Tour-level tennis is back and over the next three weeks. Melbourne will host an enormous amount of matches in a total of eight events. One of them, the ATP Great Ocean Road Open, starts on Monday and there will already be plenty of exciting action to follow. Who do you think will advance to the second round? We predict eight of Monday’s nine matches–four in this article, four in a second article.
ATP Great Ocean Road Open Day 1 Predictions
Yen-Hsun Lu vs Aleksandar Vukic
Head-to-head: First meeting
In the past 32 months, we’ve only seen Yen-Hsun Lu on the court twice. The 37-year-old has been haunted by injuries in the latter stages of his career and there is very little to indicate if he’s going to a 100% fit this time. Aleksandar Vukic enjoyed a breakthrough season last year and with his big serve, he never really drops beyond a certain level. It would be great if Lu could recapture some of his magic in the twilight of his playing days but in the first tournament back, it is very unlikely he does.
Prediction: Lu in 3
Dominik Koepfer vs Christopher O’Connell
Head-to-head: First meeting
After reaching a total of 13 professional finals on the ITF and Challenger circuits in 2019, Christopher O’Connell couldn’t quite reach the same heights in 2020. Dominik Koepfer peaked for the clay-court season last year, but posted a few respectable results on hard courts as well. Neither has played since October so they won’t be coming in with much momentum. O’Connell’s punching game should work well in Australian conditions and being a home country player, he was also relieved of all the stress of quarantining and traveling for the tournament.
Prediction: O’Connell in 3
Andrej Martin vs Soon-Woo Kwon
Head-to-head: First meeting
Both have already competed in Delray Beach this year, losing their opening matches in straight sets. The surface should mean a lot here – Andrej Martin is a great clay-court player but his win/loss record in tour-level matches on hard is just 1-6. Soon-Woo Kwon feels this surface a lot better and for what we know, the match should be on his racket.
Prediction: Kwon in 2
Andreas Seppi vs Salvatore Caruso
Head-to-head: Seppi 1-0
Andreas Seppi took out Salvatore Caruso at the Ortisei Challenger four years ago but time hasn’t done the older of the Italian much favor. Seppi’s decline has progressed quite rapidly recently, which even made him fall out of the top 100. With both of the Italians relying a lot on prolonged baseline rallies, the age difference might mean a lot here. Caruso has been playing the best tennis of his life in recent years and he should continue the good run here.
Prediction: Caruso in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
