Familiar foes Juan Martin Del Potro and Marcos Baghdatis will be facing each other again on Thursday in Basel. Vasek Pospisil is set to go up against big-serving Ivo Karlovic.
(1) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. Marcos Baghdatis
Baghdatis and Del Potro will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers and for the third time this season when they do battle in round two of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Thursday. Del Potro leads the head-to-head series 3-2 (all on hard courts) after winning both of their previous 2013 encounters. The Argentine prevailed 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) and 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 earlier this fall in Tokyo.
An indoor setting may be slightly more advantageous to Del Potro, who has already captured one such 500-point title this season–in Rotterdam without dropping a single set. The world No. 5, a champion in Tokyo and runner-up in Shanghai, advanced on Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Henri Laaksonen. Baghdatis is 15-21 for the year and dangerously close to plummeting out of the Top 100 at 97th in the world. The Cypriot has accounted himself well in this matchup in the past so it’s hard to expect a blowout, but the discrepancy in current form and the surface do not point to Baghdatis taking a set this time around.
Pick: Del Potro in 2
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Vasek Pospisil vs. Ivo Karlovic
Pospisil and Karlovic will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers on Thursday. Their only prior meeting came this summer on the grass courts of Newport, where Karlovic advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 victory. The 34-year-old Croat booked his spot in the Basel second round by upsetting Tomas Berdych 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(2) on Tuesday. Karlovic is 15-12 for the season and coming off a semifinal showing in Moscow.
Pospisil’s breakout 2013 campaign has stalled just a bit mainly due to a continued inability to win tiebreakers. Interestingly, he has now faced a man with the same problems in two straight weeks. Pospisil lost to Robin Haase in the Vienna second round but defeated Haase 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday in Basel. The 23-year-old Canadian is 15-16 at the ATP level this season and up to No. 40 in the world. This is a brutal surface on which to face Karlovic and Pospisil’s struggles in tiebreakers are almost sure to haunt him in this kind of matchup.
Pick: Karlovic in 3
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