Day 1 at the ATP Masters 1000 in Miami will see plenty of exciting matches between non-seeded players, featuring several players who have previously reached finals at this level, such as Richard Gasquet, Fernando Verdasco, and Borna Coric. A lot of high quality tennis and excitement is expected to be on display on this first day of the tournament. We predict every match on the day. With 16 matches, we split them between four articles. The other three articles feature Brandon Nakashima vs Soonwoo Kwon, Maxime Cressy vs Emil Ruusuvuori, and Nick Kyrgios vs Adrian Mannarino.
ATP Miami Day 1 Predictions
Borna Coric vs Fernando Verdasco
Head-to-head: Coric 1-1 Verdasco
Coric came back to the tour in Indian Wells after a year-long absence, while Verdasco has slowly been getting his ranking back up and getting some decent results. This could well be a very tough match, but the veteran Spaniard might have the slightest of edges thanks to Coric’s lack of match play.
Prediction: Verdasco in 3
Tallon Griekspoor vs Francisco Cerundolo
Head-to-head: first meeting
Griekspoor had an incredible end of 2021 and beginning of 2022, but he lost some gas after the Australian Open and has been struggling to win matches since. However, Cerundolo is generally a non-factor outside clay and Griekspoor should be able to prevail in this one with relative ease.
Prediction: Griekspoor in 2
Jaume Munar vs Taro Daniel
Head-to-head: Munar 3-1 Daniel
Both players will be feeling confident after easily coming through the qualifying and both are putting together very good seasons for their standards. Munar actually came closer than anyone to beating Indian Wells champion Taylor Fritz, with that match going into a deciding tiebreak. The head-to-head is not all that meaningful considering all previous four matches between the pair were played on clay, but it’s fair to say Munar has the slight edge here.
Prediction: Munar in 3
Richard Gasquet vs Thanasi Kokkinakis
Head-to-head: Gasquet 2-0 Kokkinakis
The head-to-head is hardly relevant here as both encounters occurred back in 2015, when Kokkinakis was still taking his first steps in the ATP circuit. Since then, a myriad of injuries has derailed Kokkinakis’s progress and Gasquet has heavily declined and has been dealing with a lot of physical problems himself. Kokkinakis has shown some signs that this might be his real breakthrough season and will be looking to make a run here in Miami after looking great in the qualifying. He definitely goes into this match as the favorite.
Prediction: Kokkinakis in 3
Main Photo from Getty.
