Ernests Gulbis and Daniel Brands have taken turns disappearing from the main tour, but they will face each other in the Gstaad first round on Wednesday. Dustin Brown and Denis Istomin are on the second-round schedule.
(Q) Daniel Brands vs. (PR) Ernests Gulbis
Gulbis and Brands will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers when they clash in round one of the Swiss Open Gstaad on Wednesday. Their only previous meeting came four years ago in the final of an indoor Challenger event Eckental, where Brands got the job done 7-6(3), 6-0. The 203rd-ranked German has only eight ATP-level wins since the start of 2014, mostly being forced onto the Challenger circuit due to physical problems and poor play. Brands recently captured a Futures title on the red clay of Kramsach, Austria and he qualified for the main draw in Gstaad with victories over Adrian Menendez-Maceiras and Stefano Napolitano–the latter in a third-set tiebreaker.
The story has been a similar one for Gulbis in recent seasons: bad physical problems and even worse tennis. His ranking of No. 313 is actually far better than it was earlier in the year because Gulbis has picked up all three of his ATP-level match wins in 2017 in his last two tournaments. He reached the third round at Wimbledon with an upset of Juan Martin Del Potro in the process and he advanced one round last week in Bastad before falling to Karen Khachanov in three sets. With the Latvian at least somewhat back in gear, he should be strong enough from the back of the court to move Brands around and get the best of most baseline rallies.
Pick: Gulbis in 2
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Dustin Brown vs. Denis Istomin
Brown and Istomin will also be squaring off for the second time in their careers on Wednesday. They previously faced each other seven years ago on the grass courts of Queen’s Club, where Istomin prevailed 7-6(7), 6-4. The 82nd-ranked Uzbek has been a staple of the top 100 since then but for the most part failed to make serious headlines until he stunned Novak Djokovic at this year’s Australian Open. Since then, both Djokovic and Istomin have gone in the same direction: downhill. Istomin is just 8-13 in 2017 and a horrendous 4-12 in the main draws of ATP tournaments since beating Djokovic.
The 30-year-old at least managed to take out Lorenzo Giustino 6-3, 6-2 in the Gstaad first round, while Brown advanced with a 6-3, 7-6(3) defeat of No. 7 seed Dusan Lajovic. Brown may be at his best on grass, but he has never been any slouch on clay and is coming off a second-round performance in Bastad (beat Thomaz Bellucci, lost to eventual champion David Ferrer). As long as the 113th-ranked German serves well in this one, he should have an edge.
Pick: Brown in 2
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Brown in two and Gulbis in three