Roman Safiullin vs Adrian Mannarino Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Almaty Open

Prediction published on 13/10/2024, 09:21  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 14/10/2024 at 18:33 in Tennis Predictions

Eighth seed  and defending champion Adrian Mannarino has a tough match in the first round of the Almaty Open. He faces in-form Roman Safiullin in this hard court tournament being played in Kazakhstan. Here's our match prediction.

The winner of this match will face an unseeded Australian in round two of this tournament, either Aleksandar Vukic or James Duckworth. Roman Safiullin is 58th in the live rankings. just two places below his opponent.

Safiullin had a good run in Shanghai in his most recent tournament. The Russian reached round four with wins over Alexander Bublik and Frances Tiafoe. The latter is the top seed in this tournament and could meet the winner of this match in round three.

The 27-year-old also got to the last 16 in Beijing, where he lost to Jannik SInner but took a set off him. He's yet to beat Mannarino having lost both of their previous matches, the most recent being in 2023 with both played on hard courts.

Adrian Mannarino has shown some improved form in recent months. That wasn't too hard to achieve as he'd been on a terrible run of form throughout the summer. The Italian lost ten successive matches before finally getting a win in round one of the US Open.

The Italian is 56th in the live list but was as high as 17th in January of this year. He may be just ahead of Safiullin in the live rankings but is 74th and 11 places below him in the ATP Live Race. 

Mannarino lost in round one of the Shanghai Masters being beaten in three sets by Zachary Svadja. He failed to win a game in the final set of that match. Only one of his last four matches has been won and we tip Safiullin to win in straight sets.