The tennis tournaments at the Paris Olympics start with 15 men’s singles matches on Saturday. 64 men will begin their quest for Gold, and we’ll rapidly get to the winner in a bit over a week. As always, we here at LastWordOnTennis will predict all of the matches for you. We split the 15 matches into four articles. The other articles feature Novak Djokovic vs Matthew Ebden, Carlos Alcaraz vs Hedy Habib, and Daniil Medvedev vs Rinky Hijikata. Predicting these matches are Damian Kust, Shane Black, and Yesh Ginsburg. Who do you think will move on to Round 2?
As a special for the Olympics, we will also be predicting all of the other Day 1 matches, including doubles. We will link to our other Olympic predictions at the bottom of the article. Enjoy!
Paris Olympics Men’s Day 1 Predictions
Taylor Fritz (United States) vs Alexander Bublik (Kazakhstan)
Damian:
Tough to say if Fritz is lucky with the draw here. On the one hand, Bublik is the highest-ranked unseeded player. But half his clay performances feature some half-tanking and a lack of motivation on display. Gotta give a slight nod to the American, even if he’s not much better on this surface than a motivated version of Bublik.
Kei Nishikori (Japan) vs Jack Draper (Great Britain)
Damian:
Nishikori has been withdrawing from a lot of events this year and when he does show up, he’s out of rhythm but still relatively dangerous on pure natural talent. Seems like this draw might be a little too tough for him–Draper’s clay game isn’t that empty with the heavy lefty topspin he can produce on the forehand.
Prediction: Draper in 2
Shane:
Since returning from injury, Draper has heated up with a title in Stuttgart. He has one of the best serves on tour, though, it will be somewhat neutralized on the clay. It will be nice to see Nishikori back on the court, but he lacks the form for me to pick him against a talent like Draper.
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