Novak Djokovic will be back in Cincinnati action when he faces Tennys Sandgren on Tuesday. A quarterfinal spot is also at stake between David Goffin and Jan-Lennard Struff.
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (WC) Tennys Sandgren
Djokovic’s first few days at the Western & Southern Open have not exactly been straightforward, but he has lived to see another one. The top-ranked Serb withdrew from doubles citing neck pain and then took a medical timeout for the issue during his singles opener on Monday night but managed to scrape past qualifier Ricardas Berankis 7-6(2), 6-4.
Up next for Djokovic on Tuesday is a third career meeting with Sandgren, who trails the head-to-head series 2-0. The 55th-ranked American got blown out 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 at Wimbledon in 2018 but was more competitive during a 6-1, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-2 loss at the U.S. Open a few months later. Sandgren is coming off Cincinnati wins over Lorenzo Sonego and Felix Auger-Aliassime, so he has to be feeling good about his game. With Djokovic not in dominant form and perhaps not 100 percent, this is actually a winnable match for Sandgren. He may not capitalize, but it should at least be competitive.
Pick: Djokovic in 3
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Jan-Lennard Struff vs. (7) David Goffin
Goffin and Struff will be squaring off for the fifth time in their careers on Tuesday. In three previous hard-court encounters, Goffin has never dropped a single set (7-0 in those sets, 3-0 in matches). But that was before the late-blooming Struff became the player he is today and the German dominated their 2019 match on the clay courts of Barcelona via a 7-6(3), 6-3 decision.
The five-month coronavirus hiatus has apparently done nothing to halt Struff’s momentum from the best year of his career in 2019. Ranked one spot off his best-ever mark (currently 34th), Struff punched his ticket to the Cincinnati third round by beating Alex de Minaur and Denis Shapovalov. Although both Struff and Goffin are excellent players on all surfaces, a lightning-quick hard court should give the big-serving underdog more of an advantage. He will be able to keep points short, which is what you want to do against a counter-punching expert like the Belgian.
Pick: Struff in 3
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