On Tuesday, we close out the first round at ATP Los Cabos with six entertaining matches. As always, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match, including Jordan Thompson vs Ivo Karlovic. We predict the other three matches in a separate article. Who will advance to the second round?
ATP Los Cabos Day 2 Predictions
Emilio Gomez vs Nicolas Mejia
Head-to-head: Gomez 3-0 Mejia
Emilio Gomez has had a solid year on the Challenger circuit, with a title, a final, and two semifinals. His opponent, 21-year-old Nicolas Mejia, is in the middle of a breakthrough season, rising over 150 spots this season to break the Top 300. The Colombian qualified with wins over Juan Alejandro Hernandez and Ruben Bemelmans.
Interestingly enough, the pair have already faced off three times, with Gomez winning all of their previous meetings. The first one dates to a Challenger qualifying match when Mejia was just 16 years old.
Prediction: Gomez in 2
Peter Gojowczyk vs Illya Marchenko
Head-to-head: Gojowczyk 1-0 Marchenko
Gojowczyk is having a decent season, the highlight of which has been reaching the semifinals as a qualifier at Montpellier. He’s in good form coming off a quarterfinal run in Newport.
The 33-year-old Marchenko must be elated about the tour returning to hard, having had a good run at indoor hard Challengers in Biella to start the year during which he won a title by defeating Andy Murray in the final and reached the semifinals twice. Since then, his form has been middling through clay and grass. Their only previous meeting was won by Gojowczyk at Halle 2016.
Prediction: Marchenko in 3
Jordan Thompson vs Ivo Karlovic
Head-to-head: Thompson 2-2 Karlovic
Probably the match of the day here in Los Cabos, the No. 5 seed against the 2016 champion. Thompson has had an okay season, starting strong on hard with a quarterfinal at one of the Melbourne warm-up events, struggling through the clay season, and picking it up again on grass with a third round at Wimbledon and semifinals at Newport.
It looks like at 42 years old, age has finally caught up with Ivo Karlovic. The Croatian giant has only won six matches over the past two seasons, and though nothing has been announced yet, it is fair to speculate that he will retire after this one. The two have faced off four times including a 12-10 five-set thriller a the 2016 French Open with Thompson winning the most recent two.
Prediction: Thompson in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
