Winston-Salem Open preview and predictions

With the 2016 Rio Olympics over and the Cincinnati Masters having come and gone, the tennis world is now set for one of those infamous weeks that immediately precede a Grand Slam. As always, just about anything could happen in Winston-Salem because a lot of participants will already be more interested in the upcoming U.S. Open. Take last year, for example, when Pierre-Hugues Herbert played nine matches in nine days before finishing runner-up to Kevin Anderson as a qualifier. In other words, expect the unexpected.

Winston-Salem Open

Where: Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Surface: Hard
Points: 250
Prize money: $639,255

Top seed: Richard Gasquet
Defending champion: Kevin Anderson

Draw analysis: For the first time in his career, Steve Johnson will play a tournament as the top-ranked American man in the world. And he will do so in what has to be considered the American section of the bracket. Of the seven entrants hailing from the host nation, six are in the bottom half: Johnson, Sam Querrey, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Donald Young, and Rajeev Ram. Johnson and Querrey have byes to the second round and could face each other in the semifinals, while Fritz and Tiafoe are squaring off in an intriguing opener. Young, meanwhile, is going up against Herbert right off the bat.

Some rest prior to New York could serve Johnson well, and that is exactly what he may get given his treacherous early-round path in Winston-Salem. The world No. 23 could open against 2014 champion Lukas Rosol before possibly running into Fernando Verdasco in the last 16. Querrey seems to have a more favorable road, as other players in his eighth of the draw are slumping at the moment (Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Viktor Troicki among them).

The top half of the bracket looks especially wide open. Of the eight players with first-round byes, only two—Anderson and Richard Gasquet—are particularly accomplished on hard courts. And both of them have been hampered by physical problems this season, to the extent that they may be less than 100 percent in Winston-Salem. Gasquet has a tough opener on his hands against Daniel Evans, while Anderson likely awaits Wimbledon fourth-round performer Jiri Vesely. Don’t be surprised if Pablo Cuevas, who is 30-16 this season and inside the top 20 at 19^th in the world, makes a run.

First-round upset alert: (WC) Frances Tiafoe over Taylor Fritz. Tiafoe has not done the same kind of damage at the ATP level as his fellow 18-year-old American, but he is a perfect 4-0 in the head-to-head series. Three of those victories came in juniors before Tiafoe again got the best of Fritz 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 at the Indian Wells Masters back in March. Ranked 54th in the world as of Sunday, Fritz seems to be slowing down in the wake of a heavy schedule. He has lost eight of his last 11 matches after getting blown out by Youzhny in the Cincinnati first round.

Second-round upset alert: Mikhail Youzhny over (12) Andrey Kuznetsov. Youzhny may be slowing down at 34 years old, but he went back to Challenger circuit to pick up confidence earlier this season and he has parlayed that into a decent 12-13 record at the ATP level. The Russian, who should be able to take advantage of a rusty Thanasi Kokkinakis in his Winston-Salem opener, has advanced to the second round in six of his last seven tournaments. Kuznetsov is on a three-match losing streak dating back to the Wimbledon third round.

Hot: Steve Johnson, Pablo Cuevas, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Paolo Lorenzi, Frances Tiafoe

Cold: Gilles Simon, Viktor Troicki, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Thanasi Kokkinakis

Quarterfinal predictions: Richard Gasquet over John Millman, Pablo Cuevas over Jiri Vesely, Sam Querrey over Fernando Verdasco, and Joao Sousa over Marcos Baghdatis

Semifinals: Cuevas over Gasquet and Querrey over Sousa

Final: Querrey over Cuevas

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