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Soon to be retired American Mardy Fish continues his last ever run at the US Open, facing an interesting clash against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez in the second round.
Fish has been a bit underwhelming in the first round against the clay court specialist Marco Cecchinato. Despite his lack of matches, Fish was looking decent coming into this tournament, but he performed poorly in the first two sets against Cecchinato, being close to falling down 0-2. The serve, his main weapon, did not work and was abused by the Italian in the first part of the match, a big sign of worry for Fish. However, eventually he got going and after the first set and a half, he manage to easily dismantle Cecchinato.
Lopez has a disappointing grass court season for his expectations and obviously he wasn`t that good on clay either, but seems like the American hard court season helped him find his game. Lopez is in great form right now, coming after a quarterfinal showing at Cincinnati, where he was the only player to gain break points against Federer. Feliciano continues the solid run with an easy 3 set win over Basilashvili here at Flushing Meadows – avenging the loss suffered in Wimbledon at the hands of the same player.
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Fish leads the Head 2 Head 5-3 (3-3 on hard), but all meetings were prior to Fish’s health problems, the last one being in 2011. No player holds a matchup advantage over the other, so quality of tennis would be the sole determining factor in this matchup.
Fish was too inconsistent in the first round and the biggest problem was that his serve was ineffective. He can`t realistically challenge Feliciano if he isn`t serving lights out, because we know Lopez will do his job on serve. The Spaniard is playing very well right now, he`s close to his best level and all in all he shouldn`t be botheres too much by a player who has only a handful of matches in the last year or so and who is on the brink of retirement.
I reckon Mardy Fish can grab a set if he has a period of 30-60 minutes of great play. That could surely happen, but that`s pretty much it. My tip is Feliciano Lopez to win and cover a 1,5 set handicap. Prediction: Mardy Fish – Feliciano Lopez 6-7 6-4 3-6 2-6.
Watch Fish vs. Lopez – US Open live streaming available for players at Bet365.com.
Pick: Lopez -1,5 set handicap
Odds: 1.62 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 4.96
Event date: 2 September
