Suddenly, the expected semifinal matchup in the bottom half of the draw–at least according to seed–is John Isner vs. Marin Cilic. Those two big hitters will be back on the court for Friday’s schedule, with respective matchups against Mischa Zverev and Diego Schwartzman.
(23) Mischa Zverev vs. (10) John Isner
Isner and Zverev will be squaring off for the fifth time in their careers when they clash in the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday. Going up against the Zverev brothers has been a disaster for Isner of late. The 6’10” American is 0-2 in his last two matches against Mischa and 0-3 lifetime against Alexander. As for the overall head-to-head series between the two veterans, however, it stands at an even 2-2. Isner prevailed in 2009 (straight sets in Bangkok) and 2016 (straight sets at the Paris Masters) before Zverev got the job done 6-7(4), 6-7(4), 7-5, 7-6(4), 9-7 at this year’s Australian Open and 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 on the clay courts of Geneva.
Now, though, Isner has home-court advantage during his favorite time of every season. The world No. 15 has always been at his best on U.S. hard courts and this summer is no exception, with a title in Atlanta, a semifinal run in Cincinnati, and routine victories this week over Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Hyeon Chung. Zverev, meanwhile, has cooled off considerably since his blistering start to the 2017 campaign. This tournament marks just the fourth occasion on which the 27th-ranked German has won multiple matches in the same week since the Aussie Open. And he has twice needed five sets to do so; first against Thai-Son Kwaitkowski and again on Wednesday night against Benoit Paire. A huge edge in current form goes to Isner, for whom these conditions–balls flying through the air but bouncing slow and high–could not be more perfect.
Pick: Isner in 3
[polldaddy poll=9820411]
(29) Diego Schwartzman vs. (5) Marin Cilic
With No. 2 seed Andy Murray having withdrawn and the younger Zverev brother now out of the event, Cilic is the highest-ranked player in the bottom half of the draw–with Isner second. The 2014 U.S. Open champion had not played since Wimbledon due to an adductor injury, but he appears to be 100 percent in New York. So far this fortnight, Cilic has disposed of Tennys Sandgren and Florian Mayer. The world No. 7 is now 37-14 this season with a runner-up showing at Wimbledon that has him on course for a return trip to the World Tour Finals (currently sixth among players who are not out for the year).
Up next for Cilic on Friday is a second career meeting with Schwartzman, who lost their only previous encounter 6-1, 7-6(7) on clay in the Istanbul semifinals this spring. The 5’7” Argentine is playing the best tennis of his life at the moment, with 26 of his 57 career ATP-level match victories in 2017 and three quarterfinal performances in a row (Bastad, Hamburg, and–much more impressively–Montreal). Schwartzman booked his spot in the last 32 of this tournament by destroying Carlos Berlocq and Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets. The competition level ratchets up dramatically for the 29th seed on Friday, but it does the same for Cilic and Cilic has not faced a difficult opponent since early July. Sound the upset alert.
Pick: Schwartzman in 5
[polldaddy poll=9820426]
Leave a Reply