrov in straight sets, and appears to be playing well in 2019. But Tsonga is on a roll, and that should continue here in The Netherlands.

Karen Khachanov over Tallon Griekspoor
After Khachanov crashed and burned last week in his first match in Bulgaria against Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, I vowed never to pick him again in a match. But I really don’t see how he could lose to The Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor, ranked just No. 213. Griekspoor has only played five main draw matches on Tour prior to this matchup, and the 22-year-old is sporting a career 1-4 professional record. If Khachanov, ranked 11th in the world, doesn’t come through here then I will certainly blackball him from my picks for the foreseeable future. I just don’t see that happening.

DOUBLES

Oliver Marach & Mate Pavic vs. Ivan Dodig & Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Pick-em
There are two very compelling doubles matches in this draw, neither of which I feel comfortable picking. But these matches should represent the best doubles that the Tour can showcase so I felt that I had to mention them. Who will win? I couldn’t say, but watch it for the sheer compelling quality of doubles play, and for the inevitable Championship Tiebreaker they’ll play for the third-set, and for the match.

Karen Khachanov & Daniil Medvedev vs. Jean-Julien Rojer & Horia Tecau, Pick-em
This would be the second of the two doubles matches that are “must-see” for those who love tennis and love doubles. Khachanov & Medvedev are certainly the “name” players here, but Rojer & Tecau just may be the better team. Watch and see. Another Championship Tiebreaker should decide this match.

Argentina Open
Buenos Aires, Argentina
DOUBLES

Diego Schwartzman & Dominic Thiem over Pablo Cuevas & Marc Lopez
This match alone has caught my sincere interest, out of all the 16 first round doubles matches and 12 first round singles matches to be played on the slow red clay in Buenos Aires. First of all, there are only two Americans in the whole draw, 37-year-old Jamie Cerratani and 36-year-old Nicholas Monroe, who are both playing doubles only (not together), and don’t even show up in the singles qualifying draw. Why would they play this tournament when there is one playing simultaneously in New York City? My guess is that they figure that they can pick up some dough playing here in a draw that is less deadly than New York. But in the dirt here in Buenos Aires, who knows what can happen? In this particular doubles match, Schwartzman and Thiem are clearly both the better singles players than Cuevas and Lopez. Part of that is that Schwartzman and Thiem usually just play singles and therefore don’t have high doubles rankings, and the other part is that Cuevas and Lopez are older, have mostly relegated their earning potential to the doubles Tour, and play together often enough to be the second seeds here. But this match should be very entertaining, and I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that the diminutive Schwartzman and the dynamic Thiem can marshal their resources and take out the established team of Cuevas and Lopez. What happens in all the other matches here, including the singles, is anybody’s guess.

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