John Isner and Kevin Anderson will kick off their Valencia campaigns on Tuesday. The two big-hitting seeds are set for respective first-round meetings with Tommy Robredo and Philipp Kohlschreiber.
(5) John Isner vs. Tommy Robredo
Isner and Robredo will be facing each other for the fourth time in their careers and for the second time during this fall swing when they clash in the first round of the Valencia Open on Tuesday. All three previous meetings–including two in 2014–have gone Isner’s way. The 6’10” American prevailed 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 four years ago in Auckland, 7-6(13), 7-6(3), 6-7(5), 7-5 at this spring’s French Open, and 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) three weeks ago in Beijing.
Robredo has endured a tough but not entirely unsuccessful post-U.S. Open stretch. The 21st-ranked Spaniard squandered five championship points in the Shenzhen final against Andy Murray, nearly beat Isner in Beijing, lost his Shanghai opener to Mikhail Kukushkin, and fell to Marin Cilic last week in Moscow after taking advantage of a favorable draw to reach the quarters. Never at his best outside the United States, Isner has at least won two matches in each of his two fall-swing tournaments. Both the indoor hard-court surface and their past history suggest the world No. 16 should have the edge in this one.
Pick: Isner in 3
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Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. (7) Kevin Anderson
It’s funny how draws work out sometimes. Kohlschreiber has faced Isner–who has almost always maintained a similar ranking to that of Anderson and has been on tour almost the exact same amount of time–seven times, including in the third round of three straight U.S. Opens. Not once has the German ever played against Anderson. They were scheduled to square off at the 2012 Indian Wells Masters, but the 6’8” South African got a walkover.
The two competitors will finally meet during first-round action in Valencia on Tuesday. Current form favors Kohlschreiber, but that is mostly thanks to Anderson. The No. 7 seed has won more than two matches at a tournament only once since Wimbledon (quarterfinals in Toronto) and he is just 2-3 this fall. Kohlschreiber appears to have recovered from a recent shoulder problem. The world No. 23 reached last week’s Vienna semifinals then fell to David Ferrer in a third-set tiebreaker. With an extremely underrated return of serve, Kohlschreiber should play his way into more than enough rallies to eventually break down his opponent.
Pick: Kohlschreiber in 3
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Hate to vote against the Big Dawg, but I’m feeling this one may go Robredo’s way, and I like Kohlshrieber over Ason.
Isner vs Robredo is a tough one to call. John may have some confidence against Tommy, having just beat him in during the Asian swing, so I’m going with John in 3.
Gotta go with Kohls over Anderson. I agree with Ricky that Kohls’ ROS is very underrated, particularly his angled cross court single backhand return….that shot can be lethal. There’ll probably be a tie-break set, or even two, but I think Kohls in 3.
Baby Djokovic arrives. It’s a boy.
Congrats to both of them.
Sorry, wrong thread.
just a bit!