US Open: Predictions for the Men's Round of 16

Tomorrow, the men will start the round of 16 at the US Open.  Unlike in the women's tournament, where five of the top eight seeds have already been eliminated, the usual suspects remain on the men's side. Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and Murray are all still there, along with other top players like Mardy Fish and Jo Willy Tsonga.  

Moving into this round, we expect the top four to make a relatively easy job of advancing, but we should see some close matches among the others.  

Janko Tipsarevic (20) vs. Juan Carlos Ferrero

Ferrero hasn't played much this year, but he managed to knock off Gael Monfils in the second round.  Still, you really never know which Monfils you're going to get, and it's quite possible he didn't get him at his best.  

Tipsarevic was up big on Tomas Berdych before Berdych retired due to injury, and this was no fluke, as he defeated Tomas in the quarterfinals of the Rogers cup.  He has yet to really be challenged at the open so far.

The pick: Tipsarevic in straight sets

Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Alexandr Dolgopolov (22)

Novak is 60-2 this year.  Moving on...

The pick: Djokovic in straight sets

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (11) vs. Mardy Fish (8)

This might be the closest matchup of this round.  Neither player has lost a set so far at the Open, and both players have similar records this year.

Mardy has been on a bit of a roll lately, reaching the semis of his last four tournaments and the finals of three of those four, winning one of them.  Tsonga hasn't played much since Wimbledon, and he lost in the second round of his last tournament.  We see Fish getting a bit of a boost from playing in his home country.

The pick: Fish in five sets

Roger Federer (3) vs. Juan Monaco

Monaco is a nice underdog story, but he hasn't beaten anyone near Roger's caliber this year.  

The pick: Federer in straight sets

Rafael Nadal (2) vs. Gilles Muller

Muller hasn't taken a set against the top players he has played so far this year—Soderling, Nadal, Murray and Fish.  We can't foresee him taking three against Rafa.  

The pick: Nadal in straight sets

David Ferrer (5) vs. Andy Roddick (21)

Roddick has had a pretty bad year so far, and the former top 10 player has plummeted to 21st in the rankings.  He's had a pretty easy go of it so far at the Open, but he really hasn't had to face any challenging players.

Ferrer, on the other hand, is having possibly the best season of his career.  He even managed to knock out Nadal back at the Australian in the beginning of the year.  He seems like the obvious choice, and given that he recently defeated Roddick in straight sets in their David Cup match, it's tough to pick against him.

The pick: Ferrer in straight sets

Andy Murray (4) vs. Donald Young

Young, a qualifier, has been a great underdog story so far at the US Open, defeating two seeded players to reach the round of 16.  However, his run ends here.  Murray has made it to the semis of each of the three majors so far this year, and we don't see Young being the one to break that run.

The pick: Murray in straight sets

John Isner (28) vs. Gilles Simon (12)

Isner has always been a player with a lot of potential due to his incredible height advantage, but he has struggled with issues such as consistency and conditioning, and it's held him back from reaching the top tier of players in the world.  However, we see this match as a chance for Isner to take a big step up.  

He's facing off against Gilles Simon, who, while probably the better player in most situations, will be coming into this matchup after playing three straight exhausting matches.  All of them have gone at least four sets, and the last involved multiple tiebreaks.  We think it'll finally catch up to him against the big-serving Isner.

The pick: Isner in four sets