Juan Martin Del Potro will continue his Tokyo campaign on Saturday against Nicolas Almagro. The winner will go up against either Milos Raonic or Ivan Dodig in the final.
(1) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. (6) Nicolas Almagro
Surprisingly, Del Potro and Almagro will be going head-to-head for the very first time in their careers at the ATP level when they clash in the semifinals of the Rakuten Japan Open on Saturday afternoon. They have faced each other once before, when Almagro scored a 7-5, 6-3 victory on the clay courts of the 2006 Santiago Challenger. Almagro’s strong week in Tokyo has come from just about out of nowhere. The 17th-ranked Spaniard had been on a five-match losing streak, but he earned a place in the last four with wins over Benjamin Becker, Horacio Zeballos, and defending champion Kei Nishikori.
Del Potro has advanced by taking out Marcos Baghdatis, Carlos Berlocq, and Alexandr Dolgopolov–dropping sets to Baghdatis and Dolgopolov in the process. The seventh-ranked Argentine is now 38-12 for the season and apparently bouncing back nicely from a second-round U.S. Open loss to Lleyton Hewitt. Del Potro has not been coasting at this event and Almagro has suddenly found his game again, so this won’t be a complete walkover. But the top seed should have a considerable edge in this matchup on anything other than clay.
Pick: Del Potro in 2
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(3) Milos Raonic vs. Ivan Dodig
Raonic and Dodig will be squaring off for the third time in their careers on Saturday. Dodig has won both of their previous meetings; 7-6(0), 4-6, 6-3 two years ago on the clay courts of Barcelona and 6-2, 7-6(7) this summer on the grass of Eastbourne. At the moment, though, it is Raonic who is on fire. The 11th-ranked Canadian captured the Bangkok title last weekend and he has improved his 2013 record to 40-17 with scalps of Go Soeda, Jeremy Chardy, and Lukas Lacko.
Dodig is respectable 30-22 for the season, which includes a fourth-round showing at Wimbledon and third-round finishes at the Australian and U.S. Opens. The 34th-ranked Croat advanced to the last four this week by dismissing Yuichi Sugita, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Jarkko Nieminen. Dodig will make this competitive, but the conditions in Asia are clearly favorable to Raonic and the big guy has been serving absolutely huge.
Pick: Raonic in 2
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Raonic through in straight sets.
Delpo is playing bad!
Almagro playing well and still losing tho
Tsk, tsk, @abhirf, no congratulations to Rafa for regaining #1? I thought you were the nicer kind of Fedfan………………
I had already done that on the other thread.
GSM, now Almagro will fold as is his wont when things are not going his way………
This match is a good one. Almagro hanging in there, still battling. Close second set. 5-5
so ridiculous shot-making
good match until the very end. all over for Almagro now.
It was almost thrilling……..
@abhirf 7:01am, saw that, nice……….
For a change, Fed’s in Djoker’s half in Shanghai. Time for Fed to show some ambition…..