Following first-round byes, John Isner and Marin Cilic will kick off their Geneva campaigns on Wednesday. They are set for respective meetings with Lukas Rosol and Ernests Gulbis.
(4) John Isner vs. Lukas Rosol
Isner and Rosol will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers when they collide in round two of the Geneva Open on Wednesday afternoon. This marks Isner’s first appearance since Houston in early April, because he has been sidelined with both a knee injury and a general aversion to the European clay-court swing. That is not to say, however, that the 6’10” American is hopeless on the red stuff. He once beat Roger Federer in a Davis Cup rubber on the clay courts of Switzerland, pushed Rafael Nadal to five sets at the French Open, and captured a title three years ago in Houston.
Rosol advanced to the last 16 in Geneva by defeating Spanish qualifier Roberto Ortega-Olmedo on Monday. The 68th-ranked Czech is a mediocre 10-12 at the ATP level this year, including 2-3 on clay. He went back to the Challenger circuit earlier this month and suffered consecutive straight-set losses to Elias Ymer. Rosol has a lot more matches under his belt than his opponent so this one should be competitive, but Isner will likely win more free points on serve and eventually capitalize on a slumping Rosol.
Pick: Isner in 3
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Ernests Gulbis vs. (3) Marin Cilic
Cilic and Gulbis will be squaring off for the third time in their careers at the ATP level when they battle for a place in the Geneva quarterfinals. An indoor hard-court encounter went Cilic’s way at the 2007 St. Petersburg event before Gulbis prevailed 6-3, 6-4 two years ago on the clay courts of Madrid. The slow stuff has always been conducive to Gulbis’ game and he even made a run to the French Open semifinals in 2014. As bad as the 76th-ranked Latvian has been this season, he is starting to show signs of life on clay. He qualified last week in Rome and advanced to the second round before falling to eventual semifinalist Lucas Pouille 7-5 in the third set.
Like Isner, Cilic’s 2016 campaign has also been plagued by a knee injury. The 11th-ranked Croat last played in Miami and his record stands at just 13-9 on the year. He has won more than two matches at just two tournaments this season–most recently en route to the Indian Wells quarterfinals. In his current state, a rusty Cilic would much rather contest this one on grass or a fast hard court in order to keep rallies as short as possible. On what is arguably Gulbis’ favorite surface, the No. 3 seed may soon be out of Geneva and on the way to Roland Garros.
Pick: Gulbis in 3
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Cilic in three and Isner in two
Yup.
Isner in 3
Would like to think Gulbis. But, Cilic in 3.
Rosol in 3. Gulbis W.
Good pick Pieman. Only managed to watch a few snatches but Rosol was on fire. The commie was so adamant right until the last moment that Isner would win he had trouble accepting Rosol was the victor 🙂
Man I watched highlights and john had 4-2 third set tiebreak lead and missed some god awful shots on top of the net at huge points like 5-5 third set breaker. It’s bad enough Rosol won but john moves to 10-8 on the season. After such a good 2015 it’s been well below par for john. He didn’t even do well in March masters. He’s also had leads and MPs in breakers galore losing to Kei with MP in IW and losing with MP to Lajovic in buenos aires and Pella in rio. He’s played six clay matches and won two of them and three of the four he lost had two tiebreaks and he lost both and the set he won didn’t go to 6-6. It’s like dr Ivo and big john are doing the opposite of what they should this season. They’re not winning tiebreaks. They’re losing them. John had such a great season in 2015 too. And not just on US hard courts. He did really well on clay last year. He’s getting closer and closer to outside top 20. Maybe he’ll do what he did last year and shake off an early slow start and get on a roll. Problem is last year he had a bad start but got momentum on the clay with sweet 16 in MC and Rome QF in Madrid and SF in Nice. Now he doesn’t even have clay court results to give him confidence. He did lose second round at RG last year though. Maybe this year he does the opposite and backs up awful clay season with awesome French Open?? Would be awesome but unlikely. Hope he gets a good draw though. He needs some points. The rankings are really tight from 10-20 right now. For example ferrer makes Geneva semis with one more win and he is back up to #9. And both he and cilic would move to #8 with the title. By the way boy is ferrer lucky. I’m happy he’s still in but I feel bad for Istomin who had to withdraw because of a buttocks injury lol. He was up a set and break on ferrer playing superior tennis and just withdrew with injury. Like cmon man keep playing and serve your way to the win or something.
Well at least Marin was successful on his comeback from the brief injury layoff. Gulbis seemed to be playing well too. Marin was just a bit too solid as I expected he would be.
Oh my bad ferrer makes semis and he is #10. Final gives him #9. Cilic on other hand makes semis stays at 11 but moves to 10 with final and moves to 8 with title just like ferrer.
Isner stinks lol.