TennisSection previews the 2021 Marseille Open as Stefanos Tsitsipas (2) meets Lucas Pouille in the Round of 16 on Wednesday, March 10 2021.
Can the unseeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille cause what would be a shocking upset here in his home town at the 2021 Marseille Open? Or will the second seeded Greek superstar continue his amazing start to the 2021 season? Stefanos Tsitsipas is currently in the form of his life and seems to have finally put everything together. It will take a titanic effort from the former top 10 player (Pouille) to have any chance of victory here. Who will win and advance to the Quarter-Finals?
Stefanos Tsitsipas is one of the most in-form players on the ATP Tour at the moment and is currently ranked a career-high #5 in the world rankings. After a tremendous showing at the ATP Cup where he went unbeaten, he has played at an extremely high level at the Australian Open and in Rotterdam. At the Australian Open, he defeated Rafael Nadal in a shocking upset in the Quarter-Finals, before losing to Daniil Medvedev in the Semis. In Rotterdam, he again reached the Semi-Finals before losing to Andrey Rublev. While he will be very happy at his performances so far, he will be desperately seeking his first title of the year and will truly expect to lift the trophy here. His big serve and penetrating groundstrokes will be very effective here at the 2021 Marseille Open and he enters this match as the overwhelming favorite.
Lucas Pouille is currently ranked #81 in the world , a far cry from his career-high of #10. He has been far from his best over the past few years and will be hoping that the 2021 Marseille Open will signal a return to form. However, he has been handed a less than favorable draw, facing second seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Round of 16. He has had a poor start to the year, with a 1-2 record at Challenger Level before this event. He had a comfortable win over Serbian Alex Molcan in the opening round , 7-5, 6-3. He will know that it will be a huge step up in quality here and he will have to play possibly the best match of his life to have a chance here. He does have the advantage of playing at home, but without the large crowds it shouldn’t matter too much.
This will be the second time that Stefanos Tsitsipas and Lucas Pouille have faced other in their careers, with the Greek superstar leading the head to head series 1-0. They played in 2018 in Halle with a young Tsitsipas winning in straight sets, albeit on grass. While Pouille has looked solid so far at the Marseille Open, I see no other result here but a Tsitsipas victory. He is simply a much better player and will dominate this match from start to finish.
Free Tennis Preview and Prediction: Stefanos Tsitsipas to win in straight sets.
