The first round of the ATP Miami Open concludes on Thursday when the other half of the draw to the one which was in action on Wednesday takes to the courts around the Hard Rock Stadium complex on the second day of the latest Masters 1000 tournament.
We saw some great action on Wednesday and despite us having to wait until Friday for the seeded players to come into the competition, we have some decent names on show to keep us entertained throughout Thursday.
Stadium Court
We had three matches on the Stadium Court on Wednesday which means we have just the two on Thursday and the men actually open up the show when Felix Auger-Aliassime will look to arrest his quite alarming slide down the rankings when he faces off against the Australian qualifier Adam Walton. It is the opening match of the night session when the second men’s match comes along. That sees the ever entertaining Gael Monfils going up against the experienced Dusan Lajovic in another good looking match.
Grandstand
That gives us three matches in the ATP draw over on the Grandstand court but we have to wait for a women’s match to be completed before the men come along. When they do the wildcard Kei Nishikori will be back on show when he faces Sebastian Ofner. There will be British interest in the next match as Dan Evans looks to make it into the second round when he goes up against Lorenzo Sonego before the men’s action concludes with two qualifiers battling it out as Emilio Nava faces off against Roberto Bautista Agut.
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Butch Buchholz
There are three matches from the men’s draw over on the Butch Buchholz court on Thursday as well but two women’s games have to be completed before they come along. When they do the qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic will be on show when he faces Fabian Marozsan before two Spanish players collide when the wildcard Martin Landaluce goes up against Jaume Munar. The last of the men’s matches closes out the show in this part of the grounds and it is the best of the three as Roman Safiullin meets Diego Schwartzman.
Best of the Rest
There are a couple of matches over on Court 1 on Thursday where the likes of Laslo Djere and Brandon Nakashima will be involved. Elsewhere, Daniel Altmaier, Alexei Popyrin, Emil Ruususuori, Daniel Elahi Galan, Soonwoo Kwon, Alexandre Muller, Aleksandar Vukic and Roberto Carballes Baena will all be looking to win their opening round match and set up a clash with a seeded player on Saturday.
Betting
There isn’t a massive amount that I like over the course of the Thursday play but having had an odds against winner on the opening day I am happy to go with just the one bet and try to build up a little more profit to take into the part of the tournament where the seeded players come along. I expect that to come via Daniel Altmaier to beat Harold Mayot when they open up the action on one of the outside courts on the second day.
Mayot came through qualifying to reach this stage and while he has had a day off, some of the humidity and heat was so extreme earlier in the week that his opening opponent collapsed early in the deciding set with the match balanced so the Frenchman could be considered fortunate to win that one. He then beat David Goffin who never really seems to deliver his best in extreme conditions either. You wonder if the conditions have taken anything out of the French youngster but even if they haven’t Altmaier should enjoy these conditions. He has wins over Alexander Zverev and Felix Auger-Aliassime on hard courts this season and with some experience of Miami conditions I think the German will come out on top here.
Tips
Back D.Altmaier to beat H.Mayot for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
