Jerzy Janowicz will face Pablo Carreno Busta in his Valencia opener on Tuesday. Mikhail Youzhny and Bernard Tomic are also looking for a place in the last 16.
(Q) Pablo Carreno Busta vs. (5) Jerzy Janowicz
Janowicz and Carreno Busta will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers when the two 22-year-olds collide in round one of the Valencia Open on Tuesday afternoon. It has already been a solid week for Carreno Busta, who had to qualify for the main draw. The Spaniard has made a name for himself in 2013 by dominating the Futures and Challenger circuits while also earning the first seven ATP-level victories of his career.
While Janowicz’s breakout came last season, this has been his most consistent year on tour. The world No. 15 owns a 24-18 record, which has fallen off of late in part due to injury. Janowicz is 1-4 in his last five matches dating back to the third round of the Montreal Masters. This week’s fifth seed is not playing with much confidence, but a fast indoor hard court should allow him to have too much power for Carreno Busta–who would greatly prefer to contest this one on clay.
Pick: Janowicz in 2
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Mikhail Youzhny vs. Bernard Tomic
Youzhny and Tomic will be squaring off for the second time in their careers on Tuesday. They also faced each other in the first round during this same week of 2012, but in Basel rather than Valencia. Youzhny dominated that encounter 6-0, 6-2.
Tomic is in far worse form than he was 12 months ago. The 20-year-old Aussie is on a three-match losing streak and he is down at No. 52 in the world. Youzhny reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open and although he has slumped since then, one decent result this fall came in the form of a Bangkok quarterfinal. This is a bad matchup for Tomic not only because of current form, but also because he would rather go up against someone who can’t match him backhand slice for backhand slice.
Pick: Youzhny in 2
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Tomic the Tank Engine retires down a break in the 3rd.
#Typecast
So frustrating. ATP livestreaming for Valencia doesn’t start till Thursday.
Livescoring isn’t the quite the same 🙁
ed, do you subscribre to ATP live streaming? If so, is it clear and smooth?
I subscribed two years ago but it was sometimes choppy.
Yes it is an excellent service now – mostly in HD or high quality from Masters and quite often even for the 500 and 250 events.
The online help service is also very good. Have had the odd glitch which they have been able to resolve usually within a few minutes. e.g. yesterday had trouble logging on which was caused by corrupted cookies but they talked me through what to do.
Another time when I suddenly encountered buffering (which is rare these days) I got onto them and the problem was sorted out pdq.
I’m particularly enamoured by the Catch Up facility which has put an end to turning down invitations in order to stay home for the tennis or refusing entry to friends calling at the house during a match.