Eighth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain will meet French star Adrian Mannarino in the Round of 16 of the 2022 ATP Winston-Salem Open on Wednesday, August 24.
Albert Ramos-Vinolas (8) (21/20) vs Adrian Mannarino (4/6)
Forget the postmodern Spanish hardcourt specialists likes Carreno Busta and Bautista Agut. 34-year-old Albert Ramos Vinolas is a throwback to the stereotypical Spanish clay-court specialist. Of his 11 ATP finals, 10 have come on clay-courts.
He reached one hardcourt final way back in 2016 (losing to Karen Khachanov in the Chengdu Open). This year has tracked pretty well with that history.
He won his 4th title earlier this year in Cordoba and reached another four clay-court semi-finals throughout the season. To be fair, all of those clay-court events are pretty fringe affairs. But his opening round victory against John Millman did break a significant duck for Ramos Vinolas.
This was his first victory in six appearances at the Winston-Salem Open. Can this arch counterpuncher make it two consecutive victories this week?
His next opponent will be fellow veteran and also fellow lefty Adrian Mannarino. Much like Ramos Vinolas, the Frenchman is a counterpuncher who doesn’t mind gruelling baseline rallies.
But unlike Ramos Vinolas, the majority of Mannarino’s success has come on faster surfaces: seven of his ten ATP finals have come on hardcourts. He actually enjoyed a really solid start to the year.
He got to the 4th round of the Aussie Open, beating Hubert Hurkacz in the process. He then went on a streak of three consecutive quarterfinal appearances in hardcourt events. But then he sunk into an utterly dreadful run of form, losing seven consecutive first-round matches (including qualifiers). A recent quarterfinal in Atlanta will have helped him gain some confidence and he has really grown into this year’s event.
He needed to withstand a serving avalanche from Chris O’Connell to survive his first-round match. But then he soundly beat the vastly improved Emil Ruusvuoir in straight sets.
The Verdict: Mannarino to win in three sets at 3/1- This head-to-head rivalry is about as predictable as you can get. Albert Ramos Vinolas leads the head-to-head 5-3.
He has won all five clay-court matches while Mannarino has won all their hardcourt ties. It’s a perfect distillation of their respective comfort zones.
That’s the reason I’m going to back Mannarino in this battle of the double backhands.
25th August
Dominic Thiem (13/8) vs Jack Draper (13) (42/100)
This is lining up to be a spectacular round of 16 clash (and a fairly photogenic one to boot). Dominic Thiem has enjoyed a wild ride on his return to hardcourt action. I actually backed J.J Wolff to upset him in their opening encounter. And he came close.
Thiem was clearly undercooked and underprepared for the speed of these surfaces. But Thiem hung in there and showed flashes of brilliance along the way. He managed to survive a one-hour, 52-minute rain delay and saved two match points.
It was an uplifting victory for a player who hasn’t tasted hardcourt action since March last year. But any euphoria was short-lived as he took to the court against 2017 ATP Finals champ Grigor Dimitrov. The Bulgarian blasted him off the court in the first-set, relegating him to an embarrassing bagel that must have knocked his confidence. But the Bulgarian fell ill in the 2nd set and had to retire trailing 4-2 in the 2nd.
The Austrian clearly needs a bit more court-time ahead of his return to Flushing Meadows. In the first set against Dimitrov he hit just three winners against ten unforced errors! Ouch.
20-year-old Jack Draper is yet another in this really exciting current crop of British tennis talent. He came to the world’s attention at last year’s Wimbledon, nicking a set off Novak Djokovic in their first-round match.
He stands on the cusp of entering the world’s top 50 after some brilliant results this year. He cut his teeth on the Challenger circuit, winning four hardcourt titles in the beginning portion of the year. And the powerful Brit started to transfer some of that form onto the tour proper.
He beat Jannik Sinner en route to a semi-final berth at Eastbourne. But his real breakthrough came with his quarterfinal run at the ATP 1000 event in Canada. This included a brilliant straight-sets victory against US Open hopeful Stefano Tsitsipas. The way he redirected Tsitsipas’ groundstrokes was eerily reminiscent of Andy Murray.
He showed his resilience against former top 10 player Fabio Fognini, eventually overpowering the Italian in the 3rd set. That actually takes his record against top 10 players (current and former) to 5-4.
The Verdict: Draper to win in straight sets- 21/20. This will unsurprisingly be the first career meeting between these two.
I think Draper is just playing too well at this present moment. His booming forehand and tight, compact backhand make him a dangerous foe on either wing. He moves well for a big guy and Thiem looked laboured against Dimitrov.
Bet on the Winston-Salem Open at hollywoodbets.co.uk or hollywoodbets.ie
