Johnson Wins Second ATP Title in Houston, Andujar Wins Third in Morocco Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
ATP Houston
By a score of 7-6 2-6 6-4 Steve Johnson will leave American soil a victor in Houston over countryman and first time ATP finalist Tennys Sandgren. Johnson beat five Americans in Houston, Ernesto Escobedo, Frances Tiafoe, John Isner, and Taylor Fritz being his opposition en route to the final. His win against Tiafoe was the only that came in straight sets on the week. It’s a title defense for Johnson as he won in Houston last year.
Sandgren, aiming for a first ATP title, came up just short, but he made the final with wins over Blaz Kavcic, Nicolas Kicker, Guido Pella, and Ivo Karlovic. Only against Pella did he drop a set. Oswald/Mirnyi took the doubles title over Begemann/Sancic.
Veteran Spaniard Pablo Andujar had only won one ATP match over the 2016-2017 seasons and his career was looking to be almost over. However he’s made a solid comeback from injury, capped off with a 250 title in Marrakech, an event where he had emerged victorious twice previously. Andujar eased past Kyle Edmund 6-2 6-2 and dropped just one set on the week in wins against Ilya Ivashka, Andrea Arnaboldi, Alexey Vatutin, and Joao Sousa.
Edmund played great on clay with wins against Jiri Vesely, Radu Albot, Malek Jaziri, and Richard Gasquet. He’ll be hoping for much more in the bigger ATP clay stops to come though.
Mektic/Peya beat the French pairing of Benoit Paire/Edouard Roger-Vasselin to take the doubles title.
Davis Cup Heroes Isner, Querrey, Sock, and Harrison Feature at ATP Houston 2018 Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
The 2018 US Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston, a 250 stop on the ATP tour, feature all the members of the USA Davis Cup Team and a host of others battling it out on North America’s only ATP clay court event.
Wins at the Davis Cup and in Miami set John Isner up to beat Dustin Brown/Henri Laaksonen, then Frances Tiafoe or Steve Johnson to reach the semis. Johnson faces fellow American Ernesto Escobedo, while Tiafoe takes on fellow American Mackenzie McDonald. Tiafoe should beat Johnson in round 2.
Jack Sock has had a rough season and I’ll back Yoshihito Nishioka, a qualifier, to test him in round 2 after upsetting Horacio Zeballos. I’ll go with Sock to advance to the quarters opposite Taylor Fritz or Ryan Harrison. Fritz opens with Tim Smyczek, while Harrison takes on qualifier Miomir Kecmanovic. Everyone in this section needs form, but I’ll hack Sock over Harrison to advance.
Sam Querrey will face Guido Pella or Stefan Kozlov. Pella is struggling badly and thus Querrey is a heavy favorite to reach the quarters. Tennys Sandgren takes on Blaz Kavcic, then Nicolas Kicker or Donald Young for a spot in the quarters. Both Young and Sandgren are in awful form, and I’ll go with Kicker to advance from the section with wins over Young and Sandgren before falling to Querrey.
Nick Kyrgios vs. Fernando Verdasco is looking like a fantastic quarterfinal matchup. Verdasco opens with Denis Kudla, then Taro Daniel or Ivo Karlovic. Kyrgios should be tested by Bjorn Fratangelo or countryman Jordan Thompson before the quarterfinals. I’ll go with Verdasco on clay to advance past Kyrgios and into the semis, but either player could win the whole tournament.
As poor as he was prior to Miami, it’s hard to pick against Isner right now as he’s the strongest player in the Houston field. Verdasco also has a real shot here.
Borna Coric and Steve Johnson Kickoff 2017 ATP Clay Court Season With Titles Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
ATP Marrakech
After struggling to start the season, in large part due to rust from injury, Borna Coric is finding form once again and he showed some of his best tennis this week in Morocco, as he took home a maiden ATP title in Marrakech on clay. The 20 year old was pushed to three sets in three matches this week, and had to save match points against his veteran opponent Philipp Kohlschreiber in the final, but after reaching the final for the second straight year, he simply not be denied the trophy, digging deep on pressure points, while Kohlschreiber crumbled. Coric took the final 5-7 7-6 7-5 after beating Jiri Vesely in straight sets in the semis. He beat Diego Schwartzman in straights in round 1, but then needed three sets against Reda El Amrani and Albert Ramos-Vinolas in rounds 2 and 3.
The veteran Kohlschreiber made his first final of the season with wins over Jan-Lennard Struff, Jeremy Chardy, and Benoit Paire, dropping sets to his first two opponents before routining Paire. Kohlschreiber has had an awful time closing matches out when he has a match point this season, and it’s cost him big victories, such as the trophy that was on offer today.
Dominic Inglot and Mate Pavic teamed up to beat Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez to take the doubles final in an upset.
