{"id":99056,"date":"2026-03-05T23:42:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=99056"},"modified":"2026-03-05T23:42:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:42:58","slug":"atp-indian-wells-day-3-predictions-auger-aliassime-monfils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/03\/05\/atp-indian-wells-day-3-predictions-auger-aliassime-monfils\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Indian Wells Day 3 Predictions Including Felix Auger-Aliassime vs Gael Monfils"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top-seeded players on the men’s tour will kick off their 2026 BNP Paribas Open campaigns on Friday. Ahead of over a dozen weekend second-round matches, LWOT previews the California encounters in the desert. This set of predictions features Canadian No. 1 Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a> squaring off against veteran Gael Monfils. But who will advance?<\/p>\n

ATP Indian Wells Day 3 Predictions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs Zachary Svajda<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
Head-to-head:<\/strong> Davidovich Fokina 1-0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Davidovich Fokina\u2019s latest tournament in Acapulco came to a sudden halt in the second round, as he now faces Svajda, an in-form American who upset Marin Cilic in the BNP Paribas Open first round. The Spaniard carries a 7-5 record going into the hard court swing, while Svajda is 15-4 this season, including ATP Challenger Tour results. The American has home roots in California. Davidovich Fokina did defeat Svajda just a few weeks ago in Dallas, but I\u2019m picking the American to reverse course.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Svajda in 3<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs Denis Shapovalov<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Head-to-head:<\/strong> Shapovalov 1-0<\/div>\n

Etcheverry may still be coming off a career-defining moment, as he won the ATP 500 Rio event in February<\/a>. Since then, the Argentinian withdrew from his next event in Chile. Shapovalov took out Etcheverry in straight sets in their only meeting in 2024, and the Canadian\u2019s big win over Stefanos Tsitsipas on Wednesday<\/a> suggests he should be comfortable on these North American courts. The Argentinian is no underdog, but adjusting to the hard courts could be a challenge, and I see Shapovalov having the edge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Shapovalov in 3<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p><\/p>\n

Lorenzo Musetti vs M\u00e1rton Fucsovics<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Head-to-head:<\/strong> First meeting<\/p>\n

This match will mark Musetti\u2019s first time on court since a heartbreaking injury forced him out of the Australian Open<\/a> quarterfinals mid-match. Fucsovics is slowly returning to his best form in 2026, but if he is healthy, he should have enough consistency and form to win. Fucsovics does have a solid tennis history in the United States, winning his most recent title on hard courts at the 2025 Winston-Salem Open.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Musetti in 2<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime vs Gael Monfils<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Head-to-head:\u00a0<\/strong>1-1<\/p>\n

Auger-Aliassime and Monfils first met in a big 2020 final, as the Canadian was on the ATP Tour come-up. At that event in Rotterdam, Monfils cruised<\/a> past Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-4. That event marked the Frenchman\u2019s latest ATP 500 title, as he\u2019ll retire at the 2026 French Open. Auger-Aliassime, on paper, should be the favorite this time around, but Monfils does thrive on slower hard courts. Notably, since 2020, all of Monfils\u2019 Top 10 wins have taken place on outdoor hard courts. Expect the Frenchman to put up a fight against a player prone to ups and downs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Auger-Aliassime in 3<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke – Imagn Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top-seeded players on the men’s tour will kick off their 2026 BNP Paribas Open campaigns on Friday. Ahead of over a dozen weekend second-round matches, LWOT previews the California encounters in the desert. This set of predictions features Canadian No. 1 Felix Auger-Aliassime squaring off against veteran Gael Monfils. But who will advance? ATP Indian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4624,"featured_media":83962,"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":[5338,15416,2749,2752,776,15517,1219,15554,144,15824,10332,15491,3692,15664,2373,2369,12521,17182,8206,16704],"class_list":["post-99056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina","tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina-predictions","tag-atp-indian-wells","tag-atp-indian-wells-predictions","tag-denis-shapovalov","tag-denis-shapovalov-predictions","tag-felix-auger-aliassime","tag-felix-auger-aliassime-predictions","tag-gael-monfils","tag-gael-monfils-predictions","tag-lorenzo-musetti","tag-lorenzo-musetti-predictions","tag-marton-fucsovics","tag-marton-fucsovics-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-tomas-martin-etcheverry","tag-tomas-martin-etcheverry-predictions","tag-zachary-svajda","tag-zachary-svajda-predictions"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99056","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\/4624"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99056"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99089,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99056\/revisions\/99089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}