Top two seeds Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori will continue their Halle campaigns on Friday. They are set for respective quarterfinal meetings with Florian Mayer and Jerzy Janowicz.
(1) Roger Federer vs. (PR) Florian Mayer
Federer and Mayer will be going head-to-head for the sixth time in their careers when they collide in the quarterfinals of the Gerry Weber Open on Friday. Federer has won all five of their previous encounters, including two in Halle. The Swiss won their first-ever meeting 6-2, 6-4 at this event 10 years ago and he prevailed 6-4, 7-5 in 2012. They most recently faced each other on the clay courts of Hamburg in 2013, when Federer got the job done via a 7-6(4), 3-6, 7-5 decision.
It is hard to see Mayer turning the tide given that he is really just now coming off a long injury-induced absence. The 31-year-old German had been sidelined by a hip issue from the 2014 Miami Masters until Monte-Carlo this spring. He went 1-5 at the ATP level during the clay-court swing and even struggled in two Challengers. Out of just about nowhere, though, the world No. 487 has defeated difficult opponents in Jan-Lennard Struff and Steve Johnson this week in Halle. It does not help Mayer that he has to go up against Federer, who is a two-time defending champion of this event. The second-ranked Swiss has advanced so far by taking out Philipp Kohlschreiber (in a third-set tiebreaker) and Ernests Gulbis. This should be a straightforward affair for the top seed.
Pick: Federer in 2 with no tiebreakers
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Jerzy Janowicz vs. (2) Kei Nishikori
Current form and ranking obviously suggests this will be one-way traffic, but the surface is what could make things interesting. Janowicz is a former Wimbledon semifinalist (2013) and his huge serving and flat groundstrokes work well on grass. The 51st-ranked Pole is just 15-11 on the season and coming off a second-round Stuttgart loss to Philipp Kohlschreiber, but he booked a spot in the Halle quarterfinals by beating Pablo Cuevas and Alejandro Falla.
This is the first career meeting between Janowicz and Nishikori, who dismissed Dominic Thiem 7-6(4), 7-5 in his opener before getting the best of Dustin Brown 7-5, 6-1 on Thursday. The world No. 5 is 36-8 for the year with titles in Memphis and Barcelona and a pair of Grand Slam quarterfinal showings at the Australian Open and French Open. Grass is by no means his best surface, but Nishikori’s ball-striking and overall level is good enough to take down Janowicz on any court at the moment.
Pick: Nishikori in 3
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