Hopefully the weather will be a bit better than on Wednesday and the bottom half of the men’s draw can complete their opening round matches without interruptions. Matteo Arnaldi is one of the crowd favorites in Rome, but he’s facing Tomas Machac whom he trails 0-2 in the head-to-head. Can the 23-year-old turn that matchup around at ATP Rome?<\/p>\n
Head-to-head: <\/strong>First meeting<\/p>\n Marton Fucsovics is technically on a 7-match winning streak, because he withdrew ahead of his Cagliari quarterfinal with Daniel Elahi Galan last week. The Hungarian has since said that it was a minor issue and he’s going to be fine for Rome, but we’ll see how that works out in practice. The good news for him is that the draw looks rather manageable. Alexandre Muller has fallen out of the Top 100 and doesn’t seem like he’s on his way back up.<\/p>\n Prediction: Fucsovics in 3 [tgdcta items=”1″ id=”170472″]<\/p>\n Head-to-head: <\/strong>Struff 1-0<\/p>\n Pedro Cachin finally snapped his half-year-long losing streak in Madrid, but will that be a permanent change? The altitude conditions in Spain were a perfect fit for his game, Rome won’t be quite as helpful. That doesn’t mean he’s never done well on slow clay, it’s just questionable if he’ll find a way to excel again. Given Jan-Lennard Struff is on the other side of the net and he’s been on fire recently, it’s definitely the German who has to be considered the favorite here.<\/p>\n Prediction: Struff in 2
\n<\/em><\/p>\nJan-Lennard Struff vs Pedro Cachin<\/h4>\n
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