Former college rivals and familiar professional foes John Isner and Kevin Anderson will face each other again on Monday in Cincinnati. Gilles Simon and Bernard Tomic are also in first-round action.
Kevin Anderson vs. (11) John Isner
Anderson and Isner will be squaring off for the 10th time in their careers when they collide in round one of the Western & Southern Open on Monday night. Isner leads the head-to-head series 6-3, having won three in a row dating back to the fall of 2012. They clashed twice in 2013, with the 6’10” American prevailing 6-2, 7-6(1) in Delray Beach and 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 7-6(2) in the Atlanta title match. Anderson had two championship points in their most recent encounter but he could not close the deal.
That has been a disturbing trend for the 6’8” South African, who is coming off a brutal quarterfinal loss in Toronto to Grigor Dimitrov in which Anderson held multiple match points. Still, he is in solid form having also reached the Washington, D.C. quarters one week earlier. These two former college stars have taken turns with success this U.S. Open Series. Isner lost his opener in both Washington, D.C. and Toronto. While Anderson fell right away in Atlanta, Isner snagged the title. It remains to be seen if Anderson can recover from his setback against Dimitrov and Isner will benefit further from a night-session atmosphere on center court.
Pick: Isner in 3
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Gilles Simon vs. (Q) Bernard Tomic
Simon and Tomic will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers on Monday. Both of their previous encounters have gone Simon’s way; 7-6(8), 6-3 last summer on the grass of Eastbourne and 6-4, 7-5 a few month later in Bangkok. Tomic, however, may finally be rounding into form just in time to turn the tide. The 21-year-old struggled physically and with his play this spring, but he captured a hard-court title last month in Bogota. Tomic is coming off a third-set tiebreaker loss to Ivo Karlovic in the Toronto first round.
Simon is by no means in great form, but he has at least started to play better since a disastrous start to the season in which he lost his opening main-draw match in six of eight tournaments. The Frenchman reached the third round at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon and he advanced one round last week in Toronto (beat Dominic Thiem, lost to Tommy Robredo). Although they stand five inches skewed (Simon is 6’0”; Tomic is 6’5”), Tomic is basically a younger version of Simon in terms of their baseline play. The Australian is also more capable of winning free points on serve. Those factors should give Tomic a slight edge in what will be a competitive affair full of long, conservative rallies.
Pick: Tomic in 3
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