The ATP Auckland Open 2025 continues on Wednesday, January 8 with its second round matches as Ben Shelton and Francisco Cerundolo take to court. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Auckland.
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Ben Shelton v Jakub Mensik Preview
Head-to-Head: There was one previous meeting between these two and Shelton had won that in Indian Wells last year. It went to the third set though.
Ben Shelton ended the previous season ranked 21st in the world after having hit a career-best ranking of 13th in the world. Title wins in Tokyo in 2023 and Houston last year make Shelton one of the youngsters to watch out for this season as he looks to build on his successes and tries to emulate that in Grand Slams too.
And in preparation for the Australian Open where Shelton was the quarterfinalist in 2023, he will kick-start his season with this second round match against Jakub Mensik.
Shelton had a first round bye while Mensik was taken to the third set by lucky loser Pablo Carreno Busta. In a match lasting two hours and 12 minutes, Mensik slammed 18 aces and was broken just once but that was enough to push him to 7-5 in the final set.
Can he now do enough to remain in front of Shelton as far as his serving is concerned?
Shelton v Mensik prediction: Shelton to win AND Over 20.5 games in the match: 6/4
Francisco Cerundolo v Roberto Carballes Baena Preview
Head-to-Head: Clay-court specialists Cerundolo and Carballes Baena have faced off five times across the circuits and at different stages in the competition and Cerundolo has won every single time. Their last two meetings came at Rio in 2022 and 2023.
Known more for his performances on clay, Cerundolo will kick-start his 2025 campaign with a second round match here in Auckland. And he should not have a lot of trouble given his opponent himself hasn’t done too well in hardcourt competitions over a long period of his career.
That being said, Cerundolo’s objective would be to quickly get into his groove in the lead-up to the season’s first Grand Slam and quickly wrap this up. He starts off the season ranked 31st in the world as he chases his career-best ranking of 19th too.
Carballes Baena featured in Hong Kong last week but only managed to take a set off Gabriel Diallo in his opener. Here in Auckland he has done a tad better with a three-set win over Daniel Altmaier but in order to overcome Cerundolo he will need to start off quickly and take advantage of a possible rustiness that his opponent might have.
Cerundolo v Carballes Baena prediction: Cerundolo to win: 1/2
Nuno Borges v Mariano Navone Preview
Head-to-Head: While these two players have never faced off on the tennis circuit before this, their only previous meeting came in the Paris Olympics last year in which Navone was a straight-set winner.
Having begun his season last week at Hong Kong, Nuno Borges had scraped through to the second round there with a hard-fought win over Y Bu in his opener. He did not surprise too long against Jaume Munar in his next match despite having started off an 11/20 favourite in that encounter.
He was 2/5 to win his opener here against Luciano Darderi but did not play like a favourite by any stretch. Borges was on court for over two hours, was broken three times and earned just one break-point in the third and final set which he used to break and win that encounter.
The good news for Borges is that Navone himself isn’t much of a hardcourt player and it’s a bit of a surprise that he has even made the second round. Sure, his opening round opponent Adrian Mannarino wasn’t in top form but even the bookmakers had installed Navone as a 6/4 underdog coming into this one.
Navone needed three sets, of which two were tie-breakers before quelling the challenge of Mannarino in his opener. That was only Navone’s third career win in a hardcourt match!
Borges should not have too many troubles here.
Borges v Navone prediction: Borges to win in straight sets: 4/5
Zizou Bergs v Luca Nardi Preview
Head-to-Head: They have never faced off at the highest level but in a Challenger match played in a hardcourt competition in 2022, Nardi had overcome Bergs in three sets in the final.
Bergs managed to make the main draw here on the back of successive comeback-from-behind wins in the qualifiers before setting stall in the opener against Isaac Becroft. He came away a 6-3, 7-5 winner in a match lasting an hour and a half.
A late break of serve in the first set won him that and while he fell 0-3 and very soon 3-5 behind in the second set, Bergs came back to break his opponent twice and scoop up the match.
Nardi, who hadn’t featured in any tennis last week, needed to overcome Daniel Masur and Facundo Diaz Acosta in the qualifiers before setting up an opening round match against Flavio Cobolli.
He took the first set and was 1-1 in the second when his opponent Cobolli retired from the match.
What remains to be see if he Nardi can now take this form into this second round and clinch another win over Bergs. We think he could do that but not before he is forced into a third set.
Bergs v Nardi prediction: Bergs to win in straight sets: 3/1
