The ATP’s Swedish Open tournament now flows into the second round and so do our tennis picks. On Tuesday, we saw some straightforward results without too many surprises. There were nine men’s singles matches and six of them ending in straight sets. Calvin Hemery topped Tristan Lamasine in three sets, Andrea Arnaboldi topped Marco Trungelitti in three and Carl Soederlund outlansted Fred Simonsson in a third set tiebreaker. In terms of the straight set results, we saw Gastao Elias beat Christian Lindfell, Taro Danil beat Horacio Zeballos, Roberto Carballes beat Michael Berrer, Duston Brown top Daniel Munoz, Albert Montanes edge Elias Ymer, and Fernando Verdasco push out Henri Laaksonen.
This is part of a brief post-Wimbledon collection of European clay-court tournaments. The grass-court tournament in Newport, Rhode Island, is taking place this week, but in Europe, clay events fill out the middle portion of July before the end-of-the-month shift to hardcourts in North America, not to mention Summer Olympic tennis in Brazil. Who will take advantage of a few more matches on red brick? Here are our tennis picks for Wednesday
Albert Ramos-Vinolas vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
There is a clear gap in talent in this match. Ramos-Vinolas beat Roger Federer in Shanghai last year and possesses the ability to threaten top players on days when he’s playing particularly well. He punches in a higher weight class than Carballes Baena, and he’s also more experienced. It’s hard to see how Carballes Baena finds a way to win here. Naturally, he needs Ramos-Vinolas to play a very poor match, but that’s not likely to happen. Ramos-Vinolas did not go deep at Wimbledon. He is not overly tired. He is not hurt. He’s been able to regroup and prepare for one more return to his favorite surface in 2016. He should be in good shape at this tournament, especially against lower-level opposition in the early rounds. Take Ramos-Vinolas with your tennis picks in this spot.
Pick: Ramos-Vinolas in straight sets
Fernando Verdasco vs. Albert Montanes
Both men are coming off relatively easy matches on Tuesday as both cashed in, winning in just two sets. Montanes’ opponent won just six games while Verdasco’s opponent took just five games off of him in total.
This should be straightforward for Verdasco, who has consistently played at a higher level than Montanes in both men’s careers. It’s not as though Verdasco is the only old man here. Both players are long-established veterans of the tour. Verdasco won’t be the slower player in this match. He won’t be the slower, softer hitter in this match. He won’t be the deficient server in this match. He has better weapons and hits more powerful shots in the attempt to construct points. He has more ways of winning a match than Montanes. He has to drown in a very large pool of mistakes if he’s going to lose. It’s always possible that he will struggle, but you wouldn’t want to bank on it against a modestly-skilled opponent such as Montanes. Verdasco is the better decision for your tennis picks in this match.
Pick: Verdasco in straight sets
Evgeny Donskoy vs. Andrea Arnaboldi
This is a matchup in which there’s a lot of daylight between the two players. Donskoy has not made a bigger impression on the larger ATP Tour. He is ranked 79 and has not been able to do anything of notice at the Grand Slam events or the Masters 1000 series. Yet, he is good enough to earn a No. 6 seed at this tournament. He has not wowed anyone, but he has not fallen off the map. Andrea Arnaboldi, on the other hand, is a much more “out of sight, out of mind” player, sitting at No. 171 in the rankings. Any gap of nearly 100 slots in the rankings between two players should be an automatic pick in favor of the higher-ranked player, the only exception being if the higher-ranked player is injured. Go with Donskoy for your tennis picks in this spot.
Pick: Donskoy in straight sets
