Day 2 at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto starts up with matches featuring both players playing their first match here and others hoping to build on prior wins. Emil Ruusuvuori won both his qualifying matches to make the main draw, while the exciting young talent takes on Dusan Lajovic, who is hoping to get his year back on track. Reilly Opelka pulled off an impressive late-night win against Nick Kyrgios. He will play the night match again against a struggling but always dangerous Grigor Dimitrov. American Mackenzie McDonald looks to build on his run to the Washington final last week and has a favorable matchup against the unpredictable Benoit Paire. The action is heating up in a draw that anyone could win. While all of these players are long shots to win the title, a deep run is possible and can make a serious impact on their years.
We predict all the matches on the day, between this and two other articles. One features Miomir Kecmanovic vs Kei Nishikori and the other features Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Ugo Humbert.
Dusan Lajovic vs Emil Ruusuvuori
Head-to-head: first meeting
Lajovic is playing his first match on hard since spring, after spending his post-grass season on his favored clay. Ruusuvuori had to qualify for the main draw but played well, defeating Frances Tiafoe convincingly in straight sets. Lajovic has not had a great year but can be dangerous, as shown by making the fourth round at the Australian Open. Ruusuvuori is great on hard courts, scoring 12 of his 14 wins this year and 22 of 25 career tour-level wins on the surface. Ruusuvuori will play attacking tennis and build off the momentum from two straight-set wins in qualifying. Lajovic does not seem to be sharpest and will struggle to defend against the young Finn. Lajovic is a good player and will put up some fight but Ruusuvuori will be too much for him to handle.
Prediction: Ruusuvuori in 3
Benoit Paire vs Mackenzie McDonald
Head-to-head: 1-1
Benoit Paire may be the single hardest player to predict on the ATP Tour. From having wildly inconsistent performances to simply not caring, the Frenchman is an absolute wild card, but unquestionably talented and a real danger. McDonald is coming off an excellent week in Washington where he made his first ATP final.
McDonald beat Paire in the second round in Washington in a tight three-set match. Paire has been horrible in 2021, compiling a 7-21 record with just two of those wins over Top 100 players, one of which came via first set-retirement. McDonald broke back into the Top 100 this week for the first time since mid-2019 with a 13-11 record in main tour matches on top of a 13-6 record in Challengers. It is simply impossible to pick Paire to win a match this year and McDonald is playing great tennis. As long as he still has legs after his deep run in Washington he should win easily.
Prediction: McDonald in 2
Grigor Dimitrov vs Reilly Opelka
Head-to-head: first meeting
Dimitrov is having a tough year so far. He has only won more than one match in a tournament once since the Australian Open. Opelka has not been great either, but looked strong against Kyrgios in the first round. The American did not face a single break point after the first set, and created nine of his own, converting one. Dimitrov has won just two of his last nine matches and had an ugly straight-set loss against Ilya Ivashka in the first round in Washington.
Opelka does not have the best hard court record this year, but his serve will make him dangerous in any match, especially with the historically faster courts in Canada. The story of the match will be Dimitrov’s strong return game against Opelka’s big serve. Opelka will have the slight edge with Dimitrov not being on the top of his game and the American’s strong return game for a player of his size. Opelka looks better and will pull through against the struggling Dimitrov.
Prediction: Opelka in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
