{"id":32231,"date":"2021-02-07T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=32231"},"modified":"2021-02-07T02:02:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T07:02:55","slug":"australian-open-day-1-mens-predictions-wawrinka-sousa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/02\/07\/australian-open-day-1-mens-predictions-wawrinka-sousa\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open Day 1 Men&#8217;s Predictions Including Stan Wawrinka vs Pedro Sousa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first Grand Slam tournament of the year kicks off in Melbourne. It&#8217;s been a strange path to get here, but we&#8217;re finally here. Day 1 of the Australian Open will begin Monday morning, Melbourne time, and we&#8217;re here to predict every match for you. With 32 men&#8217;s matches, that means we&#8217;re splitting up the matches between eight articles. Make sure you don&#8217;t miss our other predictions as well, featuring <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/02\/07\/australian-open-day-1-mens-predictions-raonic-coria\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Milos Raonic vs Federico Coria<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/02\/07\/australian-open-day-1-mens-predictions-zverev-giron\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Alexander Zverev vs Marcos Giron<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/02\/07\/australian-open-day-1-mens-predictions-shapovalov-sinner\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Denis Shapovalov vs Jannik Sinner<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/02\/07\/australian-open-day-1-mens-predictions-kyrgios-silva\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Nick Kyrgios vs Frederico Ferreira Silva<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/02\/07\/australian-open-day-1-mens-predictions-djokovic-chardy\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Novak Djokovic vs Jeremy Chardy<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/02\/07\/australian-open-day-1-mens-predictions-dimitrov-cilic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Grigor Dimitrov vs Marin Cilic<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2021\/02\/07\/australian-open-day-1-mens-predictions-thiem-kukushkin\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Dominic Thiem vs Mikhail Kukushkin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Predicting this set of matches are myself (Yesh Ginsburg), Steen Kirby, and Elias.<\/p>\n<h2>Australian Open Day 1 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Aljaz Bedene vs Alexander Bublik<\/h4>\n<p><em>Steen:<\/em><br \/>\nBedene has the H2H win in their only matchup. Bublik is in pretty good form right now (he reached the final in Turkey), but I still have him as a narrow underdog.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Bedene in 5<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Elias:<\/em><br \/>\nThis is going to be a very interesting matchup as Bublik is a young up and comer vs Bedene, looking to make a breakthrough in the first Grand Slam of 2021. Bublik seems to be on the rise and I feel he has more weapons than Bedene so look for the kid to come through.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Bublik in 4<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Yesh:<\/em><br \/>\nYou never quite know what you&#8217;ll get with Alexander Bublik. He is a fun and unconventional player, and he can just be a pain for opponents to deal with, especially as matches go long.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Bublik in 5<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"AgwtUaIaS-dOZK6eyt5R5g\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1300412296\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'AgwtUaIaS-dOZK6eyt5R5g',sig:'xveJmMagU4hCQ1q8jgxixkvlBDXENAOQL3WpG_yb97w=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1300412296',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Yasutaka Uchiyama vs Ugo Humbert<\/h4>\n<p><em>Steen:<\/em><br \/>\nUchiyama has a H2H win. He&#8217;s struggling right now, though, so it&#8217;s advantage to the Frenchman.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Humbert in 4<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Elias:<\/em><br \/>\nThe young Frenchman is always a threat whenever he plays and has some serious weapons at his disposal that could cause some upsets during the open. Uchiyama is more of a doubles player and spends most of his year playing Challenger events.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Humbert in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Yesh:<\/em><br \/>\nUgo Humbert has a ton of talent and is a potential top player. Uchiyama is a solid player in his own right, but he&#8217;s not as consistent or as talented as Humbert.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Humbert in 4<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"jFcXW2X5SFtykU0LHMcYkw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1300068238\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'jFcXW2X5SFtykU0LHMcYkw',sig:'-dCGT9OKCCYKwCVPFiKXNk0-C-aRxchUDte8NzEcftA=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1300068238',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Kei Nishikori vs Pablo Carreno Busta<\/h4>\n<p><em>Steen:<\/em><br \/>\nNishikori is struggling and a shell of the player he was at his peak right now. PCB is a tough opponent under any circumstances and I don&#8217;t see Nishikori being able to hang with him and outlast him over best of five.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Carreno Busta in 5<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Elias:<\/em><br \/>\nThis match is going one of the matches of the first round because in a normal world this has a making of a Grand Slam quarterfinal but due to Nishikori not playing much last season during the pandemic his ranking dropped. Carreno Busta has done well in Grand Slams recently, making the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/11\/08\/pablo-carreno-busta-has-season-to-remember-in-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">semis in New York<\/a> last September.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Nishikori in 5<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Yesh:<\/em><br \/>\nI would really like to pick Nishikori here. He has so much talent and deserves to win a Grand Slam someday. Unfortunately for him, his health has precluded that possibility for the moment, and Carreno Busta is just too solid and consistent to lose here.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Carreno Busta in 4<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[pickup_prop id=&#8221;4645&#8243;]<\/p>\n<h4>Stan Wawrinka vs Pedro Sousa<\/h4>\n<p><em>Steen:<\/em><br \/>\nWawrinka is in good enough form and Sousa has never been a great hard court player. This should be straightforward.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Wawrinka in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Elias:<\/em><br \/>\nStan the man is back in Australia and looking for another long run at the Open. He is coming off a quarterfinal appearance in last week&#8217;s warm up event before retiring due to an injury so we will have to see if he is 100% but knowing Stan he probably just wanted more time to recover. Sousa is a tricky player which should make for an intriguing match.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Wawrinka in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Yesh:<\/em><br \/>\nWe never know what we&#8217;ll get with Wawrinka, but we definitely get more than what Sousa is capable of on hard courts. Wawrinka is a very good player, and one of the world&#8217;s best when his game is on. Even if it&#8217;s not, though, he&#8217;s not losing to Sousa.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Wawrinka in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo from Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first Grand Slam tournament of the year kicks off in Melbourne. It&#8217;s been a strange path to get here, but we&#8217;re finally here. Day 1 of the Australian Open will begin Monday morning, Melbourne time, and we&#8217;re here to predict every match for you. With 32 men&#8217;s matches, that means we&#8217;re splitting up the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1601,"featured_media":19471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[510,1067,13981,13967,2363,146,13983,91,5506,115,13980,2373,2369,3638,8676,13982],"class_list":["post-32231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alexander-bublik","tag-aljaz-bedene","tag-aljaz-bedene-vs-alexander-bublik-prediction","tag-australian-open-mens-picks","tag-australian-open-predictions","tag-kei-nishikori","tag-kei-nishikori-vs-pablo-carreno-busta-prediction","tag-pablo-carreno-busta","tag-pedro-sousa","tag-stan-wawrinka","tag-stan-wawrinka-vs-pedro-sousa-prediction","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-ugo-humbert","tag-yasutaka-uchiyama","tag-yasutaka-uchiyama-vs-ugo-humbert-prediction"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1601"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}