Roger Federer will headline the Istanbul semifinal lineup when he takes the court against Diego Schwartzman on Saturday. Grigor Dimitrov and Pablo Cuevas are also battling for a spot in the title match.
(1) Roger Federer vs. (8) Diego Schwartzman
Federer and Schwartzman will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers and for the second time this season when they clash in the semifinals of the inaugural Istanbul Open on Saturday. Both of their previous encounters have gone Federer’s way; 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 at Roland Garros in 2014 and 6-4, 6-2 earlier this spring on the hard courts of Indian Wells.
Schwartzman, though, is enjoying the peak of his career right now. The 22-year-old Argentine registers five spots off his best-ever ranking at No. 63 in the world and six of his nine ATP-level match victories have come this season. So far this week he has taken out Blaz Kavcic, Jurgen Melzer, and Santiago Giraldo. Federer followed up a first-round bye with wins over Jarkko Nieminen (6-2, 7-5) and Daniel Gimeno-Traver (7-6(3), 6-7(5), 6-3). The second-ranked Swiss, a third-round Monte-Carlo loser to Gael Monfils, has clearly not yet found his footing on clay in 2015 so this is not going to be one-way traffic.
Pick: Federer in 2 losing more than 10 games
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(3) Pablo Cuevas vs. (2) Grigor Dimitrov
Dimitrov reached the Monte-Carlo quarterfinals last month, but he did not have any wins over particularly in-form opponents and his week ended with a blowout loss to Monfils. After compiling a modest 12-7 record through his first 19 matches, the 11th-ranked Bulgarian declared that his season would begin in Istanbul. If that is the case, it is off to a strong start. Dimitrov had no trouble disposing of Andrey Golubev and Ivan Dodig to book his spot in Saturday’s semifinals.
Up next for Dimitrov is a second career meeting with Cuevas, whom the 23-year-old defeated 6-0, 6-3 on the indoor hard courts of Paris last fall. Thanks to a clean bill of health, Cuevas enjoyed a career resurgence in 2014. Like Dimitrov, he owns 14 ATP-level match victories this season following Istanbul wins over Teymuraz Gabashvili and Thomaz Bellucci. The 23rd-ranked Uruguayan has cooled off since lifting the Sao Paulo trophy and he has endured a tougher road this week, so Dimitrov may have a slight edge.
Pick: Dimitrov in 3
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Dummy lost to Cuevas 6-2 6-4
You mean BabyFed (not to be confused with CryBaby).
No I mean Dummy