Top eight seeds Milos Raonic and Dominic Thiem will battle for a place in the Cincinnati semifinals on Friday. Meanwhile, an all-unseeded affair pits Steve Johnson against Grigor Dimitrov.
(4) Milos Raonic vs. (8) Dominic Thiem
Raonic and Thiem will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers when they clash in the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Open on Friday. The latter stages of Masters 1000 events are exactly where both players belong these days, although Thiem’s status heading into Cincinnati was uncertain at best. The ninth-ranked Austrian is an awesome 49-15 for the season, but his momentum has stalled of late due to injury and fatigue. Thiem kicked off this week with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over John Millman before getting a retirement from a red-hot but injured Gael Monfils.
It was the Frenchman who ended Raonic’s hopes as the crowd favorite in Toronto, but the Canadian is on track for greater success in Cincinnati. Well rested after skipping the Olympics, Raonic beat John Isner 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in the second round before holding off Yuichi Sugita 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 on Thursday. The world No. 6 will likely have too much firepower for an opponent who has a tendency to play too defensive and too far behind the baseline.
Pick: Raonic in 2
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Steve Johnson vs. Grigor Dimitrov
Dimitrov and Johnson will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers and for the second time this summer when they meet again on Friday. Johnson leads the head-to-head series 2-1 after prevailing 6-7(6), 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-2 in the Wimbledon third round a few weeks ago. They also faced each other at the All-England Club last year, when Dimitrov got the job done 7-6(8), 6-2, 7-6(2). Their only previous hard-court encounter came last season in Washington, D.C., where Johnson won a back-and-forth 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 affair.
By virtue of reaching the Cincinnati quarterfinals to go along with John Isner’s second-round loss to Milos Raonic, Johnson will be the top-ranked American man when the new rankings come out next Monday. It is well-deserved, too, for the world No. 23. He won his first career ATP title earlier this summer in Nottingham, advanced to the Wimbledon fourth round, reached the semifinals in Washington, D.C., and made a quarterfinal run at the Olympics while also securing the bronze medal in doubles with Jack Sock. Dimitrov is also heating up just in time for the U.S. Open with consecutive Masters 1000 semifinal appearances. The 34th-ranked Bulgarian has equaled his Toronto performance thanks to wins this week over Gilles Simon, Feliciano Lopez, and Stan Wawrinka. A slight edge to current form goes to Johnson, who enjoyed a ton of crowd support against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Thursday and will benefit from the same on Friday.
Pick: Johnson in 3
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Milos seems determined to do things the hard way, if today’s match is any example, so I will say Raonic in 3 over Thiem.
After being wrong about Johnson I will go with him for the win over Dimitrov, also in 3.
Johnson over grigor in three and I’m gonna go a bit risky here and take thiem for the win in three
Raonic had hip issues yesterday …dont think he’ll beat Thiem unless he is playing his A game…which looks unlikely.
I didn’t know that Raonic had hip issues. I would have picked him over Thiem, but if he has any kind of injury then that changes things.
I think that I will still go with Raonic in 3 sets.
I am picking Johnson for the win over Dimi in 3 sets.
So Milos had, to use his favourite word, an “efficient” match over Thiem. He will likely play Murray next.