There should be no shortage of entertaining action on day two at the ATP Rotterdam Open, the first ATP 500 event of the season. A number of star players are set to take to the court at the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena and, as ever, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match on the slate including Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Egor Gerasimov. But who will reach the second round?
ATP Rotterdam Open Day 2 Predictions
Karen Khachanov vs Stan Wawrinka
Head-to-head: Wawrinka 2-1 Khachanov
Stan Wawrinka now at 35-years-old is seemingly past his best. From winning three Majors between 2014 and 2016 and achieving a career-high ranking of world #3, he now sits on the very edge of falling out of the top 20. Nor does he appear to be much of a threat to the players at the very top of the game. Meanwhile, Karen Khachanov, after promising so much during his run to the title at the Paris Masters in 2018, has more or less gone backwards ever since and is now ranked outside the top 20.
Still, on paper this is the match of the round, even if neither player is currently at their best. With a close head-to-head which Wawrinka leads narrowly having won two of their three previous matches, there looks to be little between them. Indeed, it might just be one of the most even first-round matches you are likely to see at a tour-level event. But Khachanov beat Wawrinka in the first round of the doubles at the ATP Rotterdam Open in three sets. Expect the singles match to go the same way.
Prediction: Khachanov in 3
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Marcos Giron vs Andrey Rublev
Head-to-head: first meeting
After qualifying for the event with wins over Tim van Rijthoven and Norbert Gombos, getting the world #8 in the opening round probably wasn’t Marcos Giron’s idea of a dream draw. Truth be told, Andrey Rublev is perhaps even more threatening than most of his colleagues in the world’s top ten. The Russian has already helped to lead Russia to victory at the ATP Cup, and he followed that up by reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals. In short, he is starting to become the real deal.
To add to Giron’s woes, the Russian’s powerful game will only be helped by the indoor conditions at the ATP Rotterdam Open, with his flat groundstrokes and big serve likely to do damage that the 27-year-old American simply won’t be able to handle. Giron is a solid baseliner and will do his best to remain competitive, but Rublev is a cut above the sort of opposition he is used to facing. This should be a fairly routine win for the rising Russian star.
Prediction: Rublev in 2
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Jeremy Chardy vs Ugo Humbert
Head-to-head: Chardy 1-0 Humbert
The last singles match of the day on Court One in Rotterdam will be an all-French battle. The younger of the two, Ugo Humbert, currently sits just one place of his career-high ranking of world #30 but, unfortunately, he looks to be struggling to really make the leap into the upper echelons of the men’s game. There is no mistaking his potential, but the mental side of his game appears to be letting him down (as it has with several of other Frenchmen in the recent past).
But he is still only 22-years-old, so he at least has time on his side. The same can’t be said for the 34-year-old Jeremy Chardy. He has had a fine career, but he has dropped out of the top 60 and had to come through the qualifying to reach the main draw. That he did so speaks to his enduring quality, but Humbert should have enough to get past his compatriot. That said, given how dangerous Chardy can be if his serve and big forehand are firing, this may not be entirely one-sided.
Prediction: Humbert in 3
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