Americans Ryan Harrison and Donald Young are underdogs in their first-round Australian Open matches on Tuesday. Harrison is facing Gael Monfils and Young is going up against Robin Haase.
Ryan Harrison vs. (25) Gael Monfils
Tuesday’s first-round action at the Australian Open marks the first time Harrison and Monfils will square off. This season has already produced all-too-familiar results for Harrison, who rarely has trouble qualifying for events but often struggles against stiffer competition. The 110th-ranked American played his way into both Brisbane and Sydney only to lose main-draw openers to Samuel Groth and Nicolas Mahut, respectively.
A healthy Monfils kicked off his 2014 in fine form, reaching the Doha title match before succumbing to Rafael Nadal in three sets. The 32nd-ranked Frenchman stayed relatively injury-free toward the end of last year, leading to a runner-up showing in Winston-Salem and a quarterfinal performance in Shanghai. He also has far more experience than Harrison, who has won only six Grand Slam main-draw matches in his career and just one over an opponent ranked better than 37th in the world.
Pick: Monfils in 4
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Robin Haase vs. Donald Young
Young is back in the business of getting direct entry into Grand Slams, currently registering inside the Top 100 at No. 91 in the world. The 24-year-old American once peaked as high as 38th in 2012 before a poor end to that season and slow start to 2013. Young recovered for strong Challenger success last fall and last week in Auckland he qualified for the main draw, advanced one round, then took David Ferrer to three sets.
Up first for Young on Tuesday in Melbourne is Haase, whom he has never faced. The Dutchman is a solid 45th in the world thanks in part to a decent fall in which he finished runner-up in Vienna and reached the Paris second round as a qualifier. Haase is 0-2 this year, having lost first-rounders to Grigor Dimitrov and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (in a third-set tiebreaker). He is not exactly a force at Grand Slams, but Young’s second-round appearance at last summer’s U.S. Open was his first foray past the first round of a major since the 2012 Aussie Open.
Pick: Haase in 5
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Harrison is now ranked 110? He’s really gone down. I am thinking that this might be a three set win for Monfils. That’s how I voted. We will have to see. I think Monfils is healthy and playing well. I haven’t seen Harrison for some time now.
I think Haase will beat Donald Young. I am surprised that Young is ranked higher than Harrison. I voted for four sets.
Young had a big (by his standards) fall. Harrison had no notable results in 2013.
Thanks for the info. I didn’t realize that Young had a decent fall.
Too bad about Harrison.
Reblogged this on Tennis Abides.
Unfortunately I wrote off Harrison about 2 years ago, I don’t see him doing anything at all with his career. I hope I’m wrong but I don’t even see him winning an atp tournament, at least anytime soon. But I think he could take a set off Monfils.