Metz R2 previews and picks: Wawrinka vs. Brown, Garcia-Lopez vs. Herbert

Stan Wawrinka will kick off his Metz campaign on Thursday against Dustin Brown. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Pierre-Hugues Herbert are also aiming for a place in the quarterfinals.

(1) Stan Wawrinka vs. Dustin Brown

Wawrinka will already be playing for the second time since a semifinal showing at the U.S. Open when he contests his opening match at the Moselle Open on Thursday. It was an interesting summer for the top-seeded Swiss, both on and off the court. He underwhelmed at the Montreal and Cincinnati Masters (despite reaching the quarterfinals at the latter) before raising his level in New York. With little rest, Wawrinka came to the help of Switzerland’s Davis Cup team and edged Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands 2-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 as part of the Swiss side’s 3-1 victory last weekend.

Up first for the world No. 4 in Metz is a second career meeting with Brown. Their only previous encounter came four years ago on the clay courts of Munich, where Brown scored a 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-5 upset. The entertaining German is also making a quick turnaround after Davis Cup action, having lost to the Dominic Republic’s Victor Estrella Burgos 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(3), 7-6(5). Ranked 107th in the world, Brown went into this week looking for his first ATP-level victory since the second round of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport. This should be competitive most of the way if the underdog serves well, but Wawrinka is in decent form and had a much shorter travel schedule earlier this week.

Pick: Wawrinka in 2

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(WC) Pierre-Hugues Herbert vs. (4) Guillermo Garcia-Lopez

Garcia-Lopez and Herbert will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers on Thursday. The differences in their recent workloads is alarming. Because of injury, Garcia-Lopez played only two matches in between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open–a clay-court retirement in Hamburg and a straight-set loss to Yen-Hsun Lu on the hard courts of Winston-Salem. The 31st-ranked Spaniard managed to advance two rounds in New York before succumbing to Tomas Berdych in four sets.

Herbert has been playing an almost unreal amount of tennis. The 24-year-old Frenchman contested nine matches in an eight-day span en route to a runner-up finish in Winston-Salem. He lost in the U.S. Open first round but won six doubles matches at Flushing Meadows with Nicolas Mahut to capture his first Grand Slam title. So far in Metz, Herbert is 1-0 in both singles (defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 7-5) and doubles (with Mahut). A confident world No. 103 has the additional benefit of playing at home on a favorable surface.

Pick: Herbert in 2

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