{"id":99904,"date":"2026-03-20T22:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T02:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=99904"},"modified":"2026-03-20T22:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T02:32:18","slug":"atp-miami-day-4-predictions-medvedev-sakamoto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/03\/20\/atp-miami-day-4-predictions-medvedev-sakamoto\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Miami Day 4 Predictions Including Daniil Medvedev vs Rei Sakamoto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 4 at ATP Miami brings a mix of title defence pressure, seasoned veterans, teenage upstarts and a heavyweight clash to look forward to. With the tournament already producing some eye-catching results from the younger generation, there\u2019s every reason to expect more of the same as the draw begins to thin out. As always, we here at LWOT will be offering our predictions for every match on the schedule. But who will advance?<\/span><\/p>\n

ATP Miami Open Day 4 Predictions<\/span><\/h2>\n

Jakub Mensik vs Adam Walton<\/span><\/h4>\n

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

Mensik arrives as defending champion, having won the title in Auckland in January and beaten Jannik Sinner en route to the Doha semifinals. The 20-year-old Czech has been in terrific form all season and knows this court better than most after his dream run here last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Walton earned his spot in this round by beating Rinky Hijikata in three sets, which was a decent result in itself, but this is a significant step up. Walton\u2019s flat, clean ball-striking can cause problems on hard courts, but Mensik\u2019s serve, athleticism and big-match experience make him a tough proposition for any qualifier. The defending champion should be too good here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Mensik in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Brandon Nakashima vs Marin Cilic<\/span><\/h4>\n

Head-to-Head:<\/strong> Nakashima 1\u20131 Cilic\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marin Cilic looked sharp in his straight-sets first-round win and still has that big serve that can trouble anyone on hard. But Brandon Nakashima has put together steady results this season on the surface and edged Cilic in their last hard-court encounter with some clutch tiebreak play. Nakashima\u2019s cleaner baseline work and ability to stay aggressive should let him control more rallies and avoid the veteran\u2019s experience paying off late.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Nakashima in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Rafael Jodar vs Aleksandar Vukic<\/span><\/h4>\n

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

The 19-year-old Spaniard claimed his first Masters 1000 victory in the opening round, defeating Yannick Hanfmann in three sets and breaking into the top 100 for the first time. He\u2019s playing with no pressure and a lot of confidence. Vukic enters this match as a lucky loser who lost in the qualifying final, slipping in only because of Musetti\u2019s withdrawal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jodar\u2019s momentum, combined with Vukic\u2019s patchy recent results, makes this a straightforward pick. The Spaniard\u2019s 15-5 hard court record this season tells its own story, and there\u2019s no reason to think it stops here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Jodar in 3\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Daniil Medvedev vs Rei Sakamoto<\/span><\/h4>\n

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

Sakamoto, a 19-year-old Japanese wild card, earned his first ATP Tour victory in the opening round, beating Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-4 3-6 7-6 after saving multiple match points. It was a composed performance for a teenager in his first main draw Masters 1000 match, and the 2024 Australian Open boys\u2019 champion is clearly a talent to watch.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Daniil Medvedev<\/a> has made a resurgent start to 2026, winning titles in Brisbane and Dubai before reaching the Indian Wells final. He is in the form of his life right now, and Sakamoto stepping up to face a player of that calibre, on this surface, is an enormous ask. Medvedev\u2019s court craft, serve and ability to neutralise opponents should make this a routine afternoon for the Russian.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Medvedev in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Day 4 at ATP Miami brings a mix of title defence pressure, seasoned veterans, teenage upstarts and a heavyweight clash to look forward to. With the tournament already producing some eye-catching results from the younger generation, there\u2019s every reason to expect more of the same as the draw begins to thin out. As always, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4590,"featured_media":67961,"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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[19080,41806,12603,16061,2777,5197,10956,16202,498,15715,18805,19130,50,15595,5106,43245,43459,42651,42866,2373,2369],"class_list":["post-99904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-adam-walton","tag-adam-walton-predictions","tag-aleksandar-vukic","tag-aleksandar-vukic-predictions","tag-atp-miami","tag-atp-miami-predictions","tag-brandon-nakashima","tag-brandon-nakashima-predictions","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-daniil-medvedev-predictions","tag-jakub-mensik","tag-jakub-mensik-predictions","tag-marin-cilic","tag-marin-cilic-predictions","tag-miami-open-predictions","tag-rafael-jodar","tag-rafael-jodar-predictions","tag-rei-sakamoto","tag-rei-sakamoto-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99904","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\/4590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99904"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99911,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99904\/revisions\/99911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}