The first Masters 1000 tournament of the year is officially underway at ATP Indian Wells. All the top players are participating, and it promises to be a great week for tennis. As ever, we preview and predict all the scheduled matches for you, including Ben Shelton squaring off against Reilly Opelka. But who will advance?<\/p>\n
Head-to-head – First Meeting<\/p>\n
Arthur Fils<\/span><\/span> arrives in good form after reaching the final in Doha and looks full of confidence. Dino Prizmic<\/span><\/span> is a talented young player who can be dangerous but also erratic at times. If Fils maintains his consistency from the baseline and serves well, he should have the edge. Expect the Frenchman to control the match and get the job done comfortably.<\/p>\n Prediction: Fils in 2<\/em><\/p>\n Head-to-head – Brooksby 3-0 Tiafoe<\/p>\n Jenson Brooksby<\/span><\/span> has had the upper hand in this matchup, winning all three of their previous meetings against Frances Tiafoe<\/span><\/span>. However, Tiafoe arrives with renewed confidence after reaching the final in Acapulco. Brooksby hasn\u2019t built much momentum this season, and with Indian Wells typically playing slower, this could turn into a tight battle. If Tiafoe serves well and dictates play from the baseline, he may just edge Brooksby in three sets.<\/p>\n Prediction: Tiafoe in 3<\/em><\/p>\n Head-to-head – First Meeting<\/p>\n Brandon Nakashima<\/span><\/span> is a solid baseliner who is particularly comfortable on hard courts, while Camilo Ugo Carabelli<\/span><\/span> is typically more effective on clay. This will be their first meeting. Nakashima suffered a tough loss in the Acapulco semifinals, but ATP Indian Wells offers a fresh opportunity. Expect the American to stay resilient from the baseline and use his bigger serve to gain the upper hand.<\/p>\n Prediction: Nakashima in 2<\/em><\/p>\n Head-to-head – Shelton 2-0 Opelka<\/p>\n Ben Shelton<\/span><\/span> has enjoyed a strong start to the season, reaching the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and winning the title in Dallas. Reilly Opelka<\/span><\/span> has picked up a couple of wins this year and looked sharp in his opening round, but he has lost both of their previous meetings. In this battle of big serves, Shelton\u2019s greater variety from the baseline should give him the edge, even if Opelka produces a serving masterclass to steal a set.<\/p>\n Prediction: Shelton in 3<\/em><\/p>\n Main Photo Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran – USA TODAY Sports<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first Masters 1000 tournament of the year is officially underway at ATP Indian Wells. All the top players are participating, and it promises to be a great week for tennis. As ever, we preview and predict all the scheduled matches for you, including Ben Shelton squaring off against Reilly Opelka. But who will advance? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3075,"featured_media":59662,"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":[18371,18372,2749,2752,16662,17963,10956,16202,16692,17687,17973,17974,348,15512,8212,15981,19,15684,2373,2369],"class_list":["post-99076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-arthur-fils","tag-arthur-fils-predictions","tag-atp-indian-wells","tag-atp-indian-wells-predictions","tag-ben-shelton","tag-ben-shelton-predictions","tag-brandon-nakashima","tag-brandon-nakashima-predictions","tag-camilo-ugo-carabelli","tag-camilo-ugo-carabelli-predictions","tag-dino-prizmic","tag-dino-prizmic-predictions","tag-frances-tiafoe","tag-frances-tiafoe-predictions","tag-jenson-brooksby","tag-jenson-brooksby-predictions","tag-reilly-opelka","tag-reilly-opelka-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99076","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\/3075"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99076"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99084,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99076\/revisions\/99084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jenson Brooksby vs Frances Tiafoe<\/h4>\n
Brandon Nakashima vs Camilo Ugo Carabelli<\/h4>\n
Ben Shelton vs Reilly Opelka<\/h4>\n