Taylor Fritz and Roberto Bautista Agut will clash in the Australian Open third round on Saturday. Another intriguing contest pits Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime against in-form Brit Dan Evans as spots in week two are up for grabs.
(20) Taylor Fritz vs. (15) Roberto Bautista Agut
American Taylor Fritz closed out his match over countryman Frances Tiafoe in straight sets, but when the last ball was struck and he collapsed to the court with a foot cramp. With a day’s rest between matches he should be okay to take the court against Roberto Bautista Agut on Saturday, but cramping after a straight-set win isn’t a great sign.
Bautista Agut is playing well, but the Spaniard has had surprisingly mediocre results at majors. His best result in Melbourne is a quarterfinal appearance in 2019. Otherwise he has rarely made it to the second week. So far this week the world No. 18 has taken out Stefano Travaglia and Philipp Kohlschreiber.
This match has the potential to be one of the standouts of a highly competitive week one. Both men are playing well and the winner will take on an out-of-sorts Stefanos Tsitsipas or the wildly unpredictable Benoit Paire. They will both have plenty of motivation and a decent shot at quarterfinals. Bautista Agut does hold a 5-1 record over Fritz, so the American has a bit of a matchup problem to overcome.
Cheryl pick: Bautista Agut in 4
Ricky pick: Fritz in 5
(9) Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. (24) Dan Evans
This is largely an untried matchup. Felix Auger-Aliassime and Dan Evans met just once before, a year ago at the Australian Open tuneup event in Melbourne. Evans won in easy straight sets, but the Auger-Aliassime wasn’t in the best form at the time. This time around the 21-year-old is in the top 10 and comes into the Australian Open with the confidence of his semifinal run in New York last fall.
Evans has had a good start to 2022. The Brit is a tidy 7-1 including his two wins this week. He gave David Goffin a shellacking in the first round and then benefitted from a walkover with the withdrawal of intended second-round opponent Arthur Rinderknech.
Auger-Aliassime spent four hours and 20 minutes on court in his second round match against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. It was a physical, highly competitive match and there is a chance that the Canadian will be a bit fatigued from the effort required. Still, he has displayed the necessary fitness for a full two weeks of best-of-five matches.
Cheryl pick: Auger-Aliassime in 4
Ricky pick: Evans in 5
WWW?
Fritz is on fire. He’s only 24, so he could be heading towards the top 10 if he can keep this up.
yep. as my Nitto ATP Finals predictions indicate!
Wow, impressive!
Tara Daniel is in the form of his life. Absolutely destroyed everyone on route to this match so no surprise he’s pushing Sinner.