Yoshihito Nishioka vs Felix Auger Aliassime Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Mutua Madrid Open

Prediction published on 24/04/2024, 04:39  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 24/04/2024 at 05:39 in ATP Mutua Madrid Open Predictions

Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime takes on Yoshihito Nishioka from Japan on Thursday. This is a first round match in the 2024 Madrid Masters played on an outdoor clay court. For the winner, there's a match against the 19th-seeded Adrian Mannarino in round two. Auger-Aliassime was ranked 35th in the latest list but is up to 32nd in the live rankings and that would be good enough to earn him a seeding at the upcoming Grand Slam at Roland Garros. The former top ten ranked player is still struggling to find consistency and that's illustrated by his 40th place in the Live ATP Race. Last week in Munich saw him make it to the quarter-finals where he was beaten by eventual BMW Open winner Jan-Lennard Struff.  That was only the second time this year that he's won at least two matches in a tournament.

Yoshihito Nishioka is down at 78th in the rankings and 80th in the live list. He's had five previous matches against his Canadian opponent and leads 3-2. He won their first three matches between 2015 and 2020 and their only one played on clay. The last two have both been won by Auger-Aliassime but on hard courts. This year has seen the Japanese player struggling and he's currently146th in the ATP Live Race. He has only had three matches on clay this year. Two were in Japan's Davis Cup tie against Lebanon in which he won both of his matches but against opponents outside the top 150. Last week saw him in Barcelona but he lost in his first match to Jaume Munar and only won four games. We go for Felix Auger-Aliassime to win this.