Frances Tiafoe vs Roman Safiullin Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Shanghai Masters

Prediction published on 07/10/2024, 07:11  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 07/10/2024 at 08:11 in ATP Shanghai Masters Predictions

13th seed Frances Tiafoe faces unseeded Roman Safiullin in the third round of the Shanghai Masters. The winner of this match could face fourth seed Novak Djokovic in the last 16 of this hard court tournament. Here's our match prediction.

Tiafoe has risen a couple of places to 15th in the live rankings. The American is a place higher in the ATP Live Race but struggling to get into the top eight and qualify for the end-of-season Tour Finals.

Losing in his first match in Tokyo last week didn't help his cause a great deal. He will be looking to repeat the strong hard court form shown on the North American swing in August. Two semi-finals were reached (including the US Open) and the final in Washington.

Tiafoe got off to a good start in Shanghai with a straight sets win over Yi Zhou in the second round of this Masters tournament. This is his first match against his opponent.

Roman Safiullin was 61st in the live rankings but was a career-high 36th in January of this year. The Russian has had two straight sets wins so far in this tournament and that includes beating 23rd seed Alexander Bublik in round two.

Safiullin is playing in the Shanghai Masters for only the second time. He also made it to round three here last year. The 27-year-old won a hard court Challenger Tour event in August. On the ATP Tour, this is only the second time he's won two successive main draw hard court matches in 2024.

We tip Tiafoe to win this match.