Atlanta QF preview and prediction: Kyrgios vs. Verdasco

Nick Kyrgios and Fernando Verdasco will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers when they collide again in the quarterfinals of the BB&T Atlanta Open on Friday afternoon.

Their only previous encounter came last summer on the hard courts of Montreal, where Kyrgios prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. The volatile Australian famously–or infamously–faced Stan Wawrinka in the following round, so Verdasco came close to preventing that memorable meeting from ever taking place.

Both players are ultimately hoping to prevent John Isner from capturing a fourth consecutive Atlanta title. Although this is just a 250-point tournament, the stakes are relatively high in Kyrgios vs. Verdasco because the winner will be a heavy favorite to reach the final (Yoshihito Nishioka and Horacio Zeballos are in the other bottom-half quarterfinal, while Isner is a huge favorite in the top half). Kyrgios played only one match in between Wimbledon and Atlanta (lost to Denis Shapovalov right away in Toronto), but he showed little rust in a 7-6(4), 6-3 defeat of Jared Donaldson on Thursday night.

“I haven’t played too much tennis recently, so I’m happy to be through,” the 21-year-old said after beating Donaldson. “I’ll have a tough match [against Verdasco]; I’ll need to play even better than tonight.”

Arguably no one has played better than Verdasco so far this week. The 48th-ranked Spaniard took care of Dusan Lajovic 7-6(2), 6-4 before dominating his second-rounder against Julien Benneteau 6-1, 6-3. He is now 24-15 for the season and 6-1 in his last seven matches dating back to the beginning of a runner-up performance on the red clay of Bastad.