Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Jack Sock
Head to head: Tsonga leads 1-0
The second match on Armstrong will be popular; it will probably create one of those lines that stretches halfway across the grounds at the National Tennis Center. That’s because it will feature popcorn-worthy athleticism, and an American in Sock. The 11th-ranked Tsonga and the 27th-ranked Sock have played once, on clay in Madrid last year, and it was close; Tsonga won in a third-set tiebreaker. But right now, Sock—who at 23 is eight years younger than Tsonga—is riding some homemade momentum. If he plays anything like the way he did in annihilating Marin Cilic on the same court on Friday, he should win this one, too.
Winner: Sock
Rafael Nadal vs. Lucas Pouille
Head to head: Nadal leads 1-0
It has been nine sets played and nine sets won so far for Nadal at the Open. Plus, he nearly raised the new roof with a tweener lob in his last match against Andrey Kuznetsov. More important, after squandering a break lead in the second set, he broke again right away and won it. Nadal has struggled to win those types of crucial, put-the-match-out-of-reach points and games over the last two years. Now he’ll have to do it against a seed for the first time here. The 22-year-old, 25th-seeded Pouille was a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon and a semifinalist in Rome this year, and he has the type of raw power from both sides that can trouble Rafa. It didn’t trouble him when they met on clay last year—Nadal won 6-2, 6-1 in Monte Carlo—but it could on the hard court in Ashe Stadium.
Winner: Nadal
Angelique Kerber vs. Petra Kvitova
Head to head: 4-4
Kerber will play her second straight night match. This may seem unusual for a German in New York, even one who has a chance to become No. 1 in the world. But Kerber isn’t playing your average fourth-round opponent; she’s up against a two-time Wimbledon champ in Kvitova. Even better, Kerber is up against a player she has played a lot of competitive matches against in the past. Kerber and Kvitova are 4-4 in their head to head—Kerber has won the last two—and six of the last seven of those meetings have gone three sets. All-out lefty attack vs. all-out lefty defense: Sounds like a good Sunday evening’s entertainment to me.
Winner: Kerber