The top seeds come off their bye on Day 4 at the ATP Korea Open, and it looks to be a three-man race between Casper Ruud, Cameron Norrie, and Taylor Fritz. Denis Shapovalov is perhaps looking over their shoulders hoping to right the ship of a bad season, though maybe an upstart can give us another fun run to the title like we saw recently with Borna Coric. Whatever the case may be, we’ve got the picks below, including Taylor Fritz vs Mackenzie McDonald.
ATP Seoul Day 4 Predictions Including Casper Ruud vs Nicolas Jarry
Chun-Hsin Tseng vs Aleksandar Kovacevic
Head-to-head: first meeting
Kovacevic has given us the upset of the tournament so far. In the American’s first-ever ATP match, he unseated Miomir Kecmanovic in straight sets. There hasn’t been much in his recent history to suggest that kind of level, so it’s hard not to see it as an outlier. But he has a chance to prove himself again against the also-inexperienced Tseng, who is making just his fifteenth ATP start. Both players have a similar win percentage on hard court at the Challenger level, and both are rising, although Tseng is further along on that journey, and he should take what could be a close match.
Prediction: Tseng in 3
Taylor Fritz vs Mackenzie McDonald
Head-to-head: McDonald 1-0
Fritz needs a good bounce-back performance after his first-round US Open exit, although he’s played a few matches since in Davis Cup and at the Laver Cup. Those results were mixed, but he gets an opponent in Mackenzie McDonald who has struggled as of late, and hasn’t had a good year overall. McDonald won their lone matchup, but it was three years ago, and Fritz took all three of their sub-ATP H2Hs prior to that. Fritz will likely be on his guard against a quick exit here, and I would expect him to overpower McDonald and take the match fairly easily.
Prediction: Fritz in 2
Casper Ruud vs Nicolas Jarry
Head-to-head: first meeting
This one should be pretty straight-forward. Jarry is inexperienced on the ATP Tour, and has a very low win percentage in his hard court ATP matches, having just won his first of the year against Lucky Loser Ryan Peniston in Round 1. Ruud is coming off of the US Open final, and for some reason continues to play 250-level tournaments despite being ranked #2 in the world. It feels strange, but nonetheless he’s in the draw and should be heavily favored over just about everyone.
Prediction: Ruud in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
