10SBALLS SHARES RICKY’S PICKS FOR DAY 5 AT THE 2017 AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS – ROGER FEDERER VS. BERDYCH AND TSONGA VS. SOCK

Written by: Staff on 18th January 2017

10SBALLS SHARES RICKY'S PICKS FOR DAY 5 AT THE 2017 AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS - ROGER FEDERER VS. BERDYCH AND TSONGA VS. SOCK

epa05726258 Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in action against Ryan Harrison of the USA during round two of the Men's Singles at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 18 January 2017. EPA/LUKAS COCH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

Ricky’s picks for Day 5 at the Australian Open, including Federer vs. Berdych and Tsonga vs. Sock

By Ricky Dimon

The third round of the Australian Open will begin on Friday, and the headliner is none other than a battle between Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Jack Sock, Andy Murray, and Stan Wawrinka are also in action. Ricky previews and predicts some of the most intriguing Day 5 matchups.

(10) Tomas Berdych vs. (17) Roger Federer

Get your popcorn ready for this one, and get it ready much sooner than usual. This particular matchup generally takes place much later in tournaments but is happening in round three this time around because Federer has dipped to No. 17 in the seedings and Berdych is down at 10th. Federer has fallen because of a knee injury that sidelined him for the rest of last season after Wimbledon. Berdych’s slide is due simply to underwhelming tennis. The 35-year-old Swiss’ 2017 comeback has been encouraging for the most part, with stellar play at the Hopman Cup and through two matches in Rod Laver Arena. Federer leads the head-to-head with Berdych 16-6, including 3-0 at this event.

Pick: Federer in 4

(12) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. (23) Jack Sock

Sock is the hottest and arguably the best player outside the top 10 at the moment. He compiled a 3-1 singles record at the Hopman Cup, captured the ASB Classic title in Auckland, and so far in Melbourne has thrashed Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Karen Khachanov. Tsonga made mostly quick work of a simple draw (Thiago Monteiro and Dusan Lajovic) to reach the last 32. The 12th-seeded Frenchman generally performs well at the Aussie Open and he is a former runner-up (2008), but he is always a question mark physically. There are no questions with Sock these days.

Pick: Sock in 4

Jack Sock of the USA in action against Karen Khachanov of Russia during their men’s Singles second round match of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 18 January 2017. EPA/MARK R. CRISTINO

(1) Andy Murray vs. (31) Sam Querrey

The head-to-head series stands at 6-1 in favor of Murray, who has defeated Querrey twice in a row since losing to the American back in 2010. It’s hard to see Querrey turning the tide at this tournament, because even though Murray has never won it he has been to the final five times. This fortnight is off a dominant start for the world No. 1, who scored straight-set wins over Illya Marchenko and Andrey Rublev earlier in the week. Querrey disposed of wild cards Quentin Halys (four sets) and Alex De Minaur (straight). The world No. 32 stunned Novak Djokovic at this stage of Wimbledon last summer, but he has all but disappeared since that monumental upset. Lightning won’t strike twice.

Pick: Murray in 3

(4) Stan Wawrinka vs. (29) Viktor Troicki

Wawrinka reached the Aussie Open quarterfinals in 2011, won it in 2014, and returned to the semis in 2015. The fourth-seeded Swiss needed five sets to get past Martin Klizan in his opener but he picked up the pace to crush Steve Johnson 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday. Wawrinka is 7-0 lifetime against Troicki and just beat him 7-6(5), 6-4 earlier this month in Brisbane. The Serb has just barely advanced so far, outlasting both Damir Dzumhur and Paolo Lorenzi in five sets. Ten sets in his legs and zero wins in seven attempts against Wawrinka do not bode well for Troicki’s chances.

Pick: Wawrinka in 3

Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland in action against Steve Johnson of the United States during round two of the Men’s Singles at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 18 January 2017. EPA/DEAN LEWINS

(27) Bernard Tomic vs. Dan Evans

Evans is basically an older (barely), smaller (by a lot) version of Tomic. The Brit was a wild man off the court in the early days of his career, wasting a whole boatload of talent. He finally started working hard and that has paid off in the form of three straight trips to the third round of Grand Slams. Evans finished runner-up to Gilles Muller at last week’s Apia International in Sydney and dropped just one set in total to Facundo Bagnis and Marin Cilic to begin his Aussie Open campaign. Tomic, whose fitness is well less than 100 percent at the moment, could barely stand up at the end of a tough four-set test against Victor Estrella Burgos on Wednesday night.

Pick: Evans in 4

Mischa Zverev vs. Malek Jaziri

Zverev is coming off a 9-7 in the fifth set victory over John Isner. It would be fair to say that the veteran German should have lost it, but he saved two match points and held serve from 0-40 down three different times. Not surprisingly, Zverev had much more remaining in his tank late in the fifth set than did Isner. Still, a four-hour and 10-minute battle is not what anyone needs going into another best-of-five situation two days later. Jaziri, meanwhile, did not surrender a single set and did not even play a tiebreaker against Go Soeda and Alexander Bublik. Moreover, the Tunisian is 2-0 lifetime against Zverev.

Pick: Jaziri in 4