Juan Martin Del Potro is a single win away from a current spot in the World Tour Finals. Perhaps just as improbably, John Isner is only three wins away from a place in London. One will be eliminated on Friday, when they square off in the quarterfinals of the Rolex Paris Masters.
Del Potro is leading the head-to-head series 6-2, including 1-0 in 2017. The 17th-ranked Argentine prevailed 7-5, 7-5 at the Montreal Masters for his second straight victory over Isner, coming on the heels of a 6-4, 7-6(6) success on the indoor hard courts of Stockholm last fall. Their only other indoor encounter came six years ago in Memphis, where Del Potro got the job done 6-4, 6-3.
The 2009 U.S. Open winner has surged into year-end championship contention from just about out of nowhere thanks to a brilliant second half of the season. He made a run to the U.S. Open semifinals, also reached the Shanghai semis, captured the Stockholm title, and finished runner-up in Basel to Roger Federer. Del Potro is through to the Paris quarters thanks to straight-set defeats of Joao Sousa and Robin Haase.
“It’s extra motivation [for] me,” Del Potro said of a potential London berth. “It’s going to be a good battle next round trying to qualify for London…. Of course I would love to reach London once again. It could be a fantastic moment for me. But it’s still a really hard challenge [for] me.”
Isner has even more work to do, although the fact that he is still in the mathematical discussion has to be considered a big surprise. The 6’10” American is a decent 37-21 this season with a pair of 250-point titles and he continued to struggle at slams, winning a combined six matches at the four most important events. Isner’s 2017 campaign appeared to be over on Thursday when he trailed Grigor Dimitrov 5-2 in the third set and faced a match point. The world No. 14 saved it to hold for 3-5, earned his first break of the afternoon to stay alive, eventually forced a tiebreaker, and finally prevailed 7-6(10), 5-7, 7-6(3). Isner preceded that result by beating a red-hot Diego Schwartzman 7-6(2), 6-7(11), 6-3.
Del Potro could not have asked for a better situation in which to put himself inside the London cut. He has spent only two hours and 35 minutes on the court through two rounds, while Isner has required a total of five hours and 20 minutes to advance. Moreover, Del Potro’s frequently sliced backhand is no detriment against Isner, because it stays low to the court and out of the No. 9 seed’s strike zone.
Pick: Del Potro in 2
[polldaddy poll=9866119]
WWW?
J. Isner is scary😂, they guy robbed me 2day.
He reached the final last year and I MIGHT not bet against him.
Delpo is they better player.
Isner in three
DelPo to won but going with the over.
Correction – DelPo to WIN but going with just the over. Maybe with Delpo in LB if he is doing well.
Why Delpo?
Because Delpo has Isner’s number! Delpo leads Isner 6:2 on H2H matches besides winning both the H2H matches on IH and winning 4 of 5 H2H matches on hard surface. Isner won one match on hard and Grass respectively.
Delpo also has the far better record on IH currently (last couple of weeks) and in 2017 with a W/L rec of 10/1 vs 3/2 for Isner.
Inspite of the huge advantage of Delpo, this SF match may be close (3 setter) as Isner is serving well and has good confidence currently (due to past good performances in Paris etc.).
Not SF yet but it’s a QF.
Isner does seem to play well in Paris…
Delpo in 2
Following Ricky on this one. But taking del Po in 3. Although I hope it’s only 2.. nothing is easy with isner
Though Isner is a tough opponent, I feel Dimi is even tougher than Isner for Delpo. Dimi simply moves quicker than Isner and will make Delpo run like crazy.
I think Delpo will be happy to have Isner rather than Dimi as his next opponent. Delpo has his big serve too, and moves better than Isner, returns better than Isner.
I think it may go three sets as both are tired, and may not have the energy to finish off opponent quickly, not able to raise the level to finish the job asap and so will let the match drag on until whoever blinks first will lose; my bet is Isner will blink first, Delpo looks more determined to win this match to reach the WTF.
Delpo is in the position to qualify for WTF because he’s playing better than anyone else not named Fed and Rafa, during this part of the season. Also the rest of the field have left much to be desired – Thiem, A Zverev; those who have a chance to qualify simply suck, the likes of PCB, Querrey, Anderson.
Not forgetting,all the top five of 2016 are down and out due to injuries, even last minute surges by Tsonga and Pouille or even Sock have their chances to qualify!
The field is pretty pathetic tbh, that Goffin after missing Wimbledon and out of FO early due do injury, still could qualify. PCB, Anderson and Querrey effectively have done nothing else except reaching deep at one or two of the slams and they’re contestants.
Delpo is at least a quality player, of different pedigree from the likes of PCB, Querrey etc. He should be in top five when injury free. I do hope that he qualifies, and thats what I said a while ago, that of he goes deep or even wind one or two events, he can qualify for WTF. I’m happy he lives up to expectations and needs to win only one more match to qualify.
