RICKY’S DAY 9 U.S. OPEN PREVIEW AND PICKS: QUERREY VS. ANDERSON, CARRENO BUSTA VS. SCHWARTZMAN

Written by: Staff on 4th September 2017

RICKY'S DAY 9 U.S. OPEN PREVIEW AND PICKS: QUERREY VS. ANDERSON, CARRENO BUSTA VS. SCHWARTZMAN

epa06184198 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina (B) serves to Dominic Thiem of Austria (T) on the eighth day of the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 04 September 2017. The US Open runs through September 10. EPA-EFE/DANIEL MURPHY |

By Ricky Dimon

Editors Note: ok. We beat Ricky the other day. We tied on one match. He had one match. I had two matches plus one I had the number of sets. so here’s L.J. take under each of Ricky’s picks.

The infamous bottom half of the U.S. Open men’s singles draw will progress into the quarterfinal stage on Tuesday. Although four seeded players remain, they are not the ones anybody would expect. It will be Sam Querrey vs. Kevin Anderson and Pablo Carreno Busta vs. Diego Schwartzman.

Ricky previews the action and makes his predictions.

(17) Sam Querrey vs. (28) Kevin Anderson

Querrey and Anderson are facing each other in the second week of a second consecutive Grand Slam. They just squared off in the Wimbledon fourth round, when Querrey prevailed 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-7(11), 6-3 on his way to the semis. The two big-serving veterans also met a few weeks later on the hard courts of Montreal, where Anderson dominated 6-4, 6-1.

Of course, the 6’8” South African will have to do more than pick up a victory in round three of Masters 1000 tournament in order to fully avenge a five-set loss at a slam. Anderson gave himself another crack at Querrey by cruising through a section of the draw that opened up nicely when Borna Coric ousted No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev last Wednesday. In addition to defeating Coric, Anderson has also advanced with wins over J.C. Aragone, Ernests Gulbis, and Paolo Lorenzi while surrendering only one set to Lorenzi.

Querrey is back in business at another major following victories over Gilles Simon, Dudi Sela, Radu Albot, and Mischa Zverev. The 6’6” American, who dropped one set to Albot, has been positively on fire at times–to the extent that he has engineered the two fastest beatdowns of this U.S. Open (beat Sela in 1:21 and beat Zverev in 1:16). Anderson, though, is much different beast than Sela and a physically spent Zverev. The world No. 21 had not been broken a single time in New York until being victimized twice by Lorenzi–even though the Italian had only two break chances. Anderson, a runner-up in Washington, D.C. and quarterfinalist in Montreal, looks poised for his first major quarterfinal showing.

Pick: Anderson in 5 Sets

Nope we see Sam in four ️maybe five sets. But Sam.

(12) Pablo Carreno Busta vs. (29) Diego Schwartzman

Surprisingly, Carreno Busta and Schwartzman will be going head-to-head for the very first time. And what a time for it. This marks Schwartzman’s first-ever major quarterfinal appearance and Carreno Busta’s second–his second in a row, in fact. Carreno Busta’s first one did not end well, as he retired at the French Open due to an abdominal injury against fellow Spaniard and eventual champion Rafael Nadal and then missed Wimbledon.

Now it is Carreno Busta who may be the one benefiting from an injured opponent, as Schwartzman struggled with a groin injury during his fourth-round win over Lucas Pouille. When however, Schwartzman has been awesome in 2017. The 5’7” Argentine owns almost half of his career ATP-level match victories this season (28 of 59) and he recently advanced to the Montreal quarters. He is through to the same stage of the U.S. Open by taking out Carlos Berlocq, Janko Tipsarevic, Marin Cilic, and Pouille.

Carreno Busta did not drop a single set in victories over Evan King, Cameron Norrie, Nicolas Mahut, and Denis Shapovalov en route to the quarters. Combine PCB’s form with Schwartzman’s possible injury and this will likely be the end of the road for the draw’s smallest player.

Pick: Carreno Busta in 3 sets