RICKY’S PICKS FOR THE U.S. OPEN TENNIS • DAY 3 • NADAL VS. POSPISIL • ANDY MURRAY VS. VERDASCO AND MORE

Written by: Staff on 28th August 2018

RICKY'S PICKS FOR THE U.S. OPEN TENNIS • DAY 3 • NADAL VS. POSPISIL • ANDY MURRAY VS. VERDASCO AND MORE

epaselect epa06977641 The sweat flies as Rafael Nadal of Spain returns a serve from David Ferer of Spain in Arthur Ashe Stadium during the first day of the US Open Tennis Championships the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 27 August 2018. The US Open runs from 27 August through 09 September. EPA-EFE/RAY STUBBLEBINE |

By Ricky Dimon

U.S. Open second-round action gets underway on Wednesday, when Rafael Nadal will continue his campaign against Vasek Pospisil. An intriguing scheduled also includes Andy Murray vs. Fernando Verdasco and Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Daniil Medvedev.

Ricky previews four of Wednesday’s best matchups and makes his predictions.

(1) Rafael Nadal vs. Vasek Pospisil

Their only previous meeting came three years ago on the hard courts of Beijing, where Nadal prevailed 7-6(3), 6-4. A lack of encounters since then can be attributed to Pospisil’s struggles, as he has been relegated to Challengers of late. The 88th-ranked Canadian is showing signs of reemerging on the main, but the going has been slow.

Nadal improved to 41-3 this season with a retirement from fellow Spaniard David Ferrer on Monday night. The defending U.S. Open champion is 8-0 in his last eight matches in New York and he is 22-2 in his last 24 Grand Slam matches, with one those losses coming via retirement against Marin Cilic in the AO semifinals. Nothing suggests Pospisil will be able to keep this one close.

Pick: Nadal in 3

Andy Murray vs. (31) Fernando Verdasco

Murray played his first best-of-five match since 2017 Wimbledon on Monday and scraped through it in three hours and 18 minutes, defeating James Duckworth in four sets. It wasn’t exactly the world No. 1 of old, but it was a decent showing given the current circumstances.

When he’s at his best, Murray can be an aggressive player who also plays awesome defense. When he isn’t, Murray is a grinder (some would say “pusher”) who can still make opponents beat themselves. That is something Verdasco does with frequency. Murray may not necessarily be able to “win” this match, but Verdasco will be able to lose it.

Pick: Murray in 4

Daniil Medvedev vs. (15) Stefanos Tsitsipas

This should be a fun one; the most fun one of the whole day, to be exact. Both up-and-comers are playing incredible tennis and they also hate each other. Well, “hate” may be overdoing it; but there won’t be any love lost on Wednesday.

Medvedev won their only previous contest this spring in Miami, where a contentious affair included Tsitsipas allegedly calling his opponent a “bull—- Russian.” Just five months later, the Greek is a while different beast (with a Toronto runner-up included in his results). Medvedev is playing even better, as well–just not good enough to beat Tsitsipas.

Pick: Tsitsipas in 5

(18) Jack Sock vs. Nikoloz Basilashvili

We have two of the biggest forehands here. Only one of those forehands, however, has been firing in 2018. Basilashvili recently won a 500-point title on the clay courts of Hamburg, while Sock has been an unmitigated disaster this entire year.

The only reason the American is in the second round is because he got to play Guido Andreozzi in the first round. Andreozzi was without question one of the worst hard-court players in the entire field of 128 when the fortnight began. Furthermore, Sock as endured a bevy of heat-related issues over the years at the U.S. Open and it is hotter than ever in New York right now.

Pick: Basilashvili in 4

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @TennGrand.

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