ATP Houston
The crop of top American men continue to show improvements this season, Steve Johnson claimed a second career ATP title and his first on American soil with a narrow three set victory over Thomaz Bellucci 6-4 4-6 7-6. Johnson posted his best results of the season, and he reached the final by virtue of defeating defending champion Jack Sock in the semifinals, that win coming in three sets, along with wins over Dustin Brown and Fernando Verdasco in previous rounds. Johnson is not at his best on European clay, but should be a notable contender in the grass court season this summer.
A big hitter like Johnson, Bellucci had long matches all week, and was able to win them up until the final where he cracked under pressure. The 32 year old reached his first ATP final in more than a year with three set wins over Frances Tiafoe, Maximo Gonzalez, Sam Querrey, and Ernesto Escobedo, yet another American who has reached a high water mark this year, Escobedo is safely inside the top 100 after his result, which included a quarterfinal victory over a struggling John Isner.
Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos beat the exciting pairing of Dustin Brown and Frances Tiafoe in the doubles final by virtue of a third set super tiebreak.
2017 ATP Houston Preview and Predictions Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
It’s time to preview and predict the last USA ATP Tour stop until the Summer, it’s the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston, which is also the only ATP Tour event played on har-tru clay.
Fayez Sarofim and Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships
ATP World Tour 250
Houston, TX, USA
April 10-16, 2017
Surface: Clay
Prize Money: $535,625
Top 4 seeds (who all recieve first round byes) (ATP ranking in parentheses)
1: Jack Sock (15)
2: John Isner (23)
3: Sam Querrey (25)
4: Steve Johnson (29)
The top 4 seeds are all American, something quite fitting for the U.S. Clay Court Championships
First round matchups to watch:
(6)Feliciano Lopez vs. (WC)Bjorn Fratangelo
Having lost five straight Lopez badly needs some momentum and a win here, he’s favored against the American wild card Fratangelo, but Fratangelo is actually competitive on clay and with Lopez playing so poorly, I have Frantangelo pulling an upset.
(8)Thomaz Bellucci vs. Frances Tiafoe
Tiafoe has limited tour experience overall, and even less on clay, but the veteran Bellucci is coming off of putting in road work in the Davis Cup and could be fatigued. Tiafoe showed good form in Miami and with the home fans behind him he has a great shot at knocking off a seed in this one.
Top Half:
2015 champion Jack Sock is returning from Australia, and he’ll be thankful for the bye in round 1, both Reilly Opelka and Tommy Haas are tricky opponents, but Sock should beat the big serving Opelka, then defeat Victor Estrella, who I have beating Hyeon Chung, returning from injury, and the Fratangelo/Lopez winner.
Steve Johnson looks set to defeat two-time and defending champion Juan Monaco, who opens with Dustin Brown and needs form having barely played this season, before falling to Fernando Verdasco in the quarterfinals. Verdasco opens with Kevin Anderson, who has yet to return to his former top 30 form, Nicolas Kicker or qualifier Noah Rubin will follow. Verdasco has a great draw and should emerge from this section.
Bottom Half:
John Isner is also traveling back from Australia, he could have trouble against qualifier Leonardo Mayer, but having formerly won this tournament he should find things comfortable enough in round 2, before defeating Donald Young in the quarters. Young needs to beat Thiago Monteiro and either Ernesto Escobedo or qualifier Tennys Sandgren, who is making his ATP main draw debut. Young has a great shot against Isner, but on clay I give Isner an edge.
Rogerio Dutra Silva comes off a challenger title, after facing Horacio Zeballos he should take on Sam Querrey, Querrey will then have Jared Donaldson/qualifier Maximo Gonzalez or Bellucci/Tiafoe in the quarters, most likely Donaldson. Querrey, like Sock, has had a good season thus far and should beat Donaldson to reach the semis in this open section.
Dark Horse: Leonardo Mayer
Mayer has shown his ability in the past to perform at a level beyond his current ranking, including on clay, if Isner is in poor form or simply jetlagged, the qualifier has a great shot at reaching the quarterfinals and beyond.
Predictions
Semis Verdasco d. Sock
Isner d. Querrey
Verdasco should be fresh and Sock did not impress in the Davis Cup, Isner on clay should edge past Querrey just given past performance at this tournament.
Final Verdasco d. Isner
This is a great opportunity for the veteran Verdasco to snatch a title late in his career.
32 year old Argentine veteran Juan Monaco won his eight ATP title overall, and his first since 2012, when he defeated Jack Sock 3-6 6-3 7-5 for his second ATP Houston title. Monaco was ranked outside of the top 100, and hasn’t been much of a factor on the ATP tour in quite some time, but he found form on a familiar clay court surface to earn wins over Gerald Melzer, Benoit Paire, Sam Querrey, and Feliciano Lopez, along with Sock. A rather tough path for just an ATP 250. It will be interesting to see if Monaco can stay in the top 100 this year, and make further waves throughout the clay court season.
