Atlanta R1 previews and predictions: Verdasco vs. Lajovic, Stakhovsky vs. Dodig

First-time Atlanta participant Fernando Verdasco will make his debut on Tuesday, when he takes the court against Dusan Lajovic. Ivan Dodig and Sergiy Stakhovsky are also part of the first-round schedule.

(5) Fernando Verdasco vs. Dusan Lajovic

Verdasco briefly went back to clay following a first-round Wimbledon exit (lost to Bernard Tomic in five sets), but he will be kicking off his American hard-court summer at the BB&T Atlanta Open on Tuesday. The world No. 48 is coming off a runner-up performance in Bastad, where he won four straight matches without dropping more than five games before succumbing to fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Verdasco is a decent 22-15 for the season, which is highlighted by a title on the clay courts of Bucharest.

Lajovic has been a busy man since Wimbledon (also lost a five-setter in the opening round–to Dustin Brown), bouncing around from Davis Cup, to the ATP Tour, and to the Challenger circuit. The 70th-ranked Serb went 1-1 during singles action in a Davis Cup quarterfinal loss to Great Britain, reached the semifinals in Kitzbuhel, and advanced to the quarters of the Biella Challenger. This ends a streak of nine consecutive clay-court matches for Lajovic, who is not as well-rested as Verdasco.

Pick: Verdasco in 3

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Sergiy Stakhovsky vs. Ivan Dodig

Dodig and Stakhovsky will also be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers on Tuesday. Their only previous encounter came two years ago on the hard courts of Dubai, where Stakhovsky prevailed 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 6-2. Like Verdasco, Stakhovsky will be playing a third ATP event on three different surfaces dating back to Wimbledon. The 89th-ranked Ukrainian fell to Marin Cilic in the Wimbledon second round before losing right off the bat in Umag on his least favorite surface (clay), to Andrej Martin. Just 7-10 at the ATP level this year, Stakhovsky has not yet won back-to-back main-draw matches.

Although Dodig lost early at last week’s Rogers Cup in singles (to Borna Coric), he will be making a quick turnaround because he captured the doubles title with Marcelo Melo. Such results are nothing new for the 31-year-old Croat, whose doubles victories in 2016 (25) more than triple his singles total (seven). That being said, some of Dodig’s recent setbacks were respectable; he lost to Tomas Berdych in a fourth-set tiebreaker at the All-England Club and to Coric 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in Toronto. A relatively confident Dodig has a favorable draw in Atlanta and should be able to start taking advantage.

Pick: Dodig in 3

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