In a relatively weak Dubai draw and with No. 1 seed Grigor Dimitrov already out of the tournament, just about everyone left has realistic title aspirations. Borna Coric will try to keep his hopes alive at the expense of Benoit Paire, while Philipp Kohlschreiber is going up against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Benoit Paire vs. Borna Coric
Paire and Coric will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers when they battle for a quarterfinal spot at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday. Their only previous encounter came two years ago on the hard courts of Cincinnati, where Coric prevailed 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. The Croat has to feel good about a return trip to Dubai because he reached the semifinals in 2018 as a qualifier, and he maintained his winning ways at this event with a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Richard Gasquet on Tuesday. Coric, ranked 50th, has otherwise underwhelmed in 2018–with lopsided losses to Andrey Rublev (Doha quarterfinals) and John Millman (Australian Open first round).
A busy Paire has been playing just about every week this season and is sporting a solid 8-4 record to show for his efforts. That includes semifinal finishes in Pune and Sydney, a quarterfinal showing in Montpellier, and a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Yoshihito Nishioka on Monday. A confident Paire has a slight edge in current form and his stellar two-handed backhand may be too much for the defense of Coric, whose result against Gasquet was marred by an obvious knee injury for the Frenchman.
Pick: Paire in 3
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(WC) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. (6) Philipp Kohlschreiber
Tsitsipas owns just seven career ATP-level match victories, but it looks like his breakout on the main tour will come in 2018. Three of those seven wins have already come this season for the 19-year-old Greek, who reached the Doha quarterfinals as a qualifier and defeated Mikhail Kukushkin 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3 on Monday in Dubai. Tsitsipas comes in just four spots off his career-high ranking at No. 82 in world.
At the other end of the career spectrum, Kohlschreiber is still a decent 33rd in the rankings at 34 years old. But he has slumped of late to the tune of a 2-4 record this year. The German finally won matches in Rotterdam and Dubai (over qualifier Gleb Sakharov) after dropping his openers in Sydney, Melbourne, and Sofia. This is a big opportunity against vulnerable veteran for Tsitipas, and it is likely that youth will be served.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 3
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WWW?
Tsitsipas and Coric in three
ummm dude, did u watch the Paire v. Nishioka match? Literally have no idea how he won. Nishioka was serving for the match. No idea how Paire won. Had absolutely nothing until down 5-4. No idea how he won. Had very little accuracy.
that’s the norm for Paire
That’s True, I’m still learning. Only 2 years into the sport.
Yes, I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but Coric was one of my most confident picks. You have to watch the tournament bro. You do make some epic picks, but when I saw Paire and Struff, I immediately was suspicious. Sugita vs. Struff was a legitimate coin flip. and Coric was 80% to win the match against a dead tired confused 0 energy Paire.