The Citi Open ATP Washington 500 level tournament on hard courts in the United States capital gets underway with a slate of matches featuring Sam Querrey vs Kei Nishikori, and Kevin Anderson vs Jenson Brooksby. We have predictions for all of your matches on Monday.
Sam Querrey vs Kei Nishikori
Nishikori and Querrey will meet for the 11th time (last meeting in 2018), these veteran fan favorites have been delighting fans for quite some time, and Nishikori has a small h2h lead 6-4, including a win in 2014 at the Citi Open. Nishikori reached the quarterfinals of his home Olympic games in Tokyo, and despite failing to medal, he again demonstrated respectable form including an upset of Andrey Rublev. He also reached the second week at the French Open (d. Karen Khachanov in round 2) and had two other hard court quarterfinals earlier in the year.
Querrey has struggled by contrast, and although both players are years removed from their best tennis, Querrey only has one match win since reaching the Mallorca final on grass. He also reached the Stuttgart semifinals on grass, but he’s lost two straight matches since leaving the grass courts with opening match exits in Los Cabos and Atlanta.
Presuming he’s not jet lagged, Nishikori should have the upper hand in this matchup. Nishikori in 3
Andreas Seppi vs Yasutaka Uchiyama
Seppi is another player who found some success on grass but has struggled in two straight hard court tournaments, as he also lost his first matches in Los Cabos and Atlanta (after reaching the quarters in Eastbourne on grass). Seppi is years removed from his best tennis as well, but he’s facing an opponent with a mediocre ATP record this year, Uchiyama is just 3-9 on tour this year, and 4-17 overall. With Uchiyama playing so poorly, Seppi should have an edge in this matchup. Seppi in 2
Ricardas Berankis vs Mitchell Krueger
Krueger, the qualifier, won the Cary challenger recently, a big result as he was struggling this season and has never broken through to the ATP Tour level. The veteran Berankis has lost four straight matches and has failed to make an impact on the ATP Tour all season. Berankis is probably the better player but his form and suspect, and with Krueger suddenly finding some form he can pull off an upset. Krueger in 3
Marcos Giron vs Ilya Marchenko
Giron is at a career high ranking and is making waves with a quarterfinal in Halle as a qualifier, a win at Wimbledon, two wins at Roland Garros and a couple of other quality results in ATP challengers and the early rounds of ATP tournaments (plus a win at the Olympics most recently). The qualifier Marchenko is more than 100 spots away from his career high ranking of 49, he just broke a two match losing streak with two qualifying wins and has been poor at ATP level despite doing relatively well on the Challenger Tour including one title. Presuming Giron is fresh and fit he looks like the better player right now as Marchenko had two three setters in qualifying. Giron in 2
Vasek Pospisil vs Emilio Gomez
Gomez at 21-12 has been excellent on the ATP Challenger Tour with a title and a final this year, he’s been limited at the ATP level, although he did win a match in Los Cabos, and routinely advanced through two qualifying matches to reach this Washington main draw. Pospisil has compiled at pedestrian 4-8 record in limited matches this season, his best result was a quarterfinal in Newport. Pospisil is prone to make streaky runs and can be a threat, especially on hard courts, but Gomez form looks better right now. Gomez in 3
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