Juan Martin Del Potro and Milos Raonic Join Top Americans at ATP Delray Beach Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
The 250 stop in Delray Beach is event #2 on the USA’s ATP World Tour Schedule for 2018. Here is your full preview and predictions for this outdoor hard court tournament.
Top Half:
Top seed Jack Sock faces journeyman J.P. Smith in the opening round. Sock badly needs some wins but should have a tough customer in Ryan Harrison awaiting in round 2. Harrison needs to defeat American wild card Reilly Opelka in the opening round. Caught up in accusations of racism last week in New York, Harrison’s head may be somewhere else and I’ll go with Sock to find form and continue to demonstrate why he’s the American #1.
John Isner is struggling and faces an opponent he just lost to in New York, Radu Albot. As unlikely as it may be, I’ll go with Albot to defeat Isner again before falling to Peter Gojowczyk/Lukas Lacko in round 2. Isner is way out of sorts. Sock over Gojowczyk is my pick in the quarters.
New York Open champion Kevin Anderson faces Evgeny Donskoy in the opening round. Donald Young/Ramkumar Ramanathan will follow. Anderson should be the favorite until he reaches the quarters. Milos Raonic should await at that stage. The Canadian is hoping to make a solid showing after struggling to start the season. Raonic faces Taro Daniel, Nikoloz Basilashvili/Steve Johnson will follow. I’ll back Raonic to reach the quarters and upset a tired Anderson at that stage.
Juan Martin Del Potro vs. Hyeon Chung is a potential quarterfinal matchup that fans will be eager to watch. Del Potro opens with Jeremy Chardy, Matt Ebden/Frances Tiafoe will follow. Chung opens with Cam Norrie, Franko Skugor/Alexander Bublik will follow. I’ll go with Del Potro to power past Chung. Both players are solid, but Del Potro is tough on a hard court.
I’ll back Canadian Denis Shapovalov to have a solid tournament. Shapovalov will have to get past Ivo Karlovic, but presuming he wins that match he’ll get Jared Donaldson or a tired Adrian Mannarino in round 2. New York finalist Sam Querrey faces Taylor Fritz, Dudi Sela/Mikhail Youzhny will follow. Shapovalov over a tired Querrey is my quarterfinal pick.
2017 ATP Delray Beach Preview and Predictions Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
The first of Florida’s two ATP World Tour stops, here is your preview with predictions for the 2017 Delray Beach Open.
Delray Beach Open
ATP World Tour 250
Delray Beach, FL, USA
February 20-26, 2017
Surface: Hard
Prize Money: $534,625
Top 4 seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)
1: Milos Raonic (4)
2: Ivo Karlovic (20)
3: Jack Sock (21)
4: Sam Querrey (29)
Delray boasts top 20 players, but otherwise it’s a pretty open field on the beach.
First round matches to watch
(8)Kyle Edmund vs. Adrian Mannarino
Mannarino has a h2h win, but this should be a very competitive hard court matchup. Both players could use a form boost, Mannarino’s shotmaking is a bit better than Edmund, which should make him the slightest of favorites.
Jared Donaldson vs. Mikhail Kukushkin
Donaldson has hit a skid, losing five straight matches. Kukushkin for his part has won three of his last four, reaching the semis in Memphis. The steady ATP veteran is never going to be an elite player, while Donaldson might be, but the young American seems listless right now, making Kukushkin a surprising favorite.
Two of the ATP’s most talented tall players, both of these players have been bit hard by the injury bug, and had their careers derailed in the process. Anderson hasn’t won a match this year, while Del Potro is making his season debut. Last year even a rusty Del Potro showed what a talented player he is. Remaining Argentina’s best player, JMDP has never lost to South Africa’s best Anderson (5-0 h2h), and presuming he can kick off the rust he should win his first match of 2017.
(6)Bernard Tomic vs. (Q)Steve Darcis
Tomic is just 2-3 this year, while Darcis has seven wins just this month. The veteran Belgian has never played the junkballing Tomic, it should be an interesting style contrast. Tomic is the better player, but he’s looked unfit in 2017, Darcis is playing quite well and at his best he should groove past a frustrated Tomic.
Taylor Fritz vs. (Q)Akira Santillan
Australian teen Santillan will be bidding for his first ever ATP win against American teen Fritz in this matchup of potential future ATP stars. Santillan has good form, having come through qualifying, but the more experienced Fritz should have a slight edge in this one, despite not having a great start in 2017. Be sure to check these young guns out before they get famous.
