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ATP Toronto Day 1 Predictions including Reilly Opelka vs Nick Kyrgios

Day 1 of ATP Toronto has thrown up some good match-ups. Read previews and predictions here including Nick Krygios vs Reilly Opelka.
Nick Kyrgios in action at the Australian Open

Always an exciting time when the ATP Tour visits Canada for its Masters 1000 tournament. This year is the turn of Toronto and there are a few excellent match-ups on the opening day of the main draw. The Toronto court speed is usually medium to slow, though this year’s speed is yet to be deciphered.

Either way, the winner of the Canadian Open in the recent past has always been someone who traditionally does well on a medium speed hardcourt: Rafael Nadal (twice), Novak Djokovic (twice), Andy Murray, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are the most recent champions in Toronto.

We also predict the rest of the ATP Toronto Day 1 matches in a separate article.

ATP Toronto Day 1 Predictions

Lorenzo Sonego vs Ugo Humbert

Head-to-Head Record: First meeting

Two of the coming forces on the ATP Tour meet here. The all-European clash will be service-oriented as both players boast a good record of holding serve with the return game still being something of a work in progress for both men. Both players come here from the Olympics but Humbert will be the prouder player with his quarterfinal run representing France.

Both players actually have a poor hard-court record for the last year. However, recent form and historical data suggest that the Frenchman has the edge here. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a tie-break in the match but I like Humbert to come out just on top by virtue of Sonego’s struggles on return.
Prediction: Humbert in 3

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James Duckworth vs Taylor Fritz

Head-to-Head Record: First meeting

The Australian looked in very good form in qualifying for this event. He is raining down some aces at the moment and his confidence is up with his ranking back inside the top 100 quite comfortably now and is going to be a tough challenge for the young American.

Fritz is likely to be smarting somewhat from his poor loss to Denis Kudla in Washington and will surely be wanting to see some improvement in his game from that match. He did well in Los Cabos before that so it’s not as if Fritz is badly out of form. Again, this encounter will be serve dominated and as such, it’ll be close. I quite like Duckworth to cause a small upset here by edging tie-break wins or a close third set.
Prediction: Duckworth in 3

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John Millman vs Ricardas Berankis

Head-to-Head Record: First meeting

Millman is a player that seems to excel in these court conditions. Though Berankis has been very good through qualifying I think that the Aussie will be too consistent from the baseline for the Lithuanian.
Prediction: Millman in 2

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Daniel Evans vs Alexander Bublik

Head-to-Head Record: Bublik 2-1 Evans

Both players lost first round in Washington despite both seeming to be having good seasons to this point. Despite the Kazakh’s excellent service I like the Briton to be able to find a way through onto the Bublik serve more often than the other way round.

Evans will be keen to repeat the performance from just before the Australian Open where he was able to win in straight sets. The second set of which demonstrated that Evans got a read on the Bublik serve. That is the key reason why I am choosing Evans to win here.
Prediction: Evans in 2

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Nick Kyrgios vs Reilly Opelka

Head-to-Head Record: First meeting

Obviously, this is quite a difficult match to predict because of the likelihood of tiebreaks being involved here. Kyrgios is also impossible to assess using usual form lines because of the rare occasions that he plays regular tour events as well.

However, Kyrgios does have a generally good record in the American hard court swing and if he is coming to a tournament then one must think that he will at least give some effort to record decent results. If the Aussie’s head is in the match then I favour him to come out on top here.
Prediction: Kyrgios in 3

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