Isner is going to get to the world tour finals.
Let’s see who wins this tb first. Delpo has looked pretty sluggish so far.
Del Po hanging in. I may be wrong
These guys look like zombies out there. Uh oh, Delpo just grabbed his hip. 🙁 If I were a pro tennis player at the end of the year, I’d be like WTF, wtf, I never want to see another tennis ball!
Big John with the break…
Isner to London
Benny, good call on the prediction! I never thought it was a bad prediction, as Isner has often played well at Bercy. So you don’t think Isner should have any issue with whoever that guy he’s facing in the semis is, do you? Big John may just have his best shot at a maiden masters title here! Even though I’m not a fan of him, it would be cool for him to get a big title after being in multiple masters finals before and coming up short. What do you think it is about Bercy that is so comfortable for John?
Ideally, I would love to see an Isner-Cilic final. That would definitely make the title pretty legit for Isner, if he were able to win it having beat 2 major champions en route. Even though I’m not a fan of either of their games, I guess that an Isner-Sock final would be interesting given that there would be a guaranteed American Masters titlist for the first time since Roddick at Miami 2010. Man, it would be strange if after all the times Isner came close, it ended up being JACK SOCK who breaks the American big title drought haha. What a strange year it has been, indeed…
Like you corrected me earlier this week, the surface is actually not a super fast one, making it perfect for John. It is indoors which helps his serve and the kick and his flat groundies but he still has lots of time to wind up with them which he loves. Last year he was just as good here if not better but ran into that red hot beast Andy Murray turned into after the US Open. But Big John has probably the greatest masters semifinal draw of all time. Maybe the finals too. We’ll see. I know most hate Isner but I like him because he’s generally got a quite likable disposition on and off the court, is American, and I think he makes the WTF more interesting/competitive than ice cold Carreno Busta does.
So does this mean that if neither Isner nor Sock win Paris, then Busta will be in the WTF?
Yes, and PCB did nothing during this stretch of late HC season, except reaching SF at USO of course; unlike Delpo who keeps going deep in tournament after tournament after his USO SF run. Delpo is only 20 points behind PCB, that’s a shame that he can’t qualify, what a pity.
If Rafa plays WTF, I hope he gets Zverev, Thiem and PCB! Let Fed has Cilic, Dimi and Goffin.
What if Rafa pulls out, will Delpo be the 9th on the list and qualify for WTF.
If Isner wins the whole Paris thing, then he will qualify and PCB and Delpo will be the alternates. If Rafa pulls out, I think PCB will take his place. So, in order for Delpo to have a chance, Isner must not win Paris (and Sock too).
If I were you, Lucky, I would want Rafa to get Goffin over Zverev. Even though Zverev has never beaten Rafa, he has at least come close, and has at least won 2 out of 3 sets against Rafa on a hardcourt. Goffin can’t even get a sniff at Rafa! Zverev at least has weapons and has shown he is capable of beating Rafa in best of three. Rafa could beat Goffin with 2 bad knees, imo. 🙂
No, Goffin is no.7 or 8, Zverev is no.3; you can’t exchange them one for one!
Ah, I see. I guess I meant if it was possible for there to be a choice, I would think Zverev would be way more capable of beating Rafa than Goffin. Sure, Goffin has shown good form recently, but I just feel like he wouldn’t stand a chance of beating Rafa even if he were in the form of his life. All is would take for Zverev would be for him to wake up from his slump in order for him to at least have a shot at beating Rafa. However, I can’t disagree with you that Zverev has been majorly slumping compared to earlier in the year. So maybe you’d be right about Goffin being more ideal to avoid if it were possible.
I think Cilic will win his match today to reach SF and so he’ll be ranked no.4 overtaking Thiem.
Comparing Cilic at no.4 to Zverev at no.3, I’ll take Zverev for Rafa. Comparing Thiem at no.5 to Dimi at no.6, I’ll certainly take Thiem for Rafa; comparing PCB at no.8, should he qualifies, to Goffin at no.7, I’ll take PCB for Rafa.
Should Rafa gets those three players in his group, assuming he’s playing, then he has good chances of topping his group and thus avoiding Fed till the final. Of course he’ll have to beat maybe Cilic or Dimi in the SF (I doubt Goffin will be second in the group), doable though quite tough.
If the groups end up being that way, then Rafa could definitely meet Fed in the semis, as there’s always a chance of Fed losing a RR match to someone like a Cilic or Zverev, and maybe finishing 2nd in his group. That would mean Rafa (assuming he finished 1st in his group) would meet Fed in the Semis. Although it doesn’t matter when they meet, really, as long as they meet at some point.
Furthermore, Zverev looked half dead during this period of time due to overplaying for his young body. He’s not going to win many matches at WTF, at most one imo.
Getting your serve broken twice by isner. Including in the 3rd set in a game your up 40-15… smh. Del Po doesn’t deserve London