A whole host of seeded players will take the court in Paris on Wednesday, including Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev. They will likely have tough matchups on their hands with Felix Auger-Aliassime and Ugo Humbert, respectively.
(7) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
From completely out of nowhere, Auger-Aliassime successfully defended his 2022 title at the Swiss Indoors Basel last week. Previously in disastrous form, the world No. 19 suddenly has momentum on his side heading into the Rolex Paris Masters. His Basel run included defeats of Holger Rune and Hubert Hurkacz and he opened in Paris on Tuesday with a 7-6(3), 6-4 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff.
Up next for Auger-Aliassime on Wednesday is a ninth meeting with Tsitsipas, and this rivalry has been absolutely all over the place. Auger-Aliassime won their first two main-tour encounters, after which Tsitsipas–who also struggled against the Canadian in juniors–called it his toughest matchup. From there, however, the Greek promptly reeled off five head-to-head wins in a row. The overall series now stands at 5-3 in Tsitsipas’ favor following Auger-Aliassime’s 6-4, 6-2 romp in the 2022 Rotterdam final. In the midst of a six-match winning streak and with a match already under his belt in Paris, the underdog has a good chance to continue his surge at the expense of an opponent who has been way off his game.
Pick: Auger-Aliassime in 3
Ugo Humbert vs. (10) Alexander Zverev
Zverev and Humbert will be squaring off for the second time in their careers on Wednesday. Their only previous contest came two years ago on the grass courts of Halle, where Humbert prevailed 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3 on Zverev’s home turf. It is the Frenchman who has home-court advantage this time around, and he just might give the fans exactly what they want. After all, Humbert has been in outstanding form dating back to the start of the summer and he continued it by beating Marcos Giron 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday.
Round one proved to be a much more difficult test for Zverev, who just barely scraped past Marton Fucsovics 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. The ninth-ranked German has been just 2-4 in his last six matches prior to arriving in Paris, so he seems to be wearing out down the stretch of what has mostly been a successful season in his comeback from a 2022 ankle injury. It has been rough week for the French crowd so far in terms of results, but this is a great opportunity for Humbert to turn things around.
Pick: Humbert in 3
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