The ATP’s version of the Rogers Cup tournament reaches the third round and so do our tennis picks. Novak Djokovic didn’t look great in his first match, but he managed to win. Roger Federer, Andy Murray, and Rafael Nadal are all out of the tournament, not having entered in the first place. Could Milos Raonic – the hometown hero – be the man to claim the title in Toronto? Only time will tell.
There are so many players who have great opportunities to win a lot of money and rankings points at this tournament. Let’s see who will begin to take advantage on Thursday. Here are our tennis picks for the day.
Gael Monfils vs. David Goffin
There is no doubt that Gael Monfils is playing really sound tennis. He won the Washington, D.C. ATP 500 event last week, and he powered through his second-round match against Vasek Pospisil, a Canadian playing in front of a fired-up Canadian crowd in Toronto. It is easy to think – and it’s not even wrong – that Monfils is eventually going to run out of steam this week. Probably in later rounds, that’s exactly what will happen. However, Monfils is still so confident and so locked into a good groove that he thinks he can win tight sets and close matches. He won Washington by breaking the serve of Ivo Karlovic – one of the very best servers in tennis – when Karlovic was serving for the match. That has to give a player a lot of confidence.
Goffin is a guy who has made Masters 1000 semifinals earlier this year. He’s moved into the top 12 of the world and has done very well for himself. It’s very reasonable to pick Goffin here, but Monfils is currently the player who carries a lot more belief and should be able to control the way this match is played. He should eventually win what looks like a very entertaining match in the making. Monfils is the choice for our tennis picks.
Pick: Monfils in three sets
Kevin Anderson vs. Bernard Tomic
This should be a close match, partly because it’s simply very difficult to predict. Tomic does not go deep in many tournaments. He had a decent fourth-round showing at Wimbledon, but that is on grass, his best surface. He’s not as strong on hardcourts or clay. He has not fulfilled the immense potential he has displayed as a younger player in the past. Anderson, though, comes with the question of coming back from an injury which wrecked the first half of his season. Anderson made the U.S. Open quarterfinals last year and was on the upswing before his injury. If he’s back at a high level of health, he’s a very dangerous player who could make the semifinals or final in Toronto.
Is Anderson ready to reach that level? He beat Dominic Thiem on Wednesday, but he didn’t win a full match. Thiem had to retire because of fears of injuring himself to a more severe degree. It’s well known on the ATP Tour that Thiem played too many tournaments in the first half of the year. Anderson is a mystery, but the advantage of the abbreviated match is that he should be physically fresh for this one. Give Anderson the slight edge. Take him with your tennis picks in this spot.
Pick: Anderson in three sets
Jack Sock vs. Stan Wawrinka
This is a matchup in which you should see a lot of heavy hitting and power serving. Wawrinka won two tiebreakers in the second round, which tells you that he’s confident on the big points. However, at the same time, some people will be concerned with the fact that he needed tiebreakers to get through an early round match at the Rogers Cup. At any rate, Sock has a real shot here. Wawrinka is 15-3 on the hard courts this year and typically plays pretty well on them, but clay is where it’s at for him. Sock is 11-5 on hard courts himself this year (in main draws). Still, Wawrinka deserves the benefit of the doubt against the American. Take him with your tennis picks.
Pick: Wawrinka in three sets
