Cincinnati champion Daniil Medvedev will attempt to recover from second-round cramping in his last of 32 encounter with Feliciano Lopez on Friday. Stan Wawrinka will also be in third-round action against Italian veteran Paolo Lorenzi.
(5) Daniil Medvedev vs. Feliciano Lopez
Under most circumstances, this would be an easy call for a win. The Russian has been the in-form hard-court player of the summer. He made the final in Washington, D.C, the final in Montreal, and then he went on to take the title in Cincinnati. The problem is that he played an awful lot of tennis along the way–and his body seems to be rebelling a bit. The No. 5 seed just barely managed to take out Hugo Dellien of Bolivia due to vicious cramping in the third and fourth sets.
It doesn’t help Medvedev’s cause that he has to play a second day in a row, either, as a result of rain suspending play on all outside courts on Wednesday. Unless Medvedev makes a miraculous recovery in a day, Lopez is going to have a great chance to nab the upset. The Spanish is also playing two days in a row, and he also played four sets in his second-round match against Yoshihito Nishioka. But since he could still move at the end of his match, he’ll have the edge against Medvedev.
Cheryl pick: Lopez in 4
Ricky pick: Medvedev in 3
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(23) Stan Wawrinka vs. Paolo Lorenzi
Like most of the top half, Wawrinka and Lorenzi take the court for the second straight day. Wawrinka has had some issues with his form coming into this event, but he had a solid if expected win over Jeremy Chardy in his second-round match. And he faces world No. 135 Lorenzi for a spot in the US Open round of 16, a favorable draw to be sure.
Lorenzi came up through qualifying in New York. The effort paid off, as the draw gods smiled kindly on him by pitting him against world No. 1415 Zachary Svajda in the first round. Lorenzi then upset Miomir Kecmanovic in five tough sets on Thursday to earn his third-round berth. His good fortune seems destined to stop on Friday, however. Wawrinka is a three-time Grand Slam winner who knows how to win at big events.
Wawrinka should come through this one fairly comfortably.
Cheryl pick: Wawrinka in 3
Ricky pick: Wawrinka in 3
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Lorenzi???
The question of the day, for sure.
Medvedev in 3 if healthy. He will be in a hurry to get it done.
What happened yesterday with Medvedev? Why he was acting like a clown. Disgusting
Probably suffering of the same star syndrome like Zverev did 1-2 seasons ago. Getting to their heads too quickly.
Nah, Eugene, you’ve not seen Medvedev’s matches enough to see the nasty side of him, even before this so called ‘star syndrome’.
Medvedev can be nasty if things don’t go well for him, and that’s nothing to do with star syndrome as he’s like that even before he rises up the rankings. It’s different from Sasha’s which many here called it ‘feeling entitled’.
A clown? He was cramping, could hardly move.
Clown? He could barely move, he was cramping.
Medvedev in 4 Stan in 3
Stan in 3.
I didn’t know about Medvedev cramping – only followed scores yesterday.
So my girl, Simona, was knocked out by Gauff and the Gauff hype annoys me to the point of hating her. But I’m sure I’d get over it if the commentators could tone the Gsuff hype down! Happy that my other top pick, Karolina Pliskova made it through a her tough match today.
Please Naomi Osaka, win your match tomorrow!!
Correction! Taylor Townsend knocked out Halep yesterday. Well that’s surprising but tolerable. Good win for Taylor.
But the Gauff hype is still annoying. I stand by that.
Agreed on all counts. I don’t hate on Gauff – its the ESPN commies drooling on her that get to me. Verdasco and Chung were locked in a 5 set battle and what did we get? Yet *another* meaningless interview with Gauff.
Is there really nothing Townsend can do about her weight? I guess even mentioning it is non PC, but if she were a guy…No one ever mentions that Serena is tipping the scales a lot more than she used to either. It can’t be good for them.
Well, I do admit “hating on Gauff”. I know the commies forced me into it, too. Despicable commies.
It’s not pc to mention weight. But I agree – that’s why WTA should be best of five in GS tournaments. It would completely change the fitness requirements for the better, imo. And for those who say it’s too hard on women, I say BS. Was it 1984 that the Olympics allowed women to run marathons? Women can be super fit. And imo, the ability to move and run is a requirement of the game. But it would change who wins and doesn’t win. You have to be in shape to win a GS. You don’t see any fatties in the ATP getting to a GS final!
Jack Sock got fat. I don’t know which came first the fat or the injuries that have kept him out of where he could be: Top Ten.
Serena is slowly getting back into shape after that high risk pregnancy – I give her a pass. Taylor Townsend is extremely talented and could be even better if her BMI was in a proper range.
Last summer Elina Svitolina had obviously lost quite a bit of weight. She lost too much weight and she also lost her power. Now she is back to looking healthy and has much better legs. Being too thin and underweight is not good either. Most the WTA professionals do keep themselves in good shape, I think. But I’d like them to be treated like like they should be and not underestimated and limited to best of three! Let us go best of five and we see who wins!!
@Elizabeth
I appreciate your thoughts – thanks! I agree with you that women should play best of 5 at majors. It’s what makes the majors, well, MAJOR, imo. That they don’t is mostly a matter of tradition I think.
I agree about the weight issue. It’s a big problem to carry extra weight. I was really surprised watching her. You are not going to last and succeed in this sport if you are carrying extra pounds. I remember some of the men’s players losing weight and they were much fitter and it helped their game.
I wish Coco Gauff well. I have nothing against her personally. But they are giving her far too much attention. It will not help her in the long term. ESPN needs to dial it back a bit and focus on other players. Coco Gauff has not done anything yet. Let her earn it.
