The horribly-organized ATP Napoli 250 continues despite all of the controversy surrounding it, including an unsafe initial playing surface and a lack of water provided to the players in the hotel. The tournament now faces a race against time to finish play this week. As always, we here at LWOT will preview and predict every match. Who do you think will win?
ATP Napoli Day 3 Predictions
Mackenzie McDonald vs Roberto Bautista Agut
Head-to-head: Bautista Agut 2-0 McDonald
At 34 years old, Bautista Agut seems to be finally slowing down, if you judge him by his Slam results. The Spaniard failed to make the second week of a slam this season but has continued to showcase some high-level play on the tour, winning titles in Doha and Kitzbuhel. McDonald’s season has been largely mediocre without a single tour-level semifinal run but enough for him to maintain a ranking in the Top 100. The American defeated Francesco Passaro in the opening round but judging by their previous meetings, Bautista Agut should be the favorite here. The Spaniard is 2-0 over McDonald and won their last meeting in St. Petersburg 2021 routinely.
Prediction: Bautista Agut in 2
Lorenzo Musetti vs Laslo Djere
Head-to-head: Djere 5-1 Musetti
Musetti has a strong season behind him, breaking into the Top 25 in the rankings and winning his first ATP title at the Hamburg 500, defeating the now-World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz in the final. The Italian has reached the semifinals in his last two events in Sofia and Florence, though indoors and without a particularly impressive win.
Djere bumped his ranking up by reaching the final of Winston-Salem earlier this season but has not advanced past the first round of a tournament until now, defeating Borna Gojo in his Napoli opener. Djere is in worse form coming in but has dominated the head-to-head 5-1 over Musetti, all in matches since 2020. Though the Serb has won their last two meetings in straight sets, those were on clay and their two previous meetings on hard courts were very tightly fought three-set battles with Musetti winning one. This makes me lean towards the Italian in this situation.
Prediction: Musetti in 3
Pablo Carreno Busta vs Fabio Fognini
Head-to-head: Carreno Busta 7-2 Fognini
With Andreas Seppi’s retirement, many’s thoughts also turned to his countryman Fabio Fognini. The Italian is a couple of years younger but has largely struggled this season, especially once the clay season finished. Though Carreno Busta’s year was not the most consistent, the Spaniard had some amazing highs in 2022, winning the Masters 1000 in Montreal, reaching the final of Barcelona and second-week runs at the Australian Open and US Open. Fognini has won the two most recent meetings between the two, defeating the Spaniard in three sets at Rio earlier this season and last year’s ATP Cup. Despite that, his form has been awful recently and Carreno Busta has still beaten him seven times previously, so the top seed should come out as the winner here.
Prediction: Carreno Busta in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
