Juan Martin Del Potro will continue his Washington, D.C. campaign on Friday against Kevin Anderson. John Isner and Marcos Baghdatis are also bidding for a place in the quarterfinals.
(1) Juan Martin Del Potro vs. (7) Kevin Anderson
Del Potro and Anderson will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers when they collide in the quarterfinals of the Citi Open on Friday. All four of their previous encounters–all on hard courts–have gone Del Potro’s way. They faced each other three times in 2011 before Del Potro won their most recent meeting 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 last fall on the indoor hard courts of Basel. The seventh-ranked Argentine reached the semifinals of Wimbledon and he has kicked off his U.S. Open Series campaign with straight-set dismissals of Ryan Harrison and Bernard Tomic (both on Thursday due to rain).
Anderson is positively on fire this season and a 34-14 record has him up to a career-high ranking of No. 21 in the world. The 6’8” South African finished runner-up in Atlanta last Sunday (had two championship points against John Isner) before finishing off James Duckworth and ending Mardy Fish’s run on Thursday. As well as Anderson is playing right now, this is clearly a terrible matchup for him. Del Potro and–for example–Tomas Berdych are similar players who can do almost everything just a little bit bigger and better than Anderson. This week’s seventh seed is 0-13 lifetime combined against those two opponents.
Pick: Del Potro in 2
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(8) John Isner vs. (14) Marcos Baghdatis
The head-to-head series is the same in Isner vs. Baghdatis. Isner has won all four of their previous meetings and all four have come on hard courts. They squared off three times in 2011, all during the American hard-court summer, with Isner getting the job done in Montreal, Winston-Salem, and at the U.S. Open. Always at his best this time of year, Isner–a former runner-up in Washington, D.C.–advanced to the Newport semifinals prior to his Atlanta triumph. So far this week the 6’9” American has taken out both Alex Kuznetsov and Somdev Devvarman in straight sets.
Baghdatis, on the other hand, had been on an epic losing streak leading up to his arrival at the Citi Open. The 44th-ranked Cypriot had dropped 11 consecutive matches, 10 in the first round of tournaments. He had not picked up a single win outside of lower-level Davis Cup play since Rotterdam in February. Baghdatis, however, booked his spot in the last eight from just about out of nowhere by defeating Lukas Lacko and No. 2 seed Kei Nishikori. That may give Baghdatis the confidence he needs to make this a competitive one, but Isner is as match-tough as they come right now and he will have a huge edge at the end of any set that goes down to the wire.
Pick: Isner in 2
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