Tennis: Abrams picks the Round of 16 at the U.S. Clay Court Championships

U.S. Clay Courts
Houston, Texas
Men’s Round of 16

Guillermon Garcia-Lopez over Sam Querrey
We’re in Houston at the U.S. Clay Court Championships, and all the hard court players are losing quickly. In this match, Sam Querrey holds a career 7-1 record over Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Seven of these matches have been played on hardcourts, and the eighth, won by Garcia-Lopez was played on clay. I’m going with the clay court player in this one. If you don’t know the difference between hard court and clay court tennis just tune in and watch one match. It’ll be an epiphany.

Santiago Giraldo over Jordan Thompson
You’ve never heard of Santiago Giraldo, a 31-year-old journeyman from Columbia? Not many people in the U.S. have. But this guy, who is ranked No. 224 in the world has won $4.5 million playing professional tennis. And guess where he plays? Pretty much entirely in South America and Western Europe, almost exclusively on clay courts, which will give him a giant advantage over Australia’s 67th ranked Jordan Thompson. Thompson is real comfortable on grass and hardcourts, but he’ll get a lesson on this slow stuff.

Janko Tipsarevic over Cameron Norrie
Thirty-four year old Janko Tipsarevic is so happy to be back on Tour again. Tipsarevic has a five year old son who, when answering a question on what his father did for a living replied, “. . . he has surgery,” as his dad had seven operations in the past five years. But now that he’s back, he will create some ripples in the pond as he used to be a Top 10 player and is getting his competitive game back. He spanked American Tennys Sandgren with a straight set lesson on clay court tennis in the first round, and will do the same to South African Cameron Norrie. Norrie does have that threatening lefty serve, but the clay will nullify it, and the courts will prove the difference between the two.

Ryan Harrison over Henri Laaksonen
Harrison has a game that is pretty good on all surfaces, but excellent on none. That won’t matter here, as he should have the confidence and patience to beat Laaksonen, a 27-year-old out of Finland, currently ranked No. 126. They’ve squared off against each other four times before on both hard and clay courts, and Harrison has been victorious in 3 out of the 4 matches. I like the American to win one for the stars and stripes and move on to the quarters.

Jeremy Chardy over Christian Garin
Chardy has been known to win a match or two on the hard stuff, but he’s played Chile’s Christian Garin three times, all on clay, and won them all. These guys have gone the distance in two out of their three matches, so I’d expect it to be close, but ultimately Chardy, a Frenchman who lives in London, should move on with his fourth win over the South American.