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  • Seeds take the court in New Haven second round

    8/19/08 7:33 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - All sixteen seeds received first-round byes, but now they will be off the couch and on the court. That should make for a blockbuster Tuesday in New Haven.

    (6) Marin Cilic vs. Viktor Troicki

    Cilic and Troicki will be facing each other for the second time. They played at the start of this season in Chennai and Cilic prevailed in three sets. Troicki is a different player now, however, because he reached his first ATP title match last week in Washington, D.C. The 6'4'' Serb is up to a career-high No. 71 in the world. Cilic is also enjoying a career-high ranking of 31st, but he has been inconsistent recently. The 6'6'' Croat reached the quarterfinals of the Masters Series Canada, but he lost in the first round of Cincinnati and got blown out by Fernando Gonzalez in the second round of the Olympics. Troicki, a three-set winner over Alex Bogomolov Jr. on Monday, would be a trendy upset pick in this one had he not played so many matches recently.

    (7) Andreas Seppi vs. Potito Starace

    There are four Italians in the New Haven field and as of the second round, all four are right next to each other in the same eighth of the draw. Seppi will take on Starace and Simone Bolelli will meet Fabio Fognini. The winners will square off for a spot in the quarterfinals. Starace is 2-0 against Seppi (1-0 at the ATP level), but both wins came on clay, the surface on which both men are most comfortable. Seppi, however, has enjoyed better results on other surfaces and he is in the midst of a better season (35th in the race, 32nd in the rankings). If Starace plays like he did a three-set loss to eventual gold medalist Rafael Nadal in the first round of the Olympics he could pull off the minor upset, but he is definitely not favored.

    (12) Agustin Calleri vs. Robby Ginepri

    Calleri and Ginepri have met on three previous occasions, all on hard courts. Ginepri triumphed in Auckland in both 2003 and 2005, but Calleri got revenge in the second round of this same New Haven event last year. The Argentine started out this season in fine form with quarterfinal showings in Doha and Sydney, but he has done almost nothing on hard courts since. Ginepri, who reached the French Open fourth round, is right at home on his favorite surface: U.S. hard courts. He had three semifinal performances during the spring hard-court swing (Delray Beach, San Jose, Las Vegas) and his first-round win over Luis Horna on Monday could put him back on track after a minor slump that was mostly due to bad draws. Ginepri in straight sets is the pick.

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