Stan Wawrinka and Nick Kyrgios are one round away from what would be a headline-stealing semifinal showdown in Dubai. They first have to get through respective meetings with Philipp Kohlschreiber and Tomas Berdych on Thursday.
Nick Kyrgios vs. (3) Tomas Berdych
Berdych and Kyrgios will be squaring off for the third time in their careers and for the third time already this season when they collide again in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Thursday. They just faced each other last week in the Marseille semis, with Kyrgios cruising 6-4, 6-2 en route to his first career ATP title. The 20-year-old Aussie had previously lost to Berdych 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 during third-round action at the Australian Open.
Two days after his Marseille triumph, Kyrgios did not appear to have any interest in lasting long in Dubai. He dropped his opening set to Martin Klizan without putting up much of an effort, but the Slovak took his foot off the gas pedal and Kyrgios recovered for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. Given new life, the world No. 33 hammered Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday. Berdych has advanced with straight-set victories over Joao Sousa and Thomas Fabbiano. Needless to say, the competition level is now ratcheting up in a major way for the eighth-ranked Czech. After his out-of-sorts performance against Klizan, Kyrgios–who held all 47 of his service games last week–fired 11 aces without double-faulting against Kukushkin and did not face a single break point.
Pick: Kyrgios in 3
[polldaddy poll=9322604]
(8) Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. (2) Stan Wawrinka
Wawrinka and Kohlschreiber will be going head-to-head for the third time overall and for the first time since all the way back in 2008 when they battle for a place in the Dubai semifinals on Thursday. The Swiss won each of their two encounters eight years ago; 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 at the French Open and 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) on the indoor hard courts of Madrid. A scheduled 2015 meeting in Metz was denied when Wawrinka pulled out due to injury.
The No. 2 seed, who is coming off a Marseille quarterfinal loss to Benoit Paire, has defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky (7-5 in the third set) and Franko Skugor (7-5, 6-1) so far this week. In addition to relatively lackluster form at the moment, Wawrinka also seemed to be dealing with heavy legs in the second set against Skugor. Kohlschreiber heated up with a quarterfinal finish in Sofia and a semifinal run in Rotterdam. The 28th-ranked German has maintained his fine form in Dubai with straight-set defeats of Borna Coric and Marseil Ilhan. An upset looks like it could be in the cards.
Pick: Kohlschreiber in 3
[polldaddy poll=9322605]
[polldaddy poll=9322607]
Leave a Reply