It will be an all-Croat affair when Marin Cilic and Borna Coric square off for the second time this season on Wednesday in Acapulco. An in-form Donald Young, meanwhile, will try to keep his winning ways going against Nick Kyrgios.
Borna Coric vs. (3) Marin Cilic
Cilic and Coric will be going head-to-head for the fourth time in their careers and for the second time this year when they clash in round two of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel on Wednesday. All three of their previous encounters have gone Cilic’s way; 6-1, 6-2 at the 2015 Shanghai Masters, by retirement after winning the first set at last summer’s Cincinnati Masters, and 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 a few weeks ago in Rotterdam.
Coric’s retirement against Cilic touched off a dismal, injury-plagued stretch in which he played only two matches in the last three months of 2016. In fact, he did win a single match since upsetting Rafael Nadal in the Cincinnati third round until beating Karen Khachanov 7-6(6), 7-6(10) in Rotterdam. The 64th-ranked Croat is 3-5 this year and coming off a 6-1, 6-1 blowout of Mexican wild card Lucas Gomez on Monday. Cilic advanced on Tuesday by holding off Buenos Aires champion Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. The third-seeded Croat is just 4-4 in 2017, but he fared decently in Rotterdam (reached the quarterfinals, lost to eventual champ Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in two tiebreakers) and looked both well-rested and motivated against Dolgopolov. Coric has always struggled against his more experienced countryman and there is no reason to think that trend will end in Acapulco.
Pick:Â Cilic in 2
[polldaddy poll=9677752]
(SE) Donald Young vs. (6) Nick Kyrgios
Young has to hope tennis’ version of March Madness–this week plus Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami–goes as well for him as February did. Last month, the 63rd-ranked American advanced to consecutive semifinals in Memphis and Delray Beach–the latter of which earned him a special exemption into Acapulco. He ousted ATP giants Reilly Opelka, John Isner, and Ivo Karlovic along the way, while also benefiting from some good fortune in the form of a Delray Beach quarterfinal withdrawal by Steve Darcis. Young basically got another free pass on Tuesday, when he took his first set against Bernard Tomic 7-6(5) before the Australian retired.
Up next for the Atlanta native is second career showdown with Kyrgios. Their only previous meeting came three years ago at the Sarasota Challenger, where Kyrgios cruised 6-4, 6-4. The 17th-ranked Australian, who has played sparingly this season in his return from suspension (5-2 record), overcame Dudi Sela 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a somewhat contentious affair on Tuesday night during which the Israeli fans were typically boisterous–much to Kyrgios’ chagrin. It is safe to assume that an American is unlikely to get as much crowd support in Mexico these days, so Kyrgios will not endure the same kind of distractions. He served at 74 percent in the final set against Sela and dropped a mere three points in his last four service games, so that bodes well for the No. 6 seed’s chances on Wednesday.
Pick:Â Kyrgios in 2
[polldaddy poll=9677751]
WWW?
The only way I can full respect a tennis forum or sports writer is if they predict correctly upsets such as todays jack sock losing and roger federer losing. If you just put betting favorites in the predictions all the time, of course your going to be right most of the time. It is the upsets that no one can expect is the real skill of sports writing and predictions.
Bro Fed losing to Donskoy and Sock losing to Nishioka when Sock is 11-1 this season and fed won AO and is therefore 7-0 is so unexpected. Almost nobody would’ve seen those coming.
why would anyone pick those to happen? That would just be idiotic.
I pick upsets that actually make sense, like Bellucci over Nishikori on clay at home in Brazil. If you picked Nishioka or Donskoy, you are certifiably insane.
??certifiably insane LOL!! And you picked Bellucci over Kei when it happened? Good pick
Ricky how does your picks W-L compare to just picking the favourite?
Even more importantly, what would be the profit/loss hypothetically of betting $100 on each of your picks.
Virtually impossible for anyone to come out ahead over the long term.
Instead, it would be more interesting to just pick a subset of matches that look like good “bets” whether they be favourites or underdogs and run a virtual betting account.
The Bellucci pick was a great one by you for example but is anecdotal. Need a larger sample size over time.
My two cents.
sam, on what basis would you have picked Donskoy over Federer when we’ve hardly seen Donskoy play to be able to assess his strengths and Fed has just won the AO? I don’t think anyone would have predicted this in their wildest dreams.
There are factors that justify donsky. Federer is getting old and He just skipped a tournament due to injury. This should be a big upset alarm already. As for Jack sock, that guy played so much tennis recently he is bound to gas out.
#2020Hindsight
Kyrgios in two and Cilic in two
Yea man, all you can do is go with the most likely outcome, which this website does just fine. Obviously, only things that can happen in this universe, happen. Federer was probably 95% to win with match point (TWICE). It just happens. If it was 100%, it wouldn’t of happened. If everything in life was 100% we wouldn’t have to watch, or do anything, really. There would be no jobs. There are so many variables. Read the comments, and votes, they pick upsets all the time.
pretty easy to pick an upset when you don’t stamp your name on it. This isn’t complicated stuff.
you should be more concerned with 50-50 matchups like Dzumhur and Granollers. Massive upsets are a total shot in the dark that no one bets on unless you get amazing odds.
Then don’t pick them. What’s the point. Stick to the ones you see as value bets and see how they do over time with virtual wagers. More interesting than W-L.
I agree with Ricky on this.
So do I.
But not much point making obvious picks then.
To be honest picking winners is just a bit of fun but I’m not into that because the matches still have to be played and in tennis there is always a chance of a comeback no matter how dire the scoreline is plus the margins of winners and unforced errors are miniscule.
I dunno. It’s just dumb. These players play way too much. I know what their mentality is. Well, I’ll just play the draw, and if I get to the quarters or semi’s, then I will bring my A game. Upsets are common in the beginning rounds. They really don’t give a shit to be honest. Goffin and Wawrinka are perfect examples of zombies that don’t really give a shit.
Tsonga too. It really makes you appreciate a guy like Andy Murray who only thinks win, win, win 24/7.
spider, listening to Fed’s post match interview, he doesn’t sound like he was nonchalant about the tournament.
Fed’s post match interview
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/video/federer-reflects-on-early-dubai-exit
anyone who has live tennis betting should take a look at the line on Cilic right now …. coric looks like he’s cracking
can you get good odds on Cilic?
I don’t have live betting available …. was more a headsup if anyone did …. at like 2-1 his he was lke bouncing around before cilic’s service game like nodding at his box like treating this like it was a crazy important moment for him …. meanwhile he had just won 6 out of 7 games …. he should have felt confident but he looked absolutely terrified ….
Cilic looking good now
yeah it’s an interesting win for him it’ll leave him feeling confident … he’s been playing so poorly lately he’s an easy lock to not cover and give up the over … this win makes his expected level a big question mark since most of his struggles have seemed mental ….