UPDATE: Bet Tennis: After going 6-for-6 Monday, Tuesday action at Delray Beach changes after Nick Kyrgios pulls out of the tourney
Update: Kyrgios pulled out of the tournament and was replaced by Daniel Galan. Abrams picks Tommy Paul over Galan in their Tuesday night match.
After a scintillating first day of Men’s tennis, the Delray Beach ATP 250 tournament finishes up the first round Tuesday with the remaining ten singles matches.
American Taylor Fritz starts the day off against Brit qualifier Cam Norrie at 11:00 am inside the Stadium. Playing simultaneously, Court 4 will see German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe compete with Lucky Loser Bernie Tomic.
The Stadium follows the Fritz/Norrie match with 2nd-seed Milos Raonic against Lucky Loser Denis Istomin as the day will be its hottest. They’ll be followed not before 2:30 pm by 4th seeded Reilly Opelka unleashing his gigantic serves against Latvian Ernests Gulbis.
Defending champion Radu Albot makes his 2020 Delray debut when he meets the dinner crowd not before 6:00 pm against American Jack Sock, followed by a match every tennis fan would like to witness when fiery top-seed Nick Kyrgios plays the featured match against American Tommy Paul.
Court 4 welcomes Swiss Henri Laaksonen, hitting forehands AND backhands against American Stevie Johnson, who somehow plays hitting only forehands. He has used that strategy to win two NCAA Men’s Singles titles, so although Johnson can’t drive a backhand and simply blocks, slices, or employs underspin, it’s interesting to watch a man compete without the ability to hit one of the only six shots used in tennis. Whether Johnson’s five shots can beat Laaksonen’s six, we’ll all find out. After that Long Islander Noah Rubin takes on Californian Jason Jung, who played his college tennis at the University of Michigan.
In doubles play Court 1 has a brunch starting time for American wildcards Nicholas Monroe/Jackson Withrow up against the interesting team of Frenchmen/American Adrian Mannarino/Mackenzie McDonald. Court 4 closes out its afternoon session with Aussies John Millman/Matt Reid playing Luke Bambridge/Ben McLachlan.
Monday was a gem, as we went 6 for 6 on singles matches, with five of those six wins coming from players who were considered underdogs. Now let’s see what we’re looking at for Tuesday; I’ve already made calls on the remaining ten singles matches here.