Murray River Open previews and predictions: Tiafoe vs. Moutet, Cilic vs. Chardy

The pre-Australian Open tournaments at Melbourne Park will be in full swing as Frances Tiafoe battles Frenchman Corentin Moutet and Marin Cilic takes on Jeremy Chardy at the Murray River Open on Monday.

Frances Tiafoe vs. Corentin Moutet

With players confined to various levels of quarantine in Australia ahead of this week’s tournaments, these first-round matches may be more a test of who can shake off the confined-to-a-hotel-room rust than anything else. So it is for Corentin Moutet, who used Instagram as an outlet to complain about the meals that were provided to the athletes in their hotels.

The Frenchman kicked off his 2020 season on fire. Moutet blazed through qualifying in Doha and made his way all the way to the final, where he lost to breakout star Andrey Rublev. However, the rest of the season didn’t live up to the year’s early highlight. He finished the season with a 10-10 record.

Frances Tiafoe’s career was in trouble at the start of the 2020 season. After a promising 2019, he absorbed three first-round losses in a row before he finally won a single match at a Challenger event in Newport Beach, Calif. Then came the COVID layoff, and a new coach (former top-10 player Wayne Ferreira). When the tour reopened for business in the fall, a resurgent Tiafoe battled his way to the round of 16 at the U.S. Open.

Despite the truncated 2020 season, Moutet and Tiafoe ran into each other twice. Moutet won their first match, Tiafoe the second. The American already played a warmup tournament in 2021 in Delray Beach, where he reached the quarters; Moutet will be contesting his first match of the year.

This should go Tiafoe’s way fairly comfortably. The American already has some match play, and will surely have found some fresh confidence thanks to his run in New York.

Cheryl pick: Tiafoe in 2

Ricky pick: Tiafoe in 2

(11) Marin Cilic vs. Jeremy Chardy

Marin Cilic was the No. 3 player in the world after his run to the final of the Australian Open in 2018. Since then, the Croat has seen his ranking plummet to No. 43. His round of 16 showing in Melbourne last year was his best result of the season by some margin. Otherwise, he had trouble stringing more than a win or two together at the same time. Monday’s match will be Cilic’s first for the 2021 season.

French veteran Jeremy Chardy has already played four matches in 2021, having elected to start his year at the 250 event in Antalya. He’s only won two of six matches against Cilic, and the last win came way back at the Miami Masters in 2017.

Usually this would be an easy Cilic pick, but the Croat is rusty and he has had less-than-impressive results on hard courts since his third-round showing at the U.S. Open. Still, Melbourne seems to be the one place Cilic can still perform well on a consistent basis. Chardy may take the first set, but Cilic should pull out the win in the end.

Cheryl pick: Cilic in 3

Ricky pick: Chardy in 3