The ATP Tour is heading to Canada for the ATP Montreal Masters 1000. The event is filled with the best players in the world as they prepare for the final slam of the year. Day one features a number of marquee matchups and, as ever, we here at LWOT are offering our previews and predictions for every match on the slate, including Holger Rune vs Fabio Fognini and Denis Shapovalov vs Alex de Minaur. But who will advance?
ATP Montreal Day 1 Predictions
Francisco Cerundolo vs Karen Khachanov
Head-to-head: first meeting
Ranked #25 and #24 in the world, respectively, not much separates Francisco Cerundolo and Karen Khachanov. Cerundolo, who is a clay-court ringer, has had an interesting hard-court swing this season. The 23-year-old had an incredible semifinal run at the Miami Masters but is just 2-4 in other hard court tournaments. Khachanov, on the other hand, prefers hard courts and has had some good results in North America in the past. With Cerundolo’s current form and Khachanov’s proclivity to the fast surface, not much separates these two. I slightly favour Cerundolo who has been playing with great confidence this season.
Prediction: Cerundolo in 3
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Andy Murray vs Taylor Fritz
Head-to-head: first meeting
In one of the matchups of the first round, former-world #1 Andy Murray takes on current top-ranked American Taylor Fritz. Murray, who had a strong grass-court season, is looking to carry some momentum down to New York later this month. With that said, Fritz is a very tough first-round draw for the Briton. Although Fritz had to retire in the third set of his round of 16 match in Washington, I still expect the American to have a very strong summer hard-court swing. I see the consistency and power of Fritz winning out in what I expect to be a very entertaining three-set match.
Prediction: Fritz in 3
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Diego Schwartzman vs Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Head-to-head: Schwartzman 3-0 Davidovich Fokina
Twelfth seed Diego Schwartzman and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina meet for the fourth time, but the first since 2020. The Argentine comfortably dispatched the young Spaniard in all of their previous three meetings. Both players favour the clay, but Schwartzman, unlike Davidovich Fokina, has shown he can be a force on hard courts. Until the 23-year-old Spaniard proves he can be a high-level hard-court player, I will pick against him.
Prediction: Schwartzman in 2
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