TipResumen

PREVIEW

In 2017 Kyle Edmund deservedly got the better of Steve Johnson both here in Winston Salem and also at the US Open and I think the British player can frank that with another win in this Quarter Final. Edmund did drop the first set when they met here at the same stage in Winston Salem in 2017, but he has won the next five sets against Johnson and he has played well enough on the hard courts to get past the home favourite again. You can't completely ignore the poor record Edmund has had on the hard courts since reaching the Australian Open Semi Final back in January. The struggles at Indian Wells and Miami continued over the last month, but Edmund has produced two strong wins in the Winston Salem tournament which may have restored some of the confidence. Edmund has been a little unfortunate in a couple of losses where there was very little between him and his opponent, while his serve has been effective enough to think he can keep the pressure on Johnson. There has been an improvement in the Johnson return game which has to be respected, but he struggled to deal with the Edmund serve last year and the forehand to forehand battle is likely to be won by the British player off the ground. A key for Johnson is going to be getting more out of the serve which remains a big weapon for him. The percentage of points won behind serve on the hard courts have declined over the last four seasons, but Johnson still has a decent enough number to hold between 82% and 86% of games per season in that time. That is a huge number, but Edmund did play very well against Johnson in their two hard court matches twelve months ago and I think he can do the same here against a player who had lost all three hard court matches played over the last month before putting two wins together here in Winston Salem. I have to respect the fact that their numbers are very similar on the hard courts in 2018, but those two wins Edmund earned last year have to be a factor here. Neither player has faced a tougher opponent than the one standing across the other side of the net on Thursday, but Edmund looks to be on the stronger form all around and I will back him to beat Johnson for a third straight time and also to cover this number.



PREDICTION

I will back Kyle Edmund to continue from where he left off in 2017 and beat Steve Johnson for a third consecutive time.