David Goffin is ranked 10th in the world and seeded 7th here. He just toppled the serving of 7 foot Reilly Opelka with nary a hitch. Need I say more?
I’d just love to see Jack Sock follow up his first round win over Pablo Cuevas with another over Adrian Mannarino, but I don’t think it’s in the cards. Sock is still stuck in that hole just trying to win single matches, and Mannarino is ranked in the top 40 in the world. But one thing that Sock has going for him: he’s 4-1, lifetime over Mannarino, and that means an awful lot. Besides, Mannarino has been having touble winning matches this year before Covid set in.
German Jan-Lennard Struff wins not because he’s a great tennis player but because he has enormous resolve. Expect him to take apart Michael Mmoh, who has nothing to hurt Struff.
Borna Coria, at 23, has already won over $7.6 Million. He is a better player than the clay courter from Buenos Aires, and I’d expect Cortia to run over Londero, who bascally plays the same game as the Croat, just not as well. Besides, these guys have played twice, and Coria has won both of those meetings.
Cam Norrie, the transplanted Brit, should beat Argentinean Frederico Coria, after they both survived stunning five set wins in Round One. Norrie is the bigger, stronger player, but Coria is quick and head-strong, which should make for a close one.
I’m going out on a limb picking Johnson to win his second straight match, because I think he’s ready to move on. Okay, Berankis is not the second coming of Pete Sampras, but that’s why I’m picking Johnson. Anybody better and Johnson might need a bigger dose of confidence to notch another W.
American Mitchell Krueger shouldn’t be in this tournament. The fact that he is in the second round after a first round win over clay courter Pedro Sousa shows how thin this draw is. Pablo Carreno Busta should have no trouble just rolling over the Texan.
Gilles Simon beat Taylor Fritz way back in 2016 outdoors on clay way back before the American could shave. Fritz looked better than I expected to see in dominating Dominick Koepfer and Simon didn’t need much to beat Egyptian Mohamed Safwat. With no Covid-19, Safwat could have been sitting with me watching Simon beat someone better than he.
This match should be hard for the Canadian, but I think if Shapavalov plays the way he did in taking out Sebastian Korda, in which he was good but not great, he’ll have enough to beat the South Korean. But we all know that Shapavalov, who was born in Israel, has a game that can be incredibly volatile, so I’d expect this to be a fight.
Cressy, who was born in Paris and now lives in L.A., has very little chance of beating the Greek Freak. What chance he does have lies in his 6’7” serve, which can be dominating at times. I’d expect him to look at this as a success if he won a single set, as Tsitsipas looks over the draw that next weekend could have him reigning over.