There should be plenty of exciting tennis on day two at the ATP European Open in Antwerp, with seven intriguing matches on the slate in Belgium. As ever, we here at the LWOS tennis department will be offering our predictions for every match on the schedule, including Kei Nishikori vs Pablo Andujar. But who will reach the second round?
ATP European Open Day Two Predictions
Salvatore Caruso vs Dan Evans
Head-to-head: Evans 1-0 Caruso
Dan Evans was handed a tough first-round draw at the ATP St Petersburg Open, where he came up against three-time Major champion Stan Wawrinka in his opener. Still, it was a match he came very close to winning and having held three match points, he will surely view it as a chance missed. But the Briton has what looks to be an easier opening assignment at the ATP European Open, where he faces Salvatore Caruso in the first round.
That said, the Italian should not be underestimated. He is solid off both wings and when he is at his best, his forehand is a useful weapon. Caruso is also in solid form, having come through the qualifying without dropping a set, beating Michael Geerts and Yuichi Sugita. Still, this is a match Evans should be winning. The court in Antwerp is not amongst the fastest, but it does bounce low, which should see his sliced backhand and excellent stop volleys rewarded.
Prediction: Evans in 3
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Luca Nardi vs Marcos Giron
Head-to-head: first meeting
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Luca Nardi’s lack of experience, this will be the first meeting between this pair. The 17-year-old Italian, who was awarded a wildcard by the organisers at the ATP European Open, will be making his tour-level debut and at world #917, a ranking he shares with the Frenchman Nathan Seateun, he is by a distance the lowest-ranked man in the draw in Antwerp. Whilst it will be interesting to see where his level is, it is hard to see him offering much resistance to Marcos Giron.
The American impressed in the qualifying, beating Kamil Majchrzak, 6-3 4-6 6-3, and Yasutaka Uchiyama, 7-6 6-2, both of whom are ranked over 800 places above Nardi. Giron will, of course, not want to take Nardi too lightly, particularly as the Italian young gun beat the 33-year-old Matthias Bachinger, who has been ranked as high as world #85, in Trieste in August. But if Giron is at his best, he should reach the second round without encountering any real problems.
Prediction: Giron in 2
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Corentin Moutet vs Lloyd Harris
Head-to-head: first meeting
Both Lloyd Harris and Corentin Moutet, who find themselves in a relatively open section of the draw, will surely be targeting a deep run this week. But the South African Harris looks to be in the better position of the two. He arrived at the ATP European Open fresh from an impressive showing in Cologne, where he reached the quarterfinals, and he backed that up by beating the USA’s Zane Kahn and Federico Coria of Argentina, both in straight sets, to reach the main draw in Antwerp.
Moutet, in contrast, played indifferently last time out in Sardinia, beating Frances Tiafoe in the first round before losing heavily to Albert Ramos Vinolas in the second. And whilst the Frenchman has played well on hard courts this season, notably reaching the final at the Qatar Open in January as well as the third round at the US Open, Harris’ game looks better suited to the conditions than his opponent’s. Expect the South African’s big serve and forehand to fire him into the second round.
Prediction: Harris in 2
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Richard Gasquet vs Alex de Minaur
Head-to-head: de Minaur 1-0 Gasquet
If their recent US Open clash is anything to go by, this should be one of the more entertaining matches on day two at the ATP European Open. One suspects that Alex de Minaur will be glad to be back on hard courts, having lost both of the matches he played during the abbreviated European clay-court swing, with the indoor conditions in Antwerp likely to reward his strengths: returning aggressively and taking the ball early and on the rise.
Richard Gasquet has enjoyed plenty of success indoors in his own right, having won seven titles on indoor hard courts, including the inaugural ATP European Open in 2016. But the Frenchman is not the force he once was and has endured a difficult season in 2020, losing in the first round in St Petersburg last week to Daniil Medvedev. He remains good enough to test de Minaur, as he demonstrated in New York, but the Australian should have the defensive qualities to grind his opponent down over the course of three sets.
Prediction: de Minaur in 3
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