James Ward scored a really great win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-2 3-6 6-1.  The Brit won two matches in qualifying and moves into the second round where he will play Julien Benneteau.  Second round action will be completed in Cincy on Wednesday.

1. Fernando Verdasco v Marin Cilic (ATP Cincy, R2)

I had to preview this match just so I could talk about the train wreck that was, Fernando Verdasco v Marcel Granollers.  Verdasco hit 74 unforced errors as he crawled over the finishing line, 5-7 6-3 7-6(5).  Verdasco tried serving out the match at *5-4, but played a dreadful game serving up two double faults.  He also found the wrong service box with a second serve in the tiebreak.  Granollers did absolutely nothing apart from trying to hit the ball in court and in the end, shocking as he was at times, Verdasco was rewarded for his positivity in the tiebreak.  He finished the match on an ACTUAL GOOD POINT.  Verdasco goes through to play Marin Cilic in the second round.  Cilic had a solid win over Toronto semi-finalist Feliciano Lopez, 6-3 6-4 in 67 minutes.  Verdasco and Cilic are tied at 4-4 in the head-to-head; Cilic has won their last two matches, which both took place on hard courts.  After watching Verdasco’s last match and seeing Cilic produce some consistent results in the last two months, i’m going for Marin.

Prediction: Cilic d. Verdasco in 2 tight sets

2. Roger Federer v Vasek Pospisil (ATP Cincy, R2)

Roger Federer faces a tough test in his first match against Vasek Pospisil.  Federer lost out in the final of Toronto to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 7-5 7-6(3) in one of his poorest performances of the entire year.  His backhand was off and his return was most certainly off.  The stat is below is crazy!

Pospisil won his first match in Cincy saving two match points to defeat Radek Stepanek, 5-7 6-1 7-6(4).  After struggling with a back injury for much of the year, Pospisil is starting to make up for lost time and he played some stunning matches to reach the final of DC two weeks ago.  Federer leads the head-to-head 2-0, but Pospisil did get a set in their last match, a competitive semi-final in Basel which Federer won, 6-3 6-7(3) 7-5.  I could see Pospisil getting another set and even challenging Federer.  I don’t think the Swiss man is going to have a great week in Cincy, but i’ve been wrong before… actually a lot haha

Prediction: Federer d. Pospisil in 3 sets

ATP Cincy 2nd Round Predictions

Tommy Robredo d. Sam Querrey in 2 tight sets

Andreas Seppi d. Mikhail Youzhny in 3 sets

David Ferrer d. Philipp Kohlschreiber in 3 sets

Julien Benneteau d. James Ward in 3 sets

Grigor Dimitrov d. Jerzy Janowicz in 2 tight sets

Milos Raonic d. Robby Ginepri in 2 sets

Ernests Gulbis d. Steve Johnson in 3 tight sets

Fabio Fognini d. Lleyton Hewitt in 3 sets

Tomas Berdych d. Yen-Hsun Lu in 2 tight sets

Andy Murray d. Joao Sousa in 2 sets

John Isner d. Marinko Matosevic in 3 tight sets

Roberto Bautista Agut d. Gael Monfils in 3 sets