Fellow seeds Felix Auger-Aliassime and Nick Kyrgios will kick off their Australian Open campaigns on Tuesday. Auger-Aliassime faces qualifier Ernests Gulbis, while Kyrgios collides with Lorenzo Sonego.
(Q) Ernests Gulbis vs. (20) Felix Auger-Aliassime
You never know what Gulbis is going to bring to the table and right now the same can be said for Auger-Aliassime. As such, just about anything and everything could happen when they clash in round one of the Australian Open on Tuesday. Gulbis has basically disappeared from the main tour, but the world No. 254 just barely got into the qualifying draw and successfully navigated his way through it with victories over Maxime Cressy, Federico Coria, and Prajnesh Gunneswaran.
Auger-Alissime was the breakout start through the first half of 2019 but struggled after Wimbledon and continued to slump early this month. The 19th-ranked Canadian compiled a 1-3 record at the ATP Cup and did not come close to winning a set against either Jan-Lennard Struff, John Millman, or Dusan Lajovic. In Adelaide, however, he defeated James Duckworth and Alex Bolt in straight sets before losing a high-quality three-setter against eventual champion Andrey Rublev. Confidence may be back for Auger-Aliassime, who should have an edge mainly because Gulbis has been mostly a stranger to top-25 tennis in recent years.
Pick: Auger-Aliassime in 4
[crowdsignal poll=10492694]
(23) Nick Kyrgios vs. Lorenzo Sonego
Kyrgios and Sonego will also be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers on Tuesday. Their only previous meeting came in the Cincinnati first round last summer, when Kyrgios got the job done 7-5, 6-4.
Will the 26th-ranked Australian be inspired and motivated in Melbourne? It’s possible, as this is his home slam and he has been the ringleader of the fundraising effort for bushfire relief. At the same time, it is difficult for Kyrgios to string together a clean best-of-five-set match from start to finish. Sonego has plenty of talent, too, so this won’t be a complete walkover. But the match is obviously in Kyrgios’ hands and he should be focused enough to advance at least one round this fortnight.
Pick: Kyrgios in 4
[crowdsignal poll=10493017]
WWW?
It would be sad to see NK lose early in this tournament especially with all of the expectation he has seeing the motivation due to these bushfires. I think it would significantly hurt his career if he lost early here 🙁
Kyrgios has said his mind ‘is not totally on the tennis’ given the bushfire situation, so that’s not a good sign. I thought he was very good in the ATP Cup, apart from the match against RBA where he was mostly rubbish. I think he generally plays a bit better in team events, he seems to enjoy them more.
Will his recent form and increased popularity with the public help him here? I’m not so sure. I think he still has a motivation problem when it comes to winning big events, but he has matured a *little* bit.
That all being said, he should be too good for Sonego.
Kyrgios in 3, FAA in 3.
Gulbis is BACK!!( was he ever really here?!…in 5….and Nick in an entertaining 4
Alliasime in 4
Kyrgios in 4
Kyrgios in 3 (w at least 2 straightforward sets). Sonego hasn’t won a singles match since September (he’s lost his last 8 matches) so he’s not on any high form.
I’m also going with Gulbis to pull a cheeky upset here in 4 or 5 sets. Maybe it’s more hope than anything but he’s played 4 matches here and FAA has shown he can still be streaky..
allez, glad Gulbis got the W