{"id":62347,"date":"2024-01-01T11:06:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T16:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=62347"},"modified":"2024-01-01T11:06:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T16:06:38","slug":"atp-brisbane-day-3-predictions-nadal-thiem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/01\/01\/atp-brisbane-day-3-predictions-nadal-thiem\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Brisbane Day 3 Predictions Including Rafael Nadal vs Dominic Thiem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the first events of 2024 underway, the ATP 250 in Brisbane welcomes back former World #1 and 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, playing <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/01\/01\/ten-things-to-look-forward-to-in-tennis-in-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">his first event<\/a> in just under a year with a 2023 plagued by injuries. Will the Spaniard be able to get his 2024 off to a winning start against old rival Dominic Thiem?<\/p>\n<h2>ATP Brisbane Day 3 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Li Tu vs Daniel Altmaier<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head: 0-0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tu has done well to qualify for the main event after an epic first round in qualifying which he barely scraped through in a final set tiebreak. Unfortunately for the 27 year old, he\u2019s now coming up against world #56 Altmaier coming off a career best year. The Australian has only ever played four players in the top 80 before and has found himself with losses in each one with just the single set won. The German may not have the flashiest game to threaten those at the very top of the game but a key aspect of most of his 2023 was beating players he should beat more often than not. Expect Altmaier to be far too solid for the qualifier.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction Altmaier in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"068bN92IT8VOKfYzggMuDA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1651149984\" 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:'068bN92IT8VOKfYzggMuDA',sig:'dADcBkEnl8HFRUC__EEPHGxTC1QyBJifUG_4h6HWV6s=',w:'437px',h:'594px',items:'1651149984',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Marton Fucsovics vs Matteo Arnaldi<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head: 0-0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With Fucsovics already a set up before play was suspended, the Hungarian has to be favorite here. However, with the first set being so close with the tiebreak being won 7 points to 5, it\u2019s safe to expect the remainder of the match may also be just as close. Arnaldi\u2019s rise more or less came out of nowhere at the end of 2023 and it\u2019s showing week-in-week-out with the 22 year old\u2019s game, especially the backhand improving at a rapid pace hence his results beating Top 50 and 100 players on a regular basis now. Whilst Fucsovics is the favorite, I can see the Italian staging a comeback providing he can come out and not falter early to give the Hungarian a set and break lead.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Arnaldi in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"shOGAtthR3FdkKnOWlIr4g\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1815020356\" 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:'shOGAtthR3FdkKnOWlIr4g',sig:'LL0HZOrWfGDOUtrqkw1K1Vf37l3aqoM-26ZYHI-8phc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1815020356',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Rafael Nadal vs Dominic Thiem<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-head: Nadal 9-6<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the match we\u2019ve all been waiting for which is crazy when on paper it\u2019s between the World #98 and World #672. With Rafael Nadal out for practically a year and Dominic Thiem not the same player he once was for almost a good two years now, it\u2019s hard to know what to expect. Former World #1 and current Top 10 player Andy Murray and Holger Rune have openly said they\u2019ve been impressed with the Spaniard\u2019s level of tennis in their practice matches this week but it\u2019s hard to judge anything from them.<\/p>\n<p>Dominic Thiem, as mentioned before, is nowhere near the player that won the 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/us-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">US Open<\/a> and has beaten Nadal in three of their last four meetings. Highlighted best by having to come back from saving triple match point against McCabe ranked 272 in the first round of qualifying.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to know what to expect here. With the Austrian it\u2019s easier to know the level he\u2019ll produce but even then, playing one of his biggest rivals on a stage like this might help the 30-year-old find some of the magic he once had again, especially against the Spaniard where Nadal\u2019s high spin forehand to most one-handed backhands ruined so many players but not himself.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not expecting the quality to be great and I expect Thiem to put up a good fight, but I think even at 37 years of age, the Spaniard has a little left in him before retirement.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Nadal in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the first events of 2024 underway, the ATP 250 in Brisbane welcomes back former World #1 and 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, playing his first event in just under a year with a 2023 plagued by injuries. Will the Spaniard be able to get his 2024 off to a winning start against old [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":666,"featured_media":62352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[4089,7453,15831,208,15708,13698,18924,3692,15664,17610,17611,135,15412,2373,2369],"class_list":["post-62347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-atp-brisbane-predictions","tag-daniel-altmaier","tag-daniel-altmaier-predictions","tag-dominic-thiem","tag-dominic-thiem-predictions","tag-li-tu","tag-li-tu-predictions","tag-marton-fucsovics","tag-marton-fucsovics-predictions","tag-matteo-arnaldi","tag-matteo-arnaldi-predictions","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-rafael-nadal-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62347","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\/666"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}