Gilles Simon and Sam Querrey will kick off their Wimbledon campaigns on Tuesday. They are set for respective meetings with Feliciano Lopez and Bernard Tomic.
(19) Gilles Simon vs. Feliciano Lopez
Simon and Lopez will be squaring off for the third time in their careers and for the second time in four days when they clash in the Wimbledon first round on Tuesday. They just faced each other in Saturday’s Eastbourne final, which Lopez won 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 6-0. A 2008 encounter on the indoor hard courts of Rotterdam went Simon’s way 6-3, 6-4.
Lopez’s run continued a recent stretch of good form following a start to the season that was plagued by a wrist injury. The 32nd-ranked Spaniard reached the third round of the French Open and at Queen’s Club before his grass-court title. He is 14-9 overall for his 2013 campaign. Simon is in the midst of a similar year–not spectacular but definitely solid. The 17th-ranked Frenchman sports a 29-16 record and his Eastbourne runner-up was preceded by a fourth-round appearance at Roland Garros.
With both players playing stellar tennis, a high-quality battle can be expected. Lopez will have a good chance at another victory because grass certainly favors him in this matchup. Over five sets, however, Simon’s consistency will be a tough test to overcome. Unless Lopez serves incredibly well, Simon should be able to get enough balls back to wear down his opponent at the end of an extended affair.
Pick: Simon in 5
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Bernard Tomic vs. (21) Sam Querrey
Tomic and Querrey will be colliding for the second time in their careers when they do battle during first-round action on Tuesday. Their only previous encounter came last year at the Australian Open, where Tomic treated the crowd to a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-3 victory. The 59th-ranked Aussie does not have home-court advantage this time around nor is he playing as well as he generally does at home. Tomic had lost four consecutive matches heading into the grass-court swing, but he may have picked up some much-needed momentum with a quarterfinal performance in Eastbourne (lost to Simon).
Querrey is a decent 18-13 for the season, which features fourth-round finishes in Indian Wells and Miami plus a pair of 250-point semifinals (Auckland and San Jose). The 6’6” American is coming off a third-round loss to Lleyton Hewitt at Queen’s Club. Querrey has begun to pick up the pace at Wimbledon after lackluster showings from 2007 through 2009. He reached the last 16 in 2010 and he made it to the third round in 2012 before succumbing to Marin Cilic 17-15 in the fifth set. Tomic, meanwhile, is a former quarterfinalist at the All-England Club (2011). Querrey’s serve can work well on grass, but he needs time to set up for his shots and Tomic is an expert at using opponents’ pace to his advantage.
Pick: Tomic in 4
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