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  • Wednesday in New Haven: quarterfinals on the line

    8/20/08 7:43 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - Sixteen men will be vying for quarterfinal spots as play really takes off at the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament. Marin Cilic and Igor Andreev headline the action.

    (6) Marin Cilic vs. (11) Jurgen Melzer

    Cilic leads the head-to-head series with Melzer 2-0, and both wins came in 2008. The 6'6'' Croat cruised to a straight-set victory in the second round of the Australian Open, then prevailed in two tiebreakers at Queen's Club. Cilic upset Andy Roddick en route to a quarterfinal appearance at the Masters Series Canada, but he failed to build on that momentum. The No. 5 seed lost to Nicolas Lapentti in the Cincinnati first round before getting crushed by Fernando Gonzalez in the second round of the Olympics. Melzer, nine spots behind Cilic in the 2008 ATP race at No. 42, has been especially solid of late. He reached the final of Kitzbuhel on clay last month and made it to the quarterfinals at the Olympics. Melzer will make things interesting, but the mental edge due to recent head-to-head history has to go to Cilic.

    (16) Victor Hanescu vs. (4) Igor Andreev

    Hanescu and Andreev have never played on anything except Andreev's favorite surface, clay. The 6'6'' Romanian, however, is surprisingly adept on the slow stuff so it should not be too shocking that he leads their series 2-1. They split matches in 2003 and 2005 before Hanescu pulled off a straight-set victory earlier this year in Gstaad. The No. 16 seed has racked up almost all of his match wins in the last two months (including the Gstaad title), but Andreev is also riding plenty of momentum. The Russian boasts a stellar 14-5 match record since Wimbledon and he has not lost a first-round match since Hamburg. Unless Hanescu serves extraordinarily well, look for Andreev to advance in three close sets.

    Jesse Levine vs. Steve Darcis

    If there has ever been a lucky loser, Jesse Levine is just that this week. The 5'9'' American lost in Pilot Pen qualifying, but he got into the main draw when Juan Martin Del Potro, winner of four straight tournaments, withdrew. Since Del Potro had a bye as a seed, Levine went straight into the second round. He took advantage of the opportunity by crushing Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and now he gets to play the unseeded Darcis, whom Levine beat earlier this season in San Jose. The 5'10'' Belgian has since won a title in Memphis and made it to the final in Amersfoort, so he is a dangerous player who can get hot at any time. Levine has not been too hot recently, bringing a 1-4 record during U.S. Open Series play with him into New Haven. Unless Levine can sustain the same level he showed against Garcia-Lopez, Darcis should take this in three sets.

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