Sock is now 0-2 in finals this season, but he did beat Matt Barton, Marcos Baghdatis, and American #1 John Isner in the semifinals. His win over Isner will further aid his chances of becoming the top ranked American by the year’s end.
The legendary Bryan Brothers won their sixth ATP Houston title as they defeated Victor Estrella and Santiago Gonzalez in a close match that was decided 10-8 in a third set tiebreak.
19 year old Borna Coric still has the rest of the season to claim his first ATP title before he leaves his teenage years. The young Croatian was foiled by Federico Delbonis 6-2 6-4, as the top 50 dirtballer captured his second career ATP title, the other came in 2014.
Delbonis demonstrated his superior clay court prowess and form when he defeated Thiemo De Bakker, Pablo Carreno Busta, and Albert Montanes, along with Coric, without dropping a set throughout the week.
Coric only had to win a pair of matches, as he defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu and Jiri Vesely, battling hard and pulling off a pair of clutch wins. He’ll now have to jetset to Monte Carlo for a round 1 match on a bigger stage.
Maximo Gonzalez and Guillermo Duran beat Marin Draganja and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in the doubles final. Their win further adds to what a fantastic week it was for Argentine tennis, as Argentines really shined on clay.
2016 ATP Houston Preview and Predictions Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
Fayez Sarofim & Co US Men’s Clay Court Championship
ATP World Tour 250
Houston, TX, USA
April 4-10, 2016
Surface: Clay
Prize Money: $515,025
Top 4 seeds (who all receive first round byes) (ATP ranking in parentheses)
1: John Isner (13)
2: Benoit Paire (22)
3: Feliciano Lopez (23)
4: Jack Sock (24)
A seed cutoff outside of the top 50, and no top 10 players makes Houston a rather average 250 tournament.
The veteran Estrella and the young gun Chung are just one place apart in the rankings, and both looking to snap long losing streaks by returning to clay. Estrella has lost last four matches, while Chung has lost his last three. Estrella has a clay title this year (Quito), while Chung has yet to play a match on the surface. Chung has a long, and lucrative career ahead, but Estrella will likely edge him out in this match.
(8)Paolo Lorenzi vs. (WC)Tommy Paul
The 2015 French Open junior champ Tommy Paul is an American who has skills for clay, and has demonstrated them already this year with a 10-1 record below the ATP level on the red stuff. Lorenzi is nearly a full time clay court specialist, the 34 year old Italian is 12-5 on both challenger and ATP clay this season, a season that has been a good one for him thus far. Paul qualified in Miami, and could challenge Lorenzi, but the Italian should be the favorite .
Top Half:
2013 champ John Isner is 0-2 on clay this year thus far, and he dropped his opening match in Miami as well. All of this does not bode well for the American #1 and fellow American Denis Kudla would love a second round upset after defeating qualifier Mischa Zverev, though Zverev has a great shot at reaching round 2. Isner could go down, but I have him finding a way to reach the quarters.
Estrella/Chung or Lorenzi/Paul will also be in the quarters, with Lorenzi as the favorite, as he should beat Estrella after beating Paul. I have Isner over Lorenzi given the talent discrepancy.
Defending champion Jack Sock is just 7-6 this season, but he should get past fellow American Frances Tiafoe, or qualifier Matthew Barton in round 2. Barton is on a seven match winning streak right now, and is likely slightly better than Tiafoe on clay.
2014 champion Fernando Verdasco looks set to have a good tournament, he’ll open with a blast from the past in the form of qualifier Carlos Berlocq, with either Diego Schwartzman or Marcos Baghdatis to follow. Schwartzman is good on clay, but Verdasco’s experience should win the day if he keeps his game together. Sock has a h2h win over Verdasco, and at this point in their careers is a better player, thus he should be the one to face Isner in the semis.
Bottom Half:
Benoit Paire is a poor 7-9 on the season, and has just one win in his last four matches. He’s the #2 seed, but it’s going to be a tough match against former champion Juan Monaco in round 2, presuming Monaco beats challenger level player Gerald Melzer, who hasn’t been on tour in a few weeks, though he has three challenger titles to his name this season. Given Monaco has played so sparingly and is just 2-4 this season, Paire likely slips into the quarterfinals, poor form aside.
Sam Querrey, twice a finalist in Houston, opens with the exciting Dustin Brown, and is 12-6 on the season. He should defeat Brown and either Benjamin Becker or Michael Berrer, a recent challenger champion, to reach the quarters. From there I have him defeating Paire for a spot in the semifinals.
