Ernests Gulbis and Vasek Pospisil will begin their weeks in Shanghai during first-round action on Tuesday. They are going up against Mikhail Youzhny and Santiago Giraldo, respectively.
Mikhail Youzhny vs. (12) Ernests Gulbis
Gulbis and Youzhny will be squaring off for the seventh time in their careers when they meet in round one of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Tuesday. Youzhny has won two in a row against the Latvian to even the head-to-head series at 3-3. He prevailed 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2 at the 2012 Doha event and 7-5, 6-3 last summer in Cincinnati, improving his hard-court mark versus Gulbis to 3-2. This year, however, has been a borderline disastrous one for Youzhny. The Russian is 13-19 at the ATP level and toiling down out 35th in the world. He has not won a match since Cincinnati in mid-August.
The good news for Youzhny is that his opponent comes in as a major question mark. Gulbis has slumped mightily since making a run to the French Open semis, with little more than a decent semifinal showing in Kuala Lumpur to note. The 13th-ranked Latvian retired in the Beijing second round last week due to a shoulder injury, helping eventual semifinalist Martin Klizan advance to face Rafael Nadal. The outcome of this one will obviously be on Gulbis’ racket, but this is not a good matchup for him and he is unlikely to be 100 percent.
Pick: Youzhny in 3
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Vasek Pospisil vs. Santiago Giraldo
Pospisil and Giraldo will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers and for the third time in less than three months when they face each other again on Tuesday. Both of their recent encounters went Pospisil’s way; 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4 in Washington, D.C. and 6-3, 7-6(2), 6-3 in a Davis Cup playoff between Canada and Colombia. For the most part this has been an encouraging stretch of tennis for Pospisil, who was plagued by injuries during the first half of the season but really started to heat up with a doubles title at Wimbledon. Among the world No. 44’s positive results is a runner-up finish in Washington, D.C.
Giraldo, on the other hand, has been going in the other direction. The world No. 28 caught fire on clay with a semifinal in Houston, a final in Barcelona, and a quarterfinal in Madrid all in succession. However, he is 3-8 dating back to the start of his D.C. match against Pospisil and he is coming off a dreadful 6-1, 6-3 blowout loss to John Isner in the Beijing first round. Based on current form and surface, Pospisil should have a considerable advantage.
Pick: Pospisil in 2
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gulbis seems to be reverting back to old gulbis, much needed win for either player
yup