Roger Federer and Gilles Simon are on a collision course for the Roland Garros fourth round. They are set for respective showdowns in the last 32 on Friday against Julien Benneteau and Sam Querrey.
(30) Julien Benneteau vs. (2) Roger Federer
Benneteau and Federer will be squaring off for the seventh time in their careers and the second time this season when they collide in round three of the French Open on Friday afternoon. Federer leads the head-to-head series by a mere differential of 4-2. Benneteau earned upset wins at the Paris Masters in 2009 via a 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 decision and three months ago in Rotterdam–also on an indoor hard court (6-3, 7-5). They faced each other last summer in the Wimbledon third round, where Benneteau was up two sets and also two points from the match only to see Federer make a 4-6, 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-6(6), 6-1 comeback. Their only previous clay-court encounter came at Roland Garros in 2008, when Federer advanced 6-4, 7-5, 7-5.
Neither man entered this fortnight in particularly stellar form. Federer is still in search of his first 2013 title and he suffered clay-court losses to Kei Nishikori in Madrid and to Rafael Nadal in blowout fashion at the Rome Masters. So far at the season’s second Grand Slam, however, Federer has made brutally quick work of qualifiers Pablo Carreno-Busta and Somdev Devvarman. Benneteau started off the year well enough, reaching the Sydney semifinals and finishing runner-up to Juan Martin Del Potro in Rotterdam. Since that performance, though, the 32nd-ranked Frenchman was 2-7 prior to his arrival in Paris. Unlike Federer, Benneteau has survived two dogfights. He beat Ricardas Berankis in a fourth-set tiebreaker then squandered all of two-set lead over Tobias Kamke on Wednesday before surviving 7-6(9), 7-5, 5-7, 0-6, 6-4.
The good news for Benneteau is that he has no fear against Federer and will take heart from their competitive past history. At the same time, the bad news for the underdog is that he has simply has not been playing well of late. Two wins under his belt are good for confidence, but tight affairs with the likes of Berankis and Kamke are not encouraging. Federer, meanwhile, has been on point this week and he generally gets even better and better as Grand Slams progress–at least until he runs into Nadal.
Pick: Federer 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-3
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(15) Gilles Simon vs. (18) Sam Querrey
Simon and Querrey will squaring off for the fourth time in their careers and for the first time in almost three years on Friday. The head-to-head series stands at 2-1 in Simon’s favor, but Querrey won their only previous clay-court meeting 7-5, 6-3 at the 2009 World Team Championship in Dusseldorf. Simon’s victories came in three sets at the 2008 Indianapolis event and most recently at the 2010 Beijing Masters.
Querrey would rather play on a faster surface, but by American standards he is quite adept on the slow stuff. He certainly has been this week. The world No. 20 is coming off straight-set routs of Lukas Lacko and Jan Hajek, in which he did not even get extended to a tiebreaker. Simon had a more difficult draw with Lleyton Hewitt in the first round but he survived 7-5 in the fifth. The 18th-ranked Frenchman improved to 25-14 for the season when he dropped the first set then triple-breadsticked Pablo Cuevas on Wednesday. With home-court advantage and a slight edge in current form, Simon should advance.
Pick: Simon in 4
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Benneteau is always tough for Fed, and you’re right, he is not intimidated by the GOAT, but I still like Fed in 3. As for Querry, I’ll be cheering for him, but I think he loses in straight.