4 TEAM PARLAY
FISH
Fish comes into this match in the best shape of his career. Cuevas has managed to make it out of the 1st round of the Open only once and fell out quickly. Fish loves the hard court and should make it extremely tough on the clay courter. If his serve is on this match ends in 3 sets.
DAVYDENKO
Tough to say how he will show up BUT he has made it to the 4th round of the Open or better in each of the last four years. I think Nikolay is the far superior player to Gasquet who has bowed out in the first round each of the last two years. Gasquet won easily in his opening round but so did Davydenko who should be rested and ready to take this in 4 sets at the most.
CILIC
IF Cilic's serve is on today he will make easy work of this match much like he did in the first round against Marchenko. He reached the Quarters last year and should be well rested and ready against Nishikori who was granted a second round entry due to the retirement of Korolev after a hard fought first set tiebreaker win for Nishikori. I think Cilic powers his serve and as long as he holds on he will find the occasional opportunity to break. He is also far superior in tiebreakers and will power his way to victory. It may take 4 sets but 3 would be my prediction.
MONTANES
Montanes comes in with a rough hard court record BUT has a favorable draw through to the third round in this tournament. While he has NEVER made it out of the second round in the last 8 opens i predict this is his breakthrough performance. Not to mention he is facing a young Carsten Ball who through a favorable draw of his own got an EASY first round match against an opponent without a career win on the ATP tour and won in four hard fought sets. Montanes seemed to step his game up after dropping an early two sets in the first round. He is battle tested and ranked #23 in the world for a reason. I think he overcomes the surface here to prove he is the better all around player and professional.
RISKING $2,000 to win $6,073
FISH
Fish comes into this match in the best shape of his career. Cuevas has managed to make it out of the 1st round of the Open only once and fell out quickly. Fish loves the hard court and should make it extremely tough on the clay courter. If his serve is on this match ends in 3 sets.
DAVYDENKO
Tough to say how he will show up BUT he has made it to the 4th round of the Open or better in each of the last four years. I think Nikolay is the far superior player to Gasquet who has bowed out in the first round each of the last two years. Gasquet won easily in his opening round but so did Davydenko who should be rested and ready to take this in 4 sets at the most.
CILIC
IF Cilic's serve is on today he will make easy work of this match much like he did in the first round against Marchenko. He reached the Quarters last year and should be well rested and ready against Nishikori who was granted a second round entry due to the retirement of Korolev after a hard fought first set tiebreaker win for Nishikori. I think Cilic powers his serve and as long as he holds on he will find the occasional opportunity to break. He is also far superior in tiebreakers and will power his way to victory. It may take 4 sets but 3 would be my prediction.
MONTANES
Montanes comes in with a rough hard court record BUT has a favorable draw through to the third round in this tournament. While he has NEVER made it out of the second round in the last 8 opens i predict this is his breakthrough performance. Not to mention he is facing a young Carsten Ball who through a favorable draw of his own got an EASY first round match against an opponent without a career win on the ATP tour and won in four hard fought sets. Montanes seemed to step his game up after dropping an early two sets in the first round. He is battle tested and ranked #23 in the world for a reason. I think he overcomes the surface here to prove he is the better all around player and professional.
RISKING $2,000 to win $6,073
