The tennis festival will continue at Adelaide International 2 with the third day of the tournament featuring a plethora of entertaining matches. Eighth seed Tommy Ball’s meeting with Jack Draper will be the first on Court 3. We have predictions for all of the second round matches in Adelaide in a second article, Including Andrey Rublev vs. Thansi Kokkinakis. Who will reach the quarter-finals?
ATP Adelaide predictions 2 day 3
Mackenzie McDonald vs. Mikael Ymir
face to face: Ymir 1-0 McDonald
McDonald had a memorable run to the fourth round of the Australian Open Championship Two seasons ago, but he can get hit and miss. It is generally inconsistent. Last year he won back-to-back matches at just six ATP tournaments and has since fallen out of the top 50 in the world. However, he pulled off a confidence-boosting win in his opening match, defeating fifth seed Dan Evans in straight sets. That should at least give him a blueprint to emulate his exploits from the 2021 season. Ymir, for his part, climbed the qualifying hurdles and pulled off an equally stellar first-round win, knocking out Emil Russofori in three sets. The Swede will be on offense for most of this match, and if the American leaves any gaps behind his usually reliable base game (as he did against Nishioka last week), the Swede will take full advantage of them.
Prediction: Ymer at 3
Marc-Andrea Heussler vs. Karen Khachanov
face to face: Khachanov 2-0 Heussler
It will rain down on aces when Hoessler and Khachanov come face to face on Wednesday. The Swiss ball won the competition for the big hits against it Arthur Renderknech In the three-pack barnburner to get here. He is enjoying the best period of his career and pushed Khachanov to three sets at the Paris Masters last year. However, I expect the Russian to maintain his frantic start to the season that saw his stunning win over Draper last week.
Prediction: Khachanov at 3
Pablo Carreno Busta vs Sunwoo Kwon
face to face: Carreno Busta 2-0 Kwon
Carreno Busta did not play a Fed Cup match as Spain’s chances of qualifying diminished. The Spaniard had to sit out due to injury and his vice-president Albert Ramos Vinolas failed to inspire. Carreno Busta is confident of winning his race against time to be fit for the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. But he may not even reach the end of the Adelaide draw despite being seeded second in the tournament.
Soonwoo may be ranked lower than his last year’s high, but he has a tidy game and is hard to contain when his game is on point. He beat Tomas Machak in his opener after losing to the Czech Republic in the final round of the qualifiers on Monday. We’ve seen a lot of turmoil in the early weeks of the new season as top players have gone cold due to rust issues with their games. Carreno Busta may not have had time to test his game. The lucky loser can pounce.
Prediction: Kwon Fei 3
Tommy Paul vs. Jack Draper
face to face: first meeting
That to me is the selection for the second round matches in Adelaide. for several months, Jack Draper He was a rookie at tour level tournaments, but that all changed after he put together a career-best season of 2022. He didn’t have much success in Adelaide 1 last week, routinely losing to Karen Khachanov, but he’s been in great form this week with a win over Lorenzo Sonego. 6-4, 6-2 in his opening match.
Meanwhile, Tommy Paul didn’t waver in his first match of 2023, edging out Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 7-5. Draper has a better and more efficient first serve which will keep Paul in limbo behind the comeback. The American is no slouch in this department, however, posting some very good numbers behind his delivery and ferocious forehand against the Australian qualifiers. The Briton can’t afford to give Paul time and space to unleash his forehand because he won’t get second chances. Paul is a bit of a favourite, but I think Draper could benefit from playing a couple more games Down Under.
Prediction: Draper at 3
Feature image via Getty.