Felix Auger-Aliassime vs Alex De Minaur Prediction: Will Felix beat Alex on the hard court again?

One of the matches in the last 32 of the Cincinnati Masters will be between Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, the world No. 9, and ATP No. 20, Alex De Minaur. They met three times, and the score was 2-1 in favor of the Australian. However, on the hard court, the Canadian won the only face-to-face meeting and in two sets.

For the Canadian, the tournament in Cincinnati is his third hard one after the grass part of the season. Felix reached the semifinals in Los Cabos, Mexico, where he lost to Cameron Norrie in three sets. In Montreal, Canada, Auger-Aliassime beat Yoshihito Nishioka, took revenge on Norrie, but failed in his match against Casper Ruud, losing to the Norwegian in two sets. Honestly, this match against Ruud stands out from the Canadian's overall lineup of bouts. Auger-Aliassime looked pretty good in Montreal before that. Let's see how Felix performs in the first game of the Masters in Cincinnati.

Alex triumphed in Atlanta, outplaying Brooksby in the finals. Then a failure in Washington, a loss to Nishioka in his first match, a third-round Montreal, and an outing by Nick Kyrgios almost unopposed. In Cincinnati, the world No. 20 had already played one match, Alex confidently defeating the world No. 102 Henri Laaksonen in two games. The Australian served three doubles faults and won 88% of his first-serve points and 59% of his second-serve points. De Minaur's serve tally was 47%/52%. Winners/unforced errors stats were 12/10.

Felix and Alex have played a total of three face-offs between them, the score of the confrontation being 2-1 in favor of Alex. However, De Minaur defeated Auger-Aliassime at Wimbledon and on the clay court in Braga. On the hard court, the guys met only once, in March 2017 in Drummondville, Canada, and Felix confidently won that meeting.

We believe a lot in the upcoming game will depend on Felix and his form. In Montreal, Auger-Aliassime played his first two games very confidently but unexpectedly fell against Casper Ruud. However, let's not forget that Casper is a top-10 player, unlike Alex De Minaur. The upside for Alex is that the Aussie has practice on the court in Cincinnati. But again, if Felix performs at his best, we think the Canadian will win the match. We offer the following betting options for the game:

• W1 for 1.80;
• Correct score 2-0 for 2.69.