Seven first-round matches remain to be played at the 2023 Delray Beach Open. All of them will be completed on Tuesday, including Ben Shelton’s first appearance since making the Australian Open quarterfinals. Who do you think will advance to the next stage of the event? We also have predictions for the other four day 2 matches, including J.J. Wolf vs Ilya Ivashka.
Radu Albot vs Fernando Verdasco
Head-to-head: Verdasco 4-0
Is this a perfect chance for Radu Albot to grab a win over Fernando Verdasco? Not in terms of his form, but the Spaniard isn’t exactly doing that hot either. The Moldovan took a set the last two times they played, but didn’t manage that in their only hard-court meeting at the 2019 Australian Open. Still, the veteran was quite subpar in Dallas last week, barely taking out Evan Zhu and only managing three games off Mackenzie McDonald. If Albot extends this match enough, he could get to Verdasco physically as well.
Prediction: Albot in 3
Daniel Altmaier vs Adrian Mannarino
Head-to-head: First meeting
Both players were in Dallas last week, losing to the eventual finalists, John Isner and Yibing Wu, respectively. Adrian Mannarino picked up a couple of solid wins, Daniel Altmaier was very clean in dispatching Zachary Svajda. The German has massively improved his serve over the past couple of seasons, which made his hard-court game much better. He would need that shot to be on absolute fire here as the veteran Frenchman is still so tricky to play and knows exactly what to do on the court to make his opponents’ lives miserable.
Prediction: Mannarino in 3
Ben Shelton vs Marcos Giron
Head-to-head: First meeting
Ben Shelton was born in Georgia, but he’s been living in Florida for years and played for the Florida Gators college team, so him coming back to play in his “home” state after experiencing all that success recently is a pretty big deal. Marcos Giron is a rather tricky first-round draw, especially with the 29-year-old coming off a great run in Dallas. But Shelton is an incredible big-stage player and his skills of feeding on the energy of the crowd are going to take him to this win, even if Giron might make it tough.
Prediction: Shelton in 3
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