Carlos Alcaraz will not be too pleased about his Buenos Aires showing, especially as his title drought continues. But Rio de Janeiro, despite being an ATP 500 event, is pretty much the same field. The Spaniard will start his campaign against Thiago Monteiro. Who do you think will come out on top?
ATP Rio de Janeiro Day 2 Predictions
Corentin Moutet vs Sebastian Baez
Head-to-head: Baez 1-0
Sebastian Baez is such an up-and-down player of late, mixing up the great performances with absolute stinkers. He’s so reliant on whether his forehand is clicking on the day, and luckily for him, it usually is. Corentin Moutet started his season in the Golden Swing and had a couple of qualifying losses early on, but he performed well in the qualifying and was hiding his backhand with all the trickery he possesses. He might be able to throw Baez off his rhythm, but it’s still tough not to consider the Argentinian as the favorite.
Prediction: Baez in 3
Dusan Lajovic vs Daniel Elahi Galan
Head-to-head: First meeting
Dusan Lajovic might be slightly disappointed with his Buenos Aires quarterfinal loss as the draw was opening up in the bottom half of the draw, but the whole week was still some of his best tennis in a while. The clay-court expert was really using that experience and court craft to fend off some younger, more aggressive opposition. Daniel Elahi Galan just doesn’t seem to be in a good spot right now. He fought his way through to one win last week, but the quality was low, and he folded completely against Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
Prediction: Lajovic in 2
Roberto Carballes Baena vs Cristian Garin
Head-to-head: Carballes Baena 2-0
We’re probably not going to be looking at the head-to-head too much since their last encounter happened five years ago. Cristian Garin is a former champion of this event, but currently, he’s in struggle town with a 0-3 record for the season. In the straightforward loss to Marco Cecchinato and the retirement against Bernabe Zapata Miralles, it was clear he was low on confidence at the moment, and then even the body didn’t hold up. Maybe he’ll have fixed that by now, but Carballes Baena just has so much more rhythm.
Prediction: Carballes Baena in 2
Carlos Alcaraz vs Thiago Monteiro
Head-to-head: 1-1
Carlos Alcaraz lost in the semifinals in Buenos Aires, and given the strength of the draws in this part of the season, he really needs a title here to make this a successful swing. He was constantly on his B-game last week, and once it came to the crunch against Nicolas Jarry, he had a horrific first-set tie-break and was outplayed from that point onwards. Thiago Monteiro, though, is far off his peak right now, and while he loves this part of the season, it’s just hard to see him posing a threat to Alcaraz at this point in time.
Prediction: Alcaraz in 2
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey – USA TODAY Sports
