Familiar foes Milos Raonic and Steve Johnson will face each other again on Tuesday in Basel. Vasek Pospisil and Jarkko Nieminen are also in first-round action.
Steve Johnson vs. (4) Milos Raonic
Raonic and Johnson will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers and for the third time in less than three months when they collide in round one of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Tuesday. Both of their previous encounters have gone Raonic’s way; 7-6(2), 6-2 in Washington, D.C. and 6-7(7), 6-3, 7-6(4) in Cincinnati. The ninth-ranked Canadian, however, has been dealing with a virus and lost his opening matches in Shanghai (to Juan Monaco via retirement) and Moscow (to Ricardas Berankis).
While Raonic is looking to clinch a spot in the World Tour Finals, Johnson may be inspired to finish 2014 as the second-ranked American. He registers at No. 41 in the world, one place behind Sam Querrey and six ahead of Jack Sock. Johnson owns 19 of his 26 career ATP-level match victories this season. The 24-year-old recently advanced to the Tokyo quarterfinals and pocketed one win in Shanghai before losing to No. 1 American John Isner in two tiebreakers. Raonic is rusty, but at the same time he has had plenty of opportunities to get rest and it should be easier to bounce back from a virus than from injury. Additionally, the fourth seed obviously will not have to play extended points on a fast indoor hard court in a match between two big hitters.
Pick: Raonic in 3
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Jarkko Nieminen vs. Vasek Pospisil
Heading into Basel, Pospisil has lost in the second round in his last four tournaments and in five of his last six events dating back to Cincinnati. Draws have been a factor, with Roger Federer (Cincinnati), Novak Djokovic (Beijing), and Andy Murray (Vienna) among his round-two conquerors. Pospisil is just 19-21 for the year, which started off extremely slow due to a back injury and will likely leave him unseeded for the 2015 Australian Open.
Up first for the world No. 44 is Nieminen, whom he has never faced. The 33-year-old Finn is an even 26-26 for the season, which includes semifinals in Montpellier and more recently in Kuala Lumpur. He is coming off a second-round showing in Stockholm, where he got past Albert Ramos before going down to Fernando Verdasco. On this indoor surface, Pospisil should be able to impose his firepower on his opponent and take advantage of Nieminen’s relatively week second serve.
Pick: Pospisil in 3
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