The ATP Barcelona Open continues with Day 4 matches and Alex de Minaur is riding high after his straight sets win against the peerless Rafael Nadal. Will he be too strong for Arthur Fils, who came through an up and down match in the last round? Who do you think will prevail in these Round of 16 matches?
ATP Barcelona Day 4 Predictions
Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs Brandon Nakashima
Head-to-head: First meeting
Nakashima is coming into this one on the back of a great win against current World #8 Andrey Rublev and Dan Evans before that. He is currently serving very impressively and dominating his service games in Barcelona. Tomas Martin Etcheverry has good clay court pedigree and won his last match against Nick Hardt, hitting an impressive 38 winners. He is currently ranked #30, 57 places above Nakashima – will that count on Thursday?
Prediction: Nakashima in 3
Matteo Arnaldi vs Marco Trungelliti
Head-to-head: 1-0
This should be an entertaining match up with both men having great wins in the round of 32. Arnaldi came through against #8 seed Sebastian Baez, taking the last set 6-2. Trungelliti has played a lot of clay court tennis this year and in the last round he beat the big-hitting #9 seed Nicolas Jarry. This is definitely a tough one to call but Trungelliti has a 16-3 record on clay so far this year so I will go for him.
Prediction: Trungelliti in 3
Fabian Marozsan vs Facundo Diaz Acosta
Head-to-head: First meeting
ATP #39 Fabian Marozsan advanced to the 3rd round after Luca Van Assche retired, with the scoreline at 6-0 3-2 in favor of the Hungarian. Ranked #53, Facundo Diaz Acosta reached the 3rd round by defeating Daniel Rincon 6-1, 6-4 in the first round, and then secured a straight sets victory over the well known Borna Coric with a score of 6-2, 7-5 in the second round. Against Coric, Diaz Acosta played aggresive tennis scoring 66 points to Coric’s 47, and firing 26 winners to overpower his opponent.
Prediction: Diaz Acosta in 2
Alex de Minaur vs Arthur Fils
Head-to-head: First meeting
What more can you say about de Minaur at the minute–a win in the last round against the imperious Rafael Nadal including a second set 6-1 score. He also had a good run to the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo where he lost to Djokovic. Arthur Fils came through against Daniel Altmaier 6-4 1-6 6-1 in the last round and will have to improve on this performance if he wants to upset the Australian who will be on a high after the Nadal win.
Prediction: de Minaur in 2
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
