{"id":80455,"date":"2025-02-27T10:23:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T15:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=80455"},"modified":"2025-02-27T10:23:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T15:23:43","slug":"atp-acapulco-quarterfinal-predictions-machac-tien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/02\/27\/atp-acapulco-quarterfinal-predictions-machac-tien\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Acapulco Quarterfinal Predictions Including Tomas Machac vs Learner Tien"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Day 3 of the ATP Mexican Open in Acapulco was chaotic, as all five of the top seeds were out. Tommy Paul and Casper Ruud withdrew <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/02\/27\/three-top-players-hit-with-food-poisoning-at-the-mexican-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">because of food poisoning<\/a> while Holger Rune faced the same issue and retired after playing just three games. The biggest upset was the loss of world No.2, Alexander Zverev, who lost to Learner Tien in straight sets. The draw has opened up nicely for everyone else to capitalise. As always, we at LWOT will offer predictions for all the quarterfinal matches.<\/p>\n<h2>ATP Acapulco Quarterfinal Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Brandon Nakashima vs David Goffin<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Nakashima 1-0 Goffin<\/p>\n<p>Brandon Nakashima is into his first ATP 500 quarterfinals as his opponent Holger Rune retired early in the first set. The American is playing much better tennis after a slow start to the season and would like his chances to go further this week. David Goffin got his first top-20 win of the season as he played a fantastic match to upset Ben Shelton. Goffin was more patient in rallies on these slow courts and was rewarded for his patience and controlled aggression. Nakashima won a close match when these two last met in 2022 and I expect another close encounter.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Goffin in 3\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Denis Shapovalov vs Marcos Giron<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Shapovalov 0-2 Giron<\/p>\n<p>Denis Shapovalov extended his win streak to seven, as he comfortably defeated Alex Michelsen in straight sets. This is Shapovalov&#8217;s longest win streak since January 2022 when he also won seven matches in a row. The Canadian is primed to get his first win against Marcos Giron, who has never lost a set to him. Giron is a solid hard-court player but he thrives more on faster courts. Shapovalov has the better serve and if he can keep his errors in check, he should win.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Shapovalov in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a  id=\"1sS35X7BRB9osOWEciSw1Q\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2198448142\" 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:'1sS35X7BRB9osOWEciSw1Q',sig:'C7tRaLdpqQSz6flIK1kiivJdIgAnGjLBPrOVegl-6MQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2198448142',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has not been affected by his tough loss in the Delray Beach final, as he has advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Frances Tiafoe in a dramatic match. With the draw wide open, the Spaniard has an excellent opportunity to compete for the title. Rodrigo Pacheco benefitted from Casper Ruud&#8217;s withdrawal due to stomach illness and has become the first Mexican tour-level quarterfinalist since 1998. It has been a remarkable week for the Mexican but Davidovich Fokina&#8217;s experience and superior form should help him win the match.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Davidovich Fokina in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Tomas Machac vs Learner Tien<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Tomas Machac was pushed to the limit in the first set against the in-form Daniel Altmaier, but he held his nerve and won the set in a tiebreak. The Czechia player then cruised through the rest of the match, losing only one game. Machac lost in the quarterfinals last week and will look to advance further this time.<\/p>\n<p>Learner Tien got <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/02\/27\/learner-tien-breaks-24-year-american-record-at-the-mexican-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the biggest win of his life<\/a> as he stunned Alexander Zverev in the second round. Tien was tactically brilliant and abused the German&#8217;s forehand a lot. The 19-year-old American is now 2-0 against Top 5 opponents and is yet to lose a set this week. It will be a completely different matchup against Machac, who is a better mover, and more aggressive than Zverev but doesn&#8217;t have a big serve. It will be a fascinating matchup to watch, but I have Machac as a slight favourite.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Machac in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Day 3 of the ATP Mexican Open in Acapulco was chaotic, as all five of the top seeds were out. Tommy Paul and Casper Ruud withdrew because of food poisoning while Holger Rune faced the same issue and retired after playing just three games. The biggest upset was the loss of world No.2, Alexander Zverev, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5086,"featured_media":78461,"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":[5338,15416,4851,4657,10956,16202,230,15418,776,15517,18113,18114,6915,15681,18666,18665,2373,2369,11064,16447],"class_list":["post-80455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina","tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina-predictions","tag-atp-acapulco-predictions","tag-atp-predictions","tag-brandon-nakashima","tag-brandon-nakashima-predictions","tag-david-goffin","tag-david-goffin-predictions","tag-denis-shapovalov","tag-denis-shapovalov-predictions","tag-learner-tien","tag-learner-tien-predictions","tag-marcos-giron","tag-marcos-giron-predictions","tag-rodrigo-pacheco-mendez","tag-rodrigo-pacheco-mendez-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-tomas-machac","tag-tomas-machac-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80455","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\/5086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80455"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80477,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80455\/revisions\/80477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}