Andy Murray vs Benoît Paire Prediction & Betting Tips - Open Sud de France

Prediction published on 28/01/2024, 09:17  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 29/01/2024 at 05:00 in Tennis Predictions

Fifth seed Andy Murray takes on unseeded Benoit Paire in the first round of the Open Sud de France. It's an important tournament for Murray after a disappointing start to the new year.  The Scottish player is down at 49th in the live rankings  The former world number one has only played two competitive matches so far this year. He has lost both of them, including a first round straight sets loss to Tomas Martin Etcheverry at the Australian Open. Before that he had at least taken a set off Grigor Dimitrov in his first tournament of the year. Murray has been talking about this being his last year on the ATP Tour unless his results improve. If he can get past Paire he'll again face French opposition in round two, either Harold Mayot or Lucas Pouille. His scheduled quarter final opponent is third seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime. This is the fourth meeting between the two players.

Paire has played Murray three times before this week and Murray has won all of them. The most recent was at Queen's Club in 2021. This is the first time that they have met on a hard court. Benoit Paire is 112th in the live rankings and lost in the first qualifying round of the Australian Open being beaten in straight sets by Jules Marie. The French player has also competed on the Challenger Tour this year getting to a quarter final in Noumea but since his loss in the Grand Slam, he's had two first round defeats in Challenger Tour events. We tip Murray to win this match in straight sets.