A pair of surprising quarterfinal matchups are on Friday’s schedule in Madrid. Qualifier Dusan Lajovic will try to keep his run going at the expense of Kevin Anderson, while Kyle Edmund and Denis Shapovalov are set for an all-unseeded affair.
Kyle Edmund vs. Denis Shapovalov
Edmund and Shapovalov will be squaring off for the fifth time in their careers when they battle for a spot in the semifinals of the Mutua Madrid Open on Friday. Their head-to-head history has produced two memorable moments, none of which had anything to do with Edmund. During Davis Cup action last season, Shapovalov–while trailing two sets to love–blasted a fall in frustration that inadvertently sailed straight into the eye of chair umpire Arnaud Gabas. The Canadian was defaulted on the spot. In a much lighter moment prior to their Brisbane encounter earlier this year, the on-court announcer grossly mispronounced Shapovalov’s name.
They have split their two previous meetings that did not end in either default or retirement; Shapovalov prevailed 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4 last summer in Queen’s Club before Edmund got the job done 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-4 in Brisbane. The 22nd-ranked Brit’s Australian summer also included a trip to the Aussie Open semis and he is now 15-7 for his 2018 campaign following Madrid wins over Daniil Medvedev, Novak Djokovic, and David Goffin. Shapovalov earned his place in the last eight by beating Tennys Sandgren, Benoit Paire, and Milos Raonic, also dropping just one set along the way (to Paire). Clay should give Edmund a slight edge, as he has always been comfortable on this surface and recently finished runner-up in Marrakech.
Pick: Edmund in 3
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(Q) Dusan Lajovic vs. (6) Kevin Anderson
Anderson could not have asked for a worse draw in his first tournament of the clay-court swing, as the eighth-ranked South African got a first-round bye last week in Estoril but then had to face a red-hot Stefanos Tsitsipas and lost in three sets. The story is a much different one in Madrid, where Anderson beat unseeded Mikhail Kukushkin and Philipp Kohlschreiber to reach the quarterfinals and has Lajovic–a qualifier–standing in his way of the semis.
The No. 6 seed could have expected to meet Juan Martin Del Potro on Friday, but Lajovic had other plans–which he implemented in the form of a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) upset during third-round action. This is already a career-best week for the 27-year-old, who had to qualify just to get into the main draw before preceding his result against Del Potro with straight-set defeats of Karen Khachanov and Richard Gasquet. All of those matches (including two hours and 17 minutes on Thursday) could catch up with Lajovic, who is going up against an opponent for whom Madrid conditions are favorable.
Pick: Anderson in 2
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who ya got?
Edmund in two, Anderson in three.