The second round of the Australian Open kicks off on Day 4 with 16 men’s singles matches. 10-time champion Novak Djokovic paces the group as he squares off against young Portuguese Jaime Faria. Our other prediction sets feature Carlos Alcaraz vs Yoshihito Nishioka, Casper Ruud vs Jakub Mensik and Kei Nishikori vs Tommy Paul. Predicting these matches are Damian Kust, Ateet Shrivastava and Steen Kirby. Who do you think will advance?
Australian Open Day 4 Men’s Predictions
Benjamin Bonzi vs Francesco Passaro
Damian
Passaro got such a brilliant lucky loser opportunity, facing Dimitrov who retired as soon as he went a set and a break down. He’s a competent hard-courter but it’s not like he’s gonna do anything crazy here. And Bonzi has been very solid at getting the wins you’d expect him to get recently, only running out of game against much better opposition.
Prediction: Bonzi in 4
Ateet
Bonzi finally won against David Goffin and looked brilliant throughout the match. Francesco Passaro got in at the last moment as a lucky loser and now he is in the second round. However, I don’t see him winning against Bonzi.
Prediction: Bonzi in 4
Steen
Bonzi built off his recent quarterfinal with a first round win against Goffin, the lucky loser Passaro is set to reach the top 100, as he benefited from Grigor Dimitrov suffering an injury and retiring in the first round. Passaro is a really good Challenger Tour player as of late, but Bonzi should be able to perform at a higher level.
Prediction: Bonzi in 4
Ugo Humbert vs Hady Habib
Damian
Habib is one of the stories of the event so far and is definitely playing with house money from here. The pressure will be on Humbert, who might be eyeing his biggest run at the Australian Open. The Lebanese has been serving bombs for months now and that’s his main chance to keep this one tight. But he’ll need to be producing that sort of quality for hours.
Prediction: Humbert in 4
Ateet
Hady Habib has already made history for his nation by becoming the first man representing Lebanon to win a singles match at a Grand Slam. He showed that he is a good hardcourt player and if Ugo Humbert has an off day, he will be in trouble. I still expect the Frenchman to win this, given his superior experience and level of play.
Prediction: Humbert in 4
Steen
Habib is making history for Lebanese tennis, he came through qualifying and won his first round match, now he faces the seed Humbert. Habib is playing the best tennis of his career but Humbert was 39-25 on tour last year and looking to improve his results in Melbourne. Humbert should get another win here.
Prediction: Humbert in 3
Jacob Fearnley vs Arthur Cazaux
Damian
Cazaux made the second week in Australia last year and has a solid opportunity to go far again, but his opening-round performance against Baez was far from convincing. We haven’t seen that fire in his game for a while now and Fearnley plays such a complete, powerful game. The Brit is a tough nut to crack and Cazaux might struggle to attack him enough.
Prediction: Fearnley in 5
Ateet
22-year-old, Arthur Cazaux was involved in a five-setter against Sebastian Baez in the first round. It wasn’t a clean match from the Frenchman as he made 63 unforced errors and will look to improve on that. Fearnley has improved a lot in the last year and played a solid match against Nick Kyrgios in the first round. Fearnley was great behind his first serve, winning 81% of points. I like him to win this match.
Prediction: Fearnley in 5
Steen
Cazaux battled in five sets to reach this stage, Fearnley upset home favorite Nick Kyrgios in the first round, he’s in a position to reach the third round now and his form indicates to me he’s set to do it against a tired Cazaux.
Prediction: Fearnley in 4
Novak Djokovic vs Jaime Faria
Damian
What a fantastic opportunity for Faria and he delivered a great performance against the slumping Kotov in the opening round. He’s got a nice hard court game with the big serve and aggressive groundstrokes, but it’s all a little too simple to trouble Djokovic. Probably not a match that will tell us a lot about the Serbian’s form either.
Prediction: Djokovic in 3
Ateet
Djokovic was a little bamboozled by the level of his first-round opponent but improved as the match progressed and played at a high level towards the end. Djokovic also looked animated, which is a good sign. Jaime Faria has impressed a lot, but this would be a big step up for him. I expect Djokovic to be focused right from the start.
Prediction: Djokovic in 3
Steen
The qualifier Faria at just 21 years of age has been fantastic at the Challenger Tour level and now making his slam debut, taking on the legendary Djokovic is another task, Djokovic had to battle in the first round and is still clearly a ways off his best form, but an upset here still seems very unlikely.
Prediction: Djokovic in 3
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey – USA TODAY Sports
