The sixth day of the Australian Open sees a possibly injured defending champion going up against an ATP veteran plus two other intriguing matches. The tennis review previews and predicts what will happen on the final day of third round play at Melbourne Park.
Stan Wawrinka (4) Vs Jarkko Nieminen
Head to head: 1-1
Defending champion Wawrinka is reported to have an elbow injury. If he is at all injured, Nieminen is one of the players he would least wish to come up against. Nieminen, ranked 72, was once as high as 13 back in 2006, and while he may be 33 years old, he has the experience to take advantage of an out of sorts Wawrinka.
Nieminen has history at the Australian Open, too, making the last eight in 2008.
On his run to the third round this week, he beat Andrey Gobulev and Matthias Bachinger. The Finn has made the most of a good draw, and will be ready to take his opportunity against Wawrinka.
Nieminen may be short of big wins recently, but he did take a set off Nishikori late last season, and Wawrinka would be unwise to underestimate him. The Swiss, who only last September lost to 103 rd ranked Tatsuma Ito, is only just emerging from a slump after winning his first slam and the injury could derail him.
Prediction: Wawrinka to win in straights if fit, but if injured, Nieminen to win in five.
Feliciano Lopez (12) Vs Jerzy Janowicz
Head to head 0-0
This contest sees the serve and volleyer Lopez up against the big serving big hitting Janowicz.
Janowicz has been getting back into form since slumping the first half of last season, while Lopez is at a career high ranking of 14, peaking at the age of 33.
Lopez was lucky to come through his last match. He was two sets to one down until his opponent, Mannarino, retired. And he just scraped through his first round against Denis Kudla 10-8 in the third.
His slice will trouble Janowicz, who at 203cm will not want to have to get down too often to pick up balls. The slice will also open up the court and allow Lopez to ply his trade at the net. But his recent results show that strategy has not been working too well.
The plexi-cushion surface in Melbourne is not the fastest of hard court surfaces, so Janowicz, who is stronger at the back of the court than Lopez, will have time to get to balls and pass Lopez at the net.
Janowicz has been tested this week, coming through five sets against Gael Monfils in his previous round and will certainly be match tough. He will be able to get more of a rhythm going against Lopez who is not going to throw in too much variety. But the same is true vica versa and both men should hold serve relatively comfortable.
So this math could be decided on the lottery that are tiebreaks.
Prediction: Janowicz to win in four tough sets, the plexicushion favoring his style over Lopez’s.
David Ferrer (9) Vs Gilles Simon (18)
Ferrer leads 5-2.
Ferrer may lead the head to head, but Simon leads Ferrer 2-1 on hard and the two met at the U.S Open last year, a match Simon won in four.
Ferrer is on a seven match winning streak though, though he has been shaky this tournament so far, while Simon lost to 125th ranked James Duckworth in his only pre-event match, winning only four games, but was impressive in his first two matches.
Both have good history in Melbourne- Ferrer is a former semi-finalist at the tournament and Simon was a quarter-finalist in 2009.
This match will feature plenty of long rallies and breaks of serve and will come down to who keeps it together mentally. That may prove to be Simon who can draw upon his U.S Open win last season over Ferrer if matters get tough in the fifth.
Prediction: Simon to win in five.
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