We have seen how tough it is to rise in the rankings and have to deal with the hype and expectations. Has everyone forgotten what happened with Jennifer Capriati?
Woohoo! David Goffin wins the first set TB. Well, this is definitely a match that likely won’t soon be over. Lots of long rallies and running. Winner of this match plays Fed, which will be good for Fed, I believe. PCB has had two tough round opponents prior to this. Pella wasn’t an easy out, neither was Berankis. Goffin needed four sets to beat Corentin Moutet but beat Barrare in straight sets.
My bracket pick is Goffin but I like both – PCB and Goffin are both great fighters.
It doesn’t get much better – the tennis! Goffin again wins a gruelling set and it was so close. Goffin was so mentally tough but so is PCB Though Goffin has the first two sets, barely – can’t see PCB going away.
Allez Goffin, Allez!
It just goes to show how dangerous big servers are. Medvedev’s stats are clearly better than Lopez’s, Lopez doesn’t even have to serve that well for the most part, all he has to do is win 50% of his serves and serve well on the big points. That puts pressure on Medvedev when he’s serving and it only takes 1 lapse to drop each set.
Medvedev struggles against a player like Feli, who plays more of a S&V game, something these youngsters are not used to playing against.
Well, it’s a good experience, should make him think how to counter the S&V game next time. He has to serve well to hold here and wait for his chances.
No kidding. Please stop trying to teach me. I post simply to share my views not to get lectured by someone with 1% my experience and knowledge.
lol, there you go again on your high horse about how great yourself is, Jim
Courier! Indeed it’s nice of you to bless us lowlife peasants with your wisdom. Thank you, Jim.
To put this into perspective, if they played underarm serves Medvedev would win this 3-0 losing 3-4 games.
The advantage can be even more pronounced when you’re a significant underdog. So not only is there a serve advantage, there’s also a mental advantage.
Looks like Medvedev is going to win this. Good experience for him against a veteran who plays quite a different game from what he used to play against.
Lopez had a serve, tactical, physical, experience and mental edge so this will be a big win for Medvedev if he gets it done.
Hope Medvedev wins this soon. I’m not sure Feli, should he win, would have the energy to be competitive in the next round. I need Medvedev to offer some challenges in the later round to players like Djoko or Stan, and then Fed (or the others from the other quarter). At least he won’t roll over against the big boys and has the weapons to trouble them.
Medvedev as nasty as he may be, I do admire him for being so unfazed, even after the boos and hisses against him for treating the ball girl so rudely throwing his towel at her.
He’s a bit like Djoko, the more the crowd is against him, the more defiant he becomes and plays even better to agitate them. I found him being sarcastic towards them in his on court interview after the match.
I like it when Medvedev shows his true personality – which does seem strange when it comes out because he is such a baby face. lol
I wasn’t really sure how I felt about his behavior during the match (definitely more bad than good) but that on court interview honestly annoyed me. Like dude just stop talking haha. He kept repeating how the crowd gave him the energy to win and all that. Anyways, Koepfer is beating him next round and I ain’t even kidding. Medvedev is gassed and the German is on a tear. He’s getting better with every match and he won’t deal with any drama. That dude is all business. Koepfer to the quarters, ladies and gentlemen.
I wasn’t really sure how I felt about his behavior during the match (definitely more bad than good) but that on court interview honestly annoyed me. Like dude just stop talking haha. He kept repeating how the crowd gave him the energy to win and all that. Anyways, Koepfer is beating him next round and I ain’t even kidding. Medvedev is fatigued and the German is on a tear. He’s getting better with every match and he won’t deal with any drama. That dude is all business. Koepfer to the quarters, ladies and gentlemen.
How much are you putting on Koepfer? You can get 6s.
I wasn’t surprised Koepfer won his last 2 matches but Medvedev is a different league to those 2 players, tired or not.
I’m not betting on him, I don’t bet. I just think he’s gonna win.
The one thing you do not want us a New York crowd against you. I remember in 2008 when Nole made the mistake of being a sore loser when he beat Andy Roddick at the USO. They already had words, but Nole was not gracious and there is nothing like the sound of 18,000 New Yorkers booing you.
Medvedev was boorish and childish in that match. I find nothing appealing about his behavior. He was wrong to grab the towel from that young girl. Inexcusable! Then they showed a replay of him using the middle finger to express his displeasure. Is there something contagious about Kyrgios and his disgusting behavior these days? I dislike this kind of petty, stupid nonsense. I could understand Medvedev being upset when he was cramping in his previous match. But he was just acting like a self-entitled brat last night.
You have a point there, nny. Medvedev is certainly not kyrgios level but at the same time considering the success Nole has said in spite of having the crowd against him on the biggest stages, a lot of tennis players may seem to think that crowd support is overrated and having the crowd cheering against you can spur one on. What probably irked Medvedev was the crowd cheering against him though he was not playing an american though his actions should not be condoned. A djokovic medvedev match will be interesting. Who will be booed less?
Medvedev certainly wasn’t irked by the crowd; he couldn’t care less about their booing, not cowed by them. In fact that spurred him on to play better, just to irritate them further.
Medvedev had behaved badly in his matches before this one, I’m not surprised by his behaviour. I don’t think he’s learning from Kyrgios, he doesn’t need to learn from Kyrgios anyway! I mean he’s such a character, not because he has now become more successful, he’s just like this from the day he started out in the main tour!
I’ve seen enough of his matches all these while to notice his bad behaviour all along. But I have to say it’s only when he’s not playing well, not going to win that he starts throwing tantrums. He’s just so eager to win all the time.