John Isner will be in second-round action in Delray Beach on Wednesday, as the top-seeded American takes the court in front of the home crowd. France’s Adrian Mannarino and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan will also fight for a spot in the quarterfinals.
(2) John Isner vs. Lukas Lacko
John Isner has had a bit of a rough start to the 2019 season. He lost his opener in Auckland to world No. 50 Taylor Fritz, the first round at the Australian Open to Reilly Opelka, and again to Opelka last week in the New York semis. He should have an easier time of it with Lukas Lacko on Wednesday.
Lacko and Isner have played three times since 2014; Isner has dropped one set. The Slovakian is now ranked 133rd in the world and he went into Delray Beach with three first-round losses to show for his 2019 efforts. His first-round victory over qualifier Yosuke Watanuki marked his first tour-level win since October in Stockholm.
While Isner is still looking for the form that saw him win his first Masters 1000 event in 2018 (Miami), he should have enough in the serve tank to dispatch a struggling Lacko.
Cheryl pick: Isner in 2
Ricky pick: Isner in 2
[polldaddy poll=10244864]
(8) Adrian Mannarino vs. Denis Istomin
Amazingly, Adrian Mannarino and Denis Istomin have never played each other in an ATP-level match. When they were youngsters, they met three times on the Futures tour–but that was way back in 2006 and 2007. Mannarino, ranked 51st in the world, has had a positively miserable start to the season. He played six tournaments prior to Delray without a single match win (one of which was a Challenger event), including an ouster last week to Opelka.
He faces world No. 102 Istomin, who also played Opelka last week in New York; Istomin retired in that second-round match with a thigh injury. Istomin results haven’t been quite as poor as Mannarino’s, as he has two wins so far this year, but he’s far from in top form.
Mannarino is the better player, but with his form so badly off Istomin could have some chances. Still, the Frenchman did finally get a match win this week in the first round against New York finalist Brayden Schnur, so he may have righted the ship.
Cheryl pick: Mannarino in 3
Ricky pick: Istomin in 3
[polldaddy poll=10244865]
The “I” guys Isner and Istomin
Huge American Servebot Reilly Opelka Will Render John Isner Obsolete
There will be many more Opelka tiebreaks to come, well after Isner is gone. A new bot is rising. Ideally this one doesn’t output lines like, “I’d love to have Trump come watch me. That would be awesome. Maybe I’ll tweet at him if I win on Wednesday. I know a lot of people won’t like that, but I don’t care.” Hopefully the software update cleans that up.
https://deadspin.com/huge-american-servebot-reilly-opelka-will-render-john-i-1832730460
Oh, I dunno. You record the matches, fast forward to the tiebreaks… Really, it’s a big timesaver. Otoh, if what you really wanted to do with that time was watch tennis, well, you’re sol.
The Big Dawg in 2; Mrino in 2.