David Goffin will be looking to win his 25th match in a row when he takes the court for third-round action on Wednesday in Winston-Salem. Donald Young and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez are also bidding for a spot in the quarterfinals.
(15) Jarkko Nieminen vs. (Q) David Goffin
Nieminen and Goffin have somewhat of an interesting history heading into their third-round showdown at the Winston-Salem Open on Wednesday. In their only previous ATP main-draw meeting, Nieminen issued a 6-0, 6-0 double-bagel to Goffin on the indoor hard courts of Rotterdam in 2013. Fast forward 18 months, however, and Nieminen is one of Goffin’s 24 scalps in the Belgian’s current incredible winning streak. Goffin got the best of the Finn 7-6(3), 6-3 in the final of a clay-court Challenger last month.
Goffin’s hot stretch includes three Challenger triumphs, his first ATP title in Kitzbuhel, and straight-set blowouts in Winston-Salem of defending champion Jurgen Melzer and Hamburg winner Leonardo Mayer. Nieminen went back to clay after Wimbledon, so he is contesting his first hard-court event since Miami (not including a Davis Cup tie immediately thereafter). The 54th-ranked Finn kicked off his week with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Benjamin Becker on Monday. With unparalleled confidence and plenty of hard-court matches under his belt as a qualifier, Goffin should have the edge in his effort to win No. 25.
Pick: Goffin in 2
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(5) Guillermo Garcia-Lopez vs. (11) Donald Young
Garcia-Lopez and Young will be squaring off for the third time in their careers and for the second time this season on Wednesday. They recently faced each other in a French Open thriller, won by Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 6-7(4), 6-4. The head-to-head series is tied up at 1-1, as Young took a 2011 Bangkok encounter 6-1, 6-7(0), 7-5.
Young is in fine form at home on American courts right now. The world No. 46 reached the Washington, D.C. semifinals, pushed Grigor Dimitrov to three sets in the Toronto second round, and he crushed Frank Dancevic 6-1, 6-3 on Tuesday. Garcia-Lopez, who also earned a first-round bye, overcame Dustin Brown 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2 on Monday. The 32nd-ranked Spaniard is a decent 23-19 for the season, but after three post-Wimbledon clay-court tournaments he dropped his openers in both Toronto and Cincinnati.
Pick: Young in 3
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