No one higher than a No. 8 seed is participating in either the New York or Buenos Aires finals on Sunday. Kyle Edmund and Casper Ruud are the favorites, while Andreas Seppi and Pedro Sousa are the respective challengers.
New York Open: Andreas Seppi vs. (8) Kyle Edmund
Edmund and Seppi will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers when they battle for the New York title on Sunday. The head-to-head series stands at 4-1 in favor of Edmund, including 4-0 on hard courts (1-0) indoors. They have already faced each other once this season, when the Brit prevailed 6-3, 7-6(4) in Auckland.
Regardless of Sunday’s result, it has been an outstanding week for Seppi. The 35-year-old Italian had been to only one ATP final since 2015 (runner-up last year in Sydney) and has not won a title since 2012. He had to save a match point in round one against Damir Dzumhur and since then has also defeated Steve Johnson, Jordan Thompson, and Jason Jung. Nobody in New York was more impressive than Edmund on Saturday, when he crushed Miomir Kecmanovic 6-1, 6-4. Anything close to that same level will see Edmund’s firepower be too much for Seppi on a relatively fast indoor hard court.
Pick: Edmund in 2
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Argentina Open: (LL) Pedro Sousa vs. (8) Casper Ruud
Sousa lost in the final round of qualifying to Facundo Bagnis, but the 31-year-old journeyman from Portugal got a lucky-loser spot in the main draw and the rest is history. In fact, it has been a fortunate week for Sousa from start to finish. The world No. 145 also got a walkover from Diego Schwartzman on semifinal Saturday, which he preceded with wins over Facundo Diaz Acosta, Jozef Kovalik, and Thiago Monteiro.
A steep step up in competition comes in the form of Ruud, whose previous ATP final appearance also came at a 250-point event on clay (last spring in Houston). During last season’s Golden Swing he reached the Buenos Aires quarterfinals as a qualifier and made it to the Sao Paulo semis. Ruud is through to his second title match following defeats of Pablo Andujar, Roberto Carballes Baena, Dusan Lajovic, and Juan Ignacio Londero. Given that Sousa was less than 100 percent physically in his quarterfinal contest against Monteiro, this should be one-way traffic from start to finish.
Pick: Ruud in 2
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Seppi has reached an ATP finals last year in Sydney actually. Seppi in 3, Ruud in 2.
Reached*
oh yeah good call, thanks