Friday marks the start of seeds taking the courtroom on the BNP Paribas Open. There’s a full serving to of second-round motion on Day 3, headlined by Carlos Alcaraz and Andrey Rublev. Each guys may have troublesome opening matches on their palms; Alcaraz is going through Matteo Arnaldi and Rublev is kicking off his fortnight towards none aside from Andy Murray.
Listed here are my previews and picks for the matchups.
Matteo Arnaldi vs. (2) Carlos AlcarazAlcaraz has not performed particularly properly thus far in 2024 and he retired from his final match with an ankle harm, so he’s a little bit of a query mark heading into Sunshine Double. The 2-time main winner misplaced to Alexander Zverev within the Aussie Open quarters, was upset by Nicolas Jarry within the QFs of Buenos Aires, and obtained injured in his opening match on the ATP 500 in Rio. Alcaraz did, nonetheless, look advantageous throughout his Netflix Slam victory over Rafael Nadal.
Up first for the second-ranked Spaniard is a second assembly with Arnaldi. Alcaraz domianted their solely earlier encounter in straight units on the 2023 U.S. Open, however Arnaldi is already a a lot improved participant simply 5 months later. At 23 years outdated, the Italian is as much as fortieth within the rankings and he earned his seventh match win of the season on Wednesday (d. Luca Van Assche 7-6(6), 7-6(3)). This contest could possibly be harder than many anticipate for Alcaraz.
Decide: Alcaraz in 3
(5) Andrey Rublev vs. Andy MurrayRublev and Murray will likely be going through one another for the third time. They’ve cut up their two earlier conferences; Murray cruised 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 at Melbourne Park in 2017 earlier than Rublev rolled 7-5, 6-2 on the 2022 ATP 500 in Rotterdam.
That is, after all, a a lot completely different matchup from the one Murray loved within the Indian Wells first spherical on Wednesday–when he improved to 8-0 lifetime and 17-0 in whole units towards David Goffin with a 6-3, 6-2 victory. The previous world No. 1 will likely be on the defensive to a a lot larger extent with Rublev as his opposition. Not like Goffin, the Rublev is without doubt one of the strongest gamers on tour–and he’s enjoying properly, too, boasting a 14-4 file for the yr. Even when the circumstances are enjoying sooner than final yr, Murray can’t hit by this courtroom and Rublev most positively can. This can seemingly be one-way site visitors from begin to end in favor of the fifth-ranked Russian.
Decide: Rublev in 2Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and in addition maintains his personal tennis web site, The Grandstand. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter at @Dimonator.
