Fellow Americans Jack Sock and John Isner will continue their French Open campaigns on Wednesday. Sock is set to up against Dustin Brown, while John Isner hopes to snag a third-round spot at the expense of Kyle Edmund.
(23) Jack Sock vs. (Q) Dustin Brown
Sock and Brown, who are both coming off five-set wins in rain-delayed matches, will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers during second-round action at the French Open on Wednesday. Having advanced to the fourth round last year, Sock has to hope a return to the scene of such success gets his game going again. The 25th-ranked American is just 14-9 on the season and he came relatively close to getting bounced out of this event right away. His fifth set of an opener against Robin Haase was delayed from Sunday to Monday because of rain, with Haase have taken both the third and the fourth. Following a night to regroup, Sock came back out to prevail 6-2 in the decider.
Brown led Dudi Sela two sets to one and 2-1 in the fourth before their match got suspended. Sela eventually forced a fifth upon Monday’s resumption, but the 116th-ranked German ended up surviving 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4. It was the first main-draw victory at Roland Garros of Brown’s career, and it also marked his first-ever win in five sets. Brown was perhaps aided by confidence inspired by a run through qualifying during which he picked up a trio of wins in straight sets. The underdog’s flashy, high-risk style of play makes him a dangerous opponent on any surface, but he would prefer to contest this one on grass or a fast hard court. On clay, too many rallies being dictated by Sock’s heavy topspin forehand will likely prove to be Brown’s undoing.
Pick: Sock in 4
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(15) John Isner vs. Kyle Edmund
Like Sock, Isner’s flying of the American flag in Paris almost came to a swift end in round one. Against John Millman on Monday, Isner trailed by a set and a break in the second with the Australian serving at 5-4–and even at 5-4, 40-0. The 15th seed managed to break back and eventually saved seven set points before stealing the set 14-12 in a tiebreaker. Play was suspended by darkness before Isner returned on Tuesday to complete a 6-7(4), 7-6(12), 7-6(7), 7-5 victory. It marked the world No. 17’s first win since Houston in early April, in part due to a knee injury and also because of inactivity stemming from Isner’s well-documented disdain for long stretches away from the United States.
Up next for Isner is a showdown against Edmund, whom he has never faced. The 21-year-old Brit successfully qualified for last week’s tournament in Nice but suffered a nasty fall in round one against Alexander Zverev and retired with an ankle injury. Edmund was not hampered by it on Monday, when he fought past Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6(4), 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-1. The world No. 82 now owns two career Grand Slam match victories and both have come at the French Open (the other against Stephane Robert last spring). This, however, will be Edmund’s first career second-round match at a major because he withdrew prior to facing Nick Kyrgios in 2015. A big edge in experience goes to Isner, who does not mind playing on clay and who will benefit from having won such a competitive first-round match to end a brutal string of tough losses.
Pick: Isner in 4
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The Americans in four
Go USA!
First of all I can’t believe Isner is even in the second round. He was down 6-7 4-5 with millman serving for two set to love lead up 40-0 on his serve!! And John won five straight points to break back and then saved more set points in the breaker that he won 14-12. Boy was Big John pumped up after that. Of course he had two more sets to go today when they continued play and john was able to get it done. Pretty awesome stuff from the American.
Isner should easily survive the upcoming encounter given the Edmund’s poor experience against big servers.
Read our full preview: http://dotennis.net/news/french_open_preview_and_prediction_john_isner_v_kyle_edmund_.html
I’ll take both of the Americans….Sock in 3 and Iz in 3.
#EmptySeats
1. People Take Dinner Time Very Seriously.
For the last two days, the highest seed scheduled for the day on Court Philippe Chatrier has been the last on — Andy Murray yesterday and Serena Williams today — both of whom were set to start their matches at 7:00 pm local time.
But, by the time the match was to start, the stands were less than half full. While the chilly weather may be partly to blame, the refrain I heard the most around me was that it was time for dinner, and that was that. Granted, not having a night session may mean that day ticket holders are just too tired to spend the night there as well, but it’s hard to imagine such an exodus anywhere else. But knowing this, it is puzzling that the schedule continues to feature big names at a point in the day when people are leaving for dinner.
http://www.changeovertennis.com/roland-garros-learned/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Flashback to hawk.
The author of this article (published on May 30, 2012) bemoanes that spectators weren’t interested in watching Fed’s, the 2009 champion, match at RG:
http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/153134.html
(P.S. The author or editor couldn’t resist to include a lie about Rafa into the article: “Rafael Nadal… STILL gets booed by sections of the locals.” It’s not true! This is an example how fake stories are created.)
Most of the hospitality guests are far more interested in the restaurant and bar than actually being courtside.
If they do decide to sit in the stands they are the people who hold up play by arriving late, saying hello to all the people they know and then finally sitting down.
RG are pretty strict about holding hoi polloi ticket holders back until a changeover.
I find it odd that there is rarely a match preview on Andy Murray. I guess being No.2 in the world is less important than Sock and Isner’s progress. just saying.
Happy to see both guys win, Isner looked much better today. Yesterday he fought hard, glad to see him pull through! By the way, Millman’s fist pumping every 30 seconds was annoying! He did have good things to say about the match though and I’m glad he taking some positives from it.
Yeah I noticed that. He’s usually less pumped and more subdued. Maybe karma came back at him for that? Lol