The ATP Cup in Sydney gets underway, it’s also the kickoff for the 2022 ATP World Tour season, in this set of predictions we have Hubert Hurkacz and Poland vs a Stefanos Tsitsipas led Greece, while Casper Ruud and Team Norway take on a Team Serbia now led by Filip Krajinovic. While the ATP Cup features singles and doubles matches, these predictions are focused on the singles matches, we also have predictions for a set of matches featuring Roberto Bautista Agut and Diego Schwartzman.
Filip Krajinovic vs Viktor Durasovic
Durasovic had limited success on the ITF Futures tour last year but hasn’t been able to advance his career much beyond that stage. Krajinovic was a semifinalist in Sofia and got to 20 match wins on the ATP Tour last year, including the Hamburg final. The Serbian is not lights out, but he won’t need to play elite tennis to beat Durasovic most likely, the Norwegian player would need to play well beyond his level to win. Krajinovic in 3
Dusan Lajovic vs Casper Ruud
Lajovic hasn’t had a winning record on the ATP Tour in a few years, he’s a capable veteran, but Ruud was 57-18 last year with five ATP titles. Ruud was a semifinalist at the World Tour Finals as well and on this surface should be able to dominate this matchup to open his season, a win would extend his h2h edge to 3-0. Ruud in 2
Michail Pervolarakis vs Kamil Majchrzak
Pervolarakis lost two ITF futures finals last season and did manage to make the top 300 but he’s still not an extremely accomplished player. Poland’s Majchrzak was a quarterfinalist in Sofia and is trying to re-enter the top 100. He also reached two Challenger Tour finals last season. Fit and firing, Majchrzak is the player with more upside. Majchrzak in 2
Hubert Hurkacz vs Stefanos Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas leads the h2h 7-2 but is coming off of elbow surgery, with a 55-19 record in 2021 (2 titles and the RG final), if he’s healthy, Tsitsipas is one of the top players on the ATP Tour. Tsitsipas ended the year on a three match losing streak, while Hurkacz lost all his World Tour Finals matches after reaching the semis in Paris and winning Metz, overall he went 37-23 with three titles. Hurkacz is a very capable player too, and if Tsitsipas is off the pace, he could lose this match, I’ll go with Tsitsipas given the better h2h though. Tsitsipas in 2
Main Photo from Getty Images
