The Tennis Gods must have read my complaints about the number of players retiring when about to bring in a winning selection for these pages after Jakub Mensik withdrew from his match when well on the way to losing on Tuesday.
The imbalance is still there, but it made a change after what has been happening over the last few days and Mensik was clearly not going to be able to compete any better than those who have decided to retire mid-match.
Conditions have been very tough in Cincinnati and that has impacted some of the quality of tennis- Tuesday night ended with a deluge of rain and Wednesday is supposed to be another potentially wet day, which will help, although it is still very hot in this part of the world and the temperatures will be very high over the weekend into the Monday scheduled Final.
We have seen players struggling with the North American heat at this event and at the US Open in the past and that obviously makes it tougher to make Picks- you just don't always know who will handle the heat the best and be able to put their best tennis on the court on any given day, especially when conditions have been as brutal as they have at this Masters event.
Wednesday was supposed to have all of the ATP Fourth Round matches played on one day, and so the winner of the Alexander Zverev-Brandon Nakashima match will have to play twice, rain permitting. They conclude the match earlier in the day with Zverev needing to serve out the match, but the break in play will have snapped the momentum he had picked up.
The total from the tournament will be added to the Thursday thread once the final two selections are completed- Zverev needs to serve out the match to ensure a profitable return from the day, while Jessica Pegula needs a 6-2 or better set to cover her own handicap mark having won the second set after losing an opening tie-breaker.
There is one selection from the matches that have been scheduled for the day and that is from the ATP Masters Fourth Round.
Felix Auger-Aliassime - 2.5 games v Benjamin Bonzi: There has not been much to write home about when it comes to the hard court tournaments played by Benjamin Bonzi this year, but that is not the case in Cincinnati.
After coming through a couple of tight matches and perhaps being on the right side of some fortune, Bonzi produced his best match against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Backing that up is the challenge as he prepares to face Felix Auger-Aliassime, who has quietly moved through the draw and deserves to be set as a favourite in this Fourth Round match.
The Canadian was clearly the better player against Arthur Rinderknech in the last Round, even if the latter was struggling the conditions, and the Felix Auger-Aliassime serve should be the difference maker in this match up. He was wasteful when it came to converting the Break Point chances, as was Tsitsipas against Benjamin Bonzi in the last Round, but the sheer number of opportunities eventually was beginning to tell on the scoreboard.
Doing the same here should give the higher Ranked player the edge and his overall hard court performances through the course of the year suggest Felix Auger-Aliassime should be able to move through to the Quarter Final.
Benjamin Bonzi is playing with confidence, which will help, but he is likely to be put under pressure by the Auger-Aliassime serve and that could eventually see his own game snap at key times.
MY PICKS: Felix Auger-Aliassime - 2.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (1 Unit)
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