We have more picks from Day 3 of the ATP Winston-Salem Open, where Ilya Ivashka looks to hold his title, while up-and-coming players like Jack Draper look for their first finals victory. We call the matches below, including Mikael Ymer vs Marc-Andrea Huesler.
ATP Winston-Salem Day 3 Predictions
Jaume Munar vs Chun-Hsin Tseng
Head-to-head: first meeting
This is a matchup of two players in the middle of the top 100, but with different trajectories. Munar has hovered around the same place for the last several years, while Tseng is on the rise and near his highest ranking at #85. Tseng is inexperienced on tour, and doesn’t have a particular preference for hard court, but he may be thankful for his draw in that Munar greatly prefers clay. Tseng currently holds a winning record on the surface, and Munar is below .500 on the year and only 32% for his career. Recent wins for each player have been average, but Tseng has been up and down. I don’t want to give this match to either of them, but I’ll go with Tseng for his upward momentum.
Prediction: Tseng in 3
Mikael Ymer vs Marc-Andrea Huesler
Head-to-head: first meeting
Ymer is not far removed from an excellent showing in Washington, where he beat four top 50 players en route to the final. He also happens to be the finalist from last year’s Winston-Salem, a run that included beating a rising Carlos Alcaraz. Huesler, on the other hand, has little experience on the ATP tour and prefers clay. He is a big-hitting lefty, and Ymer has struggled against big servers this year, but has a strangely high win percentage against lefties (albeit in limited action). The Swede should get it done, and I think he can manage it in two.
Prediction: Ymer in 2
Grigor Dimitrov vs Dominic Thiem
Head-to-head: Dimitrov 4-2
Dimitrov should win this tournament, and there are only a few players in the draw who seem like challengers. Thiem is, unfortunately, not one of them, although seeing the instant rise of Borna Coric should put wind in his sails for his own comeback. My only concern in calling Dimitrov is that he hasn’t played very well on hard courts this year, managing only a .500 record, although he has won the last three H2H matchups in this rivalry (all on hard court), and that was against the real version of Thiem.
Prediction: Dimitrov in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
