The Swiss No. 2 Stan Wawrinka battles Jeremy Chardy for a spot in the U.S. Open third round on Wednesday. Borna Coric and Grigor Dimitrov will also be in second-round action as they go head-to-head for the first time.
(23) Stan Wawrinka vs. Jeremy Chardy
To say this is a favorable matchup for Stan Wawrinka would be understating the case a bit. He has played second-round opponent Jeremy Chardy five other times since 2009 on clay, grass and hard courts-and he’s won each time, dropping just one set along the way. Wawrinka doesn’t come into New York in particularly good form, though. The Swiss has had a difficult run this summer. In fact, he has not managed to win more than a single match at a time since he made the quarterfinals at the French Open.
Chardy, ranked No. 74 in the world, had a tough five-setter in his opener against Hubert Hurkacz this week. and he comes into this tournament with some mediocre results of his own this summer. The Frenchman elected to stay in Europe and play on clay until a couple of weeks ago when he came to the U.S. He played one match in Winston-Salem last week, but he retired in the second round against Frances Tiafoe. Against a different opponent, this could represent an opportunity for Chardy to get a good win over a seed. Wawrinka had a competitive first-round match against the Italian teenager Jannik Sinner, but given the matchup difficulties it’s hard to expect anything but a Wawrinka victory.
Cheryl pick: Wawrinka in 4
Ricky pick: Wawrinka in 4
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(12) Borna Coric vs. Grigor Dimitrov
This will be the first-ever meeting between Borna Coric and Grigor Dimitrov. Coric, the No. 12 seed, had a terrible summer hard court season leading into the U.S. Open. The Croatian managed just one win in Montreal and he was knocked out in the first round in Cincinnati at the hands of American Reilly Opelka. Coric had a relatively straightforward straight-set win over qualifier Evgeny Donskoy in his first-rounder on Monday.
Grigor Dimitrov has seen his ranking dip all the way to No. 78 in the world from a career high No. 3 just two years ago. The Bulgarian played four hard-court tournaments coming into New York-and he managed just one match win. He had a four-set victory over the Italian veteran Andreas Seppi in the first round. Seppi, who is ranked exactly one spot higher than Dimitrov, didn’t manage to make much of a dent in the Bulgarian’s game, except to snag the second set in a tiebreaker. While Dimitrov didn’t play a clean match (46 winners and 54 unforced errors), it was a good start to the tournament.
Unfortunately for the Dimitrov camp, Coric is likely to prove a more difficult opponent than Seppi was. The favorite is defending fourth round points and he’ll be keen to protect his ranking going into the fall Asian swing.
Cheryl pick: Coric in 4
Ricky pick: Dimitrov in 5
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