U.S. Open R3 previews and predictions: Kyrgios vs. Rublev, Isner vs. Cilic

Nick Kyrgios is getting night-session treatment yet again at the U.S. Open, this time in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday against Andrey Rublev. John Isner and Marin Cilic are also battling for a place in the second week of the year’s final slam.

Andrey Rublev vs. (28) Nick Kyrgios

Kyrgios will be playing a third consecutive night match on a third different court when he goes up against Rublev on Saturday. First it was in Louis Armstrong Stadium, then it was in the Grandstand, and now he will be part of the show in front of 23,000 fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium. The good Kyrgios has been on display for the most part so far in New York, avoiding controversy–by his standards at least–while issuing beatdowns to Steve Johnson and Antoine Hoang. A roller-coaster summer appears to be on the way back up for the 30th-ranked Australian, who triumphed in Washington, D.C. before all aspects of his game went haywire at Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati.

Rublev is also a wildly talented player–albeit perhaps not at a Kyrgios level in that department–who has dealt with plenty of injury issues. But the 21-year-old Russian is healthy and now and making the most of it to the tune of a breakthrough summer. He made a run to the Cincinnati quarterfinals as a qualifier with an upset of Roger Federer and also advanced to the Winston-Salem quarters. Rublev stared down a tough draw at Flushing Meadows, upsetting Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round before getting rewarded with a second-set retirement from Gilles Simon. This should be a competitive and entertaining affair, but it is hard to pick against Kyrgios based on his performance through two matches and his thirst for this kind of atmosphere.

Pick: Kyrgios in 4

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(14) John Isner vs. (22) Marin Cilic

Isner and Cilic will be squaring off for the 12th time in their careers on Saturday afternoon. Cilic leads the head-to-head series 8-3, but the tide is starting to turn. Isner lost each of their first six encounters but has since compiled a 3-2 record at Cilic’s expense. The two big hitters faced each other twice in 2018, when Isner got the job done 7-6(0), 6-3 en route to the biggest title of his career in Miami before Cilic prevailed 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4 at the Nitto ATP Finals.

As those results indicate, Isner is a whole different beast at home in the United States than he is everywhere else. The world No. 14 has won an incredible 13 of his 15 times in the USA and he has reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals twice (2011 and 2018). So far this week Isner has made routine straight-set work of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Jan-Lennard Struff. Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, is through to the third round thanks to defeats of Martin Klizan (three sets) and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (four). Still, the 23rd-ranked Croat is a disappointing 17-13 this season. Isner appears to be back to his old self after missing three months with a stress fracture and these conditions should once again suit him well against an opponent who is no longer his nemesis.

Pick: Isner in 3

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