{"id":55144,"date":"2023-02-22T20:26:13","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T01:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=55144"},"modified":"2023-02-22T20:27:07","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T01:27:07","slug":"atp-rio-de-janeiro-day-4-predictions-alcaraz-vs-fognini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/02\/22\/atp-rio-de-janeiro-day-4-predictions-alcaraz-vs-fognini\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Rio De Janeiro Day 4 Predictions Including Carlos Alcaraz vs Fabio Fognini"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Day four at the Rio De Janeiro Open and things are starting to heat up. We have plenty of matches to sink our teeth into including clay-court specialist Sebastian Baez&#8217;s match-up against red-hot Juan Pablo Varillas, South American Francisco Cerundolo&#8217;s bout against the plucky Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles and top seed Carlos Alcaraz&#8217;s battle against Fabio Fognini. We also have predictions for matches <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/02\/22\/atp-rio-de-janeiro-day-4-predictions-djere-vs-lajovic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">featuring Dusan Lajovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>ATP Rio De Janeiro Day 4 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Juan Pablo Varillas vs Sebastian Baez<\/h4>\n<h4>Head-to-head: Baez 5-2 Varillas (all levels)<\/h4>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1399189791\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1399189791?et=M3hSspGUS7ZOVpJgz_utEw&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=-jQLRGkBX_tCRO8hF_Bp2bKwRNMVe2TEigtVcaLhVoc=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ridiculously, Sebastian Baez and Juan Pablo Varillas played a total of five matches in 2021. These two are well used to playing each other recently and won&#8217;t be surprised by anything the other brings to the table.<\/p>\n<p>This probably gives the advantage to Baez however. Varillas has a knack for raising his game under pressure and Baez won&#8217;t be caught by surprise&#8211;he&#8217;ll know playing passively on the big points won&#8217;t cut it against the surprisingly tough Peruvian. That said, even if you know what&#8217;s coming, Varillas&#8217; game can be immense on this surface. We rate his game enough to give him a set but Baez should know how to approach this match-up well enough by now to get the win.<\/p>\n<p>Prediction: <em>Baez in 3.<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Francisco Cerundolo vs Bernabe Zapata Miralles<\/h4>\n<h4>Head-to-head: Zapata Miralles 1-0 Cerundolo<\/h4>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1247273814\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 74.07407% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1247273814?et=ZwfX4-DLTMV27uq6yOtfDw&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=laiDkU9MqpT42w1-DMLJpemv7xtW_1Mrha3XMH3DnMc=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"440\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nothing is missing in Francisco Cerundolo&#8217;s game. He went on a streak of hard-court losses last year drawing questions about his form but, on the red dirt, there&#8217;s no mistaking it, Cerundolo is in his element. He&#8217;s still experiencing some rust from frequent losses but he&#8217;s ground his teeth to win two matches this Golden Swing that have gone 5-5 in the third.<\/p>\n<p>Bernabe Zapata Miralles defeated him last week but it feels as though things will only get easier for the Argentinian as he&#8217;s becoming more and more comfortable teeing off on that forehand&#8211;he wasn&#8217;t been afforded the time to set up that shot for the latter half of last season. It won&#8217;t be easy but we trust in Cerundolo&#8217;s ability to find his best tennis during this portion of the tour.<\/p>\n<p>Prediction:\u00a0<em>Cerundolo in 3.<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Carlos Alcaraz vs Fabio Fognini<\/h4>\n<h4>Head-to-head: Alcaraz 1-0 Fognini<\/h4>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1244105829\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 74.242424% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1244105829?et=HwgOMnOqSo1DuggaUeok8Q&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=lDIjdyrV2YvAFYDBDI7X_WcAdfiLjbJlNxBV7Fk2tJE=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"441\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Carlos Alcaraz and Fabio Fognini played at Rio a year ago and Fognini did well to keep things close for the best part of a set. After rattling through Buenos Aires last week though, there&#8217;s no doubt Alcaraz is in similar form as last year, especially on this surface where very few players have the weaponry to hurt him.<\/p>\n<p>Fognini could light things up for a while but it shouldn&#8217;t be enough to knock the Spaniard off his stride in the long run. Barring a Fognini-esque miracle, how can we back anything but straight sets here?<\/p>\n<p>Prediction:\u00a0<em>Alcaraz in 2.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Day four at the Rio De Janeiro Open and things are starting to heat up. We have plenty of matches to sink our teeth into including clay-court specialist Sebastian Baez&#8217;s match-up against red-hot Juan Pablo Varillas, South American Francisco Cerundolo&#8217;s bout against the plucky Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles and top seed Carlos Alcaraz&#8217;s battle against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3704,"featured_media":54988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[12813,4657,4728,4729,11829,15557,5729,15513,354,15414,10623,15945,9166,16278,13328,16260,2373,2369],"class_list":["post-55144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-atp-picks","tag-atp-predictions","tag-atp-rio","tag-atp-rio-predictions","tag-bernabe-zapata-miralles","tag-bernabe-zapata-miralles-predictions","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-carlos-alcaraz-predictions","tag-fabio-fognini","tag-fabio-fognini-predictions","tag-francisco-cerundolo","tag-francisco-cerundolo-predictions","tag-juan-pablo-varillas","tag-juan-pablo-varillas-predictions","tag-sebastian-baez","tag-sebastian-baez-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55144","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\/3704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}