Veterans Adrian Mannarino and Richard Gasquet are one round away from a potential all-French final in Sofia. However, on Friday they have tough respective matches awaiting them against Jannik Sinner and Vasek Pospisil.
(5) Adrian Mannarino vs. Jannik Sinner
Both Mannarino and Sinner are wrapping up their seasons in awesome form as they prepare to face each other for the first time on Friday at the Sofia Open. A final berth is at stake, and it would be Mannarino’s second already this month. The 35th-ranked Frenchman finished runner-up to John Millman in Nur-Sultan, part of a stretch in which he has compiled a 10-3 match record. That includes a quarterfinal performance in Cologne, a third-round result in Paris, and wins this week over Martin Klizan, Egor Gerasimov, and Radu Albot.
Sinner has been even hotter of late. Dating back to the Rome Masters, the 19-year-old Italian is 13-4 in his last 17 matches (with one of those losses coming via retirement). He opened in Sofia with blowouts of Marton Fucsovics and Marc-Andrea Huesler before scoring an impressive 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-1 victory over Alex de Minaur on Thursday. With Sinner thriving in these conditions and Mannarino surely running on fumes (he has played a ton of recent tennis and all three of his Sofia matches have been difficult), the youngster should take care of business.
Pick: Sinner in 2
Vasek Pospisil vs. Richard Gasquet
Gasquet and Pospisil will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers on Friday. They had not faced each other since 2015 until Pospisil pulled ahead 3-2 in the head-to-head series earlier this season on the indoor hard courts of Montpellier, where he led 6-1, 1-0 before Gasquet retired. The 74th-ranked Canadian is currently enjoying his best tournament since reaching round for of the U.S. Open. He barely scraped past Illya Marchenko in the Sofia first round but then erased both Jan-Lennard Struff and John Millman without any trouble.
Gasquet has not dropped a single set in Sofia, although it was not entirely smooth sailing on Thursday. After rolling over Roberto Carballes Baena and Jonas Forejtek, the 49th-ranked Frenchman battled past Salvatore Caruso 7-6(4), 7-5 in the quarters. Gasquet has not been to a final since the summer of 2018 and Pospisil may be slightly too strong in these indoor conditions for it to happen for the 34-year-old this week.
Pick: Pospisil in 3
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Sinner in two,Pospisil in three sounds about right