(2)Ivo Karlovic vs. Donald Young
Karlovic is 3-0 against Young, but he’s lost three straight matches, while Young reached the semifinals in Memphis. If Karlovic wins this, he could take home the Delray title, but Young also his eyes on a potential title here and won’t be broken easily. Karlovic, a former Delray champ, should win the tiebreaks to advance here.
Top Half:
Milos Raonic is the best player in this field and should blitz past Tim Smyczek, Borna Coric/Santiago Giraldo, and most likely Rendy Lu/Adrian Mannarino in his first three matches. Coric is slowly easing into form, but still won’t be able to deal with Raonic’s serve in his current form. Lu opens with wild card Bjorn Fratangelo, Mannarino/Edmund will be his round 2 opponent, with most likely Mannarino the slight favorite to reach the quarters given Lu hasn’t been in great form recently. Raonic will have lost focus if he doesn’t reach at least the semifinals here.
Sam Querrey looked awful in Memphis, but there are much worse draws in round 1 than Israeli veteran Dudi Sela, and the American should power into round 2 against Kukushkin (or Donaldson). I have the defending champion Querrey defeating Kukushkin before falling to another former champion, Del Potro, in the quarterfinals (2-1 h2h in favor of Del Potro). JMDP will face Memphis quarterfinalist Damir Dzumhur in round 2, after a win against Anderson, presuming Dzumhur continues his positive play against Konstantin Kravchuk.
Bottom Half:
The Karlovic/Young winner looks set to face Darcis or Tomic in the quarterfinals, unless the nearly retired former champion Tommy Haas or Memphis finalist Nikoloz Basilashvili interrupts that. Karlovic should serve past Young and Fritz/Santillan, while I have Darcis beating a tired Basilashvili, after the Georgian defeats Haas. It’s tough to pick between Karlovic and Darcis, form favors Darcis, but in Delray I’ll go with Karlovic.
Two of America’s best, Jack Sock and Steve Johnson should face off in the quarterfinals, presuming Johnson defeats his young countryman Stefan Kozlov, then Yoshihito Nishioka/Kimmer Coppejans and Sock eases past Radu Albot and Dustin Brown/Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Sock beat Johnson when they met in Auckland earlier this year, Sock will be the favorite to reach the semis. Brown is coming off a back injury, Garcia-Lopez continues to struggle, Kozlov is yet to reach an ATP caliber level, and both Coppejans and Nishioka are vulnerable to getting overpowered.
The qualifier Darcis has a shot at getting past Tomic, Basilashvili and the big serving Karlovic to reach the semifinals. He’s been playing some of the best tennis of his career lately, and it was a bit of a quirk that he had to go through qualifying in the first place. If a non-seed is going to exceed expectations, this veteran is a good choice to do it.
Predictions
Semis Raonic d. Del Potro
Sock d. Karlovic
Raonic has split meetings against Del Potro, but should be in better form, giving him an edge. Karlovic has consistently battled past Sock on hard courts, but the American’s form is too good to pass up, he has a great shot at reaching another ATP final.
Final Raonic d. Sock
6-2 this year, Raonic is playing well enough, should be fresh, and has an 8-2 h2h lead against Sock, making him a clear favorite to take home this ATP title.
2016 ATP Delray Beach Preview and Predictions Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
After the 250 stop in Memphis, the second ATP stop in the USA is Delray Beach for hard court tennis, South Florida style.
Delray Beach Open
ATP World Tour 250
February 15-21, 2016
Delray Beach, FL, USA
Surface: Hard
Prize Money: $514,065
Top 4 seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)
1: Kevin Anderson (14)
2: Bernard Tomic (20)
3: Ivo Karlovic (26)
4: Grigor Dimitrov (27)
Delray has a collection of interesting players, though this tournament lacks an elite name, we should see good matchups this week.
First round matchups to watch:
(7)Donald Young vs. Mikhail Kukushkin
Both were quarterfinalists last week in Memphis, with Kukushkin holding a h2h win, and a slightly better start to his season. Young could do well this week and defend as much of his finalist points from last year as possible, but he could also see himself ousted as a seed.
(WC)Juan Martin Del Potro vs. Denis Kudla
Denis Kudla is 4-4 to start the year, while Del Potro is playing for the first time since the 2015 ATP Miami stop. He’ll try once more to reboot his career and put his wrist injuries behind him after playing just 14 matches over the last two seasons. Del Potro is one of the few active Grand Slam winners on tour, and he once had the game to challenge the world’s best. We’ll see what kind of form he’s in, and if he still has that type of game in this match. Kudla’s ball striking makes him a consistent opponent.
