Aleksandar Vukic vs Roberto Carballes Baena Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Miami

Prediction published on 20/03/2024, 07:50  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 21/03/2024 at 10:00 in ATP Miami Prediction

An unenviable prize awaits the winner of this Miami Open first round match. For the winner of Aleksandar Vukic v Roberto Carballes Baena there's a second round match against the top seed Carlos Alcaraz. Vukic is ranked 65th in the world, 17 below the career high he achieved last August. This is his second straight year in the first round of this outdoor hard court Masters tournament. Last year saw him win two qualifiers before losing to Laslo Djere. He reached round two at Indian Wells this year but was beaten by Novak Djokovic. Vukic then entered the Phoenix Challenger event and won three matches before being beaten by Matteo Berrettini in the last four. There's been one previous meeting between the pair. That was won by Vukic in straight sets and was an outdoor hard court match in Shanghai,

Roberto Carballes Baena would love to set up an all-Spanish second round match. He's a place ahead of Vukic in the latest world rankings. His career high is 49th and he was in that position last April. Baena has reached one quarter final this year and that was on an outdoor hard court. He got to the last eight in Auckland in January but has been rather inconsistent since then. Rather than playing the indoor hard court season, he headed off to South America to play on their clay courts. It didn't go too well with only one of his five matches being won. Back on hard courts he lost to Daniil Medvedev in round two at Indian Wells. We tip Vukic to win this in straight sets.