There should be plenty of entertaining tennis on day two at the ATP Cincinnati Masters with 11 intriguing first-round matches on the schedule in Mason, Ohio. As ever, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match on the slate, including Jannik Sinner vs Federico Delbonis and Alex de Minaur vs Filip Krajinovic. But who will reach the second round?
ATP Cincinnati Day 2 Predictions
Andy Murray vs Richard Gasquet
Head-to-head: Murray 8-5 Gasquet
This is a matchup with a lot of history, with the pair first meeting back in 2006. Andy Murray has always dominated at the Slams, where he’s never lost to Richard Gasquet, but in best-of-three the head-to-head is actually led by Gasquet (5-3). Gasquet also won when the two last met in Cincinnati, also in the first round, two years ago, en route to a surprising semifinal appearance.
Both players are very far from their best level, with advancing age and injury limiting their effectiveness, and it’s very unlikely that either will go deep here despite their good records at this tournament. It is a hard match to call and should be very tight, but Gasquet impressed in coming through the qualifying and that increased match sharpness should give him a slight edge.
Prediction: Gasquet in 3
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Taylor Fritz vs Albert Ramos Vinolas
Head-to-head: Fritz 2-1 Ramos Vinolas
Somewhat surprisingly, California native Taylor Fritz struggled badly with the heat last week in Canada, exiting in the first round to Australia’s James Duckworth in straight sets. But assuming he’s recovered properly he should be able to get the better of Albert Ramos Vinolas on the relatively fast hard courts at the ATP Cincinnati Masters. The Spaniard has only managed one win on hard courts so far this season and that came all the way back in February at an Australian Open warm-up event. He was also convincingly beaten by Fritz when the two met in the first round at the Australian Open.
Prediction: Fritz in 2
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Fabio Fognini vs Nikoloz Basilashvili
Head-to-head: first meeting
It’s perhaps surprising that this is the first meeting between this pair considering they’re two veterans of the circuit. Nikoloz Basilashvili had an excellent run in Canada last week, beating the in-form Jenson Brooksby and 12th seed de Minaur to reach the third round, and he should be high on confidence as a result going into this tournament. Fabio Fognini has found a measure of form himself of late, last week battling past Jan-Lennard Struff before running into Andrey Rublev. But the Georgian’s superior firepower should see him prevail in this one.
Prediction: Basilashvili in 2
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