Stan Wawrinka vs Alexei Popyrin Prediction & Betting Tips - Olympic Tournament

Prediction published on 29/07/2024, 08:27  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 29/07/2024 at 09:01 in Olympic Tournament Predictions

Two unseeded players face each other in the second round of the Paris Olympics men's singles. Stan Wawrinka from Switzerland faces the Australian Alexeii Popyrin. This could be a close match and here's our prediction.

39-year-old Stan Wawrinka is taking part in the Olympic Games for the third time. It's 16 years since he made his Olympic debut but before this week he'd only ever won one match. Now ranked 149th in the world, he beat Pavel Kotov in round one and only dropped two games.

It's not been a great year on clay for the former French Open champion. Hes yet to get part the last 16 of an ATP Tour clay court event in 2024. His most recent tournament saw him beaten in his first match in Gstaad. The win over Kotov was only his second in the last seven on clay.

Alexei Popyrin is the world number 63 but was as high as 38th earlier this year. He has fond memories of his only previous match against Wawrinka. That was played in Umag last year and the Australian won to win that ATP Tour clay court final.

He lost the first set on a tie-break but only conceded seven games in the next two. This year on clay hasn't gone so well though and he lost in the first round in Umag last week. That was his seventh straight loss on clay but he bounced back to form on Sunday.

Popyrin defeated the 16th seed Nicolas Jarry in straight sets, the second going to a tie-break. That was his first win at Roland Garros since 2019 after five consecutive first round losses in the French Open. We go for three sets to be played.