Fellow Americans and occasional doubles partners John Isner and Sam Querrey will be in second-round action on Tuesday in Nice. They are set for respective meetings with Steve Johnson and Juan Monaco.
Steve Johnson vs. (2) John Isner
It will be an all-American showdown between friends and familiar foes when Isner and Johnson collide for the fourth time in their careers and for the second time during this current clay-court swing at the Open de Nice Cote d’Azur on Tuesday. Isner recently scored a 6-4, 6-4 victory in Monte-Carlo to improve to 2-1 lifetime in the head-to-head series at Johnson’s expense. The two former college superstars split a pair of hard-court encounters in 2014; Johnson survived 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(6) in Washington, D.C. before Isner exacted revenge with a 7-6(6), 7-6(7) win in Shanghai.
Isner has heated up nicely over the course of the last five Masters 1000 events. The world No. 17 reached the fourth round in Indian Wells, the semifinals in Miami, the third round in Monte-Carlo, the quarterfinals in Madrid, and the third round in Rome. He has been broken by only two players in his last 10 matches: Johnson and Rafael Nadal. Johnson is not as comfortable on the slow stuff and his clay-court record in 2015 stands at 3-4 (2-3 in Europe). The world No. 55 opened on Monday with a 7-5, 6-3 defeat of qualifier Michael Venus. Johnson can make this competitive if he serves well, but an upset is likely too much to ask.
Pick: Isner in 3
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Sam Querrey vs. (8) Juan Monaco
Querrey and Monaco will be facing each other for the fifth time in their careers and for the first time in five years when they meet again on Tuesday. Monaco is leading the head-to-head series 3-1, including 2-0 on clay. He prevailed 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on the slow stuff in Estoril back in 2007 before triumphing in the 2010 Dusseldorf final via a 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 scoreline. Querrey’s lone victory over Monaco came on the hard courts of Cincinnati eight seasons ago, when the American got the job done 6-3, 7-5.
A resurgent Monaco owns 17 match wins this year and is in contention for French Open seeding at 34th in the rankings (thus he will need at least two withdrawals by players ranked ahead of him). The Argentine, who finished runner-up in Buenos Aires and made it to the quarters in Miami, advanced past Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday. Querrey kicked off his week by disposing of qualifier Ruben Bemelmans 6-2, 6-3 on Monday. The 38th-ranked American is an even 10-10 on the season and cannot be playing with too much confidence on European clay. Monaco will be able to handle his opponent’s serve on a relatively slow surface and should be too consistent for Querrey from the back of the court.
Pick: Monaco in 2
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