Sam Groth is a horrific 1-7 since last fall’s US Open, as his one dimensional serve first game has failed to be enough to win matches as of late. Rubin is a rising young American talent who has beefed up his game over the past few months. He has a challenger semi and a slam win already in 2016, with a good run in Delray quite possible. This tournament is a stop on the road in his development as a player.
Top Half:
Former Delray champion Kevin Anderson will open with American Austin Krajicek, and though Anderson is just 1-2 to start the season, he should move his h2h to 4-0 against Krajicek, who is just 2-4 to start the year. Memphis semifinalist Sam Querrey will face a struggling Thiemo de Bakker (1-3 in his last four). Anderson should be on upset alert against Querrey, Sam leads the h2h 8-5, with five of those wins coming on hard courts. Querrey is lower ranked, but I have him sliding into the quarters.
Young/Kukushkin will face Memphis finalist Taylor Fritz, a seeded entry, or wild card Tim Smyczek. The teenager Fritz stunned in Memphis, reaching his first ever ATP final in just his third career ATP tournament. Fritz beat three ATP caliber opponents, including winning a pair of third set tiebreaks, to advance. He could be tired out and fall to Smyczek, but his talent is clear, and he’s likely to win at least one match in Delray. Fritz also has a shot against Young/Kukushkin, but with stamina a factor, I have Querrey vs. Kukushkin in the quarters. Querrey should defeat Kukushkin at that stage given the surface.
Defending champion Ivo Karlovic will open with qualifier John-Patrick Smith, Karlovic lacks a win this season, but he’s likely to get that over the journeyman Smith. Del Potro/Kudla await in round 2, and Del Potro could surprise adn reach the quarters, but Karlovic is the favorite in his seed line.
Jeremy Chardy has two ATP quarterfinals this season, and he’ll face off with Matt Ebden first off. Ebden hasn’t won a match this year and Chardy is likely to take his heavy hitting game against Rubin or Groth in round 2. Rubin has a great shot at his first ATP quarterfinal, and I have him pulling it off as a dark horse this week. Rubin vs. Karlovic, or Chardy vs. Karlovic, is an interesting matchup, and Rubin could do like Fritz did in Memphis and make a deep run, Karlovic is the favorite though.
Bernard Tomic is 8-4 to start the season, and hard courts suit his junkballing game well. He should get past serve and volleyer Rajeev Ram in round 1 and either Marcel Granollers or Illya Marchenko in round 2. He’s far and above the best hard court player in his section.
Steve Johnson has been struggling with just a 2-4 record to start his season, John Millman has a similar hard court centric style and has played every week of the ATP season thus far. It’s hard to parse between them, though Johnson should have an edge at home in the states. Qualifier Radu Albot will go up against Memphis quarterfinalist Benjamin Becker for a round 2 spot. Becker beat Millman in Memphis, and I have him reaching the quarterfinals this week once again in Delray.
Tomic won his last meeting against Becker after previously being 0-3, at this point in their careers Tomic should be able to get himself into the semis.
Grigor Dimitrov has the talent to walk away with the title this week, but he’ll need to find form and get past Israeli veteran Dudi Sela first. Memphis semifinalist Ricardas Berankis, an undersized battler, looms in round 2, presuming Berankis beats Damir Dzumhur for the second week in a row. Dimitrov is 7-3 to start the season and should outwork Berankis to reach the quarters. He can earn his 10th win of the season over Adrian Mannarino.
The #8 seed Mannarino opens with Malek Jaziri, who continues to be an out of shape underachiever, with qualifier Dennis Novikov, or qualifier Tatsuma Ito next up. Mannarino should reach his second quarterfinal of the season before falling to Dimitrov.
Sam Querrey should reach the semis this week as well, but Rubin has the chance to be the most impressive. He’s clearly improved physically and mentally since turning pro, and the John McEnroe protege can reach the semifinals without having to face an opponent in good form. Chardy and Karlovic are tough matchups, and Del Potro could be as well, but Rubin is going to give the home fans something to cheer about this week.
Predictions
Semis Querrey d. Rubin
Dimitrov d. Tomic
Querrey has an experience edge over Rubin, Dimtirov is 2-0 against Tomic in the h2h.
Final Dimitrov d. Querrey
Dimitrov is 2-0 against Querrey in the h2h, and him or Tomic are the favorites for the title in Delray Beach. A trophy in Delray will go a long way to helping Dimitrov rebuild his ranking.
Tennis Atlantic 