Top two seeds Tomas Berdych and Richard Gasquet are one round away from a potential final showdown in Stockholm. They first have to get past respective Saturday meetings with Marcos Baghdatis and Jack Sock.
(7) Jack Sock vs. (2) Richard Gasquet
Gasquet and Sock will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time this season when they battle for a spot in If Stockholm Open title match on Saturday. Their only previous encounter came this summer on the hard courts of Washington, D.C., where Sock scored a 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-4 victory. The 32nd-ranked American has improved to an awesome 31-15 for the year following wins this week at the expense of Pablo Carreno Busta, Fernando Verdasco, and Gilles Simon. He is projected to climb to at least No. 29 in the world next week and is in great shape for 2016 Australian Open seeding.
As for Gasquet, he is still thinking about World Tour Finals qualification–at least as an alternate. The 12th-ranked Frenchman is 38-14 for a 2015 campaign that includes two titles, a semifinal at Wimbledon, and a quarterfinal at the U.S. Open. Gasquet punched his ticket to the last four in Stockholm by beating Steve Darcis and Jeremy Chardy–the latter in a third-set tiebreaker. The second seed often thrives at small indoor events in Europe and Asia (five of his 12 titles have come in such a setting) and Sock will not have the benefit of home-court advantage in the United States this time around.
Pick: Gasquet in 3
[polldaddy poll=9142762]
(1) Tomas Berdych vs. Marcos Baghdatis
Berdych has slumped for the most part at bigger tournaments since the end of the clay-court swing, but he has never been a stranger to dominance at the 250-point level and this fall is no exception. The fifth-ranked Czech captured a title last month in Shenzhen–his first of the season–and so far in Stockholm he has rolled over Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov. Berdych is already a a two-time champion of this event (2012, 2014) with a 12-3 overall record and a current 10-match winning streak.
Up next for the top seed is a sixth career meeting with Baghdatis. The head-to-head series stands at 3-2 in favor of Berdych, who got a first-set retirement from the Cypriot at the 2012 indoor tournament in Rotterdam. They have not completed a full match against each other since 2010, when Berdych coasted 6-0, 6-1 in Brisbane before Baghdatis turned the tide for a 7-5, 6-4 upset in Cincinnati. The somewhat resurgent world No. 46 is 26-18 at the ATP level this season following defeats of Sam Querrey, Bernard Tomic, and Gilles Muller. On a court he obviously loves, however, Berdych will likely overpower the underdog without too much trouble.
Pick: Berdych in 2
[polldaddy poll=9142770]
Reblogged this on Tennis Abides.
Taking sock in 3 and berdych in straights
Both very possible
same…sock in 3 and Berd in 2
Lol the anonymous ones were me I’m just using different phone lol and yeah I thought my semifinal picks in Vienna and Stockholm weren’t as risky as some of my other early round picks lol.
I figured!
Sock 3:0 up including 2 breaks.
Gasquet making errors galore.
Berdych over Baghdatis
Gasquet gets one break back.
Sock takes the 1st set – 64
inspired by the Royals
Gasquet is getting killed in 2nd set one way traffic 5-2 Sock to serve for the match
Sock serves it out with aplomb a winner in 2 sets 6-4 6-2
Six clever people voted for Sock in 2 🙂
Gasquet looked out of his depth.
ed251137 (at 1:04 pm),
I replied to you on the Site maintenance page yesterday.
Baggy has thrown in the towel.
Berdych wins as Baghdatis retires after losing the 1st set 6-1. We have a Berdych vs Sock final.
Very winnable for Sock
I’ll be rooting for Sock. But, it has nothing to do with him… 🙂
Haha
Augusta, I know what you mean, me too.??
Another American into a final this week!! Yes!! Let’s go jack!! Hope he beats berdych. Then he’s definitely got a seeding in Melbourne.
They dislike each other too. Will be trying to outdo each other.
I mean Sock and Johnson, not Sock and Berdych
Wait why do sock and Johnson dislike each other?
I am glad to hear that Sock beat Gasquet. I felt that he could win this match, given what I saw of him in the quarterfinals against Simon. These courts seem to suit his game well and he’s looking very good right now.
Yay for the American men!
I didn’t know that Sock and Johnson dislike each other.