U.S. Open Tourney: Day 3 Preview and Picks
By Charles Bricker
(14) Marion Bartoli (+273) vs. Kim Clijsters (-303)
You don't get many second-round matches of this quality because seeded players can't meet each other until the third round, but Clijsters is just eight matches back from retirement and is virtually unranked.
This will be an awfully close match, but Clijsters did beat the pugnacious French woman a couple weeks ago in the second round at Cincinnati by 6-4, 6-3. That gave Clijsters a 2-0 lifetime edge, the first match being played ages ago, in 2003.
Bartoli is probably, overall, in better physical shape, but of course she doesn't have Clijsters' gift for the game. Both women had easy first-round wins - Bartoli over Rossana De Los Rios and Clijsters over Victoriya Kutuzova.
Bartoli is a troublesome player because of her defensive skills and high competitiveness, but she's up against a former U.S. Open title holder here and, though Clijsters is still working her way back to pre-retirement form, she wins this with experience and savvy.
Pick: Clijsters
John Isner (-625) vs. Marsel Ilhan (+535)
Craig Boynton, a key coach at Saddlebrook Resort just outside Tampa, has done wondrous things with Isner's game and attitude. I have every expectation that his 6-foot-9 pupil will charge will reach the third round against Andy Roddick by beating Ilhan, who is the fantasy player of the Open.
He's the first Turkish man to reach the main draw of a Grand Slam and, after Monday, the first Turk to win a Grand Slam match. He's a 22-year-old who had to scrap for money to buy rackets and lessons, so he'll be working as hard for this one as he did in his four-set win over Christophe Rochus in the opening round.
Unfortunately for him, it's back to obscurity soon because Isner, who is at a career best No. 55, seems finally to be fully committed and has the kind of power game that excels on the fast Open courts.
Pick: Isner
(18) Na Li (-445) vs. Michelle Larcher De Brito (+392)
Larcher De Brito was, as usual, screeching loud enough to drown out the jets flying overhead into nearby LaGuardia Airport (OK, not quite that loud), but you'd be screaming, too, if you were hitting one ace and 12 double faults.
At 16, the young Portuguese who is being heavily publicized by the literary forces at the Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Fl. that she may eventually storm into the upper echelons of women's tennis. But not yet.
She'll lose this one to one of the under-publicized players in the women's game. Li won her opener 7-6 (4), 6-3 over Ioana Raluca Olaru, but didn't look good with 24 winners and 43 unforced errors. She wouldn't have gotten away with a win with numbers like that, except that Olaru was 11 and 34. She won't play two stinkers in a row.
Pick: Li
(23) Phillipp Kohlschreiber (-429) vs. Somdev Devvarman (+379)
Devvarman, formerly at the University of Virginia, is among the growing number of collegians-turned-pro (Isner is another) who are making inroads into the men's game. He's done well in Challengers and got his first ever Grand Slam win in the first round over Frederico Gil.
But he'll lose this one to a very experienced, subtly talented German lefty.
Kohlschreiber has something of a throwback game with his counter-punching and defense, but it was more than enough to swamp Andreas Seppi in the first round.
Pick: Kohlschreiber
Yesterday's record: 2-0 (Monfils and Ferrero still pending)
Tourney record: 3-3 (Record to be updated following Monfils and Ferrero matches)