Two indoor hard-court titles are up for grabs on Sunday and only one seeded player is in the mix. Dominic Thiem is going up against Martin Klizan in St. Petersburg, while an all-unseeded clash in Metz features Gilles Simon and Matthias Bachinger.
St. Petersburg Open: (1) Dominic Thiem vs. Martin Klizan
Thiem and Klizan will be squaring off for the fifth time in their careers when they battle for the St. Petersburg title on Sunday. Klizan leads the head-to-head series 3-1, including a surprising 3-0 at the ATP level. Their only encounter since 2015 came earlier this season on the red clay of Kitzbuhel, where the Slovak scored a 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 victory. That was during Thiem’s somewhat understandable post-French Open runner-up hangover, but the eighth-ranked Austrian has suddenly turned things back around in what has traditionally been his least favorite time of year. He is 9-1 in his last 10 matches, a stretch that includes a U.S. Open quarterfinal performance and wins this week over Jan-Lennard Struff, Daniil Medvedev (in a third-set tiebreaker), and Roberto Bautista Agut.
Klizan may also be at his best on clay, but he has always been extremely capable on indoor hard courts. Two of his six lifetime ATP titles have come on this surface, including at this same St. Petersburg event in 2012 and at the 500-point tournament in Rotterdam two seasons ago. Klizan is an awesome 19-6 on the main tour in 2018 following wins this week at the expense of Evgeny Donskoy, Fabio Fognini, Denis Shapovalov, and Stan Wawrinka. The world No. 65 is an incredible 6-0 for his career in ATP finals and extending that to a perfect 7-0 mark with a minor upset would not come as a huge shock.
Pick: Klizan in 3
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Moselle Open: (Q) Mathias Bachinger vs. Gilles Simon
Perhaps no ATP final appearance in 2018 has been more surprising than that of Bachinger in Metz. The 31-year-old German is toiling away at No. 166 in the rankings and he had earned just a single ATP-level match victory this season prior to this week. Bachinger obviously had to qualify just to get into the field of 28, which he successfully did before capitalizing on an amazing draw with defeats of Jaume Munar, lucky loser Gregoire Barrere, and lucky loser Yannick Maden. That gave the underdog a shot at top-seeded Kei Nishikori, and Bachinger managed to pull off a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 upset on Saturday.
Sunday marks the third career meeting between these two veterans, and their first since 2012. Simon has taken both of their previous encounters–3-6, 6-3, 6-2 at the 2011 Bangkok tournament and 7-5, 6-2 on the clay courts of Bucharest one year later. Whereas Bachinger is competing in his first career ATP final, Simon is bidding for his second title of 2018 and the 14th of his career. The Frenchman is quietly still going strong at 33 years old, with a solid ranking of No. 39 and 27-18 match record this season–including Metz victories over Jiri Vesely, Filip Krajonovic, Richard Gasquet, and Radu Albot. Simon has the edge in every department here: current form, experience, and home-court advantage in France.
Pick: Simon in 2
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