We are now into the fourth round of the french open. There will be eight singles matches taking place today, and I will be giving you my predictions for all of them.
Madison Keys vs. Mihaela Buzarnescu
Madison Keys was on the other side of the net in the 2017 US Open final, playing fellow American; Sloane Stephens. She is coached by former world number 1, and three-time grand slam champion; Lindsay Davenport.
Mihaela Buzarnescu is from Romania, and reached a career high ranking of 32 last month. She has won just one WTA, but has grand slam titles under her belt as a junior player.
My prediction: Madison Keys in straight sets.
Dominic Thiem vs. Kei Nishikori
Dominic Thiem is an Austrian professional tennis player who has a career-high ATP ranking of world No. 4, which he first achieved on 6 November 2017. He has won ten singles titles on the ATP Tour.
Kei Nishikori is the only male Japanese tennis player to have ever been ranked inside of the top 5. He has won 11 singles titles, and was runner-up at the 2014 US Open, making him the first male player representing an Asian country to reach a GS final.
My prediction: Dominic Thiem in four sets.
Anett Kontaveit vs. Sloane Stephens
Anett Kontaveit has won one singles title on the WTA tour, and 11 singles and five doubles on the ITF tour. She is now at her best singles ranking, and was the youngest Estonian player to win the Estonian Championships in 2009, and 2010.
Sloane won her first grand slam in 2017. She became the lowest ranked player to win a women's singles title and the first American woman, apart from the Williams sisters to win a GS since the legendary Jennifer Capriati in 2002.
My prediction: Anett Kontaveit has been playing exceptionally well, and I think she can beat Sloane Stephens today in three sets.
Novak Djokovic vs. Fernando Verdasco
Since 2009, Verdasco has been working with Andre Agassi and his team in Las Vegas. He was part of a three-time winning Davis Cup team, and played the deciding match in both 2008, and 2009. His semi-final match against Rafael Nadal at the 2009 Australian Open will go down in history as one of the best semi-final matches of all time.
He will face Novak Djokovic. He has won 12 grand slams, five ATP tour finals, 30 Masters 100 series, 12 ATP World Tour 500 tournaments and held the number 1 spot in the ATP rankings for 223 weeks. In 2016, he became one of only eight players in the history of tennis to achieve the career grand slam.
My prediction: On paper, it would be Novak’s match in straight sets but Verdasco took out Grigor Dimitrov in the previous round, and he might be able to take Djokovic out too. I’m going for Verdasco in five sets.
Karen Khachanov vs. Alexander Zverev
Karen Khachanov has won a number of challenger events in his career, and two ATP 250 events; Chengdu Open in 2016, and Open 13 in 2018. As much as he would like to improve on last years fourth round achievement, I don’t think he will be able to today.
2nd seed; Alexander Zverev will have too much confidence and power for Khachanov.
My prediction: Zverev in an easy straight set victory.
Barbora Strycova vs. Yulia Putintseva
Barbora Strycova has won two WTA tournaments, and 9 ITF tournaments. She made the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2015. Born in Russia, but playing for Kazakhstan; Yulia Putintseva comes into the tournament unseeded, and had never made it further than the first round until now.
My prediction: Barbora Strycova in three sets.
David Goffin vs. Marco Cecchinato
David Goffin is seeded 8th for Roland Garros, and is the highest ranked Belgian male and the first to reach the world's top 10. He has won four ATP titles and runner up at seven. Goffin reached the quarter-finals at the 2016 French Open, and 2017 Australian Open.
In April, Marco Cecchinato won his first ATP title at the Hungarian Open. In doing this, he became the first Sicilian tennis player to win an ATP title.
My prediction: Cecchinato has done extremely well to get this far, but I think his journey will end today in straight sets.
Daria Kasatkina vs. Caroline Wozniacki
Daria Kasatkina is a Russian tennis player who reached her career-high singles ranking of 11, and 43 in doubles. She is coached by Vladimir Platenik and has won one singles, and one doubles WTA title. She won the french open as a Junior in 2014.
Caroline Wozniacki has won 28 WTA singles titles, including six in 2010 and 2011, the most in a year by a WTA player from 2008–2011. She was also the first woman from a Scandinavian country to hold the top ranking position.
My prediction: Caroline Wozniacki has been impressive so far, and I don’t think here winning streak will stop here. The 2nd seed should win this in straight sets.
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