This Gstaad tournament marks the return of clay to the ATP tour after an epic fortnight on the Wimbledon grass that saw Carlos Alcaraz crowned champion. The field in Gstaad isn’t particularly stacked in terms of top ranked players, with #23 Bautista Agut being the first seed, but it’s full of players who are very comfortable playing on clay and are eager to get some very important points for their ranking or even take advantage of a rare opportunity to get an ATP level title. On this Day 1, it will also feature Dominic Thiem, who’s still desperately trying to find something resembling his best form and will be looking to win this tournament for a second time. We also look at the rest of the day’s matches in a separate article. Who do you think will win?
ATP Gstaad Day 1 Predictions
Hamad Medjedovic vs Zhizhen Zhang
Head-to-head: Medjedovic 1-0 Zhang
This should be a very interesting and tight match; the young Serb played great in qualifying and is sure to rise a lot in the rankings in the coming months and years, but Zhang has been playing really well on clay this season, even putting up great resistance against Casper Ruud at Roland Garros. He should have the slight edge here given the surface and their respective levels of experience.
Prediction: Zhang in 3
Marc-Andrea Huesler vs Jurij Rodionov
Head-to-head: first meeting
Huesler ended 2022 on a very strong note but hasn’t backed it up so far in 2023. Maybe playing at home here will give him the energy he needs to start climbing up the rankings; as far as his first round draw goes, he got a pretty kind one against a much lower ranked player even if Rodinov did play well in qualifying. Huesler should have the slight edge here.
Prediction: Huesler in 3
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Dominic Thiem vs Alexandre Muller
Head-to-head: first meeting
The 2015 champion is back but at a very different stage of his career; he’s now desperately trying to get back to something at least close to his pre-injury level, but so far without much success. His first round Wimbledon performance against Tsitsipas was encouraging but he still lost in five sets in the end. Clay is his best to make some deep runs though and this tournament, despite only being a 250, is very important for him. He should be able to pull through this first round even if Muller showed a very decent level at Wimbledon (only losing to Alcaraz).
Prediction: Thiem in 2
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane/USA Today Sports
