Felix Auger-Aliassime and Roberto Bautista Agut will continue their Hamburg campaigns during second-round action on Wednesday. FAA is facing Alexander Bublik, while RBA is going up against Dominik Koepfer.
(LL) Alexander Bublik vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
Auger-Aliassime and Bublik will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers when they clash in round two of the Hamburg European Open on Wednesday afternoon. Their only previous encounter came last fall at the Shanghai Masters, where Auger-Aliassime led 7-6(5), 4-0 before Bublik retired.
The 20-year-old Canadian had a huge February before the coronavirus hiatus halted his progress, and he has since been up and down. Auger-Aliassime reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open, lost his Rome opener to Filip Krajinovic, and opened in Hamburg with a 6-2, 7-6(2) defeat of Lorenzo Sonego. Bublik generally struggles on clay and he needed a lucky-loser spot in order to get into the Hamburg main draw. The 56th-ranked Kazakh did well to beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas on Tuesday, but this is too tough of a test on the slow stuff.
Pick: Auger-Aliassime in 2
(4) Roberto Bautista Agut vs. (SE) Dominik Koepfer
Koepfer has suddenly rounded into form, producing his first notable result since making it to the second week of the 2019 U.S. Open. The 66th-ranked German advanced to the Rome quarterfinals as a qualifier before pushing world No. 1 and eventual champion Novak Djokovic to three sets. That came completely out of nowhere for a previously struggling Koepfer, who added another win by defeating Yoshihito Nishioka 7-6(0), 4-6, 6-1 in the Hamburg first round.
Next up for the former NCAA star at Tulane University is Bautista Agut, whom he has never faced. The 11th-ranked Spaniard is 15-5 this season and he reached the Cincinnati semis before losing to Djokovic in a third-set tiebreaker. Bautista Agut had no trouble with two-time defending champion Nikoloz Basilashvili in round and he also shouldn’t with Koepfer, who is playing well but has done most of his damage at the expense of unspectacular competition.
Pick: Bautista Agut in 2
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