{"id":87410,"date":"2025-07-22T21:35:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T01:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=87410"},"modified":"2025-07-22T21:35:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T01:35:40","slug":"atp-washington-day-3-predictions-tiafoe-vs-kovacevic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/07\/22\/atp-washington-day-3-predictions-tiafoe-vs-kovacevic\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Washington Day 3 Predictions Including Frances Tiafoe vs Aleksandar Kovacevic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Frances Tiafoe played terrifically during the swing before and including last year&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/us-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">US Open<\/a>. He reached the ATP Washington semifinal before a run to the final of the Cincinnati Open and to the semifinal of the US Open for the second time. The American&#8217;s attempt at going further than 12 months ago in Washington starts against Aleksandar Kovacevic. We at LWOT predict all ten matches on the slate in three articles, including<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/07\/22\/atp-washington-day-3-predictions-fritz-vs-vukic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> Taylor Fritz vs Aleksandar Vukic<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/07\/22\/atp-washington-day-3-predictions-medvedev-vs-opelka\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Daniil Medvedev vs Reilly Opelka<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>ATP Washington Day 3 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Jiri Lehecka vs Zachary Svajda<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\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\/2222543744\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 67.00337% 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\/2222543744?et=9-8ZLrE_QshER2hTLbxrgw&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=xDcxvyuHUGGqArAhm6UPvlh2qOYUHllNjZnNdpRjj7Q=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"398\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Svajda battled through his last two matches, including qualifying, in three sets. Although those were admirable efforts, none of his previous opponents in Washington were in Lehecka&#8217;s class. The Czech&#8217;s game is slightly more complete in all departments than Svajda&#8217;s. Mattia Belucci&#8217;s upset of Lehecka at Wimbledon a few weeks ago shows that a shock is possible, but the 23-year-old getting back on track remains the more likely outcome.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Lehecka in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Lorenzo Sonego vs Matteo Arnaldi<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\n<p>Sonego is a better hard-court player than his compatriot. Arnaldi saved four match points and won in the last round against Daniel Altmaier from 3-5 0-40 in the deciding set. While that probably gave him some confidence, he almost certainly needs to play better to beat Sonego, something I doubt the younger Italian will achieve.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Sonego in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs Jaume Munar<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: Davidovich Fokina 2-2 Munar<\/p>\n<p>Davidovich Fokina&#8217;s best level is superior to Munar&#8217;s, but he lost to him on a hard court at the start of this season at the Hong Kong Open. Predicting Davidovich Fokina&#8217;s matches is challenging due to his unpredictability, but I am backing him to beat Munar this time. The quick conditions in Washington suit him more than his fellow Spaniard.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Davidovich Fokina in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Frances Tiafoe vs Aleksandar Kovacevic<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: Tiafoe 2-0 Kovacevic<\/p>\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\/2225668774\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 62.62626% 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\/2225668774?et=bPeqruAITI90yVN_Ao1pbQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=rImKxgvvdCFt8vgQfF3Ik3cvdJHrb5FskH6P29eH5jM=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"372\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Tiafoe beat Kovacevic at last year&#8217;s Citi Open in three competitive sets before triumphing against him again at the US Open a few weeks later. The two-time semifinalist at Flushing Meadows has not replicated his level since this period of the season last year. However, he has a habit of coming alive on home soil, and a deep run in Washington is possible. Expect him to find a way to get past Kovacevic again.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Tiafoe in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: David Kirouac-<em>USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frances Tiafoe played terrifically during the swing before and including last year&#8217;s US Open. He reached the ATP Washington semifinal before a run to the final of the Cincinnati Open and to the semifinal of the US Open for the second time. The American&#8217;s attempt at going further than 12 months ago in Washington starts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4708,"featured_media":81251,"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":[16949,5338,17945,18216,12813,4657,3528,16546,1648,7629,348,15512,2397,15596,13325,17201,2404,15736,17610,17611,2373,2369,19061,19062],"class_list":["post-87410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alejandro-davidoch-fokina-predictions","tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina","tag-aleksandar-kovacevic","tag-aleksandar-kovacevic-predictions","tag-atp-picks","tag-atp-predictions","tag-atp-washington","tag-atp-washington-predictions","tag-citi-open","tag-citi-open-predictions","tag-frances-tiafoe","tag-frances-tiafoe-predictions","tag-jaume-munar","tag-jaume-munar-predictions","tag-jiri-lehecka","tag-jiri-lehecka-predictions","tag-lorenzo-sonego","tag-lorenzo-sonego-predictions","tag-matteo-arnaldi","tag-matteo-arnaldi-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-zachary-svadja","tag-zachary-svadja-predictions"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87410","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\/4708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87410"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87430,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87410\/revisions\/87430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}