Jiri Lehecka vs Alexei Popyrin Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Miami

Prediction published on 22/03/2024, 09:38  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 22/03/2024 at 10:38 in ATP Miami Predictions

Jiri Lehecka is the 26th seed at the outdoor hard court Miami Open. He had a bye through to round two and now faces unseeded Alexei Popyrin. For the winner there's a match in the last 32 against either sixth seed Holger Rune or unseeded Fabian Marozsan. Lehecka has only appeared in this Masters 1000 tournament once before and last year got to round three. He's won one tournament this year winning the outdoor hard court event held in Adelaide two months ago. His success on this surface continued with a run to the last eight in Dubai. He had to retire in that match after just ive games. He's recovered well from any injury problems and made it to the last eight at Indian Wells with excellent wins over both Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Those wins took him to 17th in the Live ATP Race.

Alexei Popyrin was ranked 45th at the start of this tournament. He is in the second round in Miami for the third successive year but has lost at this stage in the last two. A win here will see him equal his best performance of a third round in 2021. This is only his fourth tournament of the year but he's put in some good performances, most notably in Dubai. The Australian got to the last four, though he did only beat one top 100 ranked player. In this year's Australian Open he lost in round two to Novak Djokovic but did take a set off him. Round one of this tournament saw him beat Facundo Diaz Acosta in straight sets. We go for in-form Lehecka to get the win here.