Feliciano Lopez, like Paire, has been poor this season and is just 8-7. The veteran Spaniard has an easy draw that will see him face either Lukas Lacko or Dmitry Tursunov first up, with Steve Johnson or Tim Smyczek likely to follow. Neither Tursunov or Lacko have been playing well as of late, Smyczek qualified and won a pair of matches in Miami. He opens with qualifier Nicolas Kicker, and rarely plays on clay. Johnson is looking to hand Donald Young his fifth loss in a row, he won five matches on clay last season, but given the surface, Lopez has the edge.
Houston is relatively lacking in unseeded dark horses, and Melzer hasn’t been active on tour in weeks. With that said, when he was active the Austrian was playing well, and he’s a clay court specialist. Gerald needs to defeat a struggling Juan Monaco, and a struggling Benoit Paire to reach the quarterfinals, which would be a nice showing for him.
Predictions
Semis Sock d. Isner
Querrey d. Lopez
Sock has lost twice to Isner on clay, but he won their last meeting overall, and I feel he’s in slightly better form right now to repeat as champion in Houston. Querrey beat Lopez in Houston last year, and that should be a guide for him to do it again given superior form, although Lopez also has a h2h edge.
Final Sock d. Querrey
Sock beat Querrey in a nip and tuck final last year, and I have the young American scoring a repeat title in Houston.
Jack Sock continued his hot streak since returning to the ATP tour, and won his maiden ATP title in a rain delayed final over Sam Querrey 7-6 7-6. The match began with a sloppy first set that got delayed midway through after a pair of breaks, one for each player. Upon the resumption of the match, Sock and Querrey battled to a tiebreak, and though Querrey was 5-3 up at one point and had three set point chances in the breaker, Sock would be the one to take it 11-9 on his second set point chance.
In set 2 Sock saved a break point in the opening game, and broke back Querrey 3-4 down later on. Sock would have a match point at 5-6 in the second set on Querrey’s serve, but couldn’t convert. However once they got to the tiebreak, Sock was the superior mover, and shotmaker and came up with some quality shots to comfortably take it 7-2. As to be expected, Sock was mentally tougher than Querrey when it mattered, though he posted 11 double faults (Querrey had 6) and generally it was a close match.
On the week, Sock was simply on fire, he got past Joao Souza in 3 sets in the opening round, then beat Roberto Bautista Agut, and Santiago Giraldo, both solid clay court players in straight sets. In the semis he got past Kevin Anderson with a tiebreak and a break of serve. The young American is rising and is playing like a top 20 player right now. This was also his maiden ATP final.
Querrey posted his best result of the season and reached his first ATP final in three seasons with a retirement win over Marinko Matosevic, a 3 set win over Steve Johnson, and then an upset of Feliciano Lopez in straight sets. In the semis he shocked Fernando Verdasco, a favorite to take the title, in 3 sets. As often happens in Houston, the har-tru surface played differently than red clay, and thus produced some surprising results.
Ricardas Berankis and Teymuraz Gabashvili, an alternate pairing, pulled off some huge upsets to win the doubles title over Treat Huey and Scott Lipsky. They beat the Bryan brothers and also Lindstedt/Melzer in earlier rounds.
The 2015 Grand Prix Hassan II, as to be expected given its weak field, produced some surprising results, and that culminated with Martin Klizan winning his third career ATP title over maiden finalist Daniel Gimeno-Traver, a journeyman veteran. Klizan improved to 3-0 in ATP finals with a 6-2 6-2 drubbing of DGT, the 29 year old simply couldn’t handle the powerful game of Klizan, and he didn’t help his own cause by failing to convert all 7 break point chances he had during the match.
Klizan, the 2 seed, had to survive Dustin Brown in a third set tiebreak in his first match, but improved as the week went on, defeating Nicolas Almagro in an upset in the next round in 2 sets, and then Damir Dzumhur in 3 sets, as he clawed back from a set down. Though he fell in the semis, it’s still perhaps the best result of Dzumhur’s career.
DGT beat Malek Jaziri, and then Mikhail Kukushkin, Lamine Ouahab, and 3 seed Jiri Vesely, the latter in a close 3 set battle, as Vesely was aiming to make his second ATP final of the season but came up just short. Ouahab is also a remarkable story, the out of shape veteran, and former world class junior player, upset both Robin Haase and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (who was the top seed and defending champion), in straight sets, as his wacky, drop shot centric style of play flummoxed his opponents. Ouahab was a clear fan favorite with local fans, the Algerian turned Moroccan is 22-1 on home soil this year, with all of those matches coming on clay.
Rameez Junaid and Adil Shamasdin beat top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea in the doubles final. It’s their first career doubles title together, and overall the second for Shamasdin and the first for Junaid.
