Winston-Salem R2 previews and picks: Paire vs. Blake, Monaco vs. Mahut

James Blake will be back in action in Winston-Salem on Tuesday against Benoit Paire. Juan Monaco is also facing a Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut.

James Blake vs. (5) Benoit Paire

Blake and Paire will be squaring off for the first time in their careers when they do battle in round two of the Winston-Salem Open on Tuesday. Often mentally challenged, Paire turned in a bizarre performance in his Cincinnati opener against Nikolay Davydenko and lost in straight sets. Suffering from an apparent minor back injury, the 27th-ranked Frenchman flew back to France for tests before returning to the United States for this event. Paire is 27-23 for the season, which includes a semifinal showing at the Rome Masters and third-round finishes at the French Open and Wimbledon.

This is Blake’s second match of the week, as he dismissed fellow American Rhyne Williams 6-1, 7-5 on Monday afternoon. The 33-year-old registers at No. 100 in the world and he is a mere 9-12 at the ATP level this season, but he is not in terrible form. Blake reached the Atlanta quarterfinals and he upset Jerzy Janowicz in the Cincinnati first round before falling to eventual quarterfinalist Dmitry Tursunov. This is a tough one to predict because these are two of the most mercurial players on tour. There is no way to tell what you are going to get from either one on any given day. With Blake relatively confident and motivated at the moment, he could take advantage of an opponent who may be lacking in both of those departments.

Pick: Blake in 3

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(8) Juan Monaco vs. Nicolas Mahut

Monaco and Mahut will be facing each other for the fourth time in their careers on Tuesday. Mahut leads the head-to-head series 2-1 and all three of their previous encounters have come on hard courts. They most recently met at the 2012 Indian Wells Masters, where Monaco prevailed 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. Prior to that, Mahut scored a pair of victories in 2007 (at the Australian Open and in Indian Wells).

Mahut booked his spot in this clash by ousting Lukasz Kubot 6-3, 6-1 in his Winston-Salem opener on Tuesday. The 80th-ranked Frenchman is trying to bounce back from a disappointing Cincinnati qualifying loss to junior player Mackenzie McDonald. Monaco, ranked 31st in the world, defeated Jurgen Melzer in Cincinnati and served for the first set against Novak Djokovic before watching the Serb blow past him 7-5, 6-2. The Argentine is 24-19 for the year and he reached a final on the clay courts of Kitzbuhel earlier this month. Mahut will have to serve extremely well and impose his aggressive style of play in order advance, because Monaco will almost always have the upper hand from the back of the court.

Pick: Monaco in 3

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