Juan Martin Del Potro is two wins away from a potential spot in the World Tour Finals, with Robin Haase standing in his way at the Paris Masters on Thursday. John Isner, who must win the title to qualify for London, is also in third-round action against Grigor Dimitrov.
Robin Haase vs. (13) Juan Martin Del Potro
Del Potro has made an amazing late push for the World Tour Finals and he will try to keep his run going when he takes the court at the Rolex Paris Masters on Thursday. The 17th-ranked Argentine reached the U.S. Open semifinals, the Shanghai semifinals, won the Stockholm title, and finished runner-up to Roger Federer in Basel. He kept himself alive for London by coasting past Joao Sousa 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday.
Up next for Del Potro on Thursday is a third-round date with Haase, who is 0-3 in the head-to-head series. Del Potro prevailed five years ago at Wimbledon, last fall in Basel, and earlier this season in Miami. The 2009 U.S. Open champion has taken six sets in a row against Haase, including five straight without requiring a tiebreaker. Haase is off to a stellar start this week, having posted victories over Steve Johnson (6-2, 6-1) and Alexander Zverev (3-6, 6-2, 6-2). The 43rd-ranked Dutchman is a mediocre 28-29 this year and had been 2-8 in his last 10 matches prior to arriving in Paris. Asking him to post three consecutive wins and to do so at the expense of one of the tour’s hottest players is likely way too much.
Pick: Del Potro in 2
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(9) John Isner vs. (6) Grigor Dimitrov
Dimitrov and Isner will be squaring off for the third time in their careers and for the third time at a Masters 1000 event when they meet again on Thursday. The head-to-head series stands at 1-1, with Isner getting the job done 7-6(2), 6-2 in Miami two years ago before Dimitrov scored a 7-6(4), 7-6(10) victory on his way to the Cincinnati title this summer. That result is a big reason why the eighth-ranked Bulgarian has already clinched his first-ever appearance at the World Tour Finals. He is 44-18 overall in 2017 with three titles and a 9-3 post-U.S. Open record that includes Wednesday’s 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Richard Gasquet.
Isner finished runner-up to Andy Murray last year in Paris and he must go one step farther this time around in order to snag what would be an improbable spot in London. The 6’10” American has struggled since his tough loss to Dimitrov in Cincinnati, but he managed to outlast a red-hot Diego Schwartzman 7-6(2), 6-7(11), 6-3 in the Paris first round. That two-hour and 34-minute battle will not help Isner on Thursday, and Dimitrov returned serve extremely well when they faced each other this summer.
Pick: Dimitrov in 3
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Dimitrov and del Po in three
Delpo in 2, Isner in 2 with one tiebreaker
Oily,
Why are you going with Isner that too in 2?
What weakness do you see in Dimitrov’s game?
Dimi is the better player on IH.
Dims has the better form on IH currently with 4/1 for Dim vs 1/1 for Isner currently.
Dim is 10/2 vs 4/3 for Isner on IH in 2017.
Isner’s only win was over a shorty pygmy who was 1) Tired from a lot of games else would have won! 2) Was too short to handle the big kicking serves of Isner, which was rising above the shoulder/head of the shortman. Isner had too much unfair advantage over the shorty.
Isner will not have any advantage over Dimi. But Dimi will have all the advantages. He can match the power serves of Isner and beat Isner (like he beat Isner @2017Cincinnati Open in August) in the return game (which is where most matches are won)!
Oily, if I see that you have some strong points/argument in favor of Isner, then I can change my pick. I don’t stubbornly stick to losers when someone shows the correct logic for the winner! I hope you have that winning logic for Isner.
I know that Isner likes this tournament and has done well here before. That may not be enough for Isner to win as Dimi has a lot of weapons and advantages as described above.
Congrats Delpo for the win. He has now surpassed Djoko in the race and ranking points come Monday (2595 vs 2585). He’ll be in top ten unless Pouille wins Paris Masters, in that case Pouille will be in top ten pushing Delpo out.
If Delpo reaches the SF then PCB will not qualify for WTF but Delpo has to see how Pouille fares, no title here for Pouille then Delpo will qualify.
PS. It’s the first time that Djoko drops out of top ten in so many years, since early 2007 I think.
Roger well I chose the right winner
Yeah Oily, I was going to congratulate you on that. Was busy analyzing the last 2 ATP matches for today.
I would have appreciated if you would have replied with your analysis backing your pick of Isner, before the match started.
Since, I could not decide the winner in confidence(as last match both TB’s went to Dimi. Who knew that both the TB’s this time will go to Isner. That was the difference today), I just went big on the over games which won!
Dimi was also offcolor today. Not so motivated like he was in Cincinnati. Probably he is tired from playing too many matches this year!
Olly, are you from Paris, France?
Congrats again for your correct Isner pick when the world(95%+) were on Dimi!