Rio de Janeiro R2 previews and predictions: Auger-Aliassime vs. Garin, Norrie vs. Munar

A Rio de Janeiro draw that has been blown wide open will pit youngsters Felix Auger-Aliassime and Christian Garin against each other in one of the surprise second-round matchups. Cameron Norrie and Jaume Munar are also in action on Wednesday.

Christian Garin vs. (WC) Felix Auger-Aliassime

Auger-Aliassime and Garin will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time in as many weeks when they meet again in round two of the Rio Open on Wednesday night. They just squared off last week in Buenos Aires, where Garin survived a competitive 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 affair. A rematch probably wasn’t expected when Auger-Aliassime drew No. 2 seed Fabio Fognini right off the bat in Rio, but the 18-year-old rolled to a 6-2, 6-3 upset on Tuesday. That marked the first main-draw match win of the season for Auger-Aliassime, who comes in at No. 104 in the world and got a wild card into this tournament.

The hype machine may not be as charged up for the lesser-known Garin, but he has five more ATP-level match victories in his career (13 to his opponent’s eight) because he has been around longer (22 years old). The 91st-ranked Chilean does almost all of his work on clay and he is coming off a second-round showing in Buenos Aires, where he followed up the defeat of Auger-Aliassime with a 7-6(4), 6-4 loss to eventual champion Marco Cecchinato. But the Canadian is also quite comfortable on the slow stuff and his impressive rout of Fognini should give him the confidence he needs to avenge last week’s setback.

Pick: Auger-Aliassime

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Cameron Norrie vs. Jaume Munar

It will be another all-unseeded affair when Norrie and Munar collide for the first time in their careers on Wednesday. Only two seeds remain in Rio, where Tuesday’s carnage include Norrie’s 6-2, 6-1 destruction of sixth-seeded Dusan Lajovic. That was not exactly a huge surprise, as Lajovic was one of the weaker seeds in the field and Norrie is no slouch on clay nor in general. The 62nd-ranked Brit is 5-3 for his 2019 campaign with a runner-up performance in Auckland, but he failed to advance out of Buenos Aires qualifying.

Munar is more of a clay-court specialist, even though he will likely be adept on all surfaces like Norrie as his career progresses. The 21-year-old Spaniard registers at a career-high No. 66 in the world and he is only moving up after beating Leonardo Mayer 7-6(5), 6-4 in the first round of this 500-point tournament. Munar is coming off consecutive quarterfinal appearances in Cordoba and Buenos Aires, so his clay-court game is a well-oiled machine at the moment.

Pick: Munar in 3

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