(2) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. Jarkko Nieminen
Nieminen and Del Potro will be going head-to-head for the fourth time in their careers at the ATP level when they do battle in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament quarterfinals on Friday. Del Potro has won all three of their previous encounters–all three in straight sets and all three on hard courts. The Argentine also cruised through a clay-court Challenger matchup back in 2005.
That being said, Nieminen is playing great tennis in 2013. The 31-year-old Finn already boasts nine match victories this season, two this week at the expense of David Goffin (a double-bagel, no less!) and Matthias Bachinger (in three sets). Stll, this is an uphill climb for Nieminen–and not just because of past head-to-head history. Del Potro lost early in Melbourne to Jeremy Chardy, but he has looked good in Rotterdam with straight-set dismissals of Gael Monfils and Ernests Gulbis. The No. 2 seed, a finalist at this event in 2012, is going to have too much power on an indoor hard court.
Del Potro-Monfils highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvJg9AgZ8zc]
Pick: Del Potro in 2
Marcos Baghdatis vs. Grigor Dimitrov
Baghdatis and Dimitrov just can’t get enough of each other. They have played doubles together twice this season (reached the third round of the Australian Open and lost their opener this week in Rotterdam) and have already faced each other once this year in singles. Dimitrov won a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(5) thriller en route to the Brisbane final as he improve his lifetime record to 2-1 against Baghdatis.
Dimitrov-Baghdatis Brisbane highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3a1T61d1aI]
With both men in solid form, their fourth career meeting should feature high-quality tennis on Friday. Dimitrov is 8-4 for the year following Rotterdam victories over Bernard Tomic and Nikolay Davydenko. Baghdatis is a stellar 8-3 after getting past Benoit Paire and an on-fire Richard Gasquet. The 36th-ranked Cypriot is one of the best ball-strikers on tour and a relatively slow, high-bouncing hard court should help him force his opponent into baseline rallies and dictate just enough of them to pull this one out.
Pick: Baghdatis in 3
Leave a Reply