Roman Safiullin vs Daniel Evans Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Indian Wells

Prediction published on 05/03/2024, 14:00  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 05/03/2024 at 18:43 in ATP Indian Wells Predictions

Unseeded Daniel Evans bids to retain his record of never losing in the Indian Wells first round. To do so he has to get past unseeded Roman Safiullin in this outdoor hard court tournament. It's a Masters 1000 tournament and in the last 64, the winner will take on the 29th seed Sebastian Korda. Evans is down at 45th in the rankings, 24 places lower than the career high 21st he was at in August 2023. The British player has only won two of his seven matches this year and slipped out of the top 40 in the rankings. He's yet to win two successive matches this year and has lost his last two. His most recent loss came against Ben Shelton in Acapulco last week. Evans leads Safiullin 2-1 in previous meetings and had a straight sets win over him in Los Cabos last month.

Roman Safiullin is playing at Indian Wells for only the second time and lost in round one in 2023. He's 42nd in the current rankings but a couple of wins ths week would see him go past his career high of 36th. The Russian made it to the Wimbledon quarter finals last year but has never got past the second round of a hard court Grand Slam. In this year's Australian Open he lost in round one to Tallon Griekspoor after winning the first two sets. Before that he had got to the last four in Brisbane but hasn't been able to build on that performance. He's lost his last five matches, all on hard courts. We tip Evans to get the victory in this match.