Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas will be getting right back in action at the French Open on Tuesday after contesting the Hamburg final on Sunday. Rublev opens with Sam Querrey, while Tsitsipas is set to face Jaume Munar.
Sam Querrey vs. (13) Andrey Rublev
Rublev captured his third title of the season this past week in Hamburg and he now takes his talents to Roland Garros for the third and final major of 2020. The Russian boasts an amazing 25-6 record for the season and is up to No. 12 in the world after completing a Hamburg run that included victories over Roberto Bautista Agut, Casper Ruud, and lastly Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final.
Up first for Rublev at the French Open on Tuesday is Querrey, who trails the head-to-head series 2-1. The 48th-ranked American unsurprisingly prevailed on his preferred grass-court surface via a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 decision at Wimbledon in 2019, but Rublev rolled to straight-set wins on hard courts later that summer in Winston-Salem and earlier this year in Adelaide. Clay will be even worse for Querrey, especially in these somewhat slow conditions. A red-hot Rublev should have no trouble, even if he is a little bit fatigued.
Pick: Rublev in 3
Jaume Munar vs. (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas and Munar will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers on Tuesday. Their only previous encounter came at the 2018 NextGen ATP Finals, where the Greek got the job done 4-3, 4-3, 3-4, 4-2. Tsitsipas ended up triumphing at that event and then won a much different kind of year-end championship–the real one in London–12 months later. That cemented the Greek’s status as top five kind of player, and he currently stands at sixth in the world (seeded fifth due to Roger Federer’s absence).
Tsitsipas is coming off a solid runner-up showing in Hamburg, whereas Munar went back to the Challenger circuit after retiring in round one of the U.S. Open against eventual champion Dominic Thiem. The 103rd-ranked Spaniard, who is 3-7 on the main tour in 2020, suffered two bad losses at those two Challenger events. There is no reason to think he can make this one competitive.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 3
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