Australian Open R1 previews and predictions: Thiem vs. Paire, Querrey vs. Herbert

Dominic Thiem will begin his Australian Open campaign when he faces Benoit Paire on Tuesday. Sam Querrey and Pierre-Hugues Hebert are also hoping to advance as first-round action comes to an end.

Benoit Paire vs. (7) Dominic Thiem

Thiem and Paire will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time at the Australian Open when clash during first-round action on Tuesday. Their only previous meeting came in the third round of the 2017 Melbourne festivities, with Thiem getting the job done 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. That ended up being a decent tournament for the eighth-ranked Austrian, who made a real run at a hard-court major for the first time when he advanced to the 2018 U.S. Open quarterfinals–beating Kevin Anderson in the process before succumbing to Rafael Nadal in a five-set thriller. Still, the jury remains out on Thiem’s hard-court form and he is coming off a season-opening loss to Pierre-Hugues Herbert in Doha.

Paire took the court in each of the first two weeks, turning in a quarterfinal performance in Pune (fell to Gilles Simon) before exiting right away in Auckland (got crushed by eventual runner-up Cameron Norrie). Although the 61st-ranked Frenchman’s natural talent makes him dangerous on any given day, he really hasn’t produced a single notable result since upsetting Novak Djokovic–then a shadow of his former and current self–in the Miami second round last spring. Thiem probably won’t be convincing, but his consistent attack of the Paire forehand will eventually be enough to prevail.

Pick: Thiem in 4

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Sam Querrey vs. Pierre-Hugues Herbert

As the result against Thiem suggests, Herbert’s 2019 campaign is off to an encouraging start. The 27-year-old Frenchman followed that up by outlasting Maximimilian Marterer in a third-set tiebreaker before bowing at the hands of eventual Doha runner-up Tomas Berdych. Herbert remains at his best in doubles, but he has climbed to No. 55 in the singles rankings with a string of consistent results last season.

Up first for him on Tuesday is a second career contest against Querrey, who took their only previous encounter 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-4 at the 2016 Madrid Masters. Querrey got things started this year with a second-round performance in in Sydney, where he ousted Malek Jaziri and then succumbed to Simon. Although the 49th-ranked American has never done much Down Under, he is a three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist–including a semifinal run at Wimbledon in 2017. Herbert is 11-16 lifetime in the main draw of slams and has never made a second-week appearance. In what should be a competitive match, Herbert’s history of folding in pressure-packed moments may catch up to him once again.

Pick: Querrey in 5

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