Quarterfinal spots at the Cincinnati Masters will be handed out on Friday, when seeds Andrey Rublev and Ben Shelton are in action. Rublev is going up against Brandon Nakashima, while Shelton is facing Fabian Marozsan.
(WC) Brandon Nakashima vs. (6) Andrey Rublev
Rublev and Nakashima will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers and for the second time in the span of two weeks when they meet again in round three of the Western & Southern Open on Friday. The head-to-head series stands at 2-1 in favor of Rublev, who just rolled 6-2, 6-2 at the National Bank Open–also in the third round. Nakashima’s victory came this spring on the red clay of Barcelona via a 6-4, 7-6(6) decision.
Although the 2024 campaign has mostly been a disappointment for Rublev, he still has the potential to emerge from out of nowhere as his former–and arguably his real–self. The eighth-ranked Russian did it with a Masters 1000 title in Madrid and he is doing it now with a hard-court run that began with a runner-up showing in Montreal and continued with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Zhizhen Zhang on Thursday. Nakashima has caught fire with a third-round effort in Montreal as a qualifier and now a third-round appearance in Cincinnati as a qualifier after taking out Taylor Fritz and Arthur Fils. As well as the 49th-ranked American is playing, nothing suggests that he will turn the tide amidst similar conditions so soon after getting completely wiped off the court by Rublev.
Pick: Rublev in 2
(12) Ben Shelton vs. Fabian Marozsan
Shelton is on his second life at the Cincinnati Masters after saving a match point in the second set against Tomas Martin Etcheverry en route to a 6-7(6), 7-6(7), 6-3 victory on Thursday. That was preceded by a 7-6(3), 7-6(3) defeat of Reilly Opelka, so the world No. 14 is no stranger to living on the edge.
A bit of a different matchup awaits Shelton on Friday–different than against the 6’11” Opelka and the 6’5” Etcheverry. Marozsan checks in at 6’4”, but he plays more like a clay-courter than a big server–complete with lots of offspeed stuff and drop-shots. The 50th-ranked Hungarian has always done by far his best work at the Masters 1000 level and he is up to his usual tricks this week with wins at the expense of Corentin Moutet and Grigor Dimitrov. Unfortunately for Marozsan, Shelton is 2-0 in the head-to-head series and 4-0 in total sets. Home-court advantage and a fast surface favor the American, as well.
Pick: Shelton in 2
