Familiar foes Tomas Berdych and Stan Wawrinka will face each other again on Sunday in Rotterdam. Another title–in Memphis–will be decided by Kei Nishikori and Sam Querrey.
(3) Tomas Berdych vs. (4) Stan Wawrinka
Berdych and Wawrinka will be squaring off for the 16th time in their careers when they battle for the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament title on Sunday. Wawrinka leads the head-to-head series 10-5 after winning five in a row at the Czech’s expense dating back to the spring of 2013. The Swiss most recently dominated 6-1, 6-1 during round-robin action at the World Tour Finals last fall.
In addition to being a more respectable 5-7 against Wawrinka on either hard courts or carpet, the good news for Berdych is that he is in incredible form this season. The world No. 7 is 13-2 with a runner-up showing in Doha, a semifinal appearance at the Australian Open, and wins this week over Tobias Kamke, Andreas Seppi, Gael Monfils, and Gilles Simon. Wawrinka has advanced by defeating Jesse Huta Galung, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Gilles Muller, and Milos Raonic. Rotterdam’s No. 4 seed seems to have improved with each match, but his level has not matched that of his upcoming opponent. The fact that Berdych is the defending champion will only add to his already sky-high confidence.
Pick: Berdych in 3
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(1) Kei Nishikori vs. (2) Kevin Anderson
Speaking of defending champions, Nishikori is aiming for a third consecutive title at the Memphis Open. The Japanese star has been far from dominant this week, but he still managed to book his spot in the final. His road includes three-set wins over Ryan Harrison, Austin Krajicek, and Sam Querrey–the latter in a final-set tiebreaker.
Up next for Nishikori is Anderson, against whom the top seed is 1-0 lifetime. Their only previous encounter came in 2010 Washington, D.C. qualifying, with Nishikori prevailing 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. Anderson cruised past Sam Groth and Steve Johnson earlier in the week before overcoming Donald Young 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday. The 6’8” South African is 0-5 in his last five ATP finals and all five have progressed to three sets. Nishikori, on the other hand, is 6-2 in his last eight title matches. In what is sure to be a close one based on current form, Nishikori should have a clear edge in the pressure-packed moments.
Pick: Nishikori in 3
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who ya got?
Ricky- You’re reasoning says Nishikori but you’ve put Anderson in 3 as your pick. Typo? Nishi in 3 sounds about right. I’ll go for Berdych in 2. You were near perfect with yesterdays matches if I recall correctly, good job!
Your*
Nishi in 3
Berdych is playing great tennis this year. He has raised his level. On the other hand Berdych is mentally not strong in my opinion. He always has a tendency to lose the important matches in tournaments. On the other hand we have Wawrinka. His tennis this week was not great, but still good enough to beat some good players like Raonic. Wawrinka has the ability to raise his level in the final. Furthermore Wawrinka has definitely got the mental edge. He delivers under pressure and thats something that Berdych still has to prove. My pick is Stan in 2.
Berdych often delivers…at smaller events like this one. Solid post, tho.
Wawa and Special Kei for the wins is the call.
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Agree with Durham. As is too often the case, Tomas started strong but lacks the belief that Wah Wah now has resulting in costly unforced errors at critical moments which is why Wah Wah will win the match as predicted.
Good tight match..good number of winners and aggressive play from both
Serving at 50% not going to get it done.
Commies to Tomas fans.
Congrats to augusta(nimal)08.
The conspirator strikes again!
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Tell me @augusta(nimal)08, I am wondering why someone named @octobrina10 who claims to be a Rafa fan sees the need to have “Fed was honored to be the first member of the club ’20 losses to Rafa’. Vamos!” on their signature on EVERY post they make on a tennis forum?
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Wah Wah now moves to No. 2 in the YTD Singles.
augusta(nimal)08 will be happy. http://www.dreamwidth.org/userpic/475837/102338
Hats off to the (Swiss) bull!
I just watched the Berdy/Stan match on the tennis channel. I have to agree in part with Durham. However, as Ricky said, Berdy has delivered in the smaller tournaments. I thought that Stan raised his level of play in the second set and kind of took over from that point on. Berdy did not seem to have the answers. But even after he was down two breaks in the third set, he did keep fighting and got one of them back. Stan played better and was mentally stronger in coming from behind.
I also saw Kei’s semifinal match against Querrey. The match has started on the tennis channel and I would absolutely go with Kei for the win in three sets.
I just wanted to be clear that in my previous post I meant that the final has started on the tennis channel. It sounds like I meant that they were showing the semifinal again.