Day 3 at the final ATP Masters 1000 of the season will feature plenty of exciting action in Paris, including the debut of defending champion (and Turin hopeful) Holger Rune, who will take on former US Open champion Dominic Thiem. It will feature plenty of other top players as well, with many seeds making their debut this Wednesday, including last week’s Vienna champion Jannik Sinner.
ATP Paris Bercy Day 3 Predictions
Jannik Sinner vs Mackenzie McDonald
Head-to-head: Sinner 2-0 McDonald
It was an extremely tight battle when the pair faced in the Washington final in 2021, but that was most likely the best tournament of McDonald’s career, while Sinner has improved by leaps and bounds since. He has been on fire this fall, with impressive title wins in Beijing (beating Alcaraz and Medvedev) and last week in Vienna (beating Rublev and again Medvedev). He’s one of the favorites both here and in Turin and with his powerful and consistent groundstrokes he should have little issue to overcome McDonald, who is very solid but lacks the weapons to consistently challenge the best players in the world.
Prediction: Sinner in 2
Alex de Minaur vs Dusan Lajovic
Head-to-head: De Minaur 2-0 Lajovic
De Minaur still has a theoretical chance of qualifying for Turin, but it’d require the highly unlikely scenario of him winning a first career Masters 1000 title here. While making it 6-0 in his head-to-head against Andy Murray is certainly impressive, the manner of his win was hardly convincing; with that said, De Minaur looks like he might break into the top 10 at some point next year and should be able to overcome Lajovic here.
Prediction: De Minaur in 2
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Casper Ruud vs Francisco Cerundolo
Head-to-head: Ruud 2-2 Cerundolo
When the pair faced in the Miami 2022 semifinals, arguably the biggest match of Cerundolo’s career so far, Ruud won in very straightforward fashion, but the overall head-to-head is even. Ruud still has a chance to reach Turin, but it would entail reaching at least the final here, which looks unlikely given his form. Cerundolo is fresh off an epic win against Monfils, where he looked exhausted towards the end, and that might give Ruud the slight edge here.
Prediction: Ruud in 3
Holger Rune vs Dominic Thiem
Head-to-head: Rune 1-0 Thiem
Rune is the defending champion here and the most likely player to grab the final Turin spot, but his form has been nothing short of disastrous after Wimbledon, despite a decent campaign in Basel last week. His first match here is far from easy too, Thiem is very far from the heights he once reached but of course he’s someone you never want to see so early in the draw. Rune certainly seems very comfortable playing indoors and is definitely the favorite here.
Prediction: Rune in 3
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
