The 2022 ATP Sofia Open continues with five singles first-round matches taking place on Tuesday. The most exciting of the lot seems to be the clash between Holger Rune and Tim van Rijthoven. With both players being relatively new to the main tour, there’s still a lot we could learn from their meeting. But who do you think will advance?
ATP Sofia Day 2 Predictions
Aleksandar Vukic vs Fabio Fognini
Head-to-head: first meeting
Aleksandar Vukic missed three months in the summer due to an injury and hasn’t quite found his mojo yet. Fabio Fognini is of course extremely inconsistent but interestingly, if you look at the Italian’s 2022 campaign, he’s generally beating the opponents he should beat. A potential defeat to Vukic would be arguably his worst loss of the season, but it’s certainly not unthinkable. The Australian will need to bring his A-game though and he hasn’t done that after his hiatus yet.
Prediction: Fognini in 3
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Oscar Otte vs Dragos Nicolae Madaras
Head-to-head: first meeting
Dragos Nicolae Madaras will debut in a tour-level main draw, which is pretty wild considering he’s only played six Challengers in his career. His rise to the position of around World No. 300 was mostly built on the ITF Tour, where he won over 80 matches in 2021. The truth is he doesn’t have an ATP-quality game and this match should show it. Madaras qualified for the main draw by receiving a retirement from Stefano Travaglia and beating ATP #903 Petr Nesterov, which was a pretty insane slice of luck.
Prediction: Otte in 2
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Ugo Humbert vs Dimitar Kuzmanov
Head-to-head: first meeting
Dimitar Kuzmanov had a few close matches with higher-ranked players with Sofia in the past, before ultimately scoring an upset over Lorenzo Musetti last year. He can raise his game on the big stage, but this is a very tough draw. Even though Ugo Humbert is coming from the qualifying, he recently won the Rennes Challenger, not even getting broken (saved 21 break points along the way!). The conditions here aren’t as slick, but the Frenchman is getting his confidence back and will be dangerous anyway.
Prediction: Humbert in 3
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Mirza Basic vs Nuno Borges
Head-to-head: Borges 1-0 Basic
If you haven’t been following tennis for long, you might be very surprised to learn that Mirza Basic is a former champion of this event. It’s been four years and the Bosnian hasn’t come close to repeating that achievement. In 2022, his win/loss record stands at 13-24 with just two of these matches happening at tour-level. Nuno Borges isn’t in fantastic form either but he beat Basic in straight-sets this summer and should probably do that again. Indoor hard is not his most comfortable surface, but a slower court under the roof should suit him.
Prediction: Borges in 2
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Tim van Rijthoven vs Holger Rune
Head-to-head: Rune 1-0 van Rijthoven
The most interesting match of the day will take place in the morning though. After his phenomenal grass court campaign, which included reaching a win over Daniil Medvedev and reaching the second week at Wimbledon, van Rijthoven has had a few minor physical issues and hasn’t been able to translate that success to other surfaces. Still, even if his slice might not be as dangerous, the serve is a massive force and will cause Rune trouble. However, the Dane showed signs of improvement in Metz and should be the slight favorite coming into this one.
Prediction: Rune in 3
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