Fellow Spaniards David Ferrer and Pablo Carreno Busta will be clear underdogs when third-round U.S. Open action concludes on Saturday. Ferrer is facing Juan Martin Del Potro, while Carreno Busta is going up against Dominic Thiem.
(WC) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. (11) David Ferrer
Since the start of the Rio Olympics, only one man–who happens to be the hottest player on tour right now–has managed to stop Del Potro. That would be none other than Andy Murray, who held off the 27-year-old Argentine in a four-set thriller of a gold-medal match. Maintaining momentum from his silver-medal performance in Rio de Janeiro, Del Potro now finds himself in the third round of the U.S. Open. The 2009 champion cruised past countryman Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(3) before beating an in-form Steve Johnson 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday night.
Up next for the former world No. 4 on Saturday is a 10th career contest against Ferrer, who is leading the head-to-head series 6-3. The two veterans have not faced each since 2013 (a straight-set victory for Del Potro at Wimbledon) mainly because of Del Potro’s extensive amount of time away from tennis. Three seasons later, Ferrer is clearly slowing down at 34 years old. With a 28-17 record for his 2016 campaign and a 5-7 mark in his last 12 matches prior to the U.S. Open, the Spaniard has fallen to No. 13 in the rankings. He benefited from a first-set retirement courtesy of Alexandr Dolgopolov in round one and then outlasted Fabio Fognini 6-0, 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 at almost 1:00 a.m. on Thursday night (Friday morning). All signs point to Del Potro continuing his summer surge at the expense of a slumping and fatigued opponent.
Pick: Del Potro in 3
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(8) Dominic Thiem vs. Pablo Carreno Busta
Thiem and Carreno Busta will be squaring off for the third time in their careers at the ATP level and for the fifth time overall when they meet again on Saturday. Both of their previous main-tour encounters have gone the way of Thiem, who prevailed 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 last season in Gstaad and 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 earlier this year in Buenos Aires–also on clay. Carreno Busta’s lone victory came via a 6-2, 5-7, 6-0 decision in a 2013 clay-court Challenger final in Como, Italy.
Since overloading the first half of his 2016 schedule, Thiem has struggled amidst fatigue and other minor physical problems. But playing a mere three completed matches in between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open may have reinvigorated the 22-year-old Austrian. He survived a five-set thriller against John Millman in round one before hammering Ricardas Berankis 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday. Now it is Carreno Busta who may be the one feeling a ton of matches in his legs. The 39th-ranked Spaniard captured the first ATP title of his career last weekend in Winston-Salem, outlasting countryman Roberto Bautista Agut in a tight three-setter. Carreno Busta opened in New York by disposing of qualifier Ilya Ivashka and then beat Janko Tipsarevic 3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. A relatively well-rested Thiem should put an end to the underdog’s hot streak.
Pick: Thiem in 3
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Thiem and del Po in four
Delpo in 3
Thiem in 4
Delpo in 3, Thiem in 4. same as Ramara.
Ferrer has always been a tough match up for Delpo… Delpo having a hard time finding winning patterns here
ferrer has been very good in the past at returning delpo’s serve and just getting everything back and frustrating him. do you remember the wimby match where he made delpo look one-dimensional? but ferrer has been playing so poorly this season so you would think delps would win…
As much as I like Ferrer, I need Delpo to win this. He’s ahead 5-2 in the 2nd set…Ferrer is not his old self. Still the fighter but not as fast or accurate. I think Delpo can make it.
62, I mean. Delpo up two sets to love. One more Delpo.
go delpo!! i see grigor may be choking a huge lead again…
Yeah, I switched to watch what was happening to Grigor. But I did pick this match to go 5 sets. Dimi Dim Dim winning.
Murray v Lorenzi is on too. Curious to see how well Paolo Lorenzi recovered from the Simon match. Paolo could barely walk two days ago.
wow lorenzi has broken murray. murray has hit 19 unforced errors already.
don’t suppose poor margot will be enjoying watching this. but par for the course for an andy murray match ie high drama before the inevitable win.
What? Andy having trouble with Paolo?
Meanwhile Dimitrov can’t afford to let his mind drift…Joao Sousa is too good.
Gosh, I hope Delpo gets out of this match in 3.
they are 2 all in the tie break. but the significant stat is that andy has hit 26 unforced errors in this first set. that’s pretty shocking..
Andy’s not as into the match as he needs to be. You know if it wertr Rafa or Nole, different Andy. Anyone who watched the Simon v Lorenzi match (maybe Andy did) has to be wondering how this guy is somewhat making a match of it.
Andy got it. 1st set tb.
yes of course. we’ve all seen this movie countless times. if he were playing rafa or nole today he’d be all fired up. he seems to have no concentration sometimes when playing people he should be beating easily
exactly. and there’s quite a few top players like that isn’t there? Although some of them say they are only focused on the next match, they get into it and their minds wander, making the whole thing a lot harder than it could have been.
Delpo is through to the 4th Round!!
Ah, Paolo can’t possibly keep a high level up for much longer, can he? Andy just has to raise the bar, move him around — make him run. Paolo will be toast, I should think.
yep rc burnt toast at that….
Dimitrov wins! good for me bracket.
If Andy escapes his match with Paolo, he plays Dimitrov.
Delpo breaks, he’s going to try to serve for the match. Vamos, buddy.
I just got home to see Delpo serving for the match!
delps wins!! go delpo. a good win as he didn’t have to be on court too long.
Yes very good indeed.
Switching to Pliskova vs Pavlyuchenkova. I want to see how Karolina’s doing.
andy breaks himself to go down 4-2 with some horrible play. he’s now hit 37 unforced errors.
I don’t know what is going on with Andy. He is on the verge of losing the second set.
JMac just said Murray’s first serve percentage is 24% for this set!
andy has only 21% first serves in in this second set. that’s quite an achievement.
No surprise the deathnail of tennis is furious Nick has the primetime spot and he is sweating in the heat with the old Italian.
Lorenzi wins the second set! He is playing some inspired tennis and Murray seems flat. This one is going at least four sets.
ESPN showed Andy on the changeover. He is cranky! Sarcastically giving his team a thumbs up!
How is Lorenzi doing this at the age of 34?
We all have bad days?
With Andy’s 1st serve % in the 20’s Lorenzi doesn’t have to do much. Andy does not have a great 2nd serve.
My (imaginary) money says Andy rights the ship eventually. Or possibly Lorenzi falls over.
Cuz Lorenzi is a BOSS
Freaking unbelievable.
LOL..
laughing at Alyssa’s comment at 9:02pm…hilarious…
Go Nick! Well I was so much looking forward to Nick and Wawa’s encounter but it seems that Wawa will try his best to avoid it by losing to Evans… 🙂
You know the tour is in a bad state when Nick is playing a journeyman in prime time. Don’t know what’s going on with Stan these days. Close encounter with Evans.
Well, Stan won in the end but Kygrios didnt (he retired). So, in the end its still Stan the veteran who fought his way to the next round.
What’s with the USO this year, so many got injured or ill and had to retire?
Yeah,I saw Wawa’s match and felt so bad for Edmund. He was the better player for most of the match, fought really well and sadly lost that fourt set tiebreak when he had the lead, Poor fellow fell apart after that. Wawrinka will most likely be blown of the court not by Marchenko (who benefited from Nick’s injury otherwise Nick would have won! ) but certainly by Delpo…if healthy, Nick would have destroyed this Wawa…
Feel sad for Nick…
Nick blowing Stan off the court? Nah, Stan too solid to be blown off the court even when he’s not playing well. It would be a hard fought one. He’s not top four for nothing – he plays better in the slams than in others since winning his 2 slams. His worst surface is grass hence he could lose early there.
Nick’s problem is if things dont go well for him, he can just give up mentally and starts playing poorly, which imo is why up till now he is still not realising his potential.
Agree with Luckystar. And, stan is a type of player who can raise his level when it matters in the slams. Wawrinka has a massive game so blowing him off the court in slam is no joke…
I don’t talk about RG 2015 version of Stan! That one is gone for the time being…this version nearly lost to the playe who has never win anyth
…Edmund who never won a title and who won 19 matches in his entre career was better player than this Wawa…he choked in the tiebreak and if not for that the cry baby who comitted more than 60 UEs would have been on his way home by now…
True that Wawa can raise his level, but wll it be enough for on-fire Delpo, not sure…we shall see..,
I know… I am not expecting Stan to beat Delpo.. just felt that it is awfully tough to blow stan off the court because of how he plays. The big problem with stan is that he is always very vulnerable to losing to lower ranked players.
#Evans