Sunday kicked off a great draw at the ATP Winston-Salem Open, and Day 2 promises even more great tennis. As always, we’re here at LWOT to share our thoughts on all the matches. Who do you think wins in North Carolina on Monday? We also have the rest of the day’s matches, in two separate articles. One features Lorenzo Musetti vs Federico Coria and the second features Egor Gerasimov vs Richard Gasquet.
ATP Winston-Salem Open Day 2 Predictions
Lucas Pouille vs Feliciano Lopez
Lopez has had a stellar, extended career, but he’s been slipping recently. Lopez’s ranking is about to fall out of the Top 100 again, and already owns the career losses record. His last semifinal on a surface other than grass came in 2016. Pouille, meanwhile, has been a mixed bag of late. He’s talented on hard courts, but hasn’t really produced consistent results in years. Lopez’s serve will keep him in matches, but his form right now is just not reliable.
Prediction: Pouille in 3
Jaume Munar vs Yosuke Watanuki
Watanuki won the Kobe Challenger back in 2019, but hasn’t done much impressive since then. He just failed to qualify here, losing to Popyrin in three sets, but is in the main draw as a Lucky Loser. Munar isn’t aggressive enough to win matches on hard courts consistently, but he should be talented enough to survive this match. Maybe.
Prediction: Munar in 3
Steve Johnson vs Alexei Popyrin
Early in the season, I would have taken Popyrin. He was so impressive on the hard courts months ago. The serve is huge and the baseline game was backing that up. The young Australian has regressed a fair bit since then, though. Johnson, meanwhile, had a great college career and has always been solid on the North American hard courts. In a tough matchup, I’ll take the American.
Prediction: Johnson in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
