Top two seeds Dominic Thiem and Gilles Simon will be aiming for spots in the Nice semifinals on Thursday. They are going up against Andreas Seppi and Alexander Zverev, respectively.
(1) Dominic Thiem vs. (7) Andreas Seppi
Thiem lifted an ATP winner’s trophy for the first time in his career at the 2015 Open de Nice Cote d’Azur and his title got off to a strong start with a 6-3, 6-0 beatdown of Leonardo Mayer on Wednesday. Although a withdrawal from Nice may have been seen as the intelligent route given that Thiem just reached the Rome quarterfinals and has the French Open starting next week, he has never seemed too concerned with a heavy workload. The 15th-ranked Austrian has played 43 matches in 2016 and has won 33 of them, giving him the second most victories on tour behind world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Up next for Thiem is a first-ever meeting with Seppi. The 32-year-old Italian is through to just his second quarterfinal of 2016 and this marks only the second time this season he has won back-to-back matches at a tournament. Seppi booked a spot in Thursday’s showdown by defeating both Daniel Munoz de la Nava and Paul-Henri Mathieu in three tough sets. A steep step up in competition will likely bring an end what has already been a solid week for Seppi.
Pick: Thiem in 2
[polldaddy poll=9421570]
[polldaddy poll=9421590]
(8) Alexander Zverev vs. (2) Gilles Simon
Simon and Zverev will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers on Thursday. Zverev has won both of their previous meetings this season; 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(4) indoors in Rotterdam and via a far more dominant 6-2, 6-2 scoreline at the Indian Wells Masters. As those results would suggest, it has been a breakout 2016 campaign for Zverev–even though he also made plenty of headway on tour last year. The 48th-ranked German is 19-12 this season and he is aiming for a second semifinal appearance on this clay-court swing, having previously reached the last four in Munich. So far this week Zverev has gotten past Kyle Edmund by retirement and Marcel Granollers in three sets.
After earning a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed, Simon defeated up-and-coming American Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday. The 18th-ranked Frenchman is a mediocre 15-10 for his 2016 campaign, but he has now advanced at least two rounds (byes included) in each of his last six tournaments. Home-court advantage should help Simon get some revenge on Zverev, who was getting outplayed by Edmund and then needed two hours and 41 minutes to survive Granollers.
Pick: Simon in 3
[polldaddy poll=9421568]
who ya got?
Zverev in three and Thiem in two. Thiem should have too much though Seppi can be tricky of course. Also I think zverev has surface and H2H advantage and that’ll be enough for him imo. Also as a Thiem fan I want him to win but at same time if he lost he could get more rest for RG which could be key so I dunno it depends on how you look at it I guess because he will have more confidence if he wins yet another title by defending Nice which could also be vital.
Sascha won! happy to be wrong. I guessed Gillou.
Fingers crossed for a Thiem-Zverev final in Nice!
I would love to see that!