Felix Auger Aliassime vs Max Purcell Prediction & Betting Tips - Toronto, Canada

Prediction published on 07/08/2023, 19:35  by Joseph King | Modified on 07/08/2023 at 19:35 in ATP Toronto Predictions

The ATP National Bank Open at Toronto first round sees 10th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime taking on unseeded Max Purcell. The winner of this matchup will go on to face either Lorenzo Sonego or Andy Murray in the round of 32. Auger-Aliassime experienced a strong start to 2023 with a fourth-round finish at the Australian Open, a quarter-final finish at Rotterdam, a semi-final at Doha and a quarter-final at Indian Wells. However, his form has taken a dramatic turn for the worse as the 22-year-old has now suffered defeat in the first round of five of his last seven tournaments. Additionally, the Canadian was a one and done in the two events that he made it out of the first round, losing immediately in the second round in both. Auger-Aliassime holds 12th-place in the ATP rankings but enters this matchup against Purcell on a run of seven losses in his last eight outings.

On the other side, Australian Max Purcell comes into this clash having fought through two rounds of qualifying. He won both of those matches in straight sets, earning him a shot at upsetting a top-15 ranked player in this event. Purcell, who is 78th in the ATP rankings, will surely be confident of pulling off a surprise result given his opponents struggles lately. The 25-year-old plays the majority of his events on hard courts with 323 of his 453 career matches on this surface. Purcell has a winning percentage of 60.4% on his preferred surface and has a terrific 35-9 record on hard courts in 2023. This is owed to a streak of three straight tournament wins for Purcell in the beginning of the year, all in India. In total, Purcell has made it to six hard court surface finals in the calendar year, winning three.