Geneva SF previews and predictions: Ferrer vs. Cilic, Wawrinka vs. Rosol

Stan Wawrinka and David Ferrer are one round away from a potential final showdown in Geneva between the top two seeds. They first have to get past Lukas Rosol and Marin Cilic, respectively, on Friday.

(3) Marin Cilic vs. (2) David Ferrer

Ferrer and Cilic will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers when they battle for a place in the Geneva Open title match on Friday. They have faced each other only once since 2010 and that meeting came at last year’s French Open, where Ferrer cruised into the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 victory. The 34-year-old Spaniard now leads the head-to-head series 4-1, including 2-0 on clay. He has won four matches in a row at Cilic’s expense and nine consecutive sets dating back to the 2009 Miami Masters.

A sudden stroke of good fortune on Wednesday may have been just what the doctor ordered for a struggling Ferrer, who has dealt with physical problems and is a mediocre 18-9 on the season. In his opening match against Denis Istomin, the No. 2 seed trailed by a set and a break before Istomin retired with a back injury. Given new life, Ferrer got the best of countryman Guillermo Garcia-Lopez–for the third time during this clay-court swing–via a 6-2, 6-2 decision on Thursday. Cilic has also dipped out of the top 10 (he is 11th; Ferrer is 12th) primarily due to injury issues. The 2014 U.S. Open champion is making his first appearance since Miami and it is off to a strong start with straight-set victories over Ernests Gulbis and Federico Delbonis. Ferrer is not playing with the normal consistency that would have allowed him to completely overwhelm a similarly out-of-form opponent, but the surface should help him extend his dominance over Cilic.

Pick: Ferrer in 3

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(1) Stan Wawrinka vs. Lukas Rosol

Wawrinka and Rosol will be going head-to-head for the fourth time in their careers, for the second time this season, and at the Geneva Open for a second straight year. All three of their previous encounters have gone the way of Wawrinka, who defeated Rosol 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the second round of this tournament in 2015. The Swiss also prevailed 6-2, 6-3, 7-6(3) at the most recent Australian Open to go along with a straight-set Davis Cup victory back in 2013. During that tie, Wawrinka and Rosol also went up against each other in the longest doubles match in tennis history (Rosol and Tomas Berdych beat Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli 24-22 in the fifth set as the Czechs eventually punched a ticket to the quarterfinals).

Wawrinka is looking to pick up both some match practice and some confidence in advance of his Roland Garros title defense. The world No. 4 had been just 5-5 in his last 10 matches prior to Geneva, but so far this week he has treated the home crowd to straight-set routs of Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Pablo Carreno Busta. Rosol booked his spot in the last four by taking out Roberto Ortega-Olmedo, John Isner, and Andrey Kuznetsov, dropping sets to Isner and Kuznetsov in the process. The world No. 68 is a modest 12-12 at the ATP level this year and he has even been struggling on the Challenger circuit. This is almost certainly where his run comes to an end.

Pick: Wawrinka in 2

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