US Open Day 7, 3rd Round ATP Predictions: Haas-Youzhny and Wawrinka-Baghdatis

I feel like I have come down pretty hard on the mens tournament this week so I thought it was fair to at least preview some of the third round matches for Sunday.  I am not going to lie though that the line-up is still rather pedestrian because of a surprising number of upsets from the top half.  I was both shocked and gutted to see DelPo lose last night to another stunning effort from Lleyton Hewitt!

1. Stanislas Wawrinka v Marcos Baghdatis

The last time that Stanislas Wawrinka and Marcos Baghdatis played each other saw one of the those classic racquet smashing moments when Baggy completely lost the plot.  See the video below if you have never seen it! 


Baghdatis in full glory

2013 has been a very rough year for Baghdatis so yesterday's 6-2 6-2 6-2 rout of Kevin Anderson was all the more surprising.  It is also a bit of a surprise to see Wawrinka here too because his form has been disappointing since making the quarters of the French Open.  He has enjoyed two no-nonsense wins over Radek Stepanek and Ivo Karlovic and rather silently floated into the 3rd round.  Wawrinka has won both previous matches with Baghdatis, who is somewhat of an unknown quanitity this week based on the fact he has lost just 14 games in two matches.  I will stick by Wawrinka though to make it into the last 16.

Prediction - Wawrinka to beat Baghdatis in 4 sets

2. Tommy Haas v Mikhail Youzhny

Tommy Haas

The first quarter of the draw which hosts Novak Djokovic has just three seeds remaining in it and the winner of this clash will really fancy their chances of scooping a quarter-final appearance at this year's Open.  Tommy Haas has not hit any headlines so far, but that's good because he has has faced no bother in defeating Paul-Henri Mathieu and Yen-Hsun Lu, both in comfortable straight set wins.  Mikhail Youzhny has beaten Nicolas Mahut and Alexandr Dolgopolov in straight sets and continued to post solid results this year.  The head-to-head is tied at 4-4 and has seen some pretty tight match-ups between the pair; that is why when Haas routed Youzhny at the French Open earlier this year for the loss of just 5 sets it was a bit of a surprise.  I like Haas and he looks to be in both good form and good health... so Haas for the win.

Prediction - Haas to beat Youzhny in 3 sets

Best of the rest: US Open Mens 3rd Round Predictions

Novak Djokovic to beat Joao Sousa in 3 sets

Marcel Granollers to beat Tim Smyczek in 4 sets

Lleyton Hewitt to beat Evgeny Donskoy in 4 sets

Andy Murray to beat Florian Mayer in 3 sets

Andreas Seppi to beat Denis Istomin in 5 sets

Tomas Berdych to beat Julien Benneteau in 4 tight sets