World No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas faces a red-hot Casper Ruud for a spot in the Toronto semifinals on Friday. Quarterfinal action also includes a showdown between American Reilly Opelka and Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.
(3) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. (6) Casper Ruud
By some measures, Norwegian Casper Ruud is the hottest player on the ATP tour. He racked up three tournament wins in a row, a sweep of the post-Wimbledon European clay events. Although Ruud didn’t play a single player ranked higher than No. 49 (Benoit Paire) in any of those title runs, he now finds himself in the quarterfinals of a hard-court Masters 1000 event. That’s not bad for a handful of weeks worth of work.
The post-French Open season hasn’t been kind to Stefanos Tsitsipas. He limped through Wimbledon and the Olympics following the crushing disappointment of losing a two-set lead to Novak Djokovic in the French Open final. The Greek has rebounded nicely this week, however, and appears to be playing well again.
Ruud beat Tsitsipas in Madrid earlier this season–their only other tour-level meeting. Of course, Ruud wasn’t coming off an exhausting three-tournament winning streak. Tsitsipas should seal this one up in straight sets.
Cheryl pick: Tsitispas in 2
Ricky pick: Tsitsipas in 2
(10) Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Reilly Opelka
Roberto Bautista Agut staved off a trio of match points in his third-round match against Diego Schwartzman on Thursday. Schwartzman served for the match at 5-4 and earned the match points only to be broken to level the match at 5-5. Bautista Agut, defying his recent form, stormed back to earn his spot opposite Reilly Opelka in the quarterfinals.
Opelka has battled his own series of poor results this spring and summer. At nearly 7-feet tall, his game rises and falls on the strength of his first serve. He came rather out of nowhere to make the semifinals in Rome, a clay-court event that isn’t usually kind to big servers. Since then, though, it has been disappointment. But not so this week; Opelka took out Nick Kyrgios, Grigor Dimitrov, and Lloyd Harris to earn his spot in the quarters.
Bautista Agut will likely draw some confidence from his win over Schwartzman, but as with most of Opelka’s matches if the American is serving well, there isn’t much the Spaniard can do. And he does, indeed seem to be serving well.
Cheryl pick: Opelka in 3
Ricky pick: Bautista Agut in 3
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