Ricky’s Picks For Day 7 Of The French Open Tennis • Including Thiem vs. Cuevas and Zverev vs. Lajovic

Alexander Zverev of Germany plays Mikael Ymer of Sweden during their men’s second round match during the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 30 May 2019. EPA-EFE/YOAN VALAT

 

 

By Ricky Dimon

 

Dominic Thiem will be hoping for an easier day at the office when he takes the court against Pablo Cuevas in round three of the French Open. Alexander Zverev, who had a tough first-rounder, is also in action along with Borna Coric and Jan-Lennard Struff.

 

Ricky previews three of Saturday’s matches and makes his predictions.

 

(4) Dominic Thiem vs. Pablo Cuevas

Thiem appeared to be headed for fifth sets against both Tommy Paul (trailed 4-0 in the fourth-set tiebreaker) and Alexander Bublik (saved two set points at 2-5, 15-40) but managed to come back on each occasion and avoid a fifth. The 2028 Roland Garros runner-up is now 11-3 on clay this season and clearly a contender to make a return trip to the final, where he lost to Rafael Nadal in 2018.

Up next for the fourth-ranked Austrian is a sixth career contest against Cuevas, who is a respectable 2-3 in the head-to-head series. However, the 47th-ranked Uruguayan’s only non-retirement victory came back in 2015–at Roland Garros, in fact–before Thiem became a staple of the top 10. Speaking of retirements (he got one from Thiem at the 2018 Indian Wells Masters), Cuevas advanced to the third round on Thursday when Kyle Edmund called it quits due to injury. The veteran preceded that result by trouncing wild card Maxime Janvier 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, giving him 18 main-tour match wins in 2019 plus a pair of clay-court Challenger titles. This may not be easy for Thiem, but he is 3-0 against Cuevas on this surface since the 2015 setback.

Pick: Thiem in 3

 

(30) Dusan Lajovic vs. (5) Alexander Zverev

Zverev and Lajovic will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time at the French Open. They previously faced each other during second-round action last year, when Zverev survived 2-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. He went on to reach the quarterfinals, but that hardly puts to rest questions about his relative shortcomings at Grand Slams. The fifth-ranked German is still alive at this one for now, but he needed five in his opener against John Millman before making more routine work of Mikael Ymer.

As their 2018 scoreline suggests, Lajovic is a tough customer. The 35th-ranked Serb is plenty capable on all surfaces and his 2019 efforts include a runner-up performance on the red clay of Monte-Carlo. Lajovic is through to round three of a major for the third time in his career following straight-set defeats of Thiago Monteiro and Elliot Benchetrit. This should be competitive, but Zverev is gaining confidence right now with a title last week in Geneva and now two wins in Paris.

Pick: Zverev in 4

 

Jan-Lennard Struff vs. (13) Borna Coric

Coric and Struff will be facing each other for the fifth time in their careers on Saturday. They have split four previous encounters, with Struff having prevailed twice on hard courts in 2017 before Coric prevailed later that season at the Paris Indoors and via a 6-0, 6-2 rout on the clay courts of Madrid last spring.

Although he was already in the prime of his career in 2018, this a much different Struff taking the court a year later. The late-blooming German, now 29, has won 17 matches in 2019–including nine on clay–and is projected to reach a best-ever ranking of at least No. 41 following this tournament. Struff has knocked off Denis Shapovalov and Radu Albot, while Coric did not have much trouble with either Aljaz Bedene or Jan-Lennarrd Struff. Coric has been solid but unspectacular this season and he will probably need some help from Struff to win, because Struff is hitting much bigger and will be able to dictate play.

Pick: Struff